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

chicago: without a face, jonas sees in color, windsor drive, and state & madison

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.

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

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.

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.

suggestions and submissions

hello friends!

there seems to be a bit of a buzz surrounding lyrical cacophonies lately. so here's my formal statement:

if you'd like to submit any music to me, i would be more than happy to give it a listen and write up a review for you. if you'd like me to review a show, please give me fair warning. i love to travel and i'm always down for a roadtrip, but notice a week or two  in advance would be great. so if you're a band, promoter, or friend of a band trying to get word out, hit me up and i'll see what i can do. i simply like music, and i simply like to write. so what better to do than write about great music? spread the word, and as always, thanks for being a loyal reader. you really do mean a lot to me.

email: devonlmueller@gmail.com

xx

st. louis: the spring standards and wakey!wakey!

here's a story for you. my best friend is absolutely obsessed with the tv show one tree hill. she also just experienced a really painful break up. what ties these two things together, you ask? wakey wakey. wakey wakey (the brainchild of singer/pianist michael grubbs) was featured on one tree hill for a season and michael became a pretty prominent character in the show. so of course, the bff became obsessed with him and his music. so when her and the bf of three years broke up a few months ago, wakey wakey's "almost everything i wish i'd said the last time i saw you..." of course became the "break-up cd" of choice. so awhen angie found out wakey wakey would be in st. louis this past thursday, she just haaaad to be there. and she's not a huge concert goer these days, so she asked me to go with her. being the best friend, and being the music lover i am, i said yes. then promptly dropped twenty bucks on their discography, and ten bucks on the ticket. oy.

so the moral of the story is, that this was something unusual for me. i don't usually go to shows where i don't know the band and their music really well. and i usually go by myself, or at least with all of my "concert friends". so i drove to st. louis when i got off work, met angie for dinner, hung out in the loop for a bit, and drove on over to off broadway. there was a decent sized ctowd when we arrived, mainly consisting of girls who were (presumably) one tree hill freaks. not that that's a bad thing. i've become obsessed as well, and am just starting season six right now, and my netflix queue contains pretty much nothing else.

the first opener was decent, but nothing to write home about. it was their very first show though, so i guess they deserve a little bit of credit. but the real talent was in the second opener, the spring standards. they're from new york as well, just like wakey wakey so i presume they were on tour together. but woooow. they were raelly great. it was a little annoying how long they took to set up, but it was worth it. three part harmonies just sucker me in. lead singer was a girl, who also played keyboard, synth, and a couple drums here and there. and then there was the bass player and guitar player. and all three of them had fantastic voices. so when you put them together to create some great harmonies, the effect was mind-blowing and gave me goosebumps. that's always how i know - if a band gives me goosebumps live, they're good, and they've got real talent. because it's one thing if i enjoy listening to your CD but you suck live. so i very much enjoyed the spring standards, and highly suggest you check them out. it was a lovely little marriage of sounds, and i will liken them to a mixture of ha ha tonka and the hush sound. a little bit of twang with all the harmonies, and a lot of really great sounds elsewhere as well.

and next up was wakey wakey. angie was acting a fool. everytime michael grubbs walked past, she'd grab my arm and squeal. fan girl to the max! it was entertaining though, and i was happy she was having such a great time. their set-up was really simple and intimate - it was just him and a keyboard, a bass player, synth player, violin, and a drummer. and man were they all a great mix for each other. michael grubbs has this really great voice, and he sounded just like he did on all the albums i'd bought just a few weeks before. i can really appreciate his recordings because they're so real. you can hear the squeak of a chair here and there, and a few taps on the mic, too. and hearing him likve was no different. little things here and there that reminded you how real and raw everything was. and i just love that. he held the attention of a very captivated audience, and i really enjoyed the show even though i didn't know most of the songs. angie's not one to really stick around after shows, so we headed out right after the show was over. and it was probably for the better; i had to drive back to columbia and still make it to work early the next morning. but it was a great night with the best friend, and a great show too.

follow the spring standards: www.twitter.com/springstandards
and follow wakey wakey, too: www.twitter.com/wakeywakey

kansas city: the noise fm and ha ha tonka

i suck. plain and simple. it's taken me for-freaking-ever to get this show review written. i don't know what my deal is, but motivation certainly isn't a part of that deal anymore. it's summer; i have all the time in the world. but for some reason i can't find enough me-time to sit down and flesh out some blogs about my favorite thing in the whole world: music.

but all the complaining aside, i went to an amazing show last friday. and in even better news, i drove by myself but didn't have to make it through the entire show by myself. my friend carolina was there, as well as one of my coworkers, sam, who also drove over for the show. she looooves tonka, so we had ourselves a great little night. i missed of the first band, but it was still great timing. the noise fm was up next and we only had to wait a few minutes for them to set up before the show started. and like always, they sounded absolutely fantastic. but i would never expect anything less of them. after them was ha ha tonka, who are a fantastic group from the ozarks. they ride the line between alternative and bluegrass/country music. and to be completely honest, i don't listen to them much. they're just not a band i'd pick to listen to, or a cd i'd choose to stick in my car. but HOT DAMN do those boys put on an amazing live show. i've seen them a couple times before; once with the noize boyz in columbia, and once with ludo in st. louis. so i know a lot of their music, and i know a lot of their fans. this was definitely my favorite show of theirs, hands down. the atmosphere was really intimate and relaxed, they tried out a couple new songs, and there was even a dance off in the middle of the crowd at one point. good times, kansas city. you show me nothing but good times. i hung around for a little while and talked to austin, alex and carolina, swiped a @mrbudgetisacat sticker (yes, their cat has merch. you know you're nevious. don't lie.)and eventually said goodbye to everyone. i got home at an atrocious hour of morning, but it was worth it. quite the lovely friday night.

EP review: bad rabbits' stick up kids

i had a great opportunity come my way a couple weeks ago. under the gun is a great little music blog, and they were looking to hire new writers. so i sent an email their way, not expecting to hear anything back. well imagine my surprise when i actually got a follow up email! so i wrote up a resume and reviewed the EP they sent my way. baby steps, my friends. baby steps that will hopefully help me to move up one teeny tiny step at a time in the vast world that is the music industry.

i can't say i really like the music from a personal point of view, but bad rabbits really are a taleted group, so tried to write from a little bit more of an objective point of view. we'll see if it pays off soon, i guess. but here's what i wrote:

Never judging a book by its cover is the thing to do if you’re a bookworm. But if you’re a part of the ever-growing indie music scene, perhaps the proper saying would be “never judge a band by their album cover”. Well I must admit – I’m one hundred percent guilty. The minute I caught the name of the Boston band Bad Rabbits and their 2009 EP entitled Stick Up Kids, I googled away. And immediately wrote them off as “way too hip-hop” by a mere glance at their album cover. Too harsh? Definitely. Because once you take a listen to this infectious little EP, you’ll be hooked. Not to mention I’m a sucker for clean web design, and their Myspace looks flawless. It’s the little things that count, and Bad Rabbits have lots and lots of little things going for them.

Bad Rabbits are a unique mix of soul, hip-hop and poppy dance music. “Afro punk” are the words used on many of their online sites, and I quite like the new genre name. Because let’s face it, Bad Rabbits cross many genre lines and push lots of envelopes, but that’s precisely why almost everyone with any sense of musical taste will find something they like from this EP. Lead singer Dua Boakye has raw talent and an incredible voice and the stage presence to pull off such a unique sound. The music is high energy and forces you to get up and dance. I can imagine any one of these seven songs to be present in the classic movie scene: high school girl wakes up in the morning, turns on her stereo, grabs the hairbrush and starts belting it out. It makes you tap your feet, it makes you bob your head, and it makes you want to get out to a club and just let loose for the night.

