Miscellaneous
Entries
so… last year’s attempt at keeping an on-line journal sort of
backfired, and i hardly ever updated my page.
this year i’m going to try something a little
different. i’m
going to use this page to list the concerts i’m going to and post pictures and
descriptions after i’ve been. so with that being said…
yet to see:
none scheduled yet L
already seen:
dec. 11 – iron & wine
with calexico @ congress theatre
there were several more opening “bands”
for iron & wine, besides calexico, all of which were awesome. unfortunately, the
same doesn’t hold true for iron & wine themselves. sam beam and sister sara
started there part of the show with a number i wasn’t familiar with and then
broke into a slower version of cinder and smoke’ which was pretty good, but
then they continued playing different versions of all their great songs, to the
point of ruining them. jake and i were very disappointed with them. then calexico got on
stage with them and they played the majority of their collaborated album, in the reins. that was very good
and jake and i were extra impressed with the spanish-speaking percussionist of
iron & wine who provided cool clicking noises with his mouth. again i took some
pics with my camera phone. ven though we
ended up with front row seats, we were still behind lots of people, so the best
picture i could get is the one of iron & wine with calexico seen below:
nov. 11 – the headlights and a bunch of other awesome bands @ the
canopy club
this actually turned out to be a
disappointment. jake and i have grown to
old to stand for several hours straight and we no longer like attending shows
where we are forced to stand, like this one turned out to be. even though this
show was at the canopy club, they squeezed everyone into the front room. and the headlights
weren’t even scheduled to play until midnite-ish, which we didn’t know until
getting there, so unfortunately we had to leave before they even played because
we had to take the dog out.
oct. 19 – the decemberists @
the metro
THE MOST AMAZING SHOW I HAVE EVER SEEN!!! this show definitely
tops the list as the best concert i have ever been to. in a close second is
when i saw the decemberists at the highdive my sophomore year. colin meloy and company started the evening
out with all 18+ minutes of ‘the tain’ and then proceeded to dazzle jake and i
with our favorites such as ‘16 military wives’ and ‘red right ankle’ before
coming out for an encore and playing ‘i was meant for the stage’ with an
extended ending that included crashing into almost everything on stage and completely
demolishing the drumset. the show was really too great for words. again i took a few
crappy pics with my camera phone as shown below:
the whole band: 
…and in different lighting: 
the gorgeous
colin meloy playing solo: 
oct. 13 – death cab for cutie
@ foellinger
i first heard of death cab when i
saw them two years ago at the highdive in champaign. the show this year
wasn’t quite as good, just because foellinger is a much bigger venue than the
highdive, but it was still amazing! jake got us awesome seats in the first row of the balcony,
so again i got to watch a show while sitting the entire time. they played a good
mix from all their cds, including a lot from their newest cd, plans.
they started the nite with ‘marching band of
manhattan,’ my favorite off their new cd and ended the nite with ‘sound of
settling,’ my favorite death cab song period.
and everything in between was awesome too. they played jake’s
two favorite songs off the new cd and ben gibbard started the encore with ‘i
will follow you into the dark,’ which jake had been hoping for all nite. the opening band,
youth group, was pretty good too. they were similar in style to death cab, and if people
didn’t think music had to be played so loud and i could hear the music and the
lyrics without my ears ringing, i’m sure it’d have been even more enjoyable.
i took crappy pics with my phone
again as shown below…
the youth
group: 
jake (w/ a creepy shadow over his
face): 
death cab! : 
more death cab!
: 
sexy ben gibbard
during the encore: 
sept. 24 – interpol @ assembly hall
i had like 3rd row
tickets for this show or something. it was great. i got to be super close and still sit throughout the whole
show. J
i guess in memory of their first album,
interpol decided to ‘turn on the bright lights,’ and did they ever! it was crazy how
bright the lights were! i had to close my eyes several times. the music was pretty
awesome and they put on great show. the opening band, boom bip, was pretty cool too, although
the music was all instrumental.
i went to the show with jake and i
took some pictures as seen below…
talk about
turning on the bright lights: 
sept. 21 – sigur ros @ the
even though i had two tickets in the
5th row for this show, i didn’t end up going because it was the
night following my dad’s funeral. ross and one of his friends took my tickets and i’m sure
they had a blast.
sept. 15 – sufjan stevens @ the canopy club
i was sitting outside the canopy
club getting ready to go inside for the show when i got a phone call from my
mother telling me my dad had had a heart attack and died. after the initial
shock, i decided to go ahead and go to the show with jake anyways just to get
my mind off of things. throughout the show, especially during ‘the predatory wasp
of the palisades is coming to get us,’ i kept
thinking about this summer, when my dad had insisted on coming to wal-mart with
me. i was so
angry, and he was being so annoying. i had just bought the new sufjan cd and was playing it in
the car. i was
like, “listen to this one line dad, it mentions savanna,” and he played that
same stupid line like 20 times and he still couldn't figure out what the lyrics
were. i suppose
now he’s “north of savanna [swimming] in the palisades.”
on a happier
note, sufjan and his illinoise-makers, dressed in illini orange and blue
cheerleading outfits, and even made a pyramid in the middle of the stage. it was pretty
awesome! i have
a kinda crappy pic i took with my cell phone below…
sept. 1 – of
christian had an extra ticket to see
of
(i also don’t have any pics from
this one.)
aug. 27 – the headphones w/
the headlights & the casados @ the courtyard café
i was looking forward to returning
to school and the great local music scene and when i heard that the headlights
(my favorite local band) were playing at the courtyard and for FREE, i couldn’t
resist. the
headphones are actually a side project of pedro the lion, which is an AMAZING
band….so this was definitely a show worth going to. unfortunately, i had
forgotten what a crappy venue the courtyard was. the acoustics in
that place are terrible, so the concert was a little disappointing in that
respect. the
casados are a 2-person acoustic group with a nice blend of male and female
vocals. the
girl was a little overpowering at times, but overall it was a very nice
sound. next the
headlights played and i was reminded of how much i love their music. they played their 4
songs off their ep and also 4 or 5 other songs i hadn’t heard yet. it was nice. the headphones
weren’t as impressive as i had hoped for, mostly because of the acoustics of
the venue. i’d
like to maybe download some of their music to see what they really sound
like. it’d
probably be quite good.
i went to the show with jake and
christian showed up with kb. i didn’t take any pics. L
aug. 14 – rufus
wainwright/ben folds/ben lee @ the brady theatre (
omg!
the show was amazing! it was raining
pretty badly this day and originally the concert was scheduled to be outdoors,
but at the last minute it was moved inside and somehow my sister and i ended up
in the 4th row of seats. the opening band, ben lee, who i had heard of, but never
heard was completely fun. he was from
beth & i: 
ticket stub: 
beth again: 
ben folds standing on
the piano, conducting the audience singing 3-part harmony: 
rufus wainwright on piano w/ the upright bass guy behind him: 
miscellaneous
page from last year