so remember that one time i went to chicago to see my besties in state and madison at their CD release? ...no? yeah, me neither. that's how fucking long ago the show was. and of course, because of the apathetic procrastinator that i am, i'm just now getting around to writing about it. (are you sensing a slight pattern here?)
since the show was on a sunday, and since my good friend meesh had just moved into her new apartment in oak park, i decided to go up a day early to hang out. i left around noon, made really good time, and got there a little before five. meesh and i got some dinner in downtown oak park and wandered around peeking in cute little shops and stopping for a while in this really neat bookstore. she had to work early the next morning so we opted for a chill night in, where i downloaded about half of her CD collecton.
the show was an early one at beat kitchen on sunday, and there was a street festival happening on belmont. so we left in plenty of time to pick up sam and stephanie, and hung around outside the venue for a while when we got there (and stuffed our faces with festival-esque potato skins... YUM.) without a face opened the show and there weren't too many people there are first, but we still had a good time. henry is the one and only member of without face, and let me tell you. he's hilarious. without a face isn't really the rock n roll kinda band, but if you're looking for some lighthearted comedy, henry's your man. jonas sees in color played next and it was quite fortunate that they did. the band was in a really bad van accident the night before the show - their van flipped three times and everything was totalled. fortunately, besides some cuts and bruises and sore muscles, everyone escaped harm free. they put on a good show and the blood running down the lead singers arm made it all the more bad ass. they were really good - not exactly my type of music, but i bought a CD anyway. i mean they almost died and still made it to chicago to play the show. the very least i could do was offer up ten bucks to help them get back on the road. windsor drive played third and were just as wonderful (and attractive) as i remember them being. they played a wonderful set and it was over all too quickly.
state and madison was up next but before they played, there was a surprise in store. little did you know, tony is an ordained minister in the state of illinois (i couldn't make this shit up if i tried) and he MARRIED a couple on stage. and then they played the show. so random, but i would expect nothing less from state and madison. their set was one of the best i've heard them play, and that's saying a lot since this was number eighteen or something crazy like that. i say it every time, but they really do blow me away every show they play. they're so. fucking. good. it was also really cool to see jesse (ex-cavashawn, now south jordan drummer) play with them. the friendships and love in this music scene never get old for me, i love seeing bands helping other bands. we all hung around for a while after the show and i said my goodbyes to everyone moving away. sad times. benton just moved to LA, jesse's going to nashville, chelsea's going to LA as well... boo hiss. also talked to tony and gossiped about new drummers... times are certainly changing and i'm trying my best to keep up. craziness i tell ya! but all worth it.
the four of us got dinner and meesh and i went back to her place and passed the hell out. she had work in the morning and i had a long drive back to st. louis ahead of me. i stopped in la grange for dinner with the always entertaining silver siblings, and was on my home home by around three. all in all, a very successful weekend.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
st. louis: warped tour 2010
warped tour. to be honest, i'm not the biggest fan of the types of bands that are on this tour anymore. but strangely enough, of the many years that i have attended, this one was by far my favorite. getting in for free was great; working always has its perks. but i learned so much, from so many talented people, and received enough inspiration to last me a lifetime.
sarah saturday is one of the most talented women in the music industry and to this day it baffles me how she is dirt poor and without a home. she founded and runs earnityourself.com, which is a great DIY website for unsigned bands looking to network, fronts a rad indie electronic band called gardening, not architecture, and does artist and website development. not to mention that she has mad connections in the industry that would make any music nerd (read: me) jealous. we met about a year ago, when i attended one of her g,na shows and offered her a floor to sleep on, and we've have kept in touch ever since. sarah is currently putting together an EIY handbook with Q&As involving the industry's best people. honest questions with honest answers - isn't that what everyone is searching for? the handbook isn't quite done yet, but sarah had the bright idea to put together an EIY workshop each day on warped tour, on top of playing a daily set as gardening, not architecture. concert attendees can sign up at the beginning of the day at the kevin says tent in order to receive a wristband to get backstage and have a conversation with some of warped's best people. (sarah herself, kevin lyman, lisa brownlee, and martin atkins to name the few that were at the st. louis date.) so when sarah mentioned she needed volunteers to help her out on the tour, i jumped on the chance to get in on all the the musical goodness. st. louis, chicago, and bonner springs, oh my!