The album is chock full of soulful vocals, soaring synth sounds, and a disco fever vibe that surrounds each and every song. It’s a delightful throwback to 80’s funk and R&B, but with a great pop twist. It’s like Prince with a modern music sensibility. Opener Booties sounds like a modern take on some old school Bobby Brown, while Stick Up Kids breaks it down into a dancy keyboard and guitar duet. Can’t Back Down features killer falsettos and if you aren’t grooving yet, this song will have you shaking your hips for sure. And while a lot of the music is electronic, Auto-Tune haters have nothing to fear. These guys have real talent and are really quite innovative. All the keyboard sounds you hear on the record are in reality guitars passed through a pedalboard. Pretty badass if you ask me.

If the seven unstoppable songs aren’t enough on their own, Bad Rabbits have a lot of other things going for them as well. A shout out from Travis McCoy (Gym Class Heroes) in front of hundreds at Warped Tour is sure to gain respect, not to mention he’s featured on the fifth song Girl I’m Like Damn!, and their clothing sponsor Karmaloop.com is confident that they will be the next big thing to come from Boston. If you want some good and funky fun, and need a bit of 80’s nostalgia, check out Bad Rabbits. Their new EP will definitely lead them to great places.

LOLLAPALOOZA: the magical list

in a perfect world, where i will never need to eat, drink, rest, or pee…

friday:

foxy shazam - 12:00-12:30
cymbals eat guitars - 3:30-4:30
neon trees - 5:30-6:15
OR
fuck buttons 5:00-6:00
OR
dirty projectors - 5:00-6:00
lady gaga - 8:00-10:00

saturday:

the morning benders - 12:00-12:30
rogue wave - 1:00-1:45
stars - 2:15-3:15
the xx - 3:15-4:15
grizzly bear - 4:15-5:15
edward sharpe and the magentic zeros - 6:30-7:30
phoenix - 8:30-10:00

sunday:

miniature tigers - 11:30-12:15
the antlers - 12:15-1:00
company of thieves - 1:00-1:45
freelance whales - 3:00-3:45
OR
minus the bear - 3:00-4:00
OR
mumford and sons - 3:00-4:00
frightened rabbit - 5:00-6:00
OR
mutemath - 5:00-6:00
mgmt - 6:00-7:15
arcade fire - 8:30-10:00

columbia: freelance whales

freelance whales: the love child of sufjan stevens, the postal service, and hellogoodbye. happy, poppy, synthy tunes for your summertime ears. love em! i heard about these guys from the amazing thedownplayer.com which gives away ten free songs every single week day. how amazing is that? well the very first set of ten songs i ever downloaded from their site included "generator (first floor)". and from there, i immediately went to itunes and bought the whole album "weathervanes". and boy was it worth it. a few weeks later i saw the show posted on mojo's website and immediately bought a ticket.

i wasn't too sure what to expect going to the show. i usually do my homework regarding the bands that i'm going to see, but i knew absolutely nothing about these guys. i didn't know if i'd be walking into a sold out show, or if i'd be the only person there. i have this problem where i think that all the bands i like are absolutely huge. and most of the time they're not. i was also a little uneasy about what they'd sound like live. freelance whales are definitely technology-friendly; lots of warbling synths, tinkly layers of bells and xylophones, banjos, mandolins and lots of other laptop-sounding noises. so i was curious to see how that would pan out on a stage. but it was great, and my medium level expectatuons were well exceeded. freelance whales have only been together for a year and half, and although you can tell, they still played a great set. vocals weren't quite as strong as they could have been, and there were a few little "oops" noises here and there, but they were easy to overlook. freelance whales produce a very ethereal sound that may not appeal to some, but i know i enjoyed myself, and hope i'll get the chance to catch them again at lollapalooza this summer in chicago. their bass player is also adorable; she had some sweet moves and reminded me a bit of gen schatz from company of thieves. yeah, i said it. i just compared someone to company of thieves. i'm not saying by any means that this chick was as bad ass a s genevieve. she simply reminded me of her cuteness and they shared a lot of the same sweet dance moves.

keep your eyes and ears open for freelance whales. they might need a few years to mature, but i am confident that we can expect great things from them in the future of the indie music world. if you're in st. louis, go check em out at off broadway tonight!

EP review: the webelos - "model citizen"

first impressions are everything, and the first impression i got from the webelos was a great one. okay, so actually it's a sequence of three firsts, but bear with me. it makes sense, i swear. (sort of.) so i was hanging out online, refreshing my twitter feed every thirty seconds like usual. and BAM! an @reply from someone i didn't recognize. it was the lovely webelos tweeting to tell me they liked the writing in this little blog here. and asked if i'd be interested in reviewing their new ep. WELL DUH, OF COURSE I WOULD! free music is the best, and this was the first band to ask me to review something on my blog. so naturally, i was extremely flattered and honored and stoked that they wanted me to listen to their tunes. nervous though, too. (what was i supposed to say if they sucked?) fortunately, that wasn't a problem.

the second and third first impressions (yeah, hush.) came when i checked out their myspace. the first song playing was "shift your gears" and i immediately thought of head automatica. major bonus points in my book. head automatica was my jam back in the day. and the next song was "oh miki", which reminded me of ben folds. more bonus points. now you're probably thinking i'm crazy to compare a band to both head automatica and ben folds, but give the webelos a chance and you'll see what i mean. for being a newborn band that just formed in 2009, they have a solid sound of their own and have some really great tunes. the webelos' first ep "model citizen" is six great tracks of pop rock and it's damn catchy. opening with my personal favorite "shift your gears", they suck you in and keep you listening. "can't look at you" gets your head bobbing, your feet tapping and and your fingers not so secretly playing hooks on your air guitar. "oh miki" is next with some sexy slow jams and great falsettos (ben folds like yeahhh) and "lucky roll", "peace for the wicked" and "souvenirs" keep this ep finishing strong.

being from chicago doesn't hurt either, you know my love affair with that city and it's music scene. i've heard the webelos' name thrown around a bit in my circle of friends from chi-town, but hadn't given them much thought until now. and i'm glad they reached out to me, because i'll definitely be keeping them on my radar. so if you like really solid pop rock, check out the webelos. after all, they're "hip as a neckerchief, clean as a sopabox" according to their myspace.

www.myspace.com/webelos
www.twitter.com/TheWebelos

columbia: local natives

wednesday, may 19th. i definitely remember the date of this one. that's because my dad had hip replacement surgery the morning before. and was still in the hospital recovering on wednesday. and didn't know i skipped town to go see a show. and still does not know the exact whereabouts of his daughter that night. whoops. ...but i really really really wanted to see local natives!

so that's what i did. i drove two hours on over to mojo's, caught the tail end of suckers, and met up with some friends who were in town from chicago, as well as my new friend carolina that i met a few days before in lawrence at the noise fm show. (isn't my life awesome? i know, you're jealous.)

we attempted to wriggle our way forward to the front of the sold out venue; key work being "attempted". this turned out to be impossible, so we turned around and wriggled our way back out and settled for an awkward spot right at the bar. why awkward, you ask? because i'm twenty and all the bartenders kept looking at me expectantly, and all i had to offer them was an idiotic grin and a wave of my hand with the giant, ugly X marked on it. sorry guys. my bad. it didn't take much to lift the guilt away though; the sweet sweet sounds of local natives' harmonies were enough to make... [insert noun] [insert verb]. pretty much any of those will work if they involve something like "hardened criminals" and "melt". but yeah, to put it more concretely, local natives blew my mind and gave me goosebumps. they sounded just like their album, if not better. and even though i couldn't see the stage very well, they have some pretty crazy-awesome fashion and haircuts.

