7.3.09

That guy in the cowboy hat is Kenny Chesney. Perhaps you have heard of him?

A few years ago I saw a piece on 60 minutes on Kenny Chesney and found him so interesting!(You can check out part 1 here and part 2 here) I've been a casual fan for a while, but this year became a full on fan that NEEDED to see him in concert. When Gina asked if we wanted to join them, I did not hesitate to say yes.

We saw him at Summerfest on Friday night and seriously, it might have been the best concert I have ever seen...and y'all, I've been to A LOT of concerts. This pic was taken at the very end of the concert when I'm pretty sure he was told he HAD to stop after singing about 10 songs for his encore. There was not a lot of fanfare with him leaving the stage. Instead, the lights went up, he stayed out signing autographs for a while and then walked off stage. He was an amazing showman and entertainer. I know that hearing about concerts is about as intersting as listening to someone else's dream, but I am going to put down a few highlights and lowlights for my sake. If you would like to read on, be my guest:

-Not only was Kenny awesome, but we were all really looking forward to both opening acts: Lady Antebellum and Miranda Lambert. Both were great. We are all big Miranda fans, so this whole concert package was an extra easy sell for us.

-I know whenever you go to concerts, the artist is always like "you guys are the best crowd!", etc etc., but you know they say that to every crowd. Well, in this case, I honestly feel like he was half serious. Like I said, his encore lasted a really long time, included all cover songs and it was obviously unrehearsed. Random people from his crew came on stage and sang with him and as you can see in the picture, even a puppy joined in the fun. It felt like we were a part of something that not every stop on the tour is privy to see.

-the one lowlight of the experience: the dude sitting next to Jon literally chain smoked the entire concert. I'm not kidding - the guy didn't stop. Not only cigarettes either - cigars as well. It was a real treat. So much so that I am tempted to write a strongly worded letter to Summerfest/Marcus Ampitheater about it actually. Because here is the thing - I realize we were techinically outdoors, but we couldn't leave our seats. If we were at a bar, or seeing a show at one of the side stages, we could move if we didnt want to breathe in the smoke all night. At this concert, we did not have that luxury. Not to mention, my pregnant sister sitting 2 seats away from him that had to inhale that all night long? I didn't like it one bit. The guy also sat for about 60% of the concert and texted. Srsly. He was majorly annoying.

-Basically I dare anyone to see this guy in concert and not come away a fan. Dare you! He was so great.

5.7.09

On Thursday night, we went to see Billy Joel and Elton John. This was my third time seeing them together and they are still pretty amazing. The show was 3 1/2 hours and we basically got 2 concerts for the price of 1. Everyone knows I like a good deal :)

I like this picture best because you can see the whole arena. I've always wanted to know what it would feel like to have an entire arena screaming for you. Can you imagine what it would be like to be able to stop playing your song and have like 10,000 sing it back to you? (this is what happens when Billy Joel sings Piano Man) It would be unreal.

It is obvious Elton John is over all the attention though because after the show was over, he came down the stairs, jumped into a little closet in the back of the stage (while everyone was still cheering) and came out 2 seconds later in a track suit and left the arena. I guess rock stars clock in and out at their jobs just like we all do...

4.30.09

I bought this cd.

CDs cost $8 these days, btw. Did you know that?

Anyway, why did I buy this cd? Welllll, I saw this band on Jimmy Fallon and kind of became obsessed with them. Then we happened to be at Best Buy, so I picked it up...after playing Rock Band for a while in their video game section. Not going to lie, I had to wait for the group of 13 year olds to be done to swoop in and get a chance at it. It's probably a good thing we don't own it or I might never sleep. I recruited Jon to play drums and before we started he looked over at me and had to say, "only 1 song." Dang. He knows me too well.

...But we weren't talking about Rock Band. We were talking about Tinted Windows. They are a supergroup made up of: James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins, Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne, Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick aannnnnd Taylor Hanson of, you guessed it, Hanson. They are so great!

If you must download only one song, make it Kind of a Girl.

You're welcome.

4.28.09

Oh, hello, Britney Spears.


a few highlights from the show

• The Pussycat Dolls opened and Nicole Sherzinger stole the show vocally the entire night. Actually she might have been the only person to actually sing live the whole night, so maybe it wasn't much of a competition.
  
• someone got engaged on stage during PCD. Srsly. Then they dedicated Stickwitu to them.
• I met up with a friend from college who I haven't seen in years!
• Was there a live band? no
• Was there any live singing? I don't think so.
• Was there otherwise amazingness? Yessssssssssssssss!!!!!
• I think she said exactly 3 words the whole concert - "What's up Chicago!" Otherwise everything was totally rehearsed. ha! And no one cares! I love it.
  
• The Allstate Arena is kind of awful. So disorganized. The arena is small though, which made every seat actually pretty good I think.
• It was worth every expensive cent that I spent. Comparable in price and entertainment value to any Cirque show I've seen in Vegas...and it was better I think. Well, if you are a Britney fan. If you aren't, you may not agree.
• aaaand basically, she's awesome.
  

4.18.09

We went to the UW Varsity Band concert Saturday night. We have been going to this concert every year for as long as we have been together and it is always so much fun! I look forward to it every year.

Other than playing all the standard 5th Quarter songs, they have special guests who play with the band, as well as medleys of popular music and musicals. My favorite this year was the Jesus Christ Superstar breakdown.

And btw, this isn't just a sit and listen type thing - there are pyrotechnics, streamers, confetti, trapeze type acrobatics. It's big time. You should probably do yourself a favor and go next year.

catholic wedding ceremony songs

Today we met with the Liturgical Director (LD) at our church to go over the songs that will be sung/played at our wedding. My mom used to sing in a group, so we are having 4 of her friends sing and play guitars along with LD, who will play piano as needed.

When we initially met with our priest, he told us that we were not allowed to have any rock n roll or broadway showtunes. I was kind of bummed about it, but later I decided I didn't really want to fight any battles and would find some liturgical songs I liked....

...Until last night when my mom and I were going over songs that she used to sing at weddings that technically are rock n roll and broadway showtunes, that I really liked. So, we decided to take her along to our meeting so she could fight our battles for us :) Turns out, there were no battles that needed to be fought though. All of the songs we liked and wanted, LD agreed upon was excited about them! It also turns out that he knows my mom's friend that will be playing guitar, so he was excited to be able to play with him. I think it will all be really good. Both LD and Mom's friend are super creative and musically talented that I have no doubt they will sound awesome.

The only drawback is that our church just got rid of their organ, so we will not have that grand sound during the processional and recessional. That's alright though. I'm already over it.

Songs we picked:

Prelude: Sabbath Prayer
Beginning Today
Morning Has Broken
Processional: Canon in D
Responsorial Psalm: Taste and See
Alleluia: Celtic Alleluia
Lighting of Unity Candle: The Wedding Song
Sign of Peace: instrumental (leaving this up to LD and Mom's friend to do a little improvisational liturgical jamming :) )
Recessional: Ode to Joy

P.S. I mentioned our church got rid of their organ. We found out today that when they bought it over 25 years ago, it was already a 50 year old organ that they had bought used. It was basically a piece of junk that was constantly needing repairs. So, they researched organ builders and found one they liked and now just need to raise enough money to pay for it. They already have about 90% of the funds for it and are expecting to have the new organ in February of '09. Idiotically (in my book), they chucked the old one before they even got the new one. That's beside the point though. Guess how much it costs for a brand new organ? Seriously, take a guess. The answer for the one our church is purchasing is in the comments.