I love Bluegrass music. So does Heather. One of her favorite Bands is the Punch Brothers. I had never heard of them before Heather mentioned them. I am however familiar with Nickel Creek. I LOVE them and the main guy that is in and started Punch Brothers is from Nickel Creek. They band that opened for them (I'm with her) one of those girls also comes from Nickel Creek. So obviously I was going to love it. I REALLY loved I'm with Her. They reminded me a lot of the Wailing Jenny's who I also love a lot.
Needless to say, this was an awesome concert. I love outdoors venues for concerts in the Summer. I had never been to this one in Park City, but such a great scene to sit an experience a great concert.
I'm so glad that Heather not only invited me but treated me to the concert. She is the best. We had so much fun while soaking in some great bluegrass. Oh how I love summer. I love summer because of nights like this. I had my favorite numbers and I recorded some and was going to post here... but I'm not gonna. You should just look them up because they are great.
SOOOO excited that Candice and I went to this concert. Candice and I both love music. We both discovered that we loved Amos Lee AND that he was coming to SLC to perform. I saw him once 4 or so years ago and was ready to see him again. He is just that good. We looked up tickets and they were very much sold out. So we decided to look on KSL to see if anyone was selling their tickets. We were in luck!
We picked up our tickets on Monday and the concert was on Thursday. After work on Thursday we drove up to SLC and Candice had an Aunt that was at the same concert and saved us a seat on the lawn since she got there earlier.
We were in heaven listening to him sing for the night. Even though I have listened to his songs so much times, he made them new again. He performed with a band and they really jazzed up his songs, made it really fun. Felt like I was listening to a concert in the middle of New Orleans.
Oh how I love you, Amos Lee. Keep coming to Salt Lake... I will keep coming to see you.
My friend Kyle called me up earlier today and asked me if I wanted to go to the John Allred concert at the Velour tonight. I have been to another one of his concerts at the Velour. He is great. I apparently have a few friends that know him and then my friend RJ has done at least one music video for him... so I have heard him a few times. I am a music lover and always love a good live concert, so I agreed to go, happily.
John Allred did not disappoint. The bands before him were not too bad either... although I felt like they went on a little too long. Big bonus for us is that we got John's new album when we paid to get in. That was exciting. I have been listening to it since I have gotten home. Good stuff.
My friend Desiree is the sweetest. We have been friends for a while now. I think it has been been at least 8 or 9 years now. Crazy. I'm so glad we have kept in touch all of these years because she truly has been such a great friend. So supportive. I can talk to her about anything. Cares about keeping in touch. Cares about everything that is going on with me. Easy going and fun to hang out with. She is awesome.
Ever since she has been in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, I always look out for her on tv during General Conference and I am so thrilled for her because I know how long it took for her to get in and how hard she worked and how much she loves it. I have never once asked her for tickets. I'm just not like that. This year, she reached out to me and asked me if I wanted some tickets to the Thursday night show. For anyone who doesn't know how tickets work for MoTab Christmas Concerts... you don't buy them, but you do have to reserve them as soon as they go online. I heard this year they were all reserved within hours. Therefore... I never go. Ha ha. It used to be a lottery drawing of who would go. I have only been 3 times now (including this one). All 3 times, the tickets were given to me. First in 2008 by my mom from someone in the Santa Barbara Stake who could no longer go. The second time (the last time I went) in 2010 when David Archuleta was the featured singer. I went with this guy Matt who had extra tickets because his mom was in the choir at the time. And then this year... because Desiree was kind enough to give me tickets. She asked me how many I wanted and I said 3. One for me and my mom (because I knew she would want to go) and I was going to take my sister, Kristy, but she couldn't go, so my Aunt Joanne came instead... which was also fun.
The drive there was a nightmare because people were also going to see the lights at Temple Square AND there was also a Jazz game that night. So we left at 5:30 thinking we would get there early so we could have dinner before the concert... but ended up getting there and sitting down RIGHT before the concert started. Needless to say, I had a little bit of road rage. However, Desiree putting our tickets in Stand by.... actually is what got us in faster and made it so we didn't miss any of the show because the stand by ticket line was very short and then they let us in from there instead of having to wait in the LONG lines outside. So thank goodness for that.