post-show involved one friend storming out... and two friends getting more and more drunk and becoming BFFs with brian from suckers. things proceeded to get really weird. nora sucked down about a million blueberry vodka something or others, forced me to call wethematthew (why didn't we call ben fong, nora?!), and effectively convinced suckers that the three of us (me, nora and olivia) were witches because we all were wearing black. someone had a cape on... olivia discovered her shirt was like a cape... someone was high and then there were people doing the conga... nora scolded me every time i tried to leave... yeah. i really have no idea. but i eventually left and drove back to st. louis. it was great and it was weird. just another show, you know.

lawrence: the noise fm and cowboy indian bear CD release party

hot diggity damn. i'm so freakin behind it's nearly laughable, but i'm incredibly OCD when it comes to cranking out these show reviews. so here ya go. short and sweet, since my writer's block hasn't done much of anything besides move a smidge, and i hardly remember what happened three weeks ago.

i'm gonna take a wild guess and say that the show was on a friday. (i think?) i'm too freakin lazy to look it up, and i just want to get this damn thing posted. so i won't say much about the show. i'll just express my undying love for the noise boys and how precious they are. have i mentioned they're from lawrence kansas? and that they have these adorable little southern accents? yeah, yeah they do. plus, being brothers makes things so cute, that you might throw up a little just seeing the two of them together. even better seeing them together amongst a sea of hipsters. someone somewhere in the land of twitter, tweeted this little gem: "If you wanted to kill all the hipsters in Lawrence come to the Granada with a bomb." see? too precious for words. i felt right at home at the granada that night.

the noise fm played a great show, as did cowboy indian bear. yeah, i went there. totally freakin general. i told you this wouldn't be much. i did make a friend though. it happens every time i go to a show alone; i always meet someone cool. her name is carolina (not like the state, but like a cool spanish sounding name) and we are musical BFFs. we bonded over brand new, and we also bonded over the fact that we'd both be at the local natives show in columbia a few days later. good times. we stood around talking for quite a while and eventually went our respective ways. twas a fun night in ku territory. (yeah, i go to mizzou.)

and for the love of god, please please please check out the noise fm's new ep. if you like muse, you'll love em, guaranteed.

http://www.thenoisefm.net/
www.twitter.com/thenoisefm

an update

i'm sorry i've been absent for a few weeks. i have two show updates that need to be written, but i'm suffering simultaneously from a severe case of writers block as well as a severe case of apathy. my apologies. hopefully i'll have some real show updates written in the next few days. until then, check out my tumblr if you haven't already. http://www.devonlynn.tumblr.com/

xx

columbia: quietdrive

i was having a really shitty night on tuesday. the amount of homework was piling up and the reality of finals week quickly approaching was really stressing me out. not to mention i drove to campus and waited at the library for an hour for my debate partner who never showed... so i said "fuck it" and texted my friend tabitha who i knew was in town for the quietdrive show. fortunately, there was plenty of time for me to still make it in time. so i ran home, dropped off my stuff and drove on over to mojo's.

the crowd was sparse, which surprised me. you would think that i'd be used to the fact that no one goes to shows anymore, and no one really cares about bands anymore (i'm not bitter). but whatever. the small group of us that were there enjoyed ourselves, and i got the chance to talk to kevin, the lead singer, afterwards and we traded stories about our many mutual fan friends and band friends alike. the two other times i've seen quietdrive have been at large venues and festivals so it was nice being able to chat for a bit. i bought their newest ep and left a happy camper. it was a super last minute decision, but it was a good one.

setlist:

call me up
jessica
believe
motivation
take a drink
maybe misery
birthday
just my heart
let me go
it's a shame
time after time (cover)
rise from the ashes

it was neat seeing a band i've been a fan of since my early high school years, and even cooler to finally have a chance to talk with them. if you're into pretty basic pop rock, definitely check these guys out. they make some really solid and catchy tunes and it's great for summer drives with the windows down.

www.myspace.com/quietdrive
www.twitter.com/quietdrivemusic

st. louis: jarrod gorbel (of the honorary title)

i'm somewhat of a newbie to the whole realm that is the honorary title and jarrod gorbel, but that doesn't lessen the intensity of my love affair. when my friend matt suggests music to me, i take it to heart because our tastes are one and the same. so when he suggested a plethora of "titles" to me, (working and honorary respectively) i immediately hopped on to itunes and dropped a couple bucks. and was it worth it? you betcha. i have yet to be let down by any of his suggestions. much to dismay though, a mere two weeks after i purchased two honorary title albums, the band broke up. just my luck.

luckily though, i troll venue websites like a psycho and discovered jarrod would be heading out on a bit of a solo tour. so i bought his ep, bought a ticket to the show in st. louis, and that was that. i later blogged about my excitement for said show, to which my friend raul immediately texted me about asking "where is jarrod gorbel playing?!?!"  so after a brief exchange of conversation, we had an entire weekend trip to st. louis planned.

raul and i were two of four people in attendance when the doors opened and i couldn't believe it. i have a habit of thinking that the bands i like are bigger and more popular than they actually are, but this was just ridiculous! people eventually showed up though, and i'd say there was a crowd of about twenty or thirty by show time. nice and intimate, just the way i like it. especially because of the fact that it was just jarrod and his guitar, nothing more. and HOT DAMN does this man have a voice. i was absolutely floored by every song. musical and vocal perfection. literally. not a single mistake, not a single waver, absolutely nothing. it was gorgeous and it was breathtaking. his stage banter was pee-in-your-pants hysterical too. he had some real gems that i wish i could remember. he compared his newer songs to the birthing process... i'll spare you the details because it was disgusting. but he had the whole lot of us cracking up and i think i wiped a few tears from my eyes from laughing so hard. during the very last song, he unplugges his acoustic, came out in front of the monitors and sang completely unplugged to the small group of us gathered around. it was goosebump-inducing. raul came away with the set list, i bought a t-shirt, and we were headed back to columbia. great weekend.

setlist (taken straight from the paper -- decipher how you like):

snow crunk
optimism
thin
far
EXTRA
I'll do gtar

(Rulng?)
(Stuck?)

stay
FRAME
INDIFFERENCE
HOW-LONG
10 yrs
ONLY
CATS

check out jarrod's tweets here.
and his myspace here.
and his fantastic daytrotter session here.
and the honorary title daytrotter session here.

FREE music! go get it!

st. louis: the dead weather

if you're not worshipping the holy rock gods (and goddess) of the dead weather yet, shame on you. it's the musical brainchild of jack white, (the white stripes and the raconteurs) who brings together alison mosshart, (the kills) dean fertita, (queens of the stone age, the raconteurs) and jack lawrence (the raconteurs, the greenhornes) for one amazing eargasm. saturday night's show at the pageant really brought down the house, especially after a very disappointing friday night for st. louis music fans. thrice (with openers o'brother and manchester orchestra) had to cancel their st. louis date, as well as the entire rest of their tour which included close to thirty more dates, due to family emergency.

i had already made last minute plans to take my friend raul home with me for the weekend, and we were both pretty bummed about the cancellation. (we ate chinese food and watched a movie instead.) and he hadn't gotten a ticket for the dead weather show and by saturday it was sold out. so he explored vintage vinyl while i headed down to the pageant to meet up with my friend nora who'd flown in town from chicago for the show.

i got there pretty late, but the few songs i heard the ettes play sounded stellar. i definitely recommend checking them out. the dead weather finally came on amidst crazy smoke and strobe lights and holy smokes (literally) was it epic. alison mosshart commanded the entire room's attention with her amazing voice and crazy stage antics, and literally seemed "60 feet tall" when she hopped up on the monitor and bellowed out the lyrics to the crowd below her. it was an impressive spectacle, even being hundreds of feet away in the very back of the venue. every song sucked you and left you speechless. the crowd especially went wild when jack white joined mosshart on lead vocals and his guitar playing abilities were phenomenal. mosshart and white were sharing a microphone at one point and hot damn, it was SEXY. straight up rated r material right there, i tell ya. i'm sure they played for close to an hour, but the time flew by and even a three song encore left me wanting more. but not to fear my friends, their new album drops may 11th and you can already pre-order!

