Tag: concert

happenings, is it just me?, mixed media, movie musings, music musings, venting

let’s keep it simple today, okay?

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First of all, I wonder why people like this even bother seeing movies like Fantastic Four in the first place? Don’t they know that it is actually supposed to be a total cheese-fest, eye candy movie that is based on a hokie, silly, comic book? I don’t get why people are so disappointed by movies that they know they won’t like… why go see them? With that being said, James and I went and saw Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and we both really liked it.

I have to say this about the movie: if you share anything in common with the writer of that review, steer clear, because you won’t be able to just sit back and enjoy the show. Additionally, if you didn’t like the first one, again, stay clear, you won’t like this one either. While I didn’t think that it was the best movie ever, it was certainly entertaining, and I had a good time while watching it. The special effects were fun, and the Silver Surfer was amazing. I can’t wait to see what the spin-off franchise has in store for him. All in all, I would totally see it again; and I will get it when it comes out on DVD. I would have to give it between 4 and 5 stars, so I will just give it 4 ; seems fitting, doesn’t it? Again, if you don’t have the ability to just enjoy something for what it is; a special effects driven, silly, comic book, eye-candy film, this movie isn’t for you. With that being said, why waste your time watching it, and then go on to bitch about it? Go see something else. I know that there are plenty of those like me that will see it and will actually enjoy it, and we are the people the movie was made for anyway.

While I was getting the link for F4:RotSS, I totally stumbled on the page of the guy that plays the Silver Surfer, and noticed that they are currently filming Hellboy 2!!!! ROCK! I loved the first one. Can’t wait for that! I love my comic book movies; which probably stems from my rather large comic book collection that I still have from when I was younger… Either way, I love this surge in comic book movies; especially in this day and age with the special effects they can do. Anyone else say Thundercats? Yeah! We can hope, right?

Finally, I noticed that Kelly Clarkson is cancelling her tour, due to poor ticket sales, and I can’t say that I am surprised. Based on what we have heard so far, things don’t look good for our favorite Idol. I have to say, I have tried really hard to get into her new song, and I have even given the album more than a few lessons, and overall, it isn’t what I was expecting from someone who wrote such a beautiful song with Because of You. I know that she wants to “do her own thing”, but I really hope that she does listen to the professionals that are trying to help her have a long career… I don’t want to lose the Kelly that I love! Let’s hope we can put this album behind us and move back into greatly produced pop, okay? I say this, because you know how flawless you are, Kelly, you don’t need to prove anything to us! I’m routing for your Kelly!!! I won’t give up on you just yet, okay!

Hope you all have a great weekend… James and I have the twins 4 year old birthday party tomorrow before we head out to see MIKA at center stage. That is a concert I am totally excited about!!! Expect pictures in the future!!

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Shiny Toy Guns @ The Loft ATL 5/25/07

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Shiny Toy Guns @ The Loft ATL 5/25/07, originally uploaded by duanecmoody.

So, as I mentioned yesterday afternoon, we had the pleasure of seeing the fantastical Shiny Toy Guns, live, at The Loft, last night.

First of all, if you haven’t been to the Loft, it is really tiny, and it is actually a kind of cool place to see a band, because you can literally get right up front if you want. I managed to find a great spot right over on the right side of the stage, and I stayed there all night.

I took tons of pictures, all of which you can see on my flickr page. If you click the picture above, it will take you to the flickr page for that picture, and then you should see a set over on the right. If you want to see all of them, I suggest you check it out. I managed to get some pictures I really liked.

One final note about the show, while Shiny Toy Guns were AMAZING, and totally lived up to my every desire and exceeded every one of my expectations, the bands that opened for them were total shit. I don’t know if they picked them, but the band that went on before them was especially bad. They were called Hourly Radio, and I don’t get why so many people in the audience liked them; I know bad music when I hear it. Oh well, to each their own.

If we didn’t have to sit through the opening bands, the night would have been perfect. I will definitely want to see Shiny Toy Guns again in the future.

Side note: If you are at the Loft, and you want a liquor drink, getting the larger size is only $1 more. Good to know.

