Something To Believe In (My Parachute Concert Experience)

Rock and roll music has been a major part of my life for many years now and nothing creates that sense of euphoria, to me at least, quite like dancing and singing along as your favorite band plays live. It’s an even better experience when you are surrounded by other people that care about and love that quality music at the same level that you do. There is something wonderful and magical about experiencing a great rock concert and Sunday night’s Parachute concert at the House of Blues in Dallas was exactly that!

My set list autographed by the band

Hailing from Austin, Texas, I moved to Seattle two-and-a-half years ago. My first time to see Parachute in concert was at The Crocodile in Seattle. Once I experienced one of their rockin’ shows, I knew I had to go to another. I joined their street team and promoted them heavily to everyone and anyone that would listen. I realized that as they announced tours, Seattle was not one of their frequented cities. I would follow them on Twitter and hunt down videos on YouTube in hopes of sharing a second-hand experience of this band whose music meant so much to me. After waiting for what seemed like forever, they finally announced that not only were they going to be recording a new album, they were going to be touring in the fall again! Sadly, Seattle wasn’t on the list, so I did what I had to—I hopped a flight to Dallas, Texas to spend my birthday weekend with my best friend, and to go to that concert at The House of Blues.

Will Anderson & Nate McFarland

I had already bought my tickets to the show when they announced they were doing a fan contest where you could win tickets to the show and access to an exclusive meet and greet to hear the studio versions of songs on their unreleased album. My Seattle friends helped me enter the contest, and after waiting anxiously for the results, I found out that I had won! Not only was I going to go to an amazing show, and be able to hear the new songs, but I got to bring two friends along for free! My best friend’s roommate, who is also a fan, joined us and we were all extremely excited as we set out for the show and the Hear It First Listening Party!

Alex Hargrave & Johnny Stubblefield

As Parachute’s tour manager, Chris Jones, led us into the Cambridge Room, Johnny, Kit, Nate, Alex, and Will were there waiting for us and they welcomed us to the party! To say I was excited might be the biggest understatement of the year. After getting to say hello and hug the guys, they quickly led us all over to some couches along the wall (set up had run late and cut short our time by a little bit) and let us listen to a couple of the tracks off of the new album. The songs were amazing! First, we got to hear “Something To Believe In” (a track noted as Jeremiah on the set list). The gospel tracks laced into the song were astounding and added a strong layer of fullness to the crisp recording. Then we got to listen to “White Dress” (a song they referred to as Bumpin’ Jam on the set list). I suggested to Will that they should definitely add “bumpin’ jam” into parenthesis after the song title because it was so true to the nature of the song. It was one of those songs that make you want to drum on the steering wheel as you cruise down the highway and bob your head to the beat causing passersby to stare, wishing they were having as much fun as you are. Having heard the live recording of it on YouTube, I had already regarded it as a song made of gold, but after listening to the studio recording, I’m more apt to consider it a Scrooge McDuck-sized vault of musical gold! The lyrical depth and overall arrangement of both songs made it clear that these guys were pushing their music and style to a new level of excellence. The fact that Kit and Johnny were dancing around in the background made it an extra special experience.

Kit French

After the listening party, we waited anxiously for the show to start. The moment Parachute took the stage, the night of fun had come full circle. We all cheered loudly as Nate, Alex, Johnny, and Kit stepped on the stage to lay down the intro to White Dress. Already brimming with excitement, the energy in the crowd was intensified as Will joined the band front and center to lead us all in the truly “bumpin’ jam.”

The performance was packed with fun and excitement thanks to a solid set of both old and new songs. We clapped and sang along to songs featured on their first album, Losing Sleep, and danced as we listened intently to the newer ones like the deceptively catchy upbeat chorus, “She’s in love with someone else” in the song What I Know. As Will took a moment to introduce the song Square One with the insight that it was written as a result to being “played” in a relationship, a united groan of understanding was echoed by the majority of guys in the crowd. It was clear that everyone in the crowd could relate on some level to the songs blasting from the speakers. From the sweetly refreshing acoustic version of All That I Am, to the punchy vocals on the funk-infused Halfway, to the fist-pumping powerhouse of a song, Under Control, the band’s stellar stage presence and showmanship propelled the show to an amped-up out-of-this-world level. From talking to fellow fans (both old and new) in the crowd afterward, I think it’s safe to say that the entire experience left a positive, indelible impression of what a quality rock show is all about.

