chicago: lollapalooza: days 1, 2 and 3

holy lollapalooza. where to even begin?! there were so many amazing things about this trip, and i could write an entire novel about my four days in chicago for this monstrocity. instead, i will leave you with my "daily calendar" with added notes which have been in blackberry for months now. katie, brianna, jared and i made the trip together.



day one: we didn't get into chicago until around two am the previous night, so we decided to sleep in and get to grant park in the late afternoon. we were staying with our friend allison who lives right next to wrigley field, and a couple hundred feet from the train. this made for easy access to travel, but craziness due to cubs games. there weren't too many great bands playing in the morning so we didn't miss out on much. we had lunch at the famed pick me up cafe, and made our way downtown around two pm.  dirty projectors were alright, but i wasn't too impressed. we wandered the grounds for a bit, getting our bearings and figuring out our schedules. we stumbled onto a massive crowd for matt and kim, and eventually made our way to the main stage to see hot chip (who were absolutely fantastic) and eventually lady gaga. katie and bri left to watch the strokes; jared stayed with me amongst all the little monsters. 


dirty projectors
matt and kim
hot chip
lady gaga

day two: up and at em! we decided to get breakfast at starbucks downtown on michigan, and walked the rest of the way to the grounds. rogue wave was pretty great, and we had a nice view. stars sounded fantastic and we were waaaay far away just sitting in the grass. love love love stars, they were deifnitely my jam this summer and it was fun to see them live. the xx, although you'd think would put on a boring show, were awesome. i loved it. once again, we sat in the grass for them. (it was freakin hot and we were malnourished all weekend long trying to avoid costly food. thank goodness for the free water!) bri and katie were super stoked for grizzly bear and i'm pretty sure they managed to get front row spots. jared and i laid in the grass for the majority of their set, i believe. great music to lay down and look at the clouds to. and finally phoenix. crazy, chaotic, and absolutely awesome. it took about five years to get from the park to the train to home, but we made it.

rogue wave
stars
the xx
grizzly bear
phoenix


day three: starbucks ten am breakfast take two. ...in a monsoon. we stopped and bought ponchos and although we looked like idiots, it didn't matter. we were tired and dirty, but we were dry for the day. we met up with meesh too, a good friend of mine who lives in chicago. the two of us danced in the rain to minature tigers, and met up with the rest of the group for the antlers, who put on a great live show. company of thieves were next and i was about to pee my pants with excitement. they are just so, fucking. GOOD. after that, meesh and i went to visit our friend joe who was working the festival. long story short, meesh and i won VIP cabana passes. so we got free food, star treatment, and got to sit in on interviews with mgmt and wolfmother. SWEET. we watched minus the bear from our air-conditioned cabana while chatting with worlfmother, and eventually made our way back to real life to watch mumford and sons in the heat, and they killed it. they stole the weekend for me in the nest way possible. after that was yeasayer, who i listened to from my back with eyes closed, and i did the same for mgmt, who, quite frankly, sucked. we were all exhausted after the long weekend and decided to leave before the headliner. we still had to go home, pack, and drive back to st. louis. it was a loooong drive home. but MAN, was it worth it. definitely foing again next year if i can scrape the cash together. 

miniature tigers
the antlers
company of thieves
minus the bear
(wolfmother)
mumford and sons
yeasayer
mutemath
mgmt






not at our best, but we were pretty freakin happy.

kansas city/bonner springs: warped tour

the last leg of my insane warped journey. i was absoultey exhausted at this point - i'd been travelling for quite a few days, city hopping and show hopping, all while working in 100 degree heat day in and day out, with minimal food and water.

BUT bonner springs, kansas was probably my favorite of the warped dates i worked for sarah. i left columbia at the crack of dawn and made it there by around ten or so. not until i paid ten bucks for parking though. (ridiculous.) 

