I'm a slayer, ask me how.

Concert was amazing. More coherent thoughts after sleep. 3am zzzzzz

Heading out to Jammin Java in a little bit to see Taylor Davis. She is an awesome violin player who made herself famous by doing geeky music covers on YouTube but now she has released two albums of original music.

(FYI/spoiler this has been the hold up for my cards/mix! I have been planning on buying her album tonight so I didn't want to buy the mp3 for the mix).

Jammin Java is about an hour away. It's a really nice venue, just an over-sized coffee house. They do serve food, but we're going to treat ourselves and go to Outback Steakhouse before the show then grab some fancy coffee at the venue.

We spent the afternoon decorating the tree which was really weird because we never put the tree up this early. But our month is so busy with work and school and driving to Wisconsin, it seemed like if we didn't get the tree now it wouldn't happen.

If you missed the "Mandatory Tour" last year, Weird Al is coming back to lots of cities again this summer! I HIGHLY recommend at least seeing one Weird Al concert in your lifetime. Or his lifetime. Just sayin'. Tickets go on sale tomorrow.

TOUR DATES HERE

We're supposed to get with 6-10 inches of snow tonight, plus bonus ice/freezing rain. My Dad was doing the happy!dance while we were out because the Federal Government already shut down tomorrow. And, low and behold, when I got home the library had already posted that we would be closed tomorrow! Usually they like to make us wait until 5am before they decide these things so it's nice to go to bed tonight **knowing** we are closed.

We saw The Chieftans tonight! My Mom has always been a fan of their music so I grew up with them as background to days spent at home when she had control of the stereo. Tim happens to be a fan too and a few weeks ago Living Social had a deal for 30% off tickets so I bought us a 4 (Tim actually asked if I wanted to invite my parents, which I thought was sweet). THEY WERE SO GOOD! They had some Irish Dancers on stage for several songs, a professional from New York and five adorable kids from a local school. One of the fiddle players and his brother also danced, though they were Canadian and called their dancing "Ottawa Valley Step Dancing".

I found a video from 2008, you gotta see these moves (drag it forward to 2:50 if it doesn't start there on it's own):



Anyway, if you get a chance to see them, I recommend it. So much energy and it was so fun. Even though it was in the Lyric Opera House, they made it feel like you were in a small Irish pub. Makes me want to go to Ireland and just hang out, ya know?

Tim has revealed that he has about 20 of their CDs hidden in his room somewhere so I am going to try to rip them all into my iTunes so we're ready for St. Patrick's Day. Or just days when you need some background music to whatever you're up to.

Waxed nostalgic a bit about Buffy since it has been ten years since the finale. I can't believe it...seems like only yesterday...or, maybe it doesn't...I miss that show.

We saw Paramore at the Fillmore on Saturday...



Paramore was awesome, I love watching Hayley run around, she knows how to work the crowd and encourages the sing-alongness. They played a great mix of songs from all of their albums and the songs from the new album sounded fantastic. I really love it, they managed to find a new twist on their sound to change it up, but it's still Paramore through and through. I could have listened all night.

The fans, on the other hand, left something to be desired.

I'm not sure if it was just the Silver Spring crowd or what but I have never had SO MANY PEOPLE do the fake push through the crowd only to stop right in front of me. I mean, WTF I was in the back of the room, thought the pushy people would be upfront. At one point, I was actually so angry with this drunk girl who yanked her friends up (one of which was quite large in all directions) and MADE them stand in front of us. Oh I was elbowing and hitting, I didn't care, and I was **this** close to just exploding with rage. Luckily, they didn't stay the whole show because she was too drunk to really stand after awhile. I did see the bouncers take a train of about 5 people out of the venue too because they thought it would be fun to push up front. Sorry guys, the people up front were the ones camped out at 4pm when we arrived downtown and went to get food. I dunno, I don't mean to sound cranky but WTF kids...WTF. I never pulled that bullshit when I went to shows. And the ones who were usually trying to sneak up were the really short girls who couldn't see. **sigh**

Anyway, concert was awesome!

After all these years, I've widdled my list down of "big bands I want to see live" to a very select few. Well, Maroon 5 is one of them that I missed the boat on back when they were little and now they are touring and I have been debating seeing them. I remember a few years back they did a live show on Facebook, streaming, and even through the internet on my tiny screen, the energy of that show was palpable so I KNEW I had to be there for at least one of them. But should I pay the big ticket price?

THEN they annouced that NEON TREES would be there opening act, a band both maybedeadcat & I have come to enjoy - so that settled it! I knew he would at least enjoy that part of the show ;-)

So I just set my alarm on a day off, woke up and sat here hitting refresh until tickets went on sale. The pit and floor seats sold out before the official on-sale date (seriously, the show had about 10 pre-sales WTF is that all about???) BUT BUT BUT I forgot I had magical Citi Card access so I used my code and voila! GOOD SEATS!

See, I was either gonna get get seats, or not go at all. I'm not paying $100 for 2 tickets to just watch a screen and be SO high up that dancing is too scary anyway. I wanted to be able to SEE the band relatively clearly (yes, I will wear my glasses...maybe). ANYWAY, I managed to get seats RIGHT on the side, row G (that sounds close!) seats 7-8 so yay!!!!

I haven't been to Verizon Center in ages because...well, it's too big! I just don't like seeing concerts in venues that were designed for sporting events. But, whatever, I wanted to see this band live ONCE and this will be it! This is my gift to myself for finally paying off my car!

Next on the must-see list -- Panic at the Disco !! Wish I had seen them during the Vice & Virtues tour because I LOVE LOVE LOVE that album so much. Guilty pleasure music FTW!

