Thursday, January 24, 2008

Now I'm part of the entertainment

I'm sitting here trying to think of a way to give you a window into the time since I last posted a blog without writing yet another mini novel. I don't suppose it is any accident that the two vocabulary words that really stuck with me from high school were garrulous and loquacious. See, I'm already getting long-winded!

Friday the 18th, I headed out to Kilby Court to see We Shot the Moon. If you are not familiar with them, it is Jonathan Jones of Waking Ashland's band. The recorded version of the band includes Joe and Dan of Sherwood. If you are totally lost at this point, I can only suggest checking out myspace. Kilby Court is a small venue reminiscient of a large garage. I guess there is new ownership and they recently upgraded the sound. Let me tell you, it was the best thing anyone has done for shows here in a while. The sound was amazing. No struggling to make out words because of bad or distorted vocals. I don't know if I would have known the great sound was in part due to an upgrade, except Jonathan mentioned it. Let's just say that I had a great time at the show and the music was fantastic. I got to talk to everyone, since it's pretty difficult to avoid artists at Kilby, and enjoyed that as well. The show on Friday was an early show starting at 5:30 p.m. and ending by 8 p.m. Then there was a second concert. The downside to this was that there was no hanging out by the fire making s'mores. :(






Saturday, I made the drive to Sandy to the Solid Ground Cafe to see Brighten with Number One Gun, Sever Your Ties, S.A.W. and Larusso. Shortly after I arrived one of the bands got out of their van and had a snowball fight. I captured a great shot of one of them in the act, but unfortunately I didn't give the camera enough time to focus (in which case there would have been no pic. That was a bummer. Once the show started, all of the bands played well, although Sever Your Ties was too screamy for me for the most part. I have to say they have one of the better stage presentations, though and they were really fun to watch. I met and talked to the lead singer, Justin, after the show and he is just such a nice, fun person! Brighten was outstanding, as they were last time I saw them at the same venue. I was able to chat with Justin a bit (yea, too many Justin's - it gets confusing sometimes) and got a few good photos to show for it. After the show I bought a tee from Brighten, an ep from Larusso along with a stretchy shirt with hood. I wore it the next day and got several compliments. I also bought a cd from Number One Gun. In other words, I overspent. LOL It was a long drive home, but I had a good time.



Monday, I went to yet another concert to see Sound the Alarm open for Finch. The first band that played, Mury wasn't too bad. Their second song song was a little rough with the vocals at the beginning, but everything else had a pretty good sound.
Second, the band I came to see, Sound the Alarm played and put on a great show. I think they impressed some Finch fans that had never heard them before. After STA, some band played for an excruciatingly long time. Their music had no clear melody and one song droned into another. It was painful. I'll die if they read this, as I usually try to find good things to say, but seriously, I just wanted their set to end. I wish I could say I was alone in this feeeling, but I wasn't. Then Finch played. I have to say I liked the first two songs, but then they got screamy. SO, I went to the back to talk to STA and buy merch (a tee.) I watched Finch from the back. I did like the last song they played. IT wasn't screamy. LOL I didn't get a lot of great pics since the lighting wasn't exactly the best (story of the week), but I do think I have a few. Thanks to Savannah, I have a pic with the STA guys. The biggest downside, was dropping one of my 50mm lenses solidly on the cement flooring and breaking it in two. Not a happy moment. It isn't an overly expensive lens, and I have a back up, but I don't think the back up is quite as sharp for some reason. C'est la vie!



Tuesday I had just got a few things done, tried to work on some photos, and I got my hair cut. :)