setlist:

1. 60 feet tall
2. hang you from the heavens
3. you just can't win (them cover)
4. so far from your weapon
5. i cut like a buffalo
6. no horse
7. jawbreaker
8. blue blood blues
9. gasoline
10. rocking horse
11. hustle and cuss
12. new pony
13. will there be enough water?

encore:

14. die by the drop
15. i can't hear you
16. treat me like your mother

www.myspace.com/thedeadweather
also check out a great review of the show by katie moulton of @rftmusic here. her tweets throughout the night were quite witty.

new and exciting things to come

change is in the air and for once in my life, i'm excited about it! i've made the decision to take this blog a little more seriously and go in a slightly new direction. i'm going to use it for strictly music-related things like my usual show reviews, and maybe some other cool stuff once things get going. with that being said, i'm even more excited for the little makeover that this page is going to receive. i'm not sure on the details yet, but in the near future, this page is gonna get pimped out and you're gonna LIKE it. trust me. i've coerced a friend of mine into helping me out and let me tell you, this friend is the bomb diggity when it comes to graphic design.

so with lyrical cacophonies focusing one hundred and ten percent on musical happenings, this means i've decided to take my personal entries elsewhere. so if you're also interested in that aspect of my life, be sure to head over to my new blog to read all about it. i've synced my twitter over there, and i've synced links to this blog over there as well, so you can get a little taste of everything if you feel so inclined. to all of my loyal followers here at blogger, and to those of you who read it anonymously, thank you. thank you for sticking with the site, and i hope you stick around to witness the cool stuff to come. and i also hope you check out my new blog as well! happy reading. love youuuu.

fear

fear of never being loved
fear of never finding my soulmate
fear of abandonment
fear of being made fun of
fear of being embarrassed
fear of being shot down
fear of rejection
fear of loneliness
fear of panic
fear of loss
fear of depression
fear of change
fear of mental breakdown
fear of being judged
fear of not being liked
fear of imperfection

but i'm working on it.

semi-charmed life

there have been so many shows lately, that my life has gotten a little lost in the shuffle. so this update is as much for me as it is for you, because i have a lot built up in my head and heart and sometimes you've just gotta get it out on the table.

the end of march was when concert and roadtrip life started to slow down a little, and i was looking forward to a relaxing spring break and month of april ahead of me. just enough concerts to keep me happy, but not so many that my sanity would suffer. but the last week in march brought a pretty big blow to my life. my best friend, we'll call her a, broke up with her boyfriend, we'll call him c, of three years. how does that effect me, you ask? well a is my best friend, has been for a good eight years. and i'm the one responsible for bringing a and c together. so naturally, over the years, and throughout lots of nervous date walk-throughs, c and i have become good friends. so between dealing with my best friend, who's not the most emotionally stable person, and trying to get the ex-boy to communicate with me, it's been draining. it's not a complaint, because i love them both and would do anything in a heartbeat to help them out, but it sucks watching your best friend go through a really shitty time [her first break up, too], and it sucks trying to find the right words to comfort both sides of it.

then there was spring break. the week was great, precisely because i didn't have shit to do and had my birthday to look to at the end of the week. so saturday rolled around, birthday eve, and i got to spend some quality time with some close friends. my actual birthday [easter as well]  was spent at my grandma's house with the whole family. we celebrated all three of the cousin's birthdays as well as easter, and had some amazing food and cake, and good times all around. i headed back to school late that night already stressing about the week to come, but content with the happenings of spring break. but monday morning brought some terrible and shocking news. my grandma, [dad's mom] whose house i was at less than twenty four hours before, and who had cooked the entire family a great easter meal, had died in her sleep. it may sound crass, but of the three grandparents i have living, she was the one i would have least expected to go first. so when i returned my dad's missed call at nine thirty that morning, it was quite the blow. i drove home to st. louis on wednesday for the visitation, and stayed through thursday morning for the funeral, and then promptly drove back to columbia in time for class. i don't deal well with death, because my problem is actually dealing with death in the first place. i'm fine right now, but only because i haven't really dealt with it yet. but it'll hit me sooner or later; it was the same way with my mom.

and now here i am, home in st. louis once again for the weekend, probably headed back to columbia sometime soon. when i'm at school all settled in my apartment, i'm fine and i'm happy. only a teeny longing for home. but when i actually get home and experience everything i love about this city, i realize just how much i miss it and love it. it's an overwhelming rush of emotion every single time i come home, and it makes me dread going back to school. and once again, after yesterday, i am so hungry for music life, band life, van life, tourng life, something or everything of that sort of life. seeing my band friends makes my world go round, more than any of them can begin to understand. and meeting new people who have that same passion makes it even better. especially when i connect so easily and so quickly, and especially when we end up texting back and forth all night long, and especially when we agree on a lot of things that i hold to be very important. i feel like yesterday was a huge "sort-of-missed" connection. yeah, we got to talk all day. and texting and the internet have their plus sides, but they have their downsides as well. i believe whole-heartedly that this would really be something if i didn't always connect with the ones who live life on the road. because real connections start face to face, and at least i have that much going for me. but real connections are built and upheld face to face as well, and i'm not sure if that part's gonna work out. there are only a handful of people that i've ever connected with so easily and who actually reciprocate exactly what i'm feeling. that's such a rarity these days. this could be nothing at all, but this could be something completely different, yet something i've been searching for all along. is this the opportunity that i've been waiting on for so long to fall in my lap or has my mind already taken things to far? we shall see, i guess.

st. louis: lindenwood's break music festival

featuring: the noise fm and state & madison
[as well as: we should whisper, the fundamental elements, me verse you, zack weber, stereo skyline, and murphy lee]

it was a glorious weekend with absolutely beautiful weather; what better way to enjoy it than at an outdoor music festival on a gorgeous college campus? i certainly can't think of anything better, especially when it includes my good friends in the noise fm and state & madison, as well as molly, one of my favorite chicagoans who was home for spring break. festivities started around two, and the guest list was once again my saving grace. i made my way down to the guys' merch tables and traded hugs with everyone, and immediately made friends with stero skyline's merch guy, kosub, [who's so cool that he goes by his last name] who was set up next to us. he saw me standing behind state & madison's merch and told me i'd better come hang out under stereo skyline's tent; "you're a ginger, you're gonna fry out here." so that's precisely what i did all day long, and it was a great decision. we really hit it off and saying that him and molly hit it off as well... is, well, the understatement of the year. ...and i'll leave it at that. there was also bret, who was stereo skyline's guitar tech; we immediately bonded as well. if adam krier and mike racanelli had a love child, it would be bret. all four of us geeked out over twitter and i somehow ended up with bret's number in my phone. and that was just the beginning...

the noise fm played second at three o clock, and man was it good to see them. it had been a long ass time! their set sounded really good too; so much new music! i absolutely can't wait until their album comes out in may. [mike, if you're reading this, i'm still waiting on that e-mail... just sayin.] it's always a little bit disappointing when i can't sing along though. but i guess that's all the more reason to get excited for may. state & madison played at six, and i swear to you, everytime i see them they just sound better and better. their new stuff is golden; can't wait for the next mini release of some singles in the future.

the rest of the night included lots of interesting little tidbits, including, but not limited to:
the amazing zack weber who's from st. louis and has a voice that i would like to marry - check him out!
murphy lee, shakin his tail featha - my first rap concert
nickolas made the above mentioned rap concert bearable with his delicious pepsi
jonah and i had in-depth discussions about naughty words
kosub entertained us ALL day long with his groovy dance moves
bret and i became best friends
spencer [my boss] called and needed someone to replace building rome at a show at midnight... a few phone calls later and state & madison had agreed to do it - WIN

so that was that. what a crazy saturday. i couldn't have asked for anything better. and now i'm left with the typical warm fuzzies of a post-band-friends-show, and well as warm fuzzies from the new friend[s] i made.

the big black thing on my arm

it's more than a band tattoo; it's more than fan appreciation. it symbolizes who i am. that's why it's important; that's why it's been made permanent on my skin. i believe that everyone experiences a handful of events in life that forever change them - events that have such a profound and eye opening impact, that a person is never the same after. meeting we the living, building a relationship with them, and learning from them more than i can tell you, has been one of those events for me. it's the event that has helped me discover my identity, what i hold to be true and important in life, and what my passion is. it's the event that has made me rediscover my thirst for knowledge, and discover what i want to do with my life. it's taken the grand scheme of things and helped me zoom in on what i need to hold in highest regard in my life. it's simple - it's the symbol of the law of identity. a is a, nothing more. everything is what it is. i am who i am. and it's also the symbol for we the living. think about that phrase for a minute - WE the LIVING. doesn't that just make you smile? i have so much appreciation to be a part of the LIVING, part of a group of people that have a fire inside them; a fire that drives them and makes them achieve great things and most of all, makes them see truth. that's what i'm after, and that's why i got inked.

