Remembering the Encores

Who: Al & The Transamericans When: September 4, 2003 Where: Nietzsche's/ Buffalo, NY With: Ben, Mike, Matt, Ryan (?), Ben's Southlake roommates (?) Of Note: essentially bluegrass moe. for $10, Mexico for Mike's 21st birthday From Remembering the Encores This day had not been a good day. The brakes on the Jeep were shot and making some sort of weird scraping sound and I did not have the money to fix it. But! Ben had rounded a bunch of us up to go to a concert at Nietzsche's. I wasn't sure what to expect because I think this was after we'd gone to see al.one, which, no disrespect to Mr. Schnier, but the electronic DJ thing did not do much for me. Ohmygoodness, was I in for a treat. Al & The Transamericans is a side project of a bunch of great musicians from other bands - Al, Vinnie & at the time Jim from moe.- who play fun, poppy bluegrass and do moe. songs! So, it was essentially like seeing moe. minus the half hour jams, plus a ...

Who: No Doubt When: April 12, 2002 Where: Alumni Arena, University at Buffalo; Amherst, NY With: the entire UB undergraduate population Of Note: the concert genie From Remembering the Encores Kiss98.5 has been a staple of my Buffalo life. Though we spent a fair amount of time in the dorms downloading music (legally at the time) and creating the perfect playlists in Napster, then WinAmp, then Windows Media Player (yes kids, there was a time before iTunes), when we dormed together sophomore year, Beth and I spent a fair amount of time listening to "your number one concert connection", Kiss98.5. (Later, we would go on to name our goldfish [who ended up dying of fish cancer, we're pretty sure] after some of the famed Kiss98.5 DJs. I would also spend a fair amount of time, energy, and social capital into getting an autographed picture of Janet Snyder and Nicholas Picholas for Beth. You could say we were maybe just a wee bit psychotic?) UB announced that t...

Who: Dave Matthews Band with moe. When: June 20, 2003 Where: Darien Lake Performing Arts Center/ Darien Center, NY With: Beth, Cassandra Of Note: moe.andDavemoe.andDavemoe.andDavemoe.andDavemoe.andDavemoe.andDave, the sacrifice of the duck blanket, the best damn hot dogs I have ever eaten, Beth's post-show adventure From Remembering the Encores Dave Matthews Band. Summer time. Big, outdoor concert venue. Long day of tailgating. Killer opening band. Boone's Farm. Hot dogs in a Solo cup. Intense sunburns. And the funniest story pretty much ever. This day will go down in history as one of the best days ever. Days like this are the reason so many people love concerts. So, being college girls in the early 2000s, we obviously loved Dave Matthews and were excited to get tickets for the summer tour, now a tradition. Because the only concert I had ever been to at Darien Lake at that point was Phish, I assumed all concerts at Darien were like Phish and you neede...

Who: John Mayer with Michael Franti When: February 14, 2010 Where: Air Canada Centre/ Toronto ON With: Becky Of Note: the fact that John Mayer was cracked out beyond belief from start to finish It is my prerogative as a female to love John Mayer. It would also be my prerogative to hate John Mayer if I wanted to. I don't. I love him. On the rockstar>dreamboat continuum, he is probably 70% dreamboat and 30% rockstar (though, most of the rockstar cred comes from his John Mayer Trio work). I find him adorable and almost all of his music makes me want to do one of three things: dance around my living room, make out, or cry. That makes me love him. I was very excited for both Becky and John to be my Valentines. Though we had pretty crappy seats, we had a pretty awesome time. The week before this concert was the week that John's interview with Playboy came out...you know, the one where he called Jessica Simpson "sexual napalm"? Because of this, I had a...

Who: MuteMath When: September 22, 2011 Where: Mohawk Place/ Buffalo, NY With: Barb Of Note: Paul's feverishness, the mini stage acrobatics, the still sexiness of a key-tar From Remembering the Encores I love MuteMath. No, actually, I LOVE LOVE LOVE MuteMath. I learned about them when preparing to attend the Virgin Mobile Music Festival a bunch of years ago (stay tuned for fuzzy recollections!), saw them live and was blown away. I have been waiting for them to tour anywhere vaguely in the northeast since then. I was so excited when they announced their Odd Soul pre-release tour dates and one of them was Buffalo! Like 10 minutes away from my house! I bought tickets the moment they went on sale and waited anxiously for the day to come. Though I didn't know who would be going with me when I bought the pair of tickets, Barb graciously accepted my invitation. Because now, after Jen-e-bration, Barb is my homegirl. (Why did that take so long?) There was a little...