The show was great. I wasn't very familiar with the soloist. He was entertaining, but not my favorite singer. One of the songs in particular sounded so off. But I loved listing to the choir and the organ trio was amazing.
Oh.. and they had camels. Like... Lion King style costume Camels that walked up to the stage. I LOVED it... especially just coming back from the Middle East on my camel trek. It's like they did it just for me!
It was a beautiful concert. I loved it. MoTab never goes wrong. Always put on a great show. So thankful to Desiree for thinking of me and wanting to give me tickets. This is the second year she has offered them to me... the first year I couldn't go because I was singing at Disneyland that weekend. She could give those tickets to anyone, but I feel special that she thinks of me. Also so great to go with my mom and aunt. Also... funny out of all the thousands of people in the stands, my friend Becky and her boyfriend sat in the row right in front of me. Ha ha... so naturally we said hi and got a picture together as well. Such a great concert. Thank you MoTab! Thanks Desiree!
You know my new friends that I met at the gym that also train with my personal trainer? Hillary and Lyndi are great. It's a shame it took us so long to become friends, but better late than never. They work at the Marriott and get free tickets to things when people stay at the hotel. That is how we got tickets to The Grid. Well, I guess Boyz II Men were staying at the hotel for their concert at the Scera Theater. I had no idea they were even going to be in town. I honestly didn't even know they were still performing. One of them was on this last season of dancing with the stars and did pretty well. I also didn't know that they are only a group of 3 now. Shows you how much I know. What I DO know is that I LOVED Boyz II Men in elementary school and that I still think they are great... so when Hillary asked me if I would want to go if she got free tickets, I said absolutely.
She ended up getting free tickets. Lucky me! When she asked me, she also asked our trainer (Josh). "Hey Josh! How much do you love Boyz II Men on a scale from 1-10?" Josh replied "A Solid 8" so Hillary got tickets for Josh and his wife as well. We all met there and then sat together and danced and sang. We got there a little late, so we didn't know where we were going to squeeze in to sit because it was pretty packed... but we found a place up front to the side, so we went for it.
For the most part, we couldn't even see them because all the speakers and equipment were in the way. However... every once in a while, they would go all the way to the front of the stage, then we could see them. There were also a couple of times that they walked around the speakers and such and came to our side of the stage. One of the times they did this, I was close to the stage and reached out my hand and this guy... he shook my hand to the beat of the song for like 5 seconds. I thought that was kind of exciting. Ha ha.
It was a super fun concert. They sang all of their old classics. I still remembered all of the words. I rocked out and loved every minute of it. We all had fun together and it was fun to see our trainer out of training mode. Thanks Hillary for getting me free tickets once again! So far I don't think I have paid for any of the concerts that I have been to this year. ha ha. Not that I have been to many... but still. I'm not mad about it.
You know how I love Josh Groban. I have loved him since his first album came out. He is one of the only celebrities that I follow on Instagram. I love him enough that I have now seen him in concert 3 times.
When he released his album, Stages, I was so excited. Josh singing broadway songs. Love. Love. Love. Plus when a CD comes out, that means he goes on tour. When they first released the tour cities and dates... I searched to see where Salt Lake was on his list. I mean... it had to be there, he always comes to Salt Lake. I looked and looked, but Salt Lake wasn't on his tour list! What? Why? I double checked thinking I must have missed it. It wasn't there. I was disappointed in Josh. Why would he skip us?
After feeling all sad about it, a couple of months later there was an update and I was notified that Salt Lake was added to his list. I think that he had only one more concert after us... so we were at the VERY end of his tour. He knows he always draws a big crowd here. He can't skip us. And to quote him at the end of the concert, "Salt Lake City, thank you for coming again and again. We will be here as long as you are". So I'm pretty sure we will always be a part of his tours. ANYWAY...