"do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not quite, the not yet, the not at all. do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. check your road and the nature of your battle. the world you desired can be won. tt exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours."

dekalb: state & madison and treaty of paris

just when i thought i could look forward to a nice relaxing saturday without any crazy roadtripping plans [FINALLY] for the entirety of my spring break, mike convinced me. he convinced me to drive the four hours north to dekalb, illinois to see treaty of paris [again] and state & madison. it was a fairly easy decision since one - i adore both those bands, two - all my chicago friends would be there, three - meesh and her parentals would be there, and four - honestly, what better plans did i have? so i rolled myself out of bed at noon, lazily got ready and was headed north by around two. my bladder was most definitely not in roadtrip mode so it took a little longer than four hours, but i arrived in plenty of time. and as i walked in, i was promptly knocked over by a collective group hug from sam, steph, claire, molly and meesh. have i mentioned how much i love them? well i absolutely adore them. so we hung out for a while and chatted it up, said hey to various band boys wandering aruond, and mike came over and pointed and laughed at me. he loves me, i swear, even told me i was his favorite person. WIN. [check that one off the bucket list.]

without a face [yes, again] played first and was hilariously entertaining as always. kirkland was next and they were really good. not exactly music i'd choose to listen to day in and day out, but they put on a great show and their lead singer, sarah, has an absolutely killer voice. next was state & madison, my chicago loves, and they were of course amazing as they always are. they're now tied for first place with cavashawn for "number of shows i've been to". ooh, the competition! [the magic number is sixteen if you were wondering.] and last but not least, was treaty of paris. quite the show, as was the one the previous night. they never fail to impress me, and phil kosch never fails to make me laugh with his crazy moves on stage.

so we all hung around for a while after the show, took some pictures, made fun of meesh for being WASTED [just kidding] and i made my goodbye rounds with most everyone. left around eleven, made it home by three thirty, crashed into bed.

/end last-minute-decision-saturday.

st. louis: treaty of paris

SPRING. BREAK. ...was ninety five percent of the reason i was STOKED about this show, haha. i hadn't seen treaty of paris since their january cd release show, and this was the perfect way to kick off my spring break in st. louis. i once again headed out to the firebird. the club was pretty empty, but it filled up as the night progressed and there was a pretty great crowd there by the end of the night.

the first band was surprisingly good; second band was without a face [henry is too precious for words. and his songs are hilarious.] and third was the trainwreck called nothing still. during all three previously mentioned bands, mike and i caught up on life, he made fun of me for this and that, and he somehow convinced me to drive to dekalb the following night to see treaty again with state & madison. he's damn persuasive and of course i can't turn down a show. so i eventually agreed and he gloated. we love each other. so treaty finally played and hot damn, i always forget how good they are. this was only my fourth or so time seeing them, but i feel like i've seen them a million times and we're old friends. all the guys are so friendly and they all love to give hugs. extra cool points for that one in my book. they played equal amounts of new and old songs, and everything sounded fantastic. i bought a shirt after the show, talked to most of the guys briefly, promised to see mike in less than twenty four hours, traded hugs, and made it home by around one. perfect way to start my break.

st. louis: good old war and circa survive

finally. it's spring break so i can get caught up on all these bad ass show reviews. sorry i've been slacking, friends. the good old war/circa survive show was a week ago and i'm just now getting around to writing about it. better late than never, though.

so after a totally crazy weekend in chicago seeing we the living, i had but one more show to drag my tired self to in roder to complete the "best week ever' sequence of events. monday was a long ass day and by the time five rolled around and it was time to trek back east to st. louis, i didn't even want to go. but i knew i'd kick myself if i didn't. so i bought a red bull and everything was okay. the show was at the firebird; it was so weird seeing the venue sold out. the only other shows i've ever seen there have always been smaller local shows. very cool to see so many people packed in there. i got a fairly decent spot right in the middle of the crowd, but still couldn't see much. tall guys always manage to stand directly in front of me. the opening bands were so-so; obviously nothing amazing because it's a mere week later and i remember nothing spectacular about them. can't say i even remember their names. but good old war was amaaaazing! i bought their album with my chirstmas itunes money a few months ago and in a few short months, they've become one of my top played artists. LOVE them. the majority of the crowd seemed to know them too, which i was surprised about. i always feel like i'm ahead of the game when it comes to discovering the next indie-chic band, but i'm always wrong. i suck at being a hipster.

circa took forever and a day to get set up and i was already suffering from a severe case of concert back. so by two or three songs in, i decided to leave my middle-of-the-crowd spot for the back wall to lean against. the firebird's pretty small so i still had a great view of the stage. man, let me tell you. circa survive knows how to put on a SHOW. anthony green is probably the coolest person ever. maybe it's because he was most likely on four different kinds of drugs. but regardless, his vocals were flawless, which is pretty amazing considering the range at which he sings. i met up with a bunch of my friends who'd also driven in from columbia after the show, and we noticed a crowd forming around some dude palying an acoustic guitar outside. upon investigation, i realized i was standing five feet away from anthony himself, strumming away and singing some songs. anthony green, just chillin on the sidewalk. so freakin cool. i didn't stick around too long though; i had a two hour drive back to school and my energy level was in the negatives. but all in all, a totally rad monday. so happy i can finally say that i've seen circa in concert now.

chicago: we the living

and you thought tuesday, thursday and friday were nuts? nay, my friends. just you wait. i had completely ruled out chicago weeks and weeks beforehand; i knew how tired i'd be by the end of #bestweekever and a seven hour drive just wasn't an option. i had already told the guys i wasn't going, too, and had pretty much written it off without much more thought. well nora tweeted me at some point during the week about it, and i immediately told her no way. then i hopped in the shower. now, i don't know about you, but the shower is my sacred place where i do all of my thinking, brooding, and contemplating, and come to all kinds of epic philosophical revelations. well, it was during that very shower, while i was conditioning my hair to be precise, that i made up my mind. i made up my mind to bite the bullet and make the trip up north to see we the living. i got out of said shower, texted nora, she told me i was crazy, and we planned out my eighteen hour jaunt. hot damn.

so saturday morning came way too quickly for my liking; seven hours of sleep was not enough for adequate catch-up time. but i rolled myself out of bed, showered, threw some clothes in my backpack, and packed up the car. my wonderful roommate had even made breakfast, so i enjoyed toast, bacon and the best coffee ever before heading north. the drive was relatively painless. it ended up being about six hours since for one, i was only going to la grange, and thus, two, skipped out on all the traffic of the city. i made it nora's house a little before seven. nora's friend olivia had made the last minute decision to fly in from nashville, so we had ourselves a little trio heading into to the city by around eight or so. we wandered around for a while, eventually got dinner, and headed on over to schuba's. they hung out in the bar for a while [since we the living didn't even go on until midnight, eek.] and i ventured into the venue and met up with all muh frands. so good seeing sam, stephanie, nikki and claire. love them!