Our Listening Party group:
Johnny, Chad, Will, Katie, Me, Diane, Kit, Kelley, Nate, Alex

Here are more photos from the show taken by my friend Chad, who graciously relieved me of camera duty so that I could enjoy the show with no distractions!

It truly was a night I'll never forget!

I can't wait until they release dates
for more touring in the beginning of 2011
and I for SURE cannot wait for the new album to drop!

Beverly Hills

Hey! Remember that time
I went to Los Angeles for a concert??

Me toooo!!

And I've finally recouped and edited the photos to share with you all!

I absolutely love to travel! There's something fresh and adventurous and unknowing about it. Sometimes I embark on adventures and they're silly. Like late night excursions in unsafe neighborhoods. So, over the years, I've learned to run things by a couple of people who ask me questions that will help me map out some safe boundaries for my wild excursions, you know, so I don't get into some crazy unwarranted bad endings. So I planned a bunch of things out, and set out on my trip to Los Angeles to see the last show on the Something Corporate 2010 Reunion tour!!!

The ride down took about a day-and-a-half and I slept through most of it. One of the most interesting things to do on the bus is to listen and watch. I got to watch a bus of strangers bond over the ride down. I also got to hear a story about a woman who had just gotten out of prison after 9 and a half years. She shared about life inside bars and how hard it was her to adjust to the current world after spending so much time separated from it. It always brings perspective to my life to listen to stories that others are willing share. After time spent thinking, writing, and sleeping, I finally made it safe and sound to LA.

When I first got there, I hopped on the subway and headed to Hollywood Boulevard, so I could get close to the meet-up location and to get some much needed coffee.



I spent the morning walking down the Walk of Fame and checking out some of the local shops that were open.



Adam and Amanda S., friends of mine who attended Metroplex MC, came to see me at Starbucks and we got to just sit and talk and reflect on our lives and how happy we are to be where we are. We shared memories of MC life and stories about things going on in our lives currently. It was so refreshing to be able to hang out with them!


And as an added bonus, they treated me to lunch at In-N-Out!! It was SOOO delicious!! While we were at In-N-Out, Lisa K. met up with us and we talked about California and Seattle for a bit and then just talked about all sorts of random things.


After Adam and Amanda left, Lisa and I walked back up to Hollywood Boulevard and had a long, honest talk about some important things we were both dealing with. It didn't go quite the way I would have liked it to, but sometimes even in talking with friends, you just have to speak your peace and hope for the best. A little while later, we were joined by Jana and Barry B. and little baby Rowan!


We spent the afternoon walking around the Grove talking about a bunch of random things and then had dinner at Johnny Rockets (Thanks to Lisa for buying me dinner!!) where I realized that my recent cravings for chicken nuggets/strips is kind of getting out of control. Ha! They're definitely a comfort food. After dinner, Jana and Barry graciously offered me a ride to the venue so we could spend more time together—which I am incredibly thankful for!

The funny thing is, when we pulled up to the Club Nokia area at LA Live, we noticed red carpets and such and I had NO idea what they were there for. Well you know, turns out it was for The Emmys, which were happening the next day! Duh! And I didn't even take any pictures—what was I thinking???? :/

Once I was in the venue, I got to make friends with a woman who sat in the VIP section, as well as the security guard in that section. Because of that, I was able to sit in the VIP section for FREEEEEE!!! And THAT was awesome!! I was about 3 rows away from where Andrew McMahon's (the lead singer of Something Corporate) parents were sitting and I got to watch them sing along and dance to the music!


