The time-honored tradition
So today makes three years since I saw The Academy Is and Panic at the Disco at House of Blues and officially kicked off my scene kid career. This year was an interesting one: I moved, did the school thing on and off, got hopelessly behind on my reporting, and actually went two whole months without a single show, but in the end, it was a good year, I'd say. I've seen The Academy Is more times than I ever thought possible, went to plenty of great local shows, heard some really good music and met some even better people. Because I fail at tagging things, here are year one and also year two.
1. Fake Problems with Young Livers: I am kind of bummed that I haven't been able to see these guys again, because they are pretty awesome! But they're from South Florida which means all their local shows are down there, and they spent most of 2008 on tours with bigger bands I wasn't interested. Maybe I'll get to see them again this year.
2. Band Marino with Barnacle, Ethan Durelle and Death of Downtown: This was at the Market Street Pub in Gainesville, which probably ended up being my favorite venue there. It's a neat place. And Band Marino are always awesome. For the uninitiated: they are my favorite Orlando band. Listen, love: www.myspace.com/bandmarino
3. Cobra Starship with Metro Station, We the Kings, and The Cab: Upon rereading this post, I have decided that they could have shortened the name of this lineup to "The Really Ridiculous Tour." This was my first time seeing The Cab, and sadly not my last time seeing Metro Station.
4. Baron Von Bear: Lol, I'm not 100% sure how I ended up at this show, it was a party for some Orlando Christian magazine and was largely hilarious! I miss BVB with a fiery, fiery passion. D:
5. Introduction to Sunshine with Parachute Musical, Mirror Pal and TBMEC (same link): A guy I knew from high school is in Mirror Pal, and while I do not really like them, I like him and try to go to their shows when I can. I did love Parachute Musical though! Pianos and colored lights!
6. Paramore with Phantom Planet, Meese, and Conditions: Aww, Paramore. I mostly went to this show for Tyler (he'd never seen them before) but I had a pretty good time. She's cute.
7. Say Anything with Manchester Orchestra, Eli "Paperboy" Reed and the True Loves and Weatherbox: Hmm, this was a weird lineup! Two of these bands ended up playing Lollapalooza (Manchester and Eli Reed) and I am not sure how they are related to Say Anything at all. My favorite member of Say Anything is and always be Parker, Max Bemis can just deal.
8. Band Marino, White Rabbits and Oh, Fortuna: This was a free show outside at UF somewhere, and I had major emotimes over the fact that no one wanted to go with me. My life, so hard. Whatever, I went alone and had a great time.
9. Panic at the Disco with Motion City Soundtrack, The Hush Sound and Phantom Planet: An AMAZING lineup. I loved this tour hardcore. It's so sad that Honda Civic is canceled this year, it has brought so much joy to the world in the past.
10. Panic at the Disco, etc. (same link): This tour had two nights at HOB, it was wonderfully convenient! I have to say that the second show was made even better by the fact that Erin and I got to randomly do a M&G with Panic beforehand. (I MET RYAN ROSS, YOU GUYS)
11. Thrice: Is this where my slippery slope of not-concert reporting began? We'll see. Anyway, I went to this show because Philip wanted to (I'm not really a fan) and we got there early and saw them do a little acoustic performance outside the Virgin Megastore and then a highly informal M&G. They were all very nice boys! They each shook my hand and I told Dustin I was a recent convert and he laughed.
12. Radiohead with Liars: These are almost certainly the best concert pictures I've ever taken. Philip and I were in the second row, and it was the second night of the tour, and it was kind of amazing.
13. Baron Von Bear with Thomas Wynn and the Believers, The Dark Romantics, and The Sugar Oaks: BVB's EP release party! Fun times all around! These guys released their CD in May and were broken up by July. I know two of the members (the important ones) have been working with Band Marino on their new stuff, but still. I miss them terribly. D:
14. Band Marino with Baron Von Bear, Sidewalk Fiction and Rachel Goodrich: Ugh, you guys this is just making me miss BVB more. But enough of that: Rachel Goodrich! She's like Regina Spektor only wackier. I am expecting big things from her in the future.
15. Vampire Weekend with The Harlem Shakes: Aww, Vampire Weekend! This was sort of a strange show. These guys got really popular really fast, I hope they can manage to put out another good CD. I was thinking the other day: whatever happened to Ok Go? They were pretty awesome and have more or less fallen off the face of the earth. Come back, guys! The world needs more synchronized dancing and ivy league lead singers.