it was so very entertaining running into each of the guys. brian saw me first and freaked out. "oh my god! you came!" precious. and then adam saw me and exclaimed "holy cow!"; then matt came over, shook his head at me, and we proceeded with a normal conversation [okay, so our conversations are never normal, but you know...]. ben didn't see me until he was up on stage. we made eye contact, he cocked his head, and gave me such a puzzled look. too funny. i am easily entertained. anyways, they played a fantastic set and i am so in love with both their original new music, and their new boom forest cover of travis' happy to hang around. can't get enough of it. also can't get enough of the new version of sound of love. so so good. matt also has a new favorite activity - in st. louis during 'all i need' he had pointed to me and katie and motioned for us to start slow dancing together. we laughed and complied, and had a quite a few spins around the dance floor. well this time, once again, matt pointed at me. i had no idea what he wanted at first, but it dawned on me. so i turned to megan,who was standing next to me and we slow danced our little hearts out. thanks matt.

my gaggle of girls left pretty quickly since they too had been on a crazy roadtrip of their own for a few days. so i hung around the venue for awhile after they left, talked to various people, and met ben's girlfried kelly who's probably the cutest thing on planet earth. we bonded over manchester orchestra and it was lovely. utterly ridiculous conversations then took place with matt and adam, we eventually sauntered out into the bar area, and chaos began. schuba's bar area is strictly 21+ and i was a minor. so i was royally pissing off the door guy who kept informing me to LEAVE NOW every ten minutes. sorry my ride is twenty two; do you want me to roam the streets for two hours? awesome, okay. so while i was avoiding eye contact with evil door man, matt and i bonded over how blind we are, and jp showered me wish adorable compliments and asked about my anxiety disorder. HA. clearly word travels fast in the van. those boys, i tell ya. they just kill me. we finally headed out, ate white castle at four in the morning and i passed out hardcore. the morning was unkind, but coffee helped to clear the hallucinations [err, what...?] and i was on my way back to columbia by around one. what a whirlwind. it was a good few hours in chicago, and i'd do it again in a heartbeat.

have i mentioned how much i love my touring life?

kansas city: manchester orchestra

it was a miracle i didn't lose my sanity last week. by the time friday rolled around, i was in severe sleep deprivation mode, yet somehow managed to make it through all my classes. somewhere within that week, my laptop crashed as well. nothing like a little stress on top of a week full of roadtrips with NO time whatsoever to deal with any problems that would arise. brianna found me on the floor holding my poor computer screaming expletives and on the verge of tears. i was three weeks away from getting an external hard drive for my birthday, and my laptop just HAD to crash. fortunately, my hard drive ended up being just fine, i [my dad] bought a new laptop and an external, and successfully transferred all my data over to the new laptop. so as sad as i was to see the old one go, i'm trying my best to embrace change and get used to the new one [complete with windows seven!] i'm now stuck with. but enough about my addiction to the cyber world.

by the time three o clock on friday rolled around, all i wanted to do was crash into bed. and that's precisely what i decided to do. there were four bands playing [o'brother, biffy clyro, the features and finally manchester orchestra.] and i'm only a fan of the last one. so i made up my mind to catch a few zzz's over hearing the opening bands. this is something i very rarely do - i'm all about staying for the whole show and giving each band my full attention. my own personal show morals, i guess you could call them. but i was more concerned for my health at this point, so naptime it was. i headed west to kansas city around seven and got to the beaumont club at nine on the dot. i caught the very end of the features and manchester was up next. absolutely perfect. i also secured a great spot. the pit was INTENSE and although i usually enjoy getting a little crazy and sweaty, this was not my night for it. so i stayed right behind all the crazy moshers and had myself a pretty good view and lots of pesonal space. manchester absolutely killed it, and i couldn't have been more happy with everything about their set. andy hull is such a beast; he's huge and burly with this totally amazing beard. you'd probably be scared to run into him on the street, and if you saw him in a gas station you'd think he was a trucker. but hand him a guitar and throw him on stage and he makes godly music. yumba. i left with warm fuzzies in my mind. that is, until i walked outside. it was raining and fifty degrees on my drive over. and it was twenty degrees and BLIZZARDING with two inches of snow already on the ground when i left. what. the. hell. by the time i got back to my car, i was literally covered in snow and drove home rather scantily clad... ha. it was a scary drive home and took way longer than it should have. nobody was ready for a random dumping of snow and the highways were terrible. but i made it home unscathed and literally crashed into bed the minute i walked in the door. insanity, i tell you. utter insanity.

lawrence: copeland farewell tour

night two of "devon's best week ever"! i was already exhausted from tuesday's excursion to st. louis and the measly four hours of sleep. but there's no excuse for missing a copeland show. especially their last show ever. and especially after they cancelled their st. louis date this past fall that i so kindly spent thirty dollars on... i''m not bitter, no way. only problem was that this show was in lawrence, kansas. which is a two and a half hour drive from columbia. and i had a nine am class to look forward to the following morning. BUT, i sucked it up and made the trip. because i'm devon, and it's just what i do. it was worth it, too.

i made really good time on the drive there and scored free street  parking right across the from the venue. best feeling in the world if you've ever dealt with city and show-related parking. i was running a little late since my class didn't even get out until five [doors were at seven thirty] but i walked in at a little past eight and somehow, magically walked right up to the very front and center. what the hell. it's fucking copeland! not to mention deas vail, person l, and i can make a mess like nobody's business. i was seriously baffled. copeland's been around for a good seven years and have been on tons of national tours. i couldn't understand how this wasn't a sold out show, being their farewell tour and all. i'm definitely not complaining, but still. whatever. i missed a little bit of deas vail's set, but everything i heard sounded fantastic. i had just bought their new album 'birds and cages' a few weeks prior off amazon for a sweet two bucks and was already in love. up next was person l [kenny from the starting line's side project. once again, suprising that there weren't more starting line fans there.] and they were great. i saw them last summer in st. louis with mae and barcelona and bought their cd way back when. and after that was i can make a mess. [one of ace ender's many side projects.] they played a solid set and ace had some really funny stage banter. no idea where he comes up with the things that he talks about, seriously.

and last but certainly not least, was copeland. the band i've been waiting to see for a good two years. the band that is in close second next to brand new for the key to my heart. the band in close second in the fact that they could sound downright awful on stage and i'd still have a special place for them within my heart. with that being said, their set was good. not mindblowing, not fantastic, not EPIC, but good. i can't say i was disappointed exactly, because it wasn't that. they just didn't exceed my expectations i guess. all the songs were solid and i sang along at the top of my lungs to every last one, but they just didn't have that extra little something. maybe it's because i'd built it up for so long. i mean, i bought my ticket back in december. maybe it's because they're burnt out. it's a farewell tour for a reason, right? i'll just say that i t was a good show, i left feeling satisfied, and just a smidge let down. but all in all, it was totally worth the two and a half hour drive and three hours of sleep.

st. louis: am taxi, civil twilight, and company of thieves

take another look at that title and let it sink in for a minute. the combination of those three bands last night was one of the most amazing things i've ever had the privilege of witnessing. and it was at cicero's no less. cicero's which has a capacity of under two hundred. those three AMAZING bands, all of them signed, playing at cicero's. i feel like this was one of those shows that, in two or three years, i'll have the rights to brag about. i saw AM TAXI at cicero's. i saw CIVIL TWILIGHT at cicero's. i saw COMPANY OF THIEVES of cicero's. you might be thinking to yourself, "those bands don't seem like they'd go together very well." and you're right. sort of. stylistically, they don't really match up. but company of thieves and civil twilight have wind up records as their factor in common; am taxi and company of thieves have the wonderful city of chicago in common. i'm not exactly sure who invited who onto who's tour... but it somehow worked out beautifully. *sniff*

am taxi played first to an already packed venue. never in my life have i had to fight to keep my spot at cicero's, but this night was one for the history books. fortunately, i was lucky enough to be right up front and had a great view of the stage. i'm not as keen on my punk-rock influences as i am my indie-rock influences, but am taxi reminds me a little bit of rise against. and they did a mean cover of paint it black by the rolling stones if that sheds any light. i was never a big classic rocker, but you can't NOT bob your head to these tunes. and adam krier's voice - as my chicago folk like to call it - sounds like gravel and honey. delicious. i bought both their ep's after the show - for five bucks a piece, it was a steal.