The last night, Wed., the 23rd, I went to lunch with my husband and to the paint ball gun store (or whatever you call it) to get him something for his birthday. Yea, I ditched him on his birthday to go see Melee. It's o.k. He didn't seem to mind at all. He had a nice quiet time to work on his new toy! LOL Usually he is asleep pretty early anyway. I was supposed to have a meet & greet, which was funny since Kilby is so small. So, I headed for SLC and arrived at Kilby Court at about 4:05 p.m. As I am pulling into the alley, a white van was pulling out, and I thought I saw Ryan driving. I pulled over to let them drive by and saw Ricky in the passenger seat. He waved at me and I waved back. (Later I was told they were on their way to a radio interview.) When they finally arrived back at the venue, I saw Chris and gave him the C.S. Lewis book I had for him. He loved it. :) Then I talked to Chris for a while until I saw Mike by the fire pit (yes, Kilby has a fire pit) and took him some Pirate's Booty. He was pretty excited about it. That made my night. I didn't get much of a chance to see Ricky before the show and I didn't really talk to Ryan until later. I had something for Ricky, which he loves, but everyone else didn't. LOL And I had a birthday gift for Ryan. Matt White played first, and I enjoyed his set a lot. I met him before the show and gave him a hand warmer because he had no gloves and it was making me cold looking at him. LOL So, from the stage, he thanked me for it. AFterwards, I had the planned meet & greet, but since Until June wasn't playing at our show, Melee was kinda busy setting up for theirs. I had a place to the side of the stage where I thought I could get some pics. This time I should have been on the other side. I never seem to get the right spot with them. LOL
Anyway, they did set up, and the show was great! The sound was simply amazing and I think this is the first time I could really hear Ryan's background vocals well. I had hoped for Can't Hold On as part of the set, but it didn't happen. Chris told me he'd try to put in in next time (and I will do my best to hold him to that.) ;) I had the best time during their set. It was so fun and energetic. After the show I talked to all of the guys again and to Ryan and gave him his birthday gift. We talked about the Beatles, among other things. Someone came up to me and told me I was adorable. I told her that I don't think that is usually what most people think of when they see me, but she reiterated it and said that she was watching me as much as the band. LOL... so now I'm part of the entertainment. ;) I'm still not sure what to think of that. Melee is just too much fun to watch - much more fun than this semi-old lady acting silly while watching Melee. :) I hated to leave so early, but Melee was packing up, and then heading to Park City to open for Josh Groban. They were totally excited about it. :) I was excited for them!!!
Anyway, I got lots of hugs, which I love. I'm a hugging sort of person at heart. I finally walked to my car with Lauralee and her sister, and gave them a chocolate bar since s'mores didn't work out. Then I headed for home.







I figured my husband might be asleep, but I called him to tell him I was heading home and he was still up, so I stopped at Smith's and bought him a chocolate cake. I knew it had to be chocolate for him, but since I don't eat chocolate, I noticed that Smith's had individual pieces of white cake, so I bought one, so we could have cake together, and we did. :) I even sang Happy Birthday.



Peace out,
Melanie

6 comments:

AE said...

haha I totally agree. you ARE adorable! ;]
ahh. one day i will be able to go as many shows!!!!

AJ said...

wow, kilby court sounds like a fantastically fun venue! i love how you described it.."reminiscient of a large garage." i think i've told you this before, but...there is something so spectacularly intimate in hearing a band either acoustically and/or in a small venue as you described that i believe gives birth to many life-long fans.

"pirates booty"...ha, ha, ha! :)

melee opened for josh groban...seriously? he is my mom's favorite! :)

i'm glad you enjoyed yourself & so did your husband on his birthday--yay! :) that old adage about "boys & toys" truly does seem to transcend age doesn't it? :) too cute!

Melanie said...

Thank you Andrea. You are too sweet. :)

The first place I actually met and spoke with Relient K was at Kilby court. Only it does look much nicer now than then. Since they upgraded the sound recently it's amazing.

Yes, they opened for Josh Groban. Ricky is a big fan. I think Ryan is as well. They were pretty stoked about it. I want to hear all about it, but no word yet on how it went. I wanted to be there sooooo bad. I feel like they are quickly becoming friends. I hope so.

And too true about "boys and their toys." I have said this often. He laughs when I mention it.

eStacia said...

I'm glad you enjoyed Matt! I love Melee, can't wait till they come back around my way.

If you are interested I run a fan forum for Matt here = www.feelwithintensity.com

Martine said...

awww brighten <3

Joseph Condon said...

Hey there Melanie. Thanks for the comment on my blog, and I really enjoy your blog! I went through your favorite bands, and I must say. You have great taste. I will bookmark your page and do my best to keep up on your posts. Thanks,
Joseph Condon