The security guard kindly let me move around the VIP area to get different angles for pictures. For the first song (which you can see in the video below) there was a light blinding me in that area that I hadn't noticed until I started recording. But then just after I finished recording and was headed back to my original area, he said I couldn't film. He said he wouldn't take my camera away, but I should probably just stick with taking photos. After moving back to my seat, I had SUCH a great view and I LOVED singing and dancing with all the fans around me! The set was SO good and they even played an extra long set because it was their last show. Andrew was full of energy and made the experience so fun with his wild piano stomping and sweet stories behind the songs.





Toward the end of the set, we were all treated to a beautiful rendition of the longest Something Corporate song, KONSTANTINE. It was beautiful and Andrew's voice was amazing. I even teared up a few times because of the beautiful sounds coming from the piano.


One of my favorite things about going to live music shows is that it encourages and inspires me to continue writing—to express myself creatively through words. After the show, I went to the nearby Starbucks and sat down to write. There were so many thoughts and emotions that needed processing after my trip down and I was glad I got to just get them all out of my head and onto paper.


All in all, it was a GREAT trip for me and I'm entirely grateful that I did it! It fed my adventurous side and indulged my love for travel, all while giving me some MUCH NEEDED time to catch up with old friends!

To Lisa, Barry, Jana, Adam and Amanda:
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR FRIENDSHIP!

Dancing in Circles

This past weekend was such a whirlwind! I feel like I should probably make 3 posts tonight—one for each day to try to encapsulate it all. But instead I'll just span it out over the week.


So this past Friday I got to experience some pretty great things! You see, a few years ago, I had the awesome opportunity to travel up the East Coast on a ministry tour of sorts and as part of the trip, we had a band join us on the road. The band was called Three Nails Short and the four guys that joined us were Brian Bandas, Wade Sommers, Kevin Waden, and Wesley Copeland. We got to hang out with the guys and spend some cool hang time . . . and let's just say that after quality time in 15 passenger vans with people, you learn a little more than their favorite colors. But yeah, so we got the chance to get to know these guys.

Fast forward years later, and Brian is in a country music band called Love and Theft. They have toured with Taylor Swift and are currently on tour opening for Tim McGraw. I knew they were coming to Seattle and that I wanted to attend the show at the Key Arena, but I missed the cut-off for the meet and greet sign up and decided that paying $60-$80 to see their short set and fight fangirls to get to say hi to Brian at the merch table, would be a little much. So after talking with my wonderful friends and asking their advice, I decided against it. To my benefit, even though I wasn't able to go to the main show, I WAS able to go to the free live acoustic set they were playing at the Hard Rock Cafe (which JUST opened) downtown!

I showed up early and about 10-15 minutes after I showed up, the guys showed up and I went up to Brian and got to give him a big hug and we just got to reconnect for a bit before their sound-check. He also introduced me to the band and I got to hang out with some other fans while they were sound-checking. The entire evening was so great! It felt so awesome to see Brian up on stage playing his heart out doing what he loves to do! From watching all the interviews and music videos, I am completely in awe of how things have developed for him and I couldn't be more excited! To see how he has been able to maintain balance and his down-to-earth personality is very refreshing, especially when you become a big-time band and start getting floods of fangirls and fame.



It was such an honor to have the opportunity to catch up with Brian and to meet the band. I look forward to seeing them play again in Seattle! And if they ever come to your city, you should DEFINITELY check them out! These guys are amazing!

(L to R: Stephen Barker Liles, Me, Brian Bandas, Eric Gunderson)

My video footage from the evening:





BONUS: Brian's intro to their music video to DON'T WAKE ME

Good News

I just bought my ticket to go see
SOMETHING CORPORATE
play in Los Angeles on their summer tour!!!