16. The Warped Tour (Orlando): Oh, my crazy, crazy, Warped adventures. These were some good times.
17. The Warped Tour (Tampa): This was the one where it RAINED LIKE THE WORLD WAS ENDING. Fun!
18. The Warped Tour (Elkton): This was the one that took place in a field in the middle of nowhere. As far as bands went, I saw The Academy Is, Cobra Starship, Jack's Mannequin and Reel Big Fish at each of these three dates, and I also saw Against Me, Katy Perry, Oreskaband, Anberlin, and various others. It was epic!
19. Lollapalooza day one: Here's where my not-reporting got really out of hand! I am sad that I don't have a full writeup of that weekend, because it was amazing. Friday was Manchester Orchestra, Gogol Bordello, Bloc Party and Radiohead.
20. Brand New and Manchester Orchestra: This was a magical aftershow at the HOB in Chicago. Erin and I had to literally RUN there after Radiohead's set ended! Oh, Jesse Lacey.
21. Lollapalooza day two: The Ting Tings (Love them!), Steel Train, MGMT (sort of), Brand New (the one where Jesse Lacey threw his guitar at the poor drummer in an EPIC EMOFIT) and trying not to die during Rage Against the Machine. That was something else.
22. Lollapalooza day three: The Whigs, Iron & Wine, Flogging Molly, Girl Talk, Perry Farrell and Slash's set on the kids' stage, and Nine Inch Nails. I don't know how they're going to top it this year!
23. The Hush Sound with Steel Train, The Cab, and The Morning Light: My pictures and videos for this show got lost in the abyss of Lori's computer! D: Sad, sad times. This was another great lineup: I really love Steel Train, The Hush Sound are always amazing, and y'know, The Cab...
24. Steel Train with Dear and the Headlights and Forgive Durden: Oh, The Social, do not have shows that start at 3pm, that's just silly. Erin and I got there late and missed Forgive Durden, which was really sad because we soon after fell head over heels for their wonderful, magical musical. On the plus side, this show was fun because we were more or less the only ones there, and Erin managed to insult Steel Train's lead singer, haha. Win!
25. Bayside with The Matches and Valencia: Love The Matches, like Bayside, and admire Valencia's valiant campaign against all things neon. I wonder how that is going for them.
26: The All-American Rejects with Jet Lag Gemini and The City Lives (same link): LOVED this show. Tyson! NICK WHEELER. The Social! New songs! New friends! So amazing.
27: Anberlin with There For Tomorrow: I am drawing a huge blank as to who the other openers were on this tour. I like TFT because their lead singer looks like Gerard Way if he happened to be a Jonas Brother. See for yourself! Also, Anberlin really grew on me this year. Their new CD is wonderful.
28. Panic at the Disco with Dashboard Confessional, The Plain White T's and The Cab: Back to Gainesville for another round with the Disco Homos and The Cabbies. We had seats for this show--next to Chris Carrabba's ENTIRE FAMILY. Awkwardtimes! Mercifully, having seats meant that we did not have to sit through the PWT's set. I wish this was always an option. Also: gotta say that The Cab looked good on the big arena stage.
29. Cobra Starship with Forever the Sickest Kids, Hit the Lights and Sing it Loud: It was great to see the Cobras headlining at HOB, but Gabe sounded SO TERRIBLE, I can't believe they didn't cancel this tour. Also, Sing it Loud are annoying as heck and Forever the Sickest Kids have like 15 band members.
30. Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band with Matt Butcher: I went to this show alone and still dying from the Alex/Gabe doomcold that infected everyone I had seen the week before! My pictures and videos from this show were lost when Lori got my camera stolen, sigh. But I do love me the Conor Oberst. He played all new songs from his "solo" project and was charming and awkward and wore a funny hat.
31. Fall Out Boy with The Academy Is and We The Kings: I did not ever think I'd get the chance to see FOB at HOB! It was such a nice Christmas present. It was a total flashback to the show at Hard Rock in January '07: listening to the leak of the new CD while waiting in line for hours and hours and having good times with friends. It was weird hearing Pete talk about being a dad. I wonder if he and Beckett swapped baby advice.
32. The Academy Is with The Cab (or really, the William, Alex and Ian show): Cute boys and acoustic guitars. I feel incredibly lucky that I made it to two of these shows.
33. The Academy Is with The Cab and Dear Dakota (same link): The Gainesville show was definitely the better date. How much love? SO MUCH. ♥
34. Rihanna with Fall Out Boy and Lifehouse: How did this happen? I am not really sure. It was the magic of William Beckett. Incredibly, fantastically surreal (and awesome). I was on the TV, you guys! Haha. I think it was more exciting to be second row for Rihanna and FOB for FREE, honestly. Oh, adventures. PEPSI SMAAAASH
35. Panic at the Disco with New Found Glory and Vega Under Fire: Was the trend of this year just progressively stranger and stranger shows? Because it kind of peaked here, honestly. Ryan Ross in a swamp! Hayley from Paramore fangirling New Found Glory! Rednecks everywhere! A glorious west coast beach in the afternoon January sun! Brendon Urie's copious amounts of magical drugs!