Now that I knew he was coming to Salt Lake, I looked up where he was performing and marked my calendar months and months in advance before they even started selling tickets. He usually performs at the Energy Solutions Center in Salt Lake, but this time he was going to be performing in the USANA Amphitheather. I had never been to that theater, but I always love outdoor concerts. In casual conversation with my friend Amber, I mentioned my love for Josh Groban and that I wanted to go to his concert on August 20th. Pretty sure we had this conversation in March or April. She told me she loved Josh too and would go with me. I got excited... sometimes I have a hard time finding people to go with me to concerts. When I told her what theater he was going to be performing at she told me that not only she would go with me, but we would go VIP for free. Say what? How? Her work has a section reserved for their company for all concerts, so whoever wants to go to them puts their name on the list and I think the first 10 get them? Something like that. Amber told me that she always gets them and it wouldn't be a problem. Now I was REALLY excited. I have always paid big bucks to see Josh in concert. Now I get to see him VIP for free?
Fast forward to today. I made sure I made NO plans today because I had a date with Amber and Josh. Well... this morning I get a text from Amber saying she isn't going. For a min I thought that meant I wasn't either. I was going to be devastated. However, she told me to just find someone else to go with and told me where to pick up the tickets. I couldn't believe she was ditching out on Josh. I had a few hours to find someone else to go with me. Thankfully, MacKenzie JUST got back into town and was texting me to hang out that night and I knew she loved Josh. So I text her asking if she wanted to go to the Josh Groban concert with me VIP for free. She got all kinds of excited and we quickly got ready to go.
I had never been to this theater before, so I didn't know how long it would take to get there or how early we should be there. The VIP pass not only had VIP parking, but it also included free dinner. So we got there right before they opened the gates and served dinner. We were there so early that we heard Josh practicing. We didn't have to wait in that long of a line, then sat and ate our free dinner. The food was OK... but it was free, I wasn't about to complain.
Then we went to go find our seats. I didn't know where VIP would sit. It's a HUGE theater. I know more than half of the audience sits on the lawn... but there were still A LOT of seats by the stage. We went to go look for our seats. There is a section of seats right by the stage and then there are a bunch of sectioned areas with seats around tables which are reserved for companies and VIP... then another couple of sections of seats are behind that and then the lawn is behind that. So... that is REALLY close! I'm thrilled. Plus, we were the first ones there in our section, so we got first pick of the seats.
We had to wait a little while before the concert started, but I was cool with that. Mackenzie and I had a great time talking. First to open was Foy Vance. I had never heard of him before, but he is from Ireland and I liked his style. His music is like soul music. He was pretty entertaining too. Plus, he closed with an awesome cover of "Purple Rain". If he hadn't won me over before, he did with that.
Next in the line up was Sarah McLachlan. I haven't kept up on her music, but I love her old classics from when I was in high school. She sang some of those songs. She was awesome live. Kind of serious, not quite as entertaining talking between songs, but her songs are great. Loved listening to her.
Then it was time for Josh. His concerts always go by way too fast for me. He is beautiful to listen to and he is so entertaining even just listening to him talk and tell stories. Loved all of the songs he sang. He even did duets with both of his openers. Loved them both. Thought it was very cool that instead of Sarah singing one of his songs, he said one of her's. And with Foy, they did a Simon & Garfunkel song. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Simon and Garfunkel, so I was happy about this. Josh apparently loves them too because this is the second S & G cover he has done. I don't mind. Keep them coming.
There were a couple other things going on tonight that I missed because I went to the Josh Groban concert. I gladly missed them... but one of them was the Lantern Festival. I mean... I know I just went in April, but I seriously love it so much. It's ok though, I'll go to the next one. What made me feel better about missing it... there were different displays going on the big screen on stage throughout the concert. During one of the songs, there were floating lanterns. So it didn't feel like I was missing it after all. The funny thing is, when I went to the Lantern Fest in April (with MacKenzie) they played a Josh Groban song while the lanterns were going up into the sky. I guess the two were meant to go together. :)
His closing number (before his encore number which was "Somewhere Over the Rainbow") was "You Raise me Up". Not only is that a great song, but he had everyone get out their phones so the entire Amphitheater was lit up with everyone's phone lights. It was beautiful. I LOVE when they do this at concerts. It almost makes me emotional. I couldn't really get a great shot of it because I was too close to the stage (not the worst problem to have)... but you can see on the screen all of the glowing lights. I LOVED it. So much. What a great way to close the concert.