No but seriously guys, this is a huge deal for me! One thing I've noticed is that while Seattle definitely has a live music culture worth appreciating, it's not NEARLY as amazing as the live music scene in Austin and the surrounding cities. When my favorite bands have announced tour dates, they've always been in the Austin, Dallas, or Houston area—which would be EASY PEASY to attend if I still lived in Austin. But I live here, and I love here, and I want here . . . but I also want bands that I like here. The stigma of supporting local businesses carries over to the music scene here as well and I love it, don't get me wrong, I do. It's just that most of the local bands here have a sound I don't really care for. I grew up on punk rock/alt. rock/ hard rock/ piano pop rock music and it is what inhabits my iTunes the most. So when my favorite bands go on tour, they mostly stick to the east coast and the southern states, which have a larger appreciation and draw for them. The fact that Seattle is neatly tucked away in the upper corner of the west coast doesn't help either.

Something Corporate played at Bamboozle this year and I couldn't go. I couldn't take the time off and I couldn't afford it. But luckily, this new tour opened up a tour date I COULD make! Ideally I would've liked to attend the show in Dallas so I could go with my friend Kelley and her roomie Diane, but it looks like I'm going to have to settle for 2nd best . . . and in this instance, it's okay!

So come August I will be making a trip down to Los Angeles (most likely via Greyhound) to be able to see Something Corporate reunited, playing awesome rock goodness!!! And I will be there, ready to rock out and jump and dance and lose my voice singing along!!!

Excited doesn't EVEN begin to cover it!

With that, I leave you with two of my favorite SoCo songs*:

*cause really, who can choose JUST one?? Yeah, I dunno either!

Kids

My beautiful Friday was met with a mega buzzkill this morning as I remembered something I'd been meaning to check on. AUSTIN CITY LIMITS MUSIC FESTIVAL. It's only the biggest deal ever for someone who's from Austin. I've wanted to go for years now, but due to traveling and lack of excess cash flow (and now distance), I hadn't been able to go. Luckily, last year Hulu streamed a live feed of the festival and I was able to catch performances from some of my faves . . . but it just wasn't the same—especially knowing that I had friends there that I would have loved to hang out with as we watched the magical wonder of live music unfold in front of us.

I'm pretty sure I'd read a tweet from one of my friends that the early bird tickets were sold out, but I still had hope for other opportunities. So this morning, when I saw this, my heart sank:

As Kris Kross would say, "I missed the bus." :(

At first I was like, "OOOOOH! VIP PASSES!!" Then, flashes of my bank account appeared in my mind and I floated back down to earth. I could probably afford ONE 1-DAY PASS, and I might still, depending on when the upcoming MCA Reunion is. If it's near that time, I'd definitely buy the Saturday pass. However, I don't know how much longer tickets will be available, and I can't really afford it right this moment. As I was looking over the ticket prices and figuring out cost of flying back home, plus hours missed at work, plus ticket pricing, and other festival costs (merch, snacks, etc.) I said out loud to myself, "Man. I'd give one of my kidneys to be able to go!" I then quickly remembered the hell I went through when I almost had my kidney removed and I rethought that statement. I then followed it up with, "Man. I'd give my laptop to be able to go!" and then I thought about it some more and resolved, "Man. I'd give that creepy RV that sometimes hangs out in front of our house to someone if it meant that I could go."

ANYONE IN THE MARKET FOR A CREEPY RV COVERED IN TARP AND DUCT TAPE???

We Belong

(photo taken at the EMP Taking Aim Interactive Photo Booth)

The Experience Music Project has a new photography exhibit running right now featuring Rock and Roll photography:

EMP|SFM is proud to present Taking Aim: Unforgettable Rock 'n' Roll Photographs Selected by Graham Nash. This dynamic new exhibition, organized by Experience Music Project, showcases some of the most memorable photography in the history of popular music, as chosen by legendary musician Graham Nash of supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash, who is also well-known as a photographer, collector and pioneer in digital imaging and printing.

As guest curator, Graham Nash, brings his rich musical history, keen eye and storytelling skills to an exhibition of 98 rock 'n' roll images taken by 40 of the world's greatest music photographers, including Anton Corbijn, Lynn Goldsmith, Annie Leibovitz, Jim Marshall, Neal Preston, Mick Rock, Francesco Scavullo and Nash himself.