And that, kids, is the list. A nice even 35, it would seem! A few less than last year, but really, it's all about quality over quantity anyway. (And it's still technically over a month of shows, lol) Now for the awards:
Most-seen band: The Academy Is, forever and always. I think I'm up to 13 now. Second is probably Jack's Mannequin.
Band I never want to see again: We the Kings! AND YET.
Worst concert injury: I didn't really have one? That's cool! Rage Against the Machine was scary and dangerous but I made it out okay.
Worst opener: Haha, maybe The Plain White T's, but I didn't watch them this time!
Best opener: The Cab! That was easy.
Concert I shouldn’t have gone to: Hmm, I don't really regret any of the shows I did this year. Everything was fun.
Concert I wish I had gone to: Jack's Mannequin at the Social. Now he's headlining at HOB and it is even MORE expensive and also the same night as Death Cab. Lame.
Show where I spent the most money on merch: The Warped Tour! That wins every year. I have largely gotten out of the habit of buying tons of merch (it helps that most of it is hideous) but even I could not resist the Cobra Starship booty shorts (They say "Kiss My Sass" and I love them SO MUCH) or the Katy Perry shirt.
Biggest disappointment (musically): MGMT at Lollapalooza. Was not impressed.
Biggest surprise (musically): The Caaaaab. I got so attached to them and their CD and their special little brand of ridiculousness and the acoustic shows with Alex and Ian were just amazing.
Biggest disappointment (show-wise): Having The All-American Rejects show at the Social turn out the be the same night as Panic at UCF! FAILBOATS
Biggest surprise (show wise): How amazing Radiohead's light show was. Spectacular.
Best cover song: Panic at the Disco's cover of "Shout!" Brendon Urie's dancing will never not-be the most hilarious thing ever.
Saddest song to see live: William, Ian and Alex's cover of "Brick" killed me.
Most unique experience: Hahaha, I can't pick just one! Meeting Panic? Meeting The Acabdemy Is in a Hot Topic? Going to a VH1 taping? Almost dying during Rage Against the Machine? Three Warped dates? HOW CAN I PICK?!
I am really proud of myself for getting this done on time! (Well, you know, in time for the imaginary deadline I set for myself.) Maybe I can make a habit of it.
1. Fake Problems with Young Livers: I am kind of bummed that I haven't been able to see these guys again, because they are pretty awesome! But they're from South Florida which means all their local shows are down there, and they spent most of 2008 on tours with bigger bands I wasn't interested. Maybe I'll get to see them again this year.
2. Band Marino with Barnacle, Ethan Durelle and Death of Downtown: This was at the Market Street Pub in Gainesville, which probably ended up being my favorite venue there. It's a neat place. And Band Marino are always awesome. For the uninitiated: they are my favorite Orlando band. Listen, love: www.myspace.com/bandmarino
3. Cobra Starship with Metro Station, We the Kings, and The Cab: Upon rereading this post, I have decided that they could have shortened the name of this lineup to "The Really Ridiculous Tour." This was my first time seeing The Cab, and sadly not my last time seeing Metro Station.
4. Baron Von Bear: Lol, I'm not 100% sure how I ended up at this show, it was a party for some Orlando Christian magazine and was largely hilarious! I miss BVB with a fiery, fiery passion. D:
5. Introduction to Sunshine with Parachute Musical, Mirror Pal and TBMEC (same link): A guy I knew from high school is in Mirror Pal, and while I do not really like them, I like him and try to go to their shows when I can. I did love Parachute Musical though! Pianos and colored lights!
6. Paramore with Phantom Planet, Meese, and Conditions: Aww, Paramore. I mostly went to this show for Tyler (he'd never seen them before) but I had a pretty good time. She's cute.
7. Say Anything with Manchester Orchestra, Eli "Paperboy" Reed and the True Loves and Weatherbox: Hmm, this was a weird lineup! Two of these bands ended up playing Lollapalooza (Manchester and Eli Reed) and I am not sure how they are related to Say Anything at all. My favorite member of Say Anything is and always be Parker, Max Bemis can just deal.
8. Band Marino, White Rabbits and Oh, Fortuna: This was a free show outside at UF somewhere, and I had major emotimes over the fact that no one wanted to go with me. My life, so hard. Whatever, I went alone and had a great time.