IT. WAS. FLIPPING. HOT. i can't even explain to you how hot it was that day; it's a miracle we survived. and i was sitting under a tent all day! i really don't know how all the kids do it out there exposed on the blacktop. kudos to them. i will gladly sit under a tent and sell t-shirts and sew handmade CD sleeves any day of the week. if i remember correctly, sarah played pretty early and we were essentially done by around eleven. you can't forger the EIY meet-ups though. always so much fun, and so inpsiring to be surrounded by people with just as much passion oozing out of them as you have coming out of you. at some point we ended on sarah's bus with kevin and lyman, and there was a great conversation had. i believe this was when sarah brought up the idea of me going on her fall tour with her as right-hand woman... obviously didn't work out because of college. *sigh* patience isn't one of my stronger virtues, but i try. i really do. so we sat on the bus and talked and drank tea and pomegranate juice. then we were joined by stephen of haste the day. and before i knew it, we were sneaking out of the venue and taking my car to culver's. i legitamately thought sarah might have a heart attack from excitement. so hilarious. 

pure joy, i tell you. we then made a target run, and headed back to the venue. good times, and even better conversations. <3

notable memories: chattin it up with kevin lyman on the bus, sarah telling him how cool i was (SQWEEE!), tour offer?!?!, meeting stephen (can't day i knew anything about haste the day, but apparently they're pretty popular, and he was an amazing guy), ...and the awful drive home. i had such a terrible headache from the heat that i stopped at a gas station and bought name brand ibuprofen for NINE DOLLARS. yeah, that's how bad my head hurt. drink your water, warped kiddos!

chicago: warped tour

chicago. my favorite city in all the world, home of many of my favorite people in the world. free warped tour working for the one and only sarah saturday isn't too shabby either.

it was a warm day, but not terrible since it doesn't stand out in my memory. i was helping at the EIY (earn it yourself) tent with sarah and martin atkins, alongside my friends nora and ryan silver. (nora worked for my BFFs we the living. ryan is a singer songwriter based out of nashville.) it was a fun day and we sold quite a bit of merch. i don't really recall anything too crazy happening in our little tent, and there weren't any bands that i had the dying urge to see either. the day ended all too quickly and i joined the friends i had come with: some working at other merch tents, and others just there to enjoy the many shows.

notable memories: warped catering was fucking delicious. or maybe it was just because all i'd had to eat until six pm was a cliff bar. parmesan chicken, spaghetti, salad, garlic bread, lemon sherbet, and peanut butter cookies. BAM. there was also some quaility conversations amongst all of us. i don't claim to be a huge fan of some of the bands on warped, but the heart and soul of the people... it's unmatchable.

www.earnityourself.com

www.sarahsaturday.tumblr.com

st. louis: pm today, abandon kansas, and the noise fm

here we go.
updates from (literally) years past.
bear with me, because my memory is fuzzy and i just need to satisfy my OCD and get these over and done with so i can be up to date with all my shows.
also bear with me because you're about to be inundated with posts...

so this one time i saw my friends the noise fm play in st. louis at the firebird. they had themselves a little tour all lined up with pm today and abandon kansas, and even called themselves (adorably, of course) tour story 4. yeah, you just "awwed," don't even lie. from what i remember it was a great show. pm today plays a little bit harder music than i care to listen to on a daily basis, but they rocked it. abandon kansas was great as well - they're one of those bands that i've always heard about and never given the time of day. and my noize boyz were flawless as always.

notable memories: their discovery of the free panera bread in clayton (st. louis), as well as sleeping in hotel parking lots and "showering" in the hot tub, then stealing "complimentary" breakfast. love it. love them. good times.

www.twitter.com/pmtoday
www.abandonkansaslovesyou.com
www.thenoisefm.net

hello dear readers

many updates will be coming your way as soon as christmas break gets here. the semester got the best of me and this blog got put on the back burner for a while.

be patient, lots of reviews will be up in the next couple weeks.

I'M ALIVE!

it's been forever.
but there will be updates coming soon. of all the things i have had yet to publish.

I SWEAR.

sorry i let this die for a month.

my dear readers:

i have been LIVING. not sitting behind my laptop for the past week. thus, i have a lot of show reviews and life updates to catch you up on. ...but i'm going to a show tomorrow and leaving for lollapalooza right after. (yes, that means i'm driving to chicago through the night with three friends in tow...) so bear with me and my insane schedule!

reviews coming soon:

st. louis: the noise fm and abandon kansas
chicago: warped tour
bonner springs: warped tour

life events happening soon:

civil twilight @ the old rockhouse (st. louis)
LOLLA LOLLA LOLLA!

xx