Paraore is working on a new album now which also means tour dates in the future and that band, OMG they put on such a show, I WILL see them again!

Anyway - short version - I HAVE TICKETS TO SEE MAROON 5 NOW YAY!

"Weird Al" Yankovic concert TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!

For those of you on my tumblr, I apologize for the geek spam...posting vids all day...

...no I don't, it's tumblr, that's what it is FOR!!!!!!!!

This will be the *counts on fingers* 4th? time I have seen Al live, so excited to be going and even more excited to have my friends along who have NEVER seen him. I hope they are as amused by it all as I am.

I took the day off since I usually work 1-9 on Wednesday but a random meeting came up that I have to go to in Annapolis at 1pm...*looks at clock* HOLY CRAP IT'S NOON ALREADY?? I NEED TO SHOWER!

Also planning on going to RenFest on Sunday - the last day, I know, should be WILD! Anyone else going to be there?

We interrupt this SDCC recap post for a special announcement:

PARAMORE FRAKKIN ROCKS MY SOCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We saw them at Merriweather Post Pavilion last night and it was SO MUCH FUN! This was our first full-on Paramore show (we saw them back in October but it was part of a group tour thing so they only got to play for an hour). It was AMAZING! They rocked all their singles, then Hayley sang a Loretta Lynn cover they just recorded for a compilation, then they brought out the big red couch and did a little acoustic jam session, which was so cool! Then they rocked out the last few songs, Hayley demanding that everyone in the crowd get on their feet and end the show right.

Total blast. We WILL be seeing them again when they come back, no question.

Also, I want orange hair and bangs now. ;-P

I meant to blog about this last week but time got away from me! On Tuesday, I drove up to Philadelphia with my brother so we could see Imogen Heap LIVE! We met up with dstntp1lgr1m and _____saveferris when we got there.

We arrived very early and managed to get near to the front of the stage (as you can see from the pics if you click the image above). Imogen came out and introduced the two opening acts (who, we discovered later, were the guys that made up her "band" for the night). The first guy was pretty good, doing a bit of looping and making noises etc.. Got the crowd going. The next guy was insane - he mixed anything and everything. First he made us cheer, recorded it, then mixed it up to a beat. Then he had the people in the front row eat some potato chips and recorded their crunches, mixed it, and created a little melody out of it. He sang a couple of his own songs, looping and mixing things the whole time (he had a joystick mapped out to different effects depending on which way he twisted it). For the finale, he had us pass the microphone around the room and make random sounds into it, which he mixed and played back right then. It was crazy. I doubt I could listen to any of it on my own, but as an opening act, he really got you ready to go!

Then Imogen came out! She's gorgeous and funny. She had this great nervous mumble that she did, coming on stage and talking very fast, wandering around and fiddling with whatever was on hand. Eventually it felt less like a stage and more like you were in Imogen's house and you'd just happened to crash a musical party going on in her living room. There was a giant white tree in the middle of the stage, which had percussion instruments dangling from it, lights decorating it, and during some songs, things were projected onto it.

Memorable moments:
- Imogen explaining her wrist microphones to us - they were literally attached to her wrists so she could play a variety of instruments that were not electronic but still have them miked. Brilliant idea! Plus she was so excited to tell us about them haha.
- Imogen's computer crashing (it was a Mac too!) and she had to kill time by playing this really neat instrument...er...I've forgotten the name of it, but it was very cool.
- Imogen killing time again while they had some electronic difficulties and bringing out her pet rooster onto the stage
- Imogen rocking the Key-tar during the "last song"
- Imogen teaching the audience to sing harmonies during "Just For Now" during the encore (and the audience pulling it off!!!!)
- Imogen saying she'll be back in April!!!!!!!!!

We're going to try hard to get tickets to the DC/B'more area show next time. Philly is fun but the drive is long when you have to work the next morning (well, there was construction so that slowed everything down even more). Plus, I want AD to see her.

So, to sum up - if Imogen Heap is playing anywhere near you, GO SEE HER! She's a lot of fun live and she doesn't just play the album straight through but she doesn't jam so long you get bored. She's got this great balance and sense of humor. She tosses a little storytelling in there too. I was very impressed by her stage presence.

OMG PARAMORE WAS SO GOOD LIVE!!!!!!!!!!!

And I only knew the two AFI songs from the radio, but WOW do they put on a show. Might have to put their CD into rotation (I've had it floating on iTunes since I needed 'Girl Not Grey' for Rock Band). The band before that, Dead Before Sunrise, was okay - a bit too screamy/angry for my tastes.

It was the ULALUME Festival and MTV is supposed to air it on October 30th. I doubt you'll be able to see me & AD because we were off to the left in row Y, but whatever, it was still awesome. Merriweather is a great venue. My only issue with it is the curfew. Concerts have to end by 11pm. I could have listened to Paramore play for another 30 minutes. They did all their hits, a few tracks from the new album, and at least two from their first CD. I jumped up and down and had a good time. Felt really good after the frustrating week I had.

AH, I need to get to bed because I work tomorrow, but I'm so hyper!!!!!

Tomorrow night is the polar opposite, we'll be seeing Five For Fighting at Jammin Java, a small coffee house in Vienna, VA. Gonna have to dash home from work and dash down there to get good seats, but I'm looking forward to that too. I saw him play when I worked at the radio station in Annapolis, and he knew what he was doing.

Anyhoo, to bed with me! But for you, I have icons!

Teasers:

The rest of the set is here @ orangerfulboxes