i had a couple friends in town who were also working the tour, so we all carpooled it over to verizon wireless pretty early. we got our "vendor" wristbands and were immediately put to work. sarah found me maybe an hour later, and we (after a coffee run) set up her tent, merch, and the like. i pretty much sat under said tent, promoted the gardening, not architecture set time and EIY meet-up, and sewed handmade cloth CD cases all day. not a bad job at all. another plus: my friend tiffany who works with building rome, was selling merch for martin atkins, who shared our tent. (full circle!) so we chatted it up and the day flew by. five o clock came all too quickly, and before i knew it, sarah had a bunch of kids wrangled up and we marched backstage together for the EIY meet up. we sat outside for a while, but we were right behind one of the stages and it was really loud, so we eventually moved inside. and let me tell you. we sat there and talked for about an hour and a half, and i could have sat there for about a week longer. being amongst people like myself, talking to people who used to be like myself and finally "made it" was incredible. i was telling sarah later on that at one point, i had tears in my eyes because it was great to look around and see all the passion in the room. these are the people i aspire to be like. these are the people who put in SO MUCH hard work, and it has finally (at least somewhat, but not nearly enough) paid off. kevin founded warped tour and has worked on countless other festivals (stagecoach, coachella, lollapalooza, mayhem). lisa brownlee manages warped and has had tour managing experience with tons and tons of other HUGE names that would put your jaw on the floor. martin atkins wrote the best damn book about the music business period (tour smart, check it out). and sarah, well, that whole paragraph up there was about her. these people are amazing. that's all i can really say. i don't have the words to describe the feeling that being able to ask questions of these people gave me.
the fire in me has once again been stirred after being burnt out for a good while. my circle of "local band friends" has seen better days. i know change is bound to happen, but change scares me. i can't say i'm happy about any of these changes, but being among like-minded people and seeing the passion literally ooze out of all the people in that room, gave me so much hope, and reinstilled a clarity and a happiness in me that i only rarely feel.
so after the group meeting, we headed back and i got to watch sarah's set, as well as motion city soundtrack (which was so great, hadn't seen them in a good two years) and helped sarah tear down and pack up her things. we ended up on her bus just talking, and once again - so inspiring. i feel like a goober gushing like a fangirl about someone who i actually know, but she's so so great. i don't know sarah all that well, but i see a lot of myself in her, and whatever topic i seem to bring up, she knows exactly how i feel and has answers for it all, which gives me hope for my future. she's not nearly as successful as she should be, but she does what she loves and she's making a difference for things that matter. and above all, she has so much passion. that's what i love about the real people in the music world. so much passion, you can see it in their eyes. and sarah's eyes just glitter with it. we sat there and talked for a good forty five minutes and once again, i could have sat there and just listened for hours on end. who knows yet, as it's only july, but hopefully something works out involving a g,na tour and me. i don't want to jinx anything, and i don't want to make too drastic of assumptions or decisions yet, but let's just say i'm excited about opportunities that may present themselves in my future. wee!
so if you're going to take anything from this lengthy post (thanks for reading all of it, by the way), try and take the passion and apply it to your own life. it doesn't have to be music like it is for me, but find what truly drives you and lights that spark into a fire in your heart, and go after it with all you've got. eventually, it'll pay off. trust me.
if you're reading this and warped tour has yet to come through your city, by all means attend the EIY local scene meet up and watch gardening, not architecture. discuss warped tour, earn it yourself and the philosophy behind it, talk about the industry of music in general, and most of all: ask questions and learn as much as you can.
it. will. be. worth. it.