Hope everyone is having a kick ass Saturday!

concerts, happenings, mixed media, music musings

tonight: Shiny Toy Guns

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Tonight we get to see the Shiny Toy Guns at the Loft. I am so excited, because I love them. Here are some songs that you should have on your ipod, and be playing a lot, because they are fantastical in every way:
Le Disko:

&
You Are The One:

Now, I hope to get some great pictures of this great band tonight. If you haven’t heard of them before now, it is clear that you aren’t listening, and you need to start! Check them out. You won’t be sorry! Hope your day is going swell!

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post concert post: Aqualung and Sara Bareilles

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Based on the two previous photo posts, I am sure you got the idea; I saw Sara Bareilles and Aqualung in concert Monday night. I took lots of pictures. I had a lot of fun.

They were both magnificent. I got to meet both of them, and had my picture taken with both Sara and Matt (from Aqualung). Needless to say, it was sort of surreal, because I got a little fan-struck later in the night, which was definitely due to those blue motorcycles. I didn’t say anything that stupid, but I did ask Sara to redo a photo because the one I took with her initially, I had fat face. She laughed and obliged. To Matt, I managed to look like an idiot, because the first thing I said to him was, “I’ve never heard of you before tonight”. Wow. Nice one, duane. I followed it up with, “but I am totally going to get your CD tomorrow!”. Good save, eh? I did manage to get his new one, and it is quite fabulous. I am glad to have discovered Aqualung! Rock!

Oh well, no real harm done, I guess. If you want to see the MANY photos of the night, check out my flickr page. I had a lot of fun taking them, and not so much fun editing them. Thanks again to Barry and Rebekah for inviting me along, and a big thanks to Doug for hooking me up with photo creds! Now if I can only have future opportunities to take concert photos, get good enough at it to do it more, and get paid… Now, THAT would rock!

Also, just so you know, if you haven’t heard of Sara Bareilles before now, you need to catch up. She is amazing. Words can’t describe how awesome she is. Her CD is coming out soon, and I have been eagerly awaiting its release for nearly 2 years. And I will get it the day it comes out. To get a taste of her sound, make sure you go and buy her EP on iTunes… It is only $2, and it will be the best $2 you ever spent on music. She is flawless, and I hope that she becomes the big ass star she deserves to be. This woman is the true epitome of talent. I heart you Sara B!!

On a different note, is it me, or is there a big hush over the blogosphere? I mean, it doesn’t seem like there is much going on, and there certainly isn’t any conversation going on over in my neck of the woods. No biggie, just noticed it, that’s all. Hope everyone is well, and hope y’all come back soon…

hmm interesting, is it just me?, mixed media, music musings, photography, politics, venting

Rove vs. Crow and some music stuff to smooth out the stink

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Wow. I knew that Rove was an ass, but it is pretty interesting that he is such an ass in such a public way. Apparently, Sheryl Crow and Laurie David (the producer of An Inconvenient Truth) were at a dinner with Rove, and tried to talk with him about global warming. Rather than just have a talk with them, he got very defensive, and ended up telling them that he didn’t have to talk to them, because he didn’t work for them; he worked for the American people. To which Crow responded, “we ARE the American people”. Whoa. Harsh.

That just begs to question Rove’s, and frankly most of the top dogs of this administration, motives in what they do. If they don’t really think of some people as Americans because of the fact that they have popular positions in society, and have a voice to get out opinions that differ from the administration’s, then I wonder if they have anyones interest’s (other than their own, of course) in mind when they make decisions. I mean, if he gets this huffy over global warming (which apparently, he said that China isn’t doing anything, so neither should we), then one must speculate that he would act similarly to a current, more threatening, topic, right? That just bothers me to know that a representative of our government, especially one so high and influential, is unwilling to at least listen to what the American public has to say. Not only that, he gets belligerent and mean about the whole thing.

