Remembering the Encores

Who: Chris Trapper with Nick Young When: May 12, 2012 Where: Ninth Ward/ Buffalo, NY With: Barb & Hillary Of Note: Barb's Birthday! If 2003 was the year we all turned 21, 2012 is the year that we're all turning 30. Some of us are handling that particular milestone better than others. (Spoiler alert: I had to take myself to a different continent to be able to deal with it.) Anyway, Barb's birthday week-end coincided with a Chris Trapper concert in Buffalo, so we decided on a ladies night out and off the three of us went. The opener was a Nick Young, an acoustic singer/song-writer guy. He was adorable, and his set was very solid. Lyrically, I was really impressed - sometimes it's hard to really listen to words when you're hearing songs for the first time live (just me?), but I was drawn into the story-telling for sure. I'm going to mangle lyric quotes here, but one referenced, "missing the 4am whiskey on your breath," which resona...

Motion City Soundtrack - True Romance Walk the Moon - Anna Sun Apache Relay - State Trooper (Bruce Springsteen cover, apparently) The Leagues - Mind Games Florence + The Machine - Shake it Out Noah - Cover of LMFAO Sexy and I Know It

I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of the repeat to death songs from my past. Fall 2004/ Spring 2005 Remember when iTunes was shiny and brand new and you could get a code for a free song under the cap of a Pepsi?  UB had recently become a Pepsi campus so we were all so excited to get free songs.  Usher's 'Caught Up' was one of the first songs I ever downloaded.  It still stands as the #1 played song in my iTunes.  I remember when I went to MBA prom my first year, I took my friend Ryan.  We had a fine evening - Ry was always super fun to be around; we'd been friends forever.  The next day, I was repeat listening to this song while cleaning/studying/something and I set my away message as 'So caught up'.  Beth called almost immediately and said, "Uhoh, what happened?"  And I said, "What?" And she said, "What happened last night that you're so caught up?"  And I cracked up and said, "I became even more ...

Who: Dierks Bentley, Josh Gracin, Joe Diffie, one other guy and a girl When: October 2004 (I think?) Where: University at Buffalo Center for the Arts/ Buffalo, NY With: Somebody? I have no idea Of Note: Dierks Bentley being the cutest cutie to ever cute So, most of the time, when I set about writing up a concert, particularly one that's not very recent/ fresh on my mind, I consult the internet to jog my memory a bit - exact dates, set lists...details that pair with my overall emotional memories to help me put together the whole picture. I also listen to the artist I'm writing about as I put the post together, which has been so much fun rediscovering music I may have neglected. This concert is an absolute anomaly in that, I can find no record of it on the internet. So either I made this show up and it's a figment of my imagination or my google-fu is lacking. I also have no idea who went with me to this, but I'm pretty sure I didn't go alone. If it was...

Who: Phish When: June 30, 2000 & July 1, 2000 Where: Tweeter Center/ Hartford, CT With: Ben Of Note: sweet, sweet freedom; the post-grad road-trip As we've established, shortly after I began dating my high school boyfriend, he lost God and found Phish. As a result, he was determined to make some shows the summer after we graduated high school - thus, the graduation road trip...just like in bad teen movies! Just a few short days after graduation, we started by caravan-ing with my Mom & Joe (my step-dad) to New York City where I had a scholarship interview. Awesomely, the folks at the place I was interviewing thought that Ben was my brother. We did some NYC tourist things (Empire state building, Staten Island Ferry), watched Joe & Ben get in some epic fights about how to use the Subway for public transportation, and had a lovely two days in the city. Ben & I got same day tickets to Jesus Christ Superstar, my first Broadway musical, which was awesom...

Phish - Julius Something about summer always brings me back to this album.  The funky intro, the snaps, the horns. The nostalgia! Glee Cast - How Will I Know Just so incredibly beautiful! The Last Royals - Crystal Vase Kind of disturbing lyrics over a bouncy melody. fun. - Out on the Town I still can't stop listening to fun. 

Who: John Mayer and The Counting Crows When: August 12, 2003 Where: Darien Lake Performing Arts Center/ Darien Center, NY With: Melissa & Beth Of Note: "I'm Honky-Tonkin'!!" 2003 was the year we all turned 21. It was also the year that I lived in what I call, affectionately, of course, "the Hell House". The issues with the house were numerous: five girls in one house was possibly too many; my room didn't have heat; at one point there were mice; there was a grow room in the basement; during the summer, it flooded...typical college house stuff. But, honestly, I would not have traded spending my senior year of college having the closest thing to a sorority experience that attending a largely non-Greek, northeast, public university could afford. And, it certainly wasn't all bad - the inside jokes, stealing Breugger's bagels when Beth brought them back from Albany, mid-day dance parties, Pizza Plant lunches, raging keggers, "Li...

Who: fun. with Miniature Tigers When: April 25, 2012 Where: KoolHaus/ Toronto, ON With: just me Of Note: HOLY HELL THIS IS WHAT LIVE MUSIC IS SUPPOSED TO FEEL LIKE One of the books I read last year was called 'The Paradox of Choice' and in it, the author described a phenomena called 'the cycle of hedonism'. Essentially, once something has made you happy once, it will never make you quite that happy again - diminishing returns and all that, not only of that particular experience, but of that level of happiness (it's pretty depressing to think about). For people that go to concerts, sometimes it feels like you're always chasing that high...that every show has the opportunity to be just another show or the opportunity to blow your fricking mind. Seeing fun. in Toronto on a random Wednesday in April blew my fricking mind. This show was EVERYTHING that is good and fun and right about the live music experience. Feeling the way I felt when I left the venue ...