learn about/follow g,na here: http://www.gardeningnotarchitecture.com/ and www.twitter.com/GNAtweets
learn about/follow earn it yourself here: http://www.earnityourself.com/ and www.twitter.com/earnityourself
learn about/follow sarah saturday here: http://www.sarahsaturday.com/ and www.twitter.com/sarahsaturday
sarah saturday is one of the most talented women in the music industry and to this day it baffles me how she is dirt poor and without a home. she founded and runs earnityourself.com, which is a great DIY website for unsigned bands looking to network, fronts a rad indie electronic band called gardening, not architecture, and does artist and website development. not to mention that she has mad connections in the industry that would make any music nerd (read: me) jealous. we met about a year ago, when i attended one of her g,na shows and offered her a floor to sleep on, and we've have kept in touch ever since. sarah is currently putting together an EIY handbook with Q&As involving the industry's best people. honest questions with honest answers - isn't that what everyone is searching for? the handbook isn't quite done yet, but sarah had the bright idea to put together an EIY workshop each day on warped tour, on top of playing a daily set as gardening, not architecture. concert attendees can sign up at the beginning of the day at the kevin says tent in order to receive a wristband to get backstage and have a conversation with some of warped's best people. (sarah herself, kevin lyman, lisa brownlee, and martin atkins to name the few that were at the st. louis date.) so when sarah mentioned she needed volunteers to help her out on the tour, i jumped on the chance to get in on all the the musical goodness. st. louis, chicago, and bonner springs, oh my!
i had a couple friends in town who were also working the tour, so we all carpooled it over to verizon wireless pretty early. we got our "vendor" wristbands and were immediately put to work. sarah found me maybe an hour later, and we (after a coffee run) set up her tent, merch, and the like. i pretty much sat under said tent, promoted the gardening, not architecture set time and EIY meet-up, and sewed handmade cloth CD cases all day. not a bad job at all. another plus: my friend tiffany who works with building rome, was selling merch for martin atkins, who shared our tent. (full circle!) so we chatted it up and the day flew by. five o clock came all too quickly, and before i knew it, sarah had a bunch of kids wrangled up and we marched backstage together for the EIY meet up. we sat outside for a while, but we were right behind one of the stages and it was really loud, so we eventually moved inside. and let me tell you. we sat there and talked for about an hour and a half, and i could have sat there for about a week longer. being amongst people like myself, talking to people who used to be like myself and finally "made it" was incredible. i was telling sarah later on that at one point, i had tears in my eyes because it was great to look around and see all the passion in the room. these are the people i aspire to be like. these are the people who put in SO MUCH hard work, and it has finally (at least somewhat, but not nearly enough) paid off. kevin founded warped tour and has worked on countless other festivals (stagecoach, coachella, lollapalooza, mayhem). lisa brownlee manages warped and has had tour managing experience with tons and tons of other HUGE names that would put your jaw on the floor. martin atkins wrote the best damn book about the music business period (tour smart, check it out). and sarah, well, that whole paragraph up there was about her. these people are amazing. that's all i can really say. i don't have the words to describe the feeling that being able to ask questions of these people gave me.
the fire in me has once again been stirred after being burnt out for a good while. my circle of "local band friends" has seen better days. i know change is bound to happen, but change scares me. i can't say i'm happy about any of these changes, but being among like-minded people and seeing the passion literally ooze out of all the people in that room, gave me so much hope, and reinstilled a clarity and a happiness in me that i only rarely feel.
