Matt's Awesome Weekend
So last weekend was one of the most fun weekends I've had in a long time.
Came home on Friday. Instead of taking the train, which would have gotten me there in like two hours, I chose to come home with Rachel, since she was coming home too for Sunday's concert. However, she had to work till 4:30. This meant we'd have to come back during rush hour. So a 3 hour drive ended up taking us like 5-6 hours, and I didn't get home till 9:30ish. However, I wouldn't have changed it at all. We made the best of our situation of being stuck in traffic. This involved playing the "What embarrassing songs are on Matt's iPod" game. Always a fun one. Let's just say it involved a lot of country music, a lot of Disney music, a lot of pop music, and a lot of singing. Considering I don't really enjoy singing in the car when there are other people around to hear me, I was kinda surprised. Regardless, traffic eventually cleared up once we got out of the DC Metropolitan area, and it was nice and clear driving the rest of the way, especially once we hit Baltimore. So I got back at 9:30 (and I felt bad for Rachel cause she still had another hour drive to get back to Piscataway).
Next up was Saturday. Had to get up nice and early to go get my hair cut. This was followed by the annual trip to the Renaissance Faire. Since most of the normal people who go had graduated, they were gonna meet up at Will's and go from there. I felt bad for those still at TCNJ so I chose to drive up to TCNJ separately from everyone else and get Kelly and Larissa. So I collected them and we set forth for the two hour drive to Lancaster. It wasn't too bad, though we had a couple moments of taking the wrong exit or not really knowing what was going on, but we made it. Got to the Faire and caught up with everyone else. It was really great seeing everyone, and that seriously made the trip right there. I was like "We don't even have to DO anything at the Renaissance Faire and I'm already extremely happy with this trip!" Though we did finally get to see that damn Falconer. The show was just pretty cool, but the birds were absolutely amazing. Fuck being a forensic scientist, I wanna be a falconer. I'm sure there's tons of work now for them...Regardless, it was an amazingly fun day that involved seeing Barely Balanced play with fire, which is always a great plan. The finale was yet again insanely long....INSANELY long. But most of the songs weren't too bad this year, so I could deal with it. Followed up the Ren Faire with dinner where we usually go and then it was time to say bye to everyone. I really wished I had more time to hang around with everyone. Seeing them really made the trip for me. Can't wait till my next trip to Jersey so I can see people again!
Finally, it came Sunday. Rachel, her friend Steve, and I were going to the MMRBQ 2 at the Tweeter Center to see two local Philly bands, Seether, Collective Soul, Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, and Live. Unfortunately, Steve got stuck in traffic coming back to Piscataway, so we didn't leave on time. Cause of that, we ended up missing the two Philly bands and Seether. For some reason, Seether went on before one of the stupid local bands, which makes no sense to me. Regardless, we got there right as Collective Soul came on. They were cool, but their music just didn't have the energy to get the crowd going. They also just sorta played their music and that was that. No doing other stuff, talking to the crowd, dancing along to the music, nothing. Though the lead singer was enjoying playing with his mic stand a bit too much, and even dropped it at one point. So while it was definitely good to SEE CS, the rest of the bands absolutely blew them out of the water (I was gonna make a "Blow Me Away" reference, but I figured most people wouldn't get it).
So then Three Days Grace came out. I wasn't a huge fan of 3DG before the concert, but damn if they didn't convert me. The lead singer, despite seeming very screemoish, had so much energy and really got the crowd going. They ended up playing 11 songs, seven of which I knew, so that was good. I really loved hearing stuff like "I Hate Everything About You" and "Animal I've Become" live. Yet, I sorta had a feeling the best was still to come.
Which is when the best did come. Breaking Benjamin was FUCKING AMAZING!!!!!!!!! Like, I think they might have not only been the greatest band of the seven there, it might have been one of the greatest live groups I've ever seen. They might have even topped Tool, which I would find amazing, since my Tool concert was one of the greatest things I've ever seen. Ben just had so much energy and seemed to LOVE interacting with the crowd. There was even one moment where Ben decided he wanted to throw water bottles to the mosh pit. Well, he threw some then decided he couldn't throw far enough. So he decided to hop down into the mosh pit with the water bottle dude and start tossing them to the back of the pit. It was insane. And Ben was like "I have no clue how I'm getting back up there...Maybe I should have thought of that first.." Or my other favorite moment was when they all started playing a Live song, got through the first verse, and Ben was just like "Wait...They're playing later...We're not Live!" The whole experience of seeing BB in concert was great. I mean, I'm normally a more reserved person when I go to sporting events or concerts or what not, preferring to sit back and enjoy the music, but Ben just made me wanna stand up and scream along with them, so it was amazing. I definitely want to see Breaking Benjamin again somewhere by themselves, or at least where they're the headliner and get to play more than 11 songs.
