sometimes I'm a little crazy

you know what? i am pretty lucky to have friends that indulge me in my insane decisions to do crazy stuff at the last minute.

This past Friday, my favorite band, Brand New, played out at State College at their annual spring event, called Movin' On. I was very up in the air about the whole thing because the last time i saw BN at a college show (down at Stockton a few years ago) the sound was awful and it wasn't the best experience.  But i also have not seen Brand New in a year and a half, so that was weighing on me, too. And i just kept thinking that i was going to miss something big, like an announcement of a song coming out of the vault, if i didn't go.

But then my car decided it wanted to be a punk. I have had so much work done on it lately, only for it to die on the highway on my way to look at computers. (i ended up ordering a MacBook Air online, and this is my first post from my new pet.) My dad heard me say that I had taken a personal day on Friday, so he made an appointment for my car to go into the shop on Friday.

cool.

so then i was all bummed out again because even though i hadn't made a decision, the decision had been made for me. i knew id get my car back at some point that day, but with state college being such a far trip from my house i didn't think we would have time to make it.

but then the gears started turning and i came up with an idea. here is something you may not know about me. i am the laziest piece of butt on the planet, but if i want something, i will find a way, no matter what. i mean, i suppose that is human nature, but i see it as a character flaw. i MUST get my way. anyway, i have a buddy that i know is generally bored, and who only works part time, and who has a car, so i asked her what she was doing. of course she had to work that morning, but was going to be done in what should have been plenty of time to get out there, so we decided, sometime Thursday, that we were going to do this.

on Friday we spent a total of 11 hours in the car (there and back) to hear 2 and 1/2 songs. i believe that most people would be angry that they missed out on seeing their favorite band, but i had such a good time in the car, and i was just so damn happy to see those boys on that stage that it just didn't matter. The fact that sun was setting over the mountains in the background made it even better. two and a half songs by my favorite band was probably better than an entire set by anyone else.

and as if seeing the band wasn't enough, i got to meet Paige, a fellow shoner, and ran into Ryan, another fellow shoner. oh, and i got to go to sheetz and to eat n park which may mean nothing to you, but when i found out there was an eat n park nearby i started jumping up and down like an over-excited five-year-old. SMILEY COOKIES.

It would have been very easy to get angry at the late start and the traffic that kept us from getting there on time, but the experience was just as much fun. the only thing is now i definitely need to see Brand New again, just so that i can say i have seen them 33 1/3 times.

some leftover thoughts from last night's show

I know that in the blog reviewing the show, i said that i wanted to keep what Vinnie said to us to myself because i thought that it was special and that i should keep some of the night back for my own memory, but i have been thinking about that 20 minutes all day long and i think i need to write about some of it to get it out of my head.

One of the things that stuck out the most to me was how down in the dumps Vinnie was about how quickly people jumped off of the Shone bandwagon. First, i think those people are stupid. flat out morons. They got a little butthurt because there was no Jesse Lacey so they jumped ship without really giving the band the attention that they deserve. That is their bad, because this band has some killer talent. I cant even tell you what it was like to watch Ben Homola and Brian Lane drum together, in sync, for a few minutes, and just kill it. I was in awe. I just stood right there at the front of the stage and stared at the drumsticks, likely with my mouth wide open. I have always been a fan of Brian's drumming (if you have any doubts about that man's skills, listen to "the archer's bows have broken" and then come talk to me.)

Andrew Accardi's vocal range floors me. The things that that guy can do with his voice are almost unnatural. I have only listened to ROBBERS a few times. I saw them once or twice but neither were ideal settings to really get to listen to a band, (you know, gymnasiums and lobbies and stuff. terrible acoustics) but i am definitely going to make it a point to pay more attention to them. One of the things that Vin said last night that i thought was so humble and so sweet was about Andrew, and that was that Andrew "is more talented than I am. He always has been the one with the talent, and I'm blown away by it." I had just finished joking with Vin about Andrew always reminding him that he sucks, basically, (to which i quipped "isn't that what brothers are for? He laughed and agreed) and that moment of humility totally changed my perspective on Vincent Accardi. He came down a few notches on the "OMG ROCKSTAR" ladder (which probably isn't a bad thing) but definitely went up a bunch on the "this dude kicks some serious ass" ladder.

I guess what i took away from all of that is that i feel sorry for the people that jumped ship because they are missing out on something really special. A lot of the people reading this are people that i would have never met if it weren't for this band, but we freaking stood out in the freezing cold (and eventually snow) together to read a message from a scary clown-like dude on a screen and then went on a scavenger hunt together. we pulled together before that to root for the others in Long Island on the first hunts. We stood in line (again, in the freezing cold) together to wait to get inside of a club in NYC, some of us travelling super far, just to see what this was all about. The people in that room that night were so awesome to each other and it was refreshing to be in a room that felt like family after being in so many rooms full of pretentious douches so often lately.

To give all of that up because Jesse Lacey's name isn't attached to this?

Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I fangirl over Jesse with the best of them, but I'm not so far up his ass that i cant appreciate good music that he isn't a part of.