I guess there really isn't much else to say about the concert that I haven't already said. He sang everything that I wanted him to sing and more. I loved every second of it. MacKenzie and I both did. I would have paid for it, but I'm incredibly lucky that I got to go for free and with AMAZING seats. Thank you Amber for the tickets! I didn't take them for granted. Still wish you came with me, but MacKenzie was thrilled to take your place. Thank you Thank you!
After the Salmon Supper last night, my friend Lindsay told me she was going to the rooftop concert in downtown Provo. I know they happen every first Friday of the month of summer... but I never keep track of who is playing and for the most part don't go to them. Well, I have been going like once a summer. That is good enough right? I mean, don't get me wrong, they are awesome because they are free, but I just would rather camp or go on road trips if that is an option.
Anyway... guess who was playing yesterday and I didn't even know. THE AQUABATS!! I didn't even know they still performed. Apparently they do! Ha ha. Lindsay and I both loved them in high school, so it was a trip down memory lane for us. We were loving that show and singing a long. The others that came with us... not so much, but it's free... why not go. ha ha. They have a few new songs that I didn't know, but for the most part, I knew all the songs from listening to them ... well.... when I was in high school. It was a typical Aquabats concert with blow up balls and toys that they throw around the audience. Last time I saw the Aquabats live was when they played at my dad's club (The Living Room) back in California. Good times.
We didn't stay super long. Only came to hear them, came late and left when they were done, so we were there for like an hour. It was perfect. A really fun night with the friends.
I have become pretty good friends with Stacey in my ward. He also happens to be a Mormon star... he is a member of the very popular (with Mormon's especially children, teens and their parents) TV show on BYU TV called Studio C. You can also find TONS of their skits on YouTube. Everywhere I go with Stacey... people recognize him and want to say hi and get their picture taken with him. It's kind of weird... mostly because I don't really watch Studio C so to me he is just my fun new friend.
Being friends with Stacey apparently comes with some perks. Because he is a part of BYU Broadcasting... on the film side, he gets invited to everything. So.... he was invited to go listen to the band Flannel Graph that was going to be on the BYU Radio show, Highway 89. Apparently it is a new show and they get local artists or artists that are coming through on tour to come in and play their music and they interview them. So Stacey, knowing how much I love music, asked me if I wanted to go with him. That was an easy YES for me. I love music and I love discovering new music and this was a great group to discover.
As it turns out... it was just me and Stacey in the Studio besides the people who run the program... and Flannel Graph's main singer's husband. That is it! We got our own personal concert. I loved every minute of it. They were so nice and SO talented. I really love their music. That night I went home and bought both of their CD's on iTunes. I have been jamming to them in the car ever since.
If you want to listen to the show that I saw recorded... it is on tomorrow night at 8pm MST on byuradio.org you won't regret it. In fact... I may just listen to it again.
Thanks Stacey for taking me, such a cool opportunity, and thanks Flannel Graph for making great music. I hope you make it BIG.
I think I'm done with Flashback Friday's. I just am tired of trying to figure out what to flashback to and think about if I have already done it or not. It lasted a while... so it was fun while it lasted.
I wrote about this in my confessions yesterday, but decided to just post about it.
While I was in Europe, John went to Sammy's and saw Mimi Knowles for the first time and thought he was the coolest. Since then he has wanted to see him perform again. Last Saturday he was performing at Velour... which is practically right down the street from me. John called me up and asked me if I wanted to go with him. John knows I love music and am always up for that sort of thing and I happened to not have any plans that night, so we went. We had to sit through some other not so great bands... but we had a seat, so that was good. We just joked about how much we didn't like the other bands and laughed our way through them. When Mimi Knowles came on stage, I could tell right away why John loved him and why anyone would. I couldn't get the smile off of my face watching him. He has such a great stage presence and of course also a lot of talent. His music is fun and catchy and I love that he just starts rapping and is really good at it. You can go to his website here and find out more about him and listen to his stuff.
I would go see him again if the opportunity presents itself. He's great. John and I had a blast... as we always do.