Finally, Live closed out the night. I almost felt bad for Ed and the rest of Live. They were great, but the crowd was kinda burned out after 3DG and BB, so they didn't really want to stand up and sing along, but I still stood and sang along for Live. Getting to see them play stuff like The Dolphin's Cry, They Stood Up For Love, I Alone, Selling the Drama, and Lightning Crashes was amazing. The crowd really did get into Lightning Crashes though. And Ed easily had the most energy of the lead singers. Him and his guitarist were ALL over the stage like crazy little dynamos. Ed would make up dances to go along with the song, and sit there and dance with himself. Or the guitarist liked to pretend he was a sumo wrestler during his solos and do the foot stamp thing. It was insane. Unfortunately, this was the one part where we had a bad moment of the entire concert. All three of us were sorta standing/sitting on the seats but while they were up, so we were basically standing. Well, I don't know whether someone walking by didn't like that or someone was really drunk and just threw their beer for the hell of it or someone from the lawn didn't like it, but we definitely had a beer thrown at us and Rachel thinks she got spit on. That really pissed me off, but I chose to just keep standing cause I figured that'd just piss them off more if they really did do it cause we were some of the only people standing. Regardless, it was an absolutely great night and I'm so glad Rachel wanted to go so in turn I could go cause I knew no one else would really wanna go see BB and Live together. I think one of the things that made it so great was just getting to look over at Rachel while Breaking Benjamin was playing and seeing the look of absolute glee on her face. It was kinda funny in a way but it was still great.
And then I came back to DC and back to having to be a TA and I'll leave it at that.
Came home on Friday. Instead of taking the train, which would have gotten me there in like two hours, I chose to come home with Rachel, since she was coming home too for Sunday's concert. However, she had to work till 4:30. This meant we'd have to come back during rush hour. So a 3 hour drive ended up taking us like 5-6 hours, and I didn't get home till 9:30ish. However, I wouldn't have changed it at all. We made the best of our situation of being stuck in traffic. This involved playing the "What embarrassing songs are on Matt's iPod" game. Always a fun one. Let's just say it involved a lot of country music, a lot of Disney music, a lot of pop music, and a lot of singing. Considering I don't really enjoy singing in the car when there are other people around to hear me, I was kinda surprised. Regardless, traffic eventually cleared up once we got out of the DC Metropolitan area, and it was nice and clear driving the rest of the way, especially once we hit Baltimore. So I got back at 9:30 (and I felt bad for Rachel cause she still had another hour drive to get back to Piscataway).
Next up was Saturday. Had to get up nice and early to go get my hair cut. This was followed by the annual trip to the Renaissance Faire. Since most of the normal people who go had graduated, they were gonna meet up at Will's and go from there. I felt bad for those still at TCNJ so I chose to drive up to TCNJ separately from everyone else and get Kelly and Larissa. So I collected them and we set forth for the two hour drive to Lancaster. It wasn't too bad, though we had a couple moments of taking the wrong exit or not really knowing what was going on, but we made it. Got to the Faire and caught up with everyone else. It was really great seeing everyone, and that seriously made the trip right there. I was like "We don't even have to DO anything at the Renaissance Faire and I'm already extremely happy with this trip!" Though we did finally get to see that damn Falconer. The show was just pretty cool, but the birds were absolutely amazing. Fuck being a forensic scientist, I wanna be a falconer. I'm sure there's tons of work now for them...Regardless, it was an amazingly fun day that involved seeing Barely Balanced play with fire, which is always a great plan. The finale was yet again insanely long....INSANELY long. But most of the songs weren't too bad this year, so I could deal with it. Followed up the Ren Faire with dinner where we usually go and then it was time to say bye to everyone. I really wished I had more time to hang around with everyone. Seeing them really made the trip for me. Can't wait till my next trip to Jersey so I can see people again!