I think that it is a testament of his character that he is so nasty to people, especially in such a way that he is assured to get bad press from it; but yet, he does it anyway. Lots of people think that Rove is the devil, perhaps he is just more apt to show it to the rest of us, now. I can hope that he really isn’t this closed off to listening to the opinions and requests of the American people, but it appears to be another example of the “head in the sand” mentality that our government continues to portray. I just wish that the Bush administration would actually listen to what we think; this is supposed to be a democracy, right? Well, we have some say!! Don’t shoo us away!

Now, that story left a bad taste in my mouth, so I want to rinse it away with something sweet and refreshing. I have been listening to this magnificent group called Melee for the past several days, and with each listen, I love the CD even more. The lead’s voice does remind me a little of the lead singer of Snow Patrol, but they definitely have more of a Maroon 5 type of pop to their music. I really like every song on the CD, and look forward to enjoying it more and more.

Also, which is totally random, but totally awesome at the same time, I was asked to go see Aqualung by my good friends Barry and Rebekah tonight. I was all, “sure, that sounds fun”, mostly like “eh”, but only because I haven’t heard anything by Aqualung. But, once I found out that Sara Bareilles is opening, I got down right giddy. I LOVE her. I have seen her before, and I gushed about her then. She is amazing, and I can’t wait to see her tonight!!! Also (this is the random part… sorry for the delay), a very nice guy on flickr commented on one of my Mat Kearney photos, and a back and forth comment stream discovered that he is a concert photographer, and he is going to try and hook me up with a photo pass for the show tonight!(!!!!!!!!!!!) Um, wha? I really hope that it comes through, because that would be amazing. Keep your fingers crossed, and if I do get this amazing pass, I will have LOTS of pictures to boast about in the coming days. Stay tuned! Wish me luck!!!!

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mat kearney @ the roxy 4/20/07

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Last night, we had the distinct pleasure of catching the sold out show for Mat Kearney at the Atlanta Coca-cola Roxy theater. It was awesome. Mat totally delivered, and amazingly enough, sounded just as good as he does on his record. He has really perfected his craft. I love seeing an artist in concert who blows you away with their talent, and Mat is definitely in that category of artist.

He played a few new songs, which were delightful, but I really loved listening to his current music, because his is a CD that I truly adore. It was really neat being there with the people that were at this concert too, because you definitely tell that most of the people (if not all) were definitely fans of his; as almost everyone knew the words to every song.

It was definitely a good vibe and a good crowd, which I didn’t expect in the uber-hetero environment usually displayed in Buckhead. While the main floor is standing room only, when we arrived, we scouted out the upstairs to see what the deal with the balcony was, and much to our surprise, there were lots of seats, many of which were available. The balcony provides a great view of the stage, and you can definitely get the whole experience from there. And, if you were like us and didn’t want to stand the entire time, you should definitely scope it out to see if you can snag seats like we did.

Every once and a while, I would get up and go downstairs to snap a few photos, and much to my surprise, again, I was able to literally walk right up to the left side of the stage and get in prime position for some great shots. I have to say though, that Mat really does enjoy being in the dark, which made getting good photos of him difficult, but I did manage to snag a few that I was happy with.

I posted two of them on flickr already (one here), but have several more that I will try and get up on Monday. Mat is definitely a handsome guy, and with that voice to back it up, I can see why the theater was filled with women (there were lots of guys too, but I suspect many of them were boyfriends brought along for the ride). All in all, I was glad that we trekked our way out to the Buckhead scene in order to catch this show, because it definitely exceeded my expectations. I was also extremely happy that I was able to take my camera, because that is a definite highlight for me at concerts; I like being able to have a token to remind me of the show. I wasn’t able to find out much on the internets about being able to take in a camera, so I hope that this post can provide that information for someone in the future.

My only complaint about the show, was not really about the show at all; the Roxy was fucking hot as hell inside. By the time the concert was over, my entire head was soaking wet with sweat, but it wasn’t that big of a deal since we went straight home afterwards. I have no idea how Mat was able to play with that long sleeved shirt on, but alas, he didn’t seem to care.