so after the group meeting, we headed back and i got to watch sarah's set, as well as motion city soundtrack (which was so great, hadn't seen them in a good two years) and helped sarah tear down and pack up her things. we ended up on her bus just talking, and once again - so inspiring. i feel like a goober gushing like a fangirl about someone who i actually know, but she's so so great. i don't know sarah all that well, but i see a lot of myself in her, and whatever topic i seem to bring up, she knows exactly how i feel and has answers for it all, which gives me hope for my future. she's not nearly as successful as she should be, but she does what she loves and she's making a difference for things that matter. and above all, she has so much passion. that's what i love about the real people in the music world. so much passion, you can see it in their eyes. and sarah's eyes just glitter with it. we sat there and talked for a good forty five minutes and once again, i could have sat there and just listened for hours on end. who knows yet, as it's only july, but hopefully something works out involving a g,na tour and me. i don't want to jinx anything, and i don't want to make too drastic of assumptions or decisions yet, but let's just say i'm excited about opportunities that may present themselves in my future. wee!
so if you're going to take anything from this lengthy post (thanks for reading all of it, by the way), try and take the passion and apply it to your own life. it doesn't have to be music like it is for me, but find what truly drives you and lights that spark into a fire in your heart, and go after it with all you've got. eventually, it'll pay off. trust me.
if you're reading this and warped tour has yet to come through your city, by all means attend the EIY local scene meet up and watch gardening, not architecture. discuss warped tour, earn it yourself and the philosophy behind it, talk about the industry of music in general, and most of all: ask questions and learn as much as you can.
it. will. be. worth. it.
learn about/follow g,na here: http://www.gardeningnotarchitecture.com/ and www.twitter.com/GNAtweets
learn about/follow earn it yourself here: http://www.earnityourself.com/ and www.twitter.com/earnityourself
learn about/follow sarah saturday here: http://www.sarahsaturday.com/ and www.twitter.com/sarahsaturday
Sunday, July 11, 2010
st. louis: the noise fm
you've heard about these lovely boys a million times over. so i'll keep this short and really sweet.
they played cicero's last saturday, so i went home for the weekend. i left columbia really late, stopped by my house for two seconds, and drove straight to the loop for the show. opening band played a sweet cover of daft punk's harder faster stronger or whatever that song is actually called. the next band, i have no memory of. clearly it wasn't too exciting. then the noize boyz played. wonderful as always. austin's girlfriend aley sang on one of their new songs and it was fabulous. she's adorable. my friend carolina was also along for the four day tour, so we chatted it up and i was finally able to pass along the local natives tickets i has purchased for her and a friend. carolina and i also bonded over our love for taro milk tea from bubble tea. i met alex's alter ego who has yet to have a name, but wears hipster glasses. and we all chatted about chicago and how exciting their move is going to be in august. anddd that was about it. they were making the five hour drive back to lawrence that night so i didn't stick around too terribly long afterwards. love them, as always.
as excited as i am for their move to chicago where they'll be among their band friends and more of their kind, it's gonna suck losing the one band that i only have to drive two hours for instead of five like everyone else. siiiiiiigh.
they played cicero's last saturday, so i went home for the weekend. i left columbia really late, stopped by my house for two seconds, and drove straight to the loop for the show. opening band played a sweet cover of daft punk's harder faster stronger or whatever that song is actually called. the next band, i have no memory of. clearly it wasn't too exciting. then the noize boyz played. wonderful as always. austin's girlfriend aley sang on one of their new songs and it was fabulous. she's adorable. my friend carolina was also along for the four day tour, so we chatted it up and i was finally able to pass along the local natives tickets i has purchased for her and a friend. carolina and i also bonded over our love for taro milk tea from bubble tea. i met alex's alter ego who has yet to have a name, but wears hipster glasses. and we all chatted about chicago and how exciting their move is going to be in august. anddd that was about it. they were making the five hour drive back to lawrence that night so i didn't stick around too terribly long afterwards. love them, as always.
as excited as i am for their move to chicago where they'll be among their band friends and more of their kind, it's gonna suck losing the one band that i only have to drive two hours for instead of five like everyone else. siiiiiiigh.
columbia: black gold, the young veins, rooney
yes, i realize i'm more than a week overdue. i don't really have much of an excuse, just the fact that there was a lot going on last week with work and friends and the like.