Finally, it came Sunday. Rachel, her friend Steve, and I were going to the MMRBQ 2 at the Tweeter Center to see two local Philly bands, Seether, Collective Soul, Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, and Live. Unfortunately, Steve got stuck in traffic coming back to Piscataway, so we didn't leave on time. Cause of that, we ended up missing the two Philly bands and Seether. For some reason, Seether went on before one of the stupid local bands, which makes no sense to me. Regardless, we got there right as Collective Soul came on. They were cool, but their music just didn't have the energy to get the crowd going. They also just sorta played their music and that was that. No doing other stuff, talking to the crowd, dancing along to the music, nothing. Though the lead singer was enjoying playing with his mic stand a bit too much, and even dropped it at one point. So while it was definitely good to SEE CS, the rest of the bands absolutely blew them out of the water (I was gonna make a "Blow Me Away" reference, but I figured most people wouldn't get it).
So then Three Days Grace came out. I wasn't a huge fan of 3DG before the concert, but damn if they didn't convert me. The lead singer, despite seeming very screemoish, had so much energy and really got the crowd going. They ended up playing 11 songs, seven of which I knew, so that was good. I really loved hearing stuff like "I Hate Everything About You" and "Animal I've Become" live. Yet, I sorta had a feeling the best was still to come.
Which is when the best did come. Breaking Benjamin was FUCKING AMAZING!!!!!!!!! Like, I think they might have not only been the greatest band of the seven there, it might have been one of the greatest live groups I've ever seen. They might have even topped Tool, which I would find amazing, since my Tool concert was one of the greatest things I've ever seen. Ben just had so much energy and seemed to LOVE interacting with the crowd. There was even one moment where Ben decided he wanted to throw water bottles to the mosh pit. Well, he threw some then decided he couldn't throw far enough. So he decided to hop down into the mosh pit with the water bottle dude and start tossing them to the back of the pit. It was insane. And Ben was like "I have no clue how I'm getting back up there...Maybe I should have thought of that first.." Or my other favorite moment was when they all started playing a Live song, got through the first verse, and Ben was just like "Wait...They're playing later...We're not Live!" The whole experience of seeing BB in concert was great. I mean, I'm normally a more reserved person when I go to sporting events or concerts or what not, preferring to sit back and enjoy the music, but Ben just made me wanna stand up and scream along with them, so it was amazing. I definitely want to see Breaking Benjamin again somewhere by themselves, or at least where they're the headliner and get to play more than 11 songs.
Finally, Live closed out the night. I almost felt bad for Ed and the rest of Live. They were great, but the crowd was kinda burned out after 3DG and BB, so they didn't really want to stand up and sing along, but I still stood and sang along for Live. Getting to see them play stuff like The Dolphin's Cry, They Stood Up For Love, I Alone, Selling the Drama, and Lightning Crashes was amazing. The crowd really did get into Lightning Crashes though. And Ed easily had the most energy of the lead singers. Him and his guitarist were ALL over the stage like crazy little dynamos. Ed would make up dances to go along with the song, and sit there and dance with himself. Or the guitarist liked to pretend he was a sumo wrestler during his solos and do the foot stamp thing. It was insane. Unfortunately, this was the one part where we had a bad moment of the entire concert. All three of us were sorta standing/sitting on the seats but while they were up, so we were basically standing. Well, I don't know whether someone walking by didn't like that or someone was really drunk and just threw their beer for the hell of it or someone from the lawn didn't like it, but we definitely had a beer thrown at us and Rachel thinks she got spit on. That really pissed me off, but I chose to just keep standing cause I figured that'd just piss them off more if they really did do it cause we were some of the only people standing. Regardless, it was an absolutely great night and I'm so glad Rachel wanted to go so in turn I could go cause I knew no one else would really wanna go see BB and Live together. I think one of the things that made it so great was just getting to look over at Rachel while Breaking Benjamin was playing and seeing the look of absolute glee on her face. It was kinda funny in a way but it was still great.
And then I came back to DC and back to having to be a TA and I'll leave it at that.