next up was civil twilight. quite a striking difference in style compared to am taxi, but mind-blowing nonetheless. i've had these guys on heavy rotation for a few months now, and with each listen, the album develops itself more and more and hearing them play the songs live was a totally insane experience. i wish i could put into words the feeling of their set. they're a mere trio, but the wall of sound they produce is astounding. they weren't just playing music up there, they were creating a soundscape. it was what i'd expect a sigur ros show to feel and sound like, but with english words. it was ethereal almost. their lyrics are great, but they're nothing too complex. lots of repetitive words and sounds, and it works so well for them. steven, the lead singer [who also plays bass and keyboard] has this perfect falsetto and it almost doesn't seem real. the amount of power and sound that comes out of his body just doesn't match up with how calm and composed he is while on stage. he barelyeven opens his mouth and this absolutely perfect pitch comes flying out at you. that entire explanation probably makes me sound like i was on an acid trip, but it's the best i can do. just go see them live and you'll see what i mean. i had a brief chance after the show to make a fool out of myself and talk to them; they probably thought i was nuts. i blabbered on and on about how great they were and the word vomit just wouldn't stop. but just hearing him respond in that sexy south african accent was enough to keep me blabbering.

and finally. the band that brough the house down. company of thieves. words cannot describe the love affair i've had with this band for the past year or so. it's been intense. and since this was my first time seeing them live in an actual venue [wicker park fest was great don't get me wrong, but it's not exactly intimate.] i was beside myself with fan-girl giddiness. they opened with a new song, and actually played three or four other new ones throughout their hour and fifteen minute set. i was surprised to hear so much new material sounding so good already. but i guess i shouldn't expect anything less from miss genevieve schatz who has the voice of an angel. that girl can SING. she's probably five feet tall and a hundred pounds, but the voice that comes out of her is just insane. and she's the cutest thing, too. she's got these crazy little dance moves that she does and it's all very theatrical. ten bucks says she used to be a dancer [it's the hands, you can always tell a dancer by their hands] or at least involved in high school theater. [is it creepy that i'm making these wild assumptions about her? maybe.] she was just too much precious to handle and i wanted to squeeze her and force her to be my best friend. there was a point at the end of 'pressure' when the entire crowd was belting out the lyrics and when the song was over she exclaimed, "how do you guys know this song?!" she clearly has no idea how good her band is. if she thinks a city just five hours south of chicago wouldn't have her entire record memorized by now, well... i don't even know. but it was great. just great. post show was a little chaotic; it wasn't over until twelve thirty and i still had a two hour drive back to school ahead of me. so i made a bee-line for merch and bought those two am taxi ep's, talked to adam and then some of the guys from civil twilight, and headed out. was i disappointed that i didn't get to talk to anyone from company of thieves? yes. but did i value my sanity and precious four hours of sleep that i was doomed to? very much so. every bit of lost sleep was worth it though. that show was a fantastic start to my week of insanity.

tomorrow - lawrence, kansas for copeland's farewell tour
friday - kansas city for manchester orchestra
saturday - a ridiculous seven hour drive to chicago for we the living
monday - st. louis circa survive and good old war

i love my life.

st. louis: the rad bromance tour

featuring the heyday, state & madison and cavashawn

finally reunited with some of my favorite [chicago] locals and oh boy, was it a fun friday night. actually  thursday night was interesting too. state and madison needed a place to crash and although i wasn't at home in st. louis at the home they know so well, i did have a lovely little apartment with a couch and some floor space. so it was around four in the moring when they arrived. i let them in, went back to bed, and that was that. gotta love touring and crashing on random floors. so the weekend finally commenced at three on friday and i made my way home. stopped at the house for a little bit to freshen up, ate some dinner and headed out to the firebird. i was surprised to see people lined up outside, and even more surprised to see how many people were already inside. i'm not a big fan of this is energy, the headlining band, but they sure know how to draw a crowd, which was most fortunate for the bromance boys who needed fourteen hours worth of gas to get them to austin overnight. eek.

the heyday was the first of the three to play, and i had forgotten how great they are live. i'm kind of ashamed to say i haven't given their album as many listens as i should have, seeing as i've had it for months. they remind me of a delightful little mix of limbeck and the format. if that's your thing, definitely check em out, you won' t be disappointed. state & madison played next and MAN did they sound good. they always sound good live, but they sounded REALLY good this time. maybe it's because i hadn't seen them in so long and was excited, but regardless, it was great. the crowd flocked to their merch table immediately afterwards so that's always a good sign. loved the new songs they played too. can't wait for them to be released! and finally, there was cavashawn. scott's vocals never fail to make my jaw fall to the floor and benton never fails to make me smile with that permanent grin he always has plastered on his face. overall, it was the rad bromance boys that stole the show - the opening band was pretty terrible and like i said before, i'm not a big fan of this is energy.

it was so good to see some of my favorite people all in one venue, playing right after one another and all singing along to each other's sets and hopping up on stage to join in occasionally. i've said it before, but i love those state & madison and cavashawn boys like it's my job and it's always good catching up with them. scott and i talked crazy fan girls and tony and i gossiped about all things chicago-band related. nickolas about knocked me over every twenty minutes or so with huge bear hugs. and jonah thanked me about forty seven times for the amazingness of my apartment shower. the litte things in life, i tell ya. check out http://www.radbromancetour.tumblr.com/ for live updates on all their shenaningans at SXSW. it's entertaining, i promise.

st. louis: we the living

i know you peed a little when you saw the title. because i know you're STOKED to hear about the amazing weekend i had with my biffers we the living. i talk about them a lot, as i'm sure you've noticed. [read about them here or here when i was a wee bit angry or here or here or here when i saw the best show of my life.] it was indeed a good weekend, and i'd been counting down for quite some time. we the living plays a hell of a lot of shows, but it'd been over two years since they'd played st. louis. TWO YEARS! ridiculous, i say. absolutely ridiculous. so i decided to make a three day weekend of it and came home from school on thursday night to hang out with my dad. we bonded over angelo's pizza and i enjoyed the small things in life [like watching youtube videos on quality wireless internet and finishing season three of one tree hill.] friday came quickly and all of the sudden it was five and matt was calling me. they were playing a secret show at lafayette highschool later that night so i decided to go hang out and watch the set.  'green room' time was interesting; we played catch and made epic slow motion videos with matt's new canon. [prepare for some seriously bad ass episodes of we the living television in the future, just sayin.] their set was interesting as well. let's just say there were a lot of technical difficulties and it was a nice little warm up for the following night at cicero's, ha. they played a few new songs though, and i'm super excited for all of it to get recorded. it sounds amazing. then some highschool girls asked which one of the guys was my boyfriend and i had a good laugh. we scarfed down twenty bucks worth of taco bell post show and headed back to my house for a slumber party. we watched dear jack and then we watched weeds. and then we lost half the group to sleep. so adam, matt and i had ourselves a little ping pong tourney downstairs and some delightful conversation amongst all the animals. [did you know that ghandi was gay? or that unicorns wear uniforms? or that matt has some seriously amazing break dancing skills? ask him about it sometime.] well five am rolled around and we decided it was best to hit the hay. oh the shenanigans, and that was only friday.