If you haven’t gotten a chance to check him out yet, I highly recommend you get his CD, so that you can fall in love with him like I have, and catch him next time he is in town; you will definitely be glad you did. It was definitely a great night.

all about me, blog on blog, concerts, flickr, listen up!, mixed media, music musings, photography

Lily Allen @ the Loft 3/19/07

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First of all, before I get to the frivolity of gushing over the pure pop deliciousness that is Lily Allen, and go on and on about how wonderful her concert last night was, I feel the need to address the petty drivel that continues to go on about the expressing of opinions, both by me, of me, and of others. AGAIN, for like the billionth time I have said this, I am going to say whatever I want, and if you want to disagree with me, cool! I welcome your opinions! If you want to blog about it on your blog, awesome!! I say go for it! But, if you are going to be sneaky, and blog about it on your blog, especially if you are going to do so by taking my words out of context and developing an opinion of me without addressing me, then you are going the coward’s route by talking about me behind my back. Just because the internet is a “public forum” doesn’t mean that talking shit about someone on your blog without their knowledge isn’t talking about them behind their back. If you want to do that, AGAIN, I am 100% fine with whatever you want to say or think about me, I have tough skin, and trust me, there is little you can do to hurt me. But just know that you are a ball-less coward, because if you really had the stones, you would just address me on here, where we could probably actually discuss it. But again, that’s your choice; just don’t accuse me of “preventing you from saying what you want”, because AGAIN, that is completely inaccurate. Jesus I am sick of talking about this shit, it is really frustrating talking to people who don’t listen.

Lily Allen 3/19/07 AtlantaAlright… Now on to Lily Allen!!! Last night, we went to the Loft (which I don’t know if they have changed the name to Center Stage again or not, it was actually a bit confusing) to see Lily Allen, and I have to say, she was bloody marvelous. I was a little nervous, mainly because I have never seen her live before, and I usually like to get an idea of what someone sings like live before I head out to a show, but Lily was fantastic. I absolutely loved her stage presence; she swears, she takes shots, she smokes, and she tells it like it is. I went into the show really liking her, and left loving her.

One of the things I love about concerts, is when the artist gives little quips about the songs that he/she/they are about to perform. Giving some story or some little anecdotal bits about the songs make them more meaningful, and sometimes, even clarify what the song actually means for me. Lily did that wonderfully, talking about the boyfriend who had a little penis and who didn’t know how to use it (“it’s the motion in the ocean, right ladies?” she asked, “not!” she quickly replied), and getting even with the girl that gave her shit in school (“this song’s about a girl that was like that bitch from Mean Girls.” she said, “I wonder what she is doing now… I’m playing to thousands of people in the ATL! HA!”). Overall, I loved Lily’s voice, and her singing is spot on. Add in the comedic quips, and you have a very entertaining show. I highly recommend that you pick up her CD if you are still living under a rock and haven’t heard of her. I also recommend that you kick yourself for not going last night, and try to catch her next time she is in town. This broad is great!

Something funny and weird happened at the show that was too interesting not to blog about. Basically, the Loft is standing room only, save for chairs that stadium up the back and sides of the main floor. Most of the people opted to stand, because being a small venue, you actually can get quite close. We were standing towards to side, and were by no means crowded or uncomfortable, but we still managed to get pushed enough to be annoyed. Finally, one girl aggressively pushes my friend Stu, and I was like, “Geez, why not just push him down! You could at least say, Excuse me.”, to her, loud enough that I knew she heard it. She immediately turns around, taps me on the shoulder, and seriously said, “Look, my father has cancer. We are going out tonight drinking because I am upset about it. I’m sorry, but I am being a bitch tonight.”, and then stormed off. Seriously. Her dad has cancer, so she gets to push her way around a concert like a bitch. Um, whatever sister. Dad + cancer does not = a free ride without manners in life. Think of some other excuse, or just be more polite in the future. Even her friend said, “Did you really just say that?”. Um, yeah. Other than miss prissy pants, the night went off without a hitch. The concert volume wasn’t too loud (which I HATE when it is), we met some friends at the show, and the concert ended early enough for me to get home and be in bed at a reasonable time. What a great night, eh!? I have put some pictures I took at the show up on my flickr page; be sure to check them out!