Vinnie also addressed the fact that people thought the album was scary. Yes, at first I was a little freaked out by Andrews vocals in places, but I mean, a dead guy that killed cats and probably some girls was the one that informed us about this band to begin with, so would it make sense for some pop music to come from that? of course not. the music, the vocals, the whole package, it all went together perfectly. Did we over think things some? yes. of course. Brian has as much as said that they underestimated the intensity in which this would be followed.

The album doesn't scare me anymore. I think its pretty beautiful, actually. I cant remember what scared me about it. what i can tell you, though, is that when i am pissed the hell off at whatever is wrong at a particular time, i put on track 5 and dance my ass off until i forget what was bothering me. Babyshakes is one of my favorite songs right now.

I hope that they guys don't get discouraged and stop doing this. I don't want to see Shone end because some Brand New fans cant appreciate the work of some of the guys (which really doesn't make any sense to me. how can someone be a fan of a band and not love the talent that the guys have?) because this band has some serious talent and they are just so much damn fun to watch. Okay, you watched the live stream from my shitty iPhone 4 so now you know that they aren't fun? fuck that. you cant tell anything by watching blobs of light and hearing audio that is clipping more than it is normal.

Alright. my eyes are getting blurry from staring at the screen for too long, but i hope that this makes a difference somewhere, because there is a lot of love for this band, but its not enough. People need to stop being assholes and start paying attention to talent, otherwise we will be stuck with nothing but Kesha and Chris Brown wanna-be's and that is just not something i am interested in seeing happen.

show review: Shone at the North Star Bar in Philadelphia 4/6/13

If you haven't taken my advice yet and listened to Shone, you are a dummy, because you are missing out on some really, really good stuff. Stop being a dummy. Listen to Shone.

My ears are still ringing from tonight's concert. I think they probably will be for a few days, but I'm mostly okay with that. I realized a long time ago that I am probably going to lose my hearing due to the amount of concerts in which i attend. its cool. whatevz. 

There is really so much I want to say about Shone. I have formed friendships with people based solely on this band and it is amazing to me. I'm talking FIF level stuff here, dudes. I love having that bond with the people that I am attending shows with. I knew pretty much the entire front row before the first band took the stage, and I introduced myself to the two guys I didn't know. Its like a big ole' family, and that is really effing cool. I hope that Brian Lane and Andrew Accardi realize that they have given that to us, because that is really something special in my eyes. 

Alright, enough blubbering about my Shone family. They rock. Its cool. Onward with the story. (I am in a rambly mood tonight. This might take a while.) 

Pre-show, a bunch of us gathered in the bar and did what normal, of-age adults do in a bar...proceed to get silly with the help of some beverages. This really doesn't mean anything at all, except that it put all of us in really good moods for the show, so that was nice. And our waiter was pretty nice, which definitely helped. 

The first band that played was called Cold Fronts and I liked them. They have a very Hot Hot Heat sound about them, I think, and that is not a bad thing. I wasn't as into the second band, though. Val de Val sounded like someone put a band under water and it just wasn't the mood I wanted to be in right before seeing Shone. Their last song or two had a very BN feel to it, though, and so it wasn't as bad as the rest of the set, but i don't know that they are a band i would go out of my way to see again. 

Shone came out and played everything from their album except for "Bestial." BUT I did get the scoop on that both before and after the show, so knowing why they didn't play it (because, basically, they CANT. both Brian and Vin said it just sounds like junk when they try to play it and that they didn't want to give that to us as fans. I can respect that, for sure) I wasn't as sad about it as i was after the NYC show. These guys are just so much fun! Ugh. It kills me that so many people fell off of this bandwagon as soon as they heard that Jesse Lacey wasn't directly involved. This band has some serious talent and deserves to be respected on their own merits, not because it was believed that it was some JTL secret band shit that was going on. I dunno. I guess people will argue that they should not have let people believe that it wasn't BN from the get go, but i guess i never really did, so i didn't get that butthurt when i found out it was Brian and Andrew behind all of this madness. Like Vincent (haha. random, yeah? that's how he introduced himself tonight.) said, people are fickle and i say its their loss for jumping ship. Leaves more room for me to shake my fat ass! (seriously, try to listen to babyshakes and NOT dance. i dare you. i bet you cant.) 

after the show, Vin kind of collapsed to the ground and sat there for a bit, and somehow that turned into him giving a group of us a sermon about the band and the talent in the band (i promise he wasn't talking about himself) and on how to be nice to each other. There was more to it than just that, but i kind of feel like that was a special thing for those of us that were there and maybe i don't want to type up the minutes and cheapen the moment. It was just really awesome to spend some time having a conversation with a guy that plays in my favorite freaking band. it wasn't an awkward moment at a signing (of which i have had plenty) but this was the real deal. It was cool to get inside of his head a little bit, and it definitely made me appreciate Daisy a lot more. 

Look, I feel like I am talking a lot and not really saying anything, and its pretty effing late, so i am going to end this with a few pictures taken tonight. (okay, probably a lot of pictures. I'm in a mood. deal with it.) 

i am really in love with that last picture of vinnie. i kind of don't want to share it.