but you don't give a shit about that, you want to hear about rooney! so i shall tell you all about it. i've been a lukewarm rooney fan for a good six years; my friend abby has been a superfan for way longer than that. so when she asked if i wanted to go with her, of course i said yes. because i'm devon, and i never pass up an opportunity to see a show. plus it's exciting to know that i'd have a buddy along with me instead of going it alone like usual. well like i said, i'm a lukewarm fan, so even though i knew rooney had been around forever and had been signed to a legit label, i still wasn't sure what the crowd would be like. so abby and i agreed to get there in time for the show to start, as neither of us really cared about missing a little bit of either of the openers. well i'm not sure what the deal was... maybe a combination of columbia being a small college town, and it being summertime when students are gone, but there was hardly anyone there. i'm terrible at number estimations, but there's no way there were more than two hundred people there. which, the blue note holds eight hundred, so it looked pretty sparse in the there.
black gold opened and they were pretty decent pop rock. i don't remember much about them besides the fact that they're from new york, their lead singer looked like jesse feister, and that their drummer was bald and wearing an "i <3 weed" t shirt. nothing crazy spectacular, but they certainly weren't bad, and they kept the crowd entertained. the young veins weren't quite as entertaining; besides the screaming tweens who were jizzing their pants about seeing former panic! at the disco members, there wasn't much excitement going on on stage or in the crowd. my thoughts on the young veins? "meh." moving on to rooney...
they were really great live and even better than on their albums. they have kind of a surfer, beachy vibe to their music, and the backdrop featuring palm trees and a sunset made the vibes even more prominent. i have yet to give their new album much of a listen, but they played a good mix of new and old, so i had my fair share of songs to sing along to. i wish i had more strange or cool things to tell, but everything ran smoothly and it was a pretty straightforward show full of head bobbing pop rock. i did get a pretty sweet parking spot directly across from the venue, and prefectly parallel parked. but you probably don't care about that, so i'll leave you with the suggestion to pick up some rooney tunes if you're looking for some summer beach melodies. you won't regret it.
but you don't give a shit about that, you want to hear about rooney! so i shall tell you all about it. i've been a lukewarm rooney fan for a good six years; my friend abby has been a superfan for way longer than that. so when she asked if i wanted to go with her, of course i said yes. because i'm devon, and i never pass up an opportunity to see a show. plus it's exciting to know that i'd have a buddy along with me instead of going it alone like usual. well like i said, i'm a lukewarm fan, so even though i knew rooney had been around forever and had been signed to a legit label, i still wasn't sure what the crowd would be like. so abby and i agreed to get there in time for the show to start, as neither of us really cared about missing a little bit of either of the openers. well i'm not sure what the deal was... maybe a combination of columbia being a small college town, and it being summertime when students are gone, but there was hardly anyone there. i'm terrible at number estimations, but there's no way there were more than two hundred people there. which, the blue note holds eight hundred, so it looked pretty sparse in the there.
black gold opened and they were pretty decent pop rock. i don't remember much about them besides the fact that they're from new york, their lead singer looked like jesse feister, and that their drummer was bald and wearing an "i <3 weed" t shirt. nothing crazy spectacular, but they certainly weren't bad, and they kept the crowd entertained. the young veins weren't quite as entertaining; besides the screaming tweens who were jizzing their pants about seeing former panic! at the disco members, there wasn't much excitement going on on stage or in the crowd. my thoughts on the young veins? "meh." moving on to rooney...
they were really great live and even better than on their albums. they have kind of a surfer, beachy vibe to their music, and the backdrop featuring palm trees and a sunset made the vibes even more prominent. i have yet to give their new album much of a listen, but they played a good mix of new and old, so i had my fair share of songs to sing along to. i wish i had more strange or cool things to tell, but everything ran smoothly and it was a pretty straightforward show full of head bobbing pop rock. i did get a pretty sweet parking spot directly across from the venue, and prefectly parallel parked. but you probably don't care about that, so i'll leave you with the suggestion to pick up some rooney tunes if you're looking for some summer beach melodies. you won't regret it.
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