9. Panic at the Disco with Motion City Soundtrack, The Hush Sound and Phantom Planet: An AMAZING lineup. I loved this tour hardcore. It's so sad that Honda Civic is canceled this year, it has brought so much joy to the world in the past.
10. Panic at the Disco, etc. (same link): This tour had two nights at HOB, it was wonderfully convenient! I have to say that the second show was made even better by the fact that Erin and I got to randomly do a M&G with Panic beforehand. (I MET RYAN ROSS, YOU GUYS)
11. Thrice: Is this where my slippery slope of not-concert reporting began? We'll see. Anyway, I went to this show because Philip wanted to (I'm not really a fan) and we got there early and saw them do a little acoustic performance outside the Virgin Megastore and then a highly informal M&G. They were all very nice boys! They each shook my hand and I told Dustin I was a recent convert and he laughed.
12. Radiohead with Liars: These are almost certainly the best concert pictures I've ever taken. Philip and I were in the second row, and it was the second night of the tour, and it was kind of amazing.
13. Baron Von Bear with Thomas Wynn and the Believers, The Dark Romantics, and The Sugar Oaks: BVB's EP release party! Fun times all around! These guys released their CD in May and were broken up by July. I know two of the members (the important ones) have been working with Band Marino on their new stuff, but still. I miss them terribly. D:
14. Band Marino with Baron Von Bear, Sidewalk Fiction and Rachel Goodrich: Ugh, you guys this is just making me miss BVB more. But enough of that: Rachel Goodrich! She's like Regina Spektor only wackier. I am expecting big things from her in the future.
15. Vampire Weekend with The Harlem Shakes: Aww, Vampire Weekend! This was sort of a strange show. These guys got really popular really fast, I hope they can manage to put out another good CD. I was thinking the other day: whatever happened to Ok Go? They were pretty awesome and have more or less fallen off the face of the earth. Come back, guys! The world needs more synchronized dancing and ivy league lead singers.
16. The Warped Tour (Orlando): Oh, my crazy, crazy, Warped adventures. These were some good times.
17. The Warped Tour (Tampa): This was the one where it RAINED LIKE THE WORLD WAS ENDING. Fun!
18. The Warped Tour (Elkton): This was the one that took place in a field in the middle of nowhere. As far as bands went, I saw The Academy Is, Cobra Starship, Jack's Mannequin and Reel Big Fish at each of these three dates, and I also saw Against Me, Katy Perry, Oreskaband, Anberlin, and various others. It was epic!
19. Lollapalooza day one: Here's where my not-reporting got really out of hand! I am sad that I don't have a full writeup of that weekend, because it was amazing. Friday was Manchester Orchestra, Gogol Bordello, Bloc Party and Radiohead.
20. Brand New and Manchester Orchestra: This was a magical aftershow at the HOB in Chicago. Erin and I had to literally RUN there after Radiohead's set ended! Oh, Jesse Lacey.
21. Lollapalooza day two: The Ting Tings (Love them!), Steel Train, MGMT (sort of), Brand New (the one where Jesse Lacey threw his guitar at the poor drummer in an EPIC EMOFIT) and trying not to die during Rage Against the Machine. That was something else.
22. Lollapalooza day three: The Whigs, Iron & Wine, Flogging Molly, Girl Talk, Perry Farrell and Slash's set on the kids' stage, and Nine Inch Nails. I don't know how they're going to top it this year!
23. The Hush Sound with Steel Train, The Cab, and The Morning Light: My pictures and videos for this show got lost in the abyss of Lori's computer! D: Sad, sad times. This was another great lineup: I really love Steel Train, The Hush Sound are always amazing, and y'know, The Cab...
24. Steel Train with Dear and the Headlights and Forgive Durden: Oh, The Social, do not have shows that start at 3pm, that's just silly. Erin and I got there late and missed Forgive Durden, which was really sad because we soon after fell head over heels for their wonderful, magical musical. On the plus side, this show was fun because we were more or less the only ones there, and Erin managed to insult Steel Train's lead singer, haha. Win!
25. Bayside with The Matches and Valencia: Love The Matches, like Bayside, and admire Valencia's valiant campaign against all things neon. I wonder how that is going for them.
26: The All-American Rejects with Jet Lag Gemini and The City Lives (same link): LOVED this show. Tyson! NICK WHEELER. The Social! New songs! New friends! So amazing.
27: Anberlin with There For Tomorrow: I am drawing a huge blank as to who the other openers were on this tour. I like TFT because their lead singer looks like Gerard Way if he happened to be a Jonas Brother. See for yourself! Also, Anberlin really grew on me this year. Their new CD is wonderful.