saturday involved grocery shopping, a starbucks run and some amazing lunch courtesy of brian and adam, and copious amounts of weeds season two. we eventually shipped out to cicero's and picked katie up on the way. arrival brought the unfortunate news that they were playing first at eight twenty, instead of nine like the website said, so i made some frantic phone calls to friends and everything worked out, thank goodness. cicero's can be really hit or miss, especially if you play first [when nobody's there yet] or last [when everyone's gone home]. but there was a great crowd and the show was amaaaaaazing. i really wish i could remember their set better, but i don't. i was just enjoying the moment and reminiscing about how things had truly come full circle. i was at cicero's, with two of my best friends, the very two people who i saw my first we the living show with, which was the day i met amanda and michele, which was the day that changed everything in my life for the better. not to mention i was surrounded by hazelwood west alumni who'd seen we the living two years before performing in our school's auditorium. LOVED it. i distinctly remember barometers being extra awesome, and i remember they played 'all i need' and i think two other new songs which i've forgotten the names of. and sound of love has taken on a new twist. jp plays guitar and sings like normal, but matt and brian ditch the bass and guitar, and bang on some drums and it's proooobably the coolest thing ever. think mutemath-esque drum bad-assery. [was that even a sentence?] i somehow ended up with a tambourine, too; that was fun. and then it was over. all too quickly it came to an end, but MAN did they sound good. we the living is out to change the world of music and i have full faith that it's going to happen soon. just you wait.

Sound of Drums ("Sound of Love" Live - We The Living) from We The Living on Vimeo.

this is a video from the show, of the new and improved version of sound of love. <#

columbia: the avett brothers

not too much of a story leading up to the show, but you know. whatever. "home"town show means no crazy roadtrip or driving shenanigans. and no one accompanying meant i was just chillin in my seat alone next to some grandpas. speaking of grandpas. the average age of the crowd was probably around fifty. for real. i felt ridiculously out of place. but WOW, was the musical aspect of the night blog-worthy. the show was at a real theater too, you know, like with seats and stuff. so that was interesting; i definitely had a hard time sitting still.

the opener, low anthem, was fantastic and had quite the eclectic array of instruments. one including a saw. and the others... well i'm not even going to try guessing what all they were playing up there. i'm pretty musically-retarded when it comes to actual instruments and the like. but trust me when i say they were great and that you should check em out, specifically the song charlie darwin. it gave me goosbumps. and then the avett brothers. oooooh man. i thought i was excited, but this apparently wasn't the case... i'm surprised the guy in front of me didn't pass out when the curtain opened. he was jumping up and down like a giddy little fan girl. hilariously entertaining. they opened with january wedding and from there, i don't even know. i was just having a good time and trying to keep my jaw off the floor. amazing! put them on your list of bands to see before you die.

this is the closest i will ever get to seeing a "country" concert.

columbia: [meesh visits!] and life in jersey

so just as i was coming down from my amazing-friday-night-jack's-mannequin high, excitement level immediately shot back up because meesh was coming to see me! she's been all over the midwest for interviews and kansas city was next on the list. and of course, this meant a stop in columbia so we could hang out for a few days. i just can't get past how bizarre [and awesome] it all was. some random girl i saw at a show, eventually added on facebook, traveled to shows with, and now have become best friends with, was coming to hang out with me. we were in my college town, in my apartment, and not going to a show. we were just hanging out like any pair of normal friends would. i love my life and all it's strange occurances. [thanks for hookin it up, we the living.]

so we got dinner with my other roommates saturday night, and sat around watching the olympics and talked about everything under the sun. sunday afternoon involved lunch at bread co, and meesh eventually headed west to kansas city. and then monday came, and meesh came back after her interview in the afternoon. we once again were lazy bums watching the olympics... good times. tuesday brought a little excitement though. life in jersey was in town and i was super stoked to finally have a show buddy. small shows are always awkward when you're alone and i still haven't gotten used to it... so we got a late dinner and headed over to mojo's. opener was... interesting. life in jersey [with quite the line-up change] was fantastic as always, and highland fall was your typical pop rock band. not really my thing, but they weren't too shabby. so we hung around for a bit and bought some merch and tried to to explain to a very intoxicated carson how we knew various band friends. successful show. successful "weekend" hanging out with meesh. good times all around.

now, on to march. prepare for lots of show-related blogs. march will be the month that i will likely lose my sanity due to a multitude of epic shows and lack of sleep. let the craziness begin [on tuesday.]

kansas city: fun. and jack's mannequin

i'm behind in the blogosphere! oh well, it was quite the busy weekend. but friday was indeed full of up and downs. i woke up feeling like absolute death and dragged myself through the day. i barely made it, so i decided to skip my last class so i could  take a nap before making the drive to kansas city. coherence while driving > american literature. so i came home and crashed for a few hours which helped my terrible stomach and headache, and was eventually on my way to kansas city. found the beaumont club with no serious trouble and got in line around seven forty five. doors were supposed to be at seven, but alas. we weren't let inside until eight and i missed most of vedera's set, which was dissappointing because i really liked the few songs i got to hear. i also did my good deed of the day - the couple in front of me didn't have any cash for the two dollar minor charge so i paid for all of us and told them to pay it forward. i know if that were me, i'd be pissed beyond belief if i had to lose my spot in line to go hunt for a random atm for four measly dollars.

anyways. the show. vedera was great and i'm definitely going to be keeping an eye out for them in the future. fun was fantastic as well, and i'm kind of ashamed to say that i haven't bought their album yet. no idea why, actually. but i'll get around to it when i decide to spend the money. i was secretly hoping they'd play a format song or two, but no... bummer. mr. mcmahaon made up for it though. he came on stage and proceeded to complain about playing the show because he'd rather be on the bus watching curling. HA. the set was amazing, i sang my little heart out, and of course made friends with the people next to me, and we made fun of the drunk girl behind me who couldn't even stand up. oh the entertainment. the crowd was great too, and we even succeeded in getting not one, but two encores. bad ass.

so after the show, we slowly filed out and i ran into the couple i had paid for earlier. we chatted briefly and they convinced me to get coffee with them - there was a twenty four hour coffee shop right next door to the venue and they insisted on paying me back since he had a credit card with him. so we got coffee and traded show stories, and i eventually made the drive back to columbia. it really restored my faith in humanity - it's not often you come across genuinely nice and honest people. what a friday night.

not so tough found out

i've always been a little crazy. but that's nothing out of the ordinary. we're all crazy. when i was really young, i had this strange fixation with the number six. [pair that with the stereotypical redhead temper and yes, i was truly a spawn of satan.] i would count to six, and then i would have to do that six times. and once that set was complete, i would do all of that six times, and keep on going. there were also the strange noises. i would lay in bed at night and make these "duh duh duh" sounds with my tongue in particular little rhythms. and i could only be done when i was satisfied with the rhythm and it felt finished. like i said, a little crazy.

now my crazy nuances are stress-related. i had my first panic attack two summers ago and it was the scariest, most traumatic experience of my life. granted, my state of mind was a bit altered, but regardless, it took me a good while to fully get over that. and then it happened again, and pretty soon i had myself conditioned to where smoking pot meant having a panic attack. needless to say, i haven't smoked anymore. so unfortunately, that has planted the thought in the back of my mind about having another attack. and the most recent addition to that worry, is my breathing habits. i can't get a full breath in, which makes me freak out and sometimes hyperventilate. this in turn leads to an attack. and thus, the cycle repeats itself.

well i got tired of the cycle. because it was getting in the way of living my life, and preventing me from sleeping. so i finally made a decision and scheduled an appointment to see someone. and i have learned that i am not alone. and that there are solutions to the problem. and that i am not as crazy as i think i am. *sigh of relief!* what you think about me, however, is another story i guess.