kirksville: relient k and jack's mannequin

this trip was mainly an excuse to visit my best friend who goes to truman university. but come on, would i ever miss a jack's show? or course not! so i made the day trip up to kirksville and was reunited with my BFF. we caught up on life and love, stuffed ourselves full of chinese food, and stood in the freezing cold line for relient k and jack's. we didn't make it inside the gym until about halfway through relient k's set (poor planning on the school's part) but i wasn't too upset. they're a great band, i've just never been super into them. jack's mannequin on the other hand, so much love for them. they put on a fantastic show and i sang and danced my little heart out, while all of best friend's friends stared at me. (they're not exactly the concert type.) it was great and i was so happy i could have about burst. there's just something about standing in a room with thousands of other people, feeling the bass in your chest, and screaming the lyrics along with ever single soul around you, knowing that they're feeling it just as much as you are.

st. louis: barcelona and relient k

day two! meesh and i slept in and took our sweet time getting ready and ventured down to loop in search of food. we settled on bread co and eventually made our way down to the pageant. we were planning on meeting up with my friends erin and megan who had saved us seats, but due to the balcony being closed, the 21+ section was screwy so we ended up having to stand the whole night to the far right. barcelona, the main reason i went to the show, played first and hot daaaamn were they excellent. i've seen them once before at the beginning at the summer, but this was a great experience seeing them on a big stage. from what i remember they played fall out of trees, it's about time, lesser things, come back when you can, the takers, and stars. it was a short set, but i guess that's what you get being the opener. i was so happy i could have left right then and there and felt like my thirty dollar ticket was worth it. but of course we stuck around.

lights was next. [instead of fucking COPELAND who dropped their st. louis date. copeland who will be BREAKING UP after their last tour this spring. FUCK.] she was decent electro-girl-pop... good for her genre but not my thing. i prefer real instruments. relient k was after that and i've got to be honest. they were pretty awesome. i've never been a fan of them. it's not that i don't like them. it's more like... they have six albums out and i don't have the time or energy to learn and love that much music. i do know a few songs though, and they played most of them - be my escape, high of seventy five, mood rings, and sadie hawkins dance. we ended standing with our two friends that we'd met at the mutemath show the night before, lake and ross, so we said goodbye to them and headed to buy merch. the barcelona boys were outside so we ended up talking to them. the conversation got lengthy and quite entertaining - i was wearing my we the living hoodie [yes i wore it the night before as you can see in my previous picture; i pack light, leave me alone.] and brian mentioned that they were "good friends" to which i replied "yeah, so i've heard." brian says "oh, so you know them?" to which i replied "oh, that's an understatement." he didn't seem to believe me so i tried to explain myself... but how do you sum up a story like that? the skepticism was brutal though. someday maybe he'll understand. like when they tour together...? [i put in a good word, not to worry my friends.] so we stayed and chatted with them for quite a while and brought them leftover halloween candy from the previous show. what a night. love bonding with band boys.

[these would be the hooligans called barcelona]

so that was that. quite the amazing weekend full of music. neither of us had to be back particularly early on sunday so went out for lunch, made the obligatory starbucks stop to see my favorite st. louis barista, and said our goodbyes. fun times, but exhausting nonetheless. i can't believe i've made it through this week thus far. cavashawn/state and madison/the heyday coming soon...