28. Panic at the Disco with Dashboard Confessional, The Plain White T's and The Cab: Back to Gainesville for another round with the Disco Homos and The Cabbies. We had seats for this show--next to Chris Carrabba's ENTIRE FAMILY. Awkwardtimes! Mercifully, having seats meant that we did not have to sit through the PWT's set. I wish this was always an option. Also: gotta say that The Cab looked good on the big arena stage.
29. Cobra Starship with Forever the Sickest Kids, Hit the Lights and Sing it Loud: It was great to see the Cobras headlining at HOB, but Gabe sounded SO TERRIBLE, I can't believe they didn't cancel this tour. Also, Sing it Loud are annoying as heck and Forever the Sickest Kids have like 15 band members.
30. Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band with Matt Butcher: I went to this show alone and still dying from the Alex/Gabe doomcold that infected everyone I had seen the week before! My pictures and videos from this show were lost when Lori got my camera stolen, sigh. But I do love me the Conor Oberst. He played all new songs from his "solo" project and was charming and awkward and wore a funny hat.
31. Fall Out Boy with The Academy Is and We The Kings: I did not ever think I'd get the chance to see FOB at HOB! It was such a nice Christmas present. It was a total flashback to the show at Hard Rock in January '07: listening to the leak of the new CD while waiting in line for hours and hours and having good times with friends. It was weird hearing Pete talk about being a dad. I wonder if he and Beckett swapped baby advice.
32. The Academy Is with The Cab (or really, the William, Alex and Ian show): Cute boys and acoustic guitars. I feel incredibly lucky that I made it to two of these shows.
33. The Academy Is with The Cab and Dear Dakota (same link): The Gainesville show was definitely the better date. How much love? SO MUCH. ♥
34. Rihanna with Fall Out Boy and Lifehouse: How did this happen? I am not really sure. It was the magic of William Beckett. Incredibly, fantastically surreal (and awesome). I was on the TV, you guys! Haha. I think it was more exciting to be second row for Rihanna and FOB for FREE, honestly. Oh, adventures. PEPSI SMAAAASH
35. Panic at the Disco with New Found Glory and Vega Under Fire: Was the trend of this year just progressively stranger and stranger shows? Because it kind of peaked here, honestly. Ryan Ross in a swamp! Hayley from Paramore fangirling New Found Glory! Rednecks everywhere! A glorious west coast beach in the afternoon January sun! Brendon Urie's copious amounts of magical drugs!
And that, kids, is the list. A nice even 35, it would seem! A few less than last year, but really, it's all about quality over quantity anyway. (And it's still technically over a month of shows, lol) Now for the awards:
Most-seen band: The Academy Is, forever and always. I think I'm up to 13 now. Second is probably Jack's Mannequin.
Band I never want to see again: We the Kings! AND YET.
Worst concert injury: I didn't really have one? That's cool! Rage Against the Machine was scary and dangerous but I made it out okay.
Worst opener: Haha, maybe The Plain White T's, but I didn't watch them this time!
Best opener: The Cab! That was easy.
Concert I shouldn’t have gone to: Hmm, I don't really regret any of the shows I did this year. Everything was fun.
Concert I wish I had gone to: Jack's Mannequin at the Social. Now he's headlining at HOB and it is even MORE expensive and also the same night as Death Cab. Lame.
Show where I spent the most money on merch: The Warped Tour! That wins every year. I have largely gotten out of the habit of buying tons of merch (it helps that most of it is hideous) but even I could not resist the Cobra Starship booty shorts (They say "Kiss My Sass" and I love them SO MUCH) or the Katy Perry shirt.
Biggest disappointment (musically): MGMT at Lollapalooza. Was not impressed.
Biggest surprise (musically): The Caaaaab. I got so attached to them and their CD and their special little brand of ridiculousness and the acoustic shows with Alex and Ian were just amazing.
Biggest disappointment (show-wise): Having The All-American Rejects show at the Social turn out the be the same night as Panic at UCF! FAILBOATS
Biggest surprise (show wise): How amazing Radiohead's light show was. Spectacular.
Best cover song: Panic at the Disco's cover of "Shout!" Brendon Urie's dancing will never not-be the most hilarious thing ever.
Saddest song to see live: William, Ian and Alex's cover of "Brick" killed me.
Most unique experience: Hahaha, I can't pick just one! Meeting Panic? Meeting The Acabdemy Is in a Hot Topic? Going to a VH1 taping? Almost dying during Rage Against the Machine? Three Warped dates? HOW CAN I PICK?!
I am really proud of myself for getting this done on time! (Well, you know, in time for the imaginary deadline I set for myself.) Maybe I can make a habit of it.