As I walked by each and every photograph, my love and passion for both photography and rock and roll music was re-awakened. The images were beautiful, painful, inspiring, and each truly evoked more than a thousand words surrounding the day and age they were taken in and what they represented. This photograph taken by Annie Leibovitz, of Emmylou Harris standing by a pond holding her guitar was my favorite:


It's simplicity and beauty just overwhelmed me. The power of one person, living in their element, sharing their dream and their heart with others through such a powerful art form is so stunning to me. All the time and talent and energy that one person can put into making their voice heard, and inspiring others to open up and talk about life with others is such a wonderful part of the arts. I remember seeing Plumb live in concert once and one of my favorite things that Tiffany Arbuckle said was, "Even though a lot of the songs deal with heavy subjects, it's real life. It's real hurts and real struggles that people have, and if all I can do is be a voice that opens up doors for others to talk about real life with someone else, and learn and grow from it, then everything I'm doing here is worth it." That, to me, is music. True music. True talent. True art.

To see more images from the exhibit, CLICK HERE.

The Lights and Buzz

I'm finally done editing my photos from the Jack's Mannequin show!

Okay so for reference, music is my football . . . and seeing Jack's Mannequin in concert is like the Super Bowl! I had SO much fun rocking out with a bunch of JM fans :D

Also, I got to meet Andrew McMahon and I got to talk to him about music and inspiration and his passion for writing and it was just sooooo cool! He is one of my all-time favorite song writers. He truly has a gift for song writing and I glean from his stuff all the time! He also encouraged me as a writer and gave me some words of wisdom to keep me focused and grounded so that I could keep pursuing my passion. Needless to say, (but I'll say it anyway) getting to meet one of my musical heroes was just soooo amazing!

It was great to go to a show and support this music I love and dance and shout and sing along with all the songs that have helped me get from various Point A's to various Point B's in my life. Andrew said this during his little talk during La La Lie, but truly, music connects us—at least it does for me.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the show and 2 videos I recorded. After that are 2 other videos taken by other people, but they were just too great not to share! He has so much passion and energy and his showmanship and charisma are just so wonderful to me! I love to see when artists really get into what they're doing and don't care how crazy they look or may seem. :D

That's right folks, I was THAT close!! :D

I love when he dances on his piano!

I also love when he jumps off his piano! so fun!

Not only is Andrew tons of fun, his BAND is tons of fun. This is Dr. J's (his bass player) amp. He brings the figurines with him to EVERY show and they get to 'join him' on stage, just chillin' on his amp. So fun!

Me and Andrew McMahon!

VIDEOS FROM THE SHOW:

(disclaimer: some of these are obnoxiously loud. consider yourself warned)

DARK BLUE


LA LA LIE


BLOODSHOT


INTO THE AIRWAVES

You Give Me Something

Have you ever seen those Russian Nesting Dolls? You know, the ones where they have like a doll inside a doll inside a doll and you open each package to get to the next?

Well today I got to experience my own little wonderful russian nesting doll . . . us postal service style.

Let me just say that I seriously bought my tickets for the Jack's Mannequin concert last November! That's 3 months ago! And for the past month, I've been checking the mail like a crazy lady . . . or a sick puppy dog—one of the two, maybe both. I seriously would come home, barely get into the house before I grabbed the mail key and raced back up the driveway to check it. Up until now, I've had to hang my head in disappointment and walk back in, ticketless. But today, that all changed!

I got my ticket to the show!!!

Now the funny part is the packaging in which the ticket came. I mean, I gotta hand it to the people at Ticketmaster, they really know how to protect your ticket. ;)

Here is the main package I got . . .



And then inside that . . .



And then inside that . . .



Hahahaha! Well, it's nice to know my little ticket traveled in style. ;)

I'm seriously SO excited! It really made my stressful day end with a giant smile across my face!

Just think, in 17 days, I get to experience this awesomeness!!












I CAN'T WAIT! whooo hooo!