ben gibbard

last wednesday, matt and i went to see ben gibbard perform a solo show at the keswick theater, which is this awesome little theater that is about 5 miles from our house.  it seats about 1300 people and gets some pretty amazing acts.  we've seen some great shows that we would never have gotten to see otherwise, and in such a small venue it's impossible to have a bad seat.  we've seen bruce hornsby (twice, actually), five for fighting, a beatles tribute called the fab faux (really really great if you're into the beatles), dark star orchestra (twice), elvis impersonators....there have been tons more but i can't think of them off the top of my head.  but i love the venue, and the fact that it's so close is a major bonus.

anyway, a friend of mine from high school works in marketing there, so every now and then she'll get in touch with me about a show that hasn't even been announced yet so that i can keep my eyes open for the tickets.  she knows what a huge death cab for cutie fan i am, so when they booked ben gibbard, she emailed me right away.  she gave the password to the presale, but then offered to just get the tickets for me.  i initially said i'd get them through the presale, but i was so afraid they'd sell out that i went back and took her up on her offer.  she got us tickets in the 2nd row.  awesome.  i've been looking forward to it for months, and the day finally came wednesday night.

the opener for the show was this guy called advance base.  he was really weird.  i was not a fan.  his music kind of almost put me to sleep.  he played for about 40 minutes, then they cleared the stage and set up for ben.  ben came out dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt.  he looks older than i thought.  but his voice....gah, his voice.  i could listen to him for days on end and never get sick of it.  he sang a great mix of stuff.  he's doing this small tour (we are one of i think 7 or 8 venues that he's playing) to promote his new solo album, but he also played some postal service stuff and some death cab for cutie stuff, including some old deep cuts that i'd almost forgotten about.  we were no more than 5 feet from the stage and it was amazing.

 

 

 

here are a few videos i took.  the first is of "title and registration."




and the second is of "cath," which is one of my all-time favorite songs.



my friend not only hooked us up with these fantastic seats, but she also got us a limited edition tour poster.  we're framing it and it's going up in the nursery.  you'll see that once we finally finish the nursery and i put those pictures up.  i dropped off a thank you note with a starbucks gift card for her the next day.

all in all, it was a fantastic show.  i am so so so glad that he chose our little keswick theater for one of his tour dates, and even more thrilled that my friend was so sweet to hook us up.  this show will definitely rank among my top 5 shows ever!

what a friday!

ok, hopefully i'm not jinxing myself by writing this at noon, but it has been a heck of a friday already!  here's what my day has looked like so far:

wake up at my normal time.  go downstairs to feed the cat.  usually after i feed her, we snuggle for a few minutes before i go upstairs to shower, do my makeup, and dry my hair.  this morning, padfoot was feeling particularly rambunctious and wanted no parts of our snuggle session.  fine.

i get out of the shower and start doing my makeup.  i hear padfoot outside the bathroom door crying, so i open the door.  she just stands there, crying.  she wants to go upstairs into the bedroom.  i tell her to hush, several times, and she doesn't.  i try to get her to come into the bathroom with me.  no interest.  so i close her into the guest room so she doesn't wake up matt.  when i finish drying my hair, i let her out and we go upstairs together to wake up matt.

matt and i get into a "discussion" about baby gear.  i get upset because i think he's mad.  then, i go to pet padfoot good-bye and she runs away.  i burst into tears.

i get to work.  i'm here not 5 minutes and a discharge i arranged yesterday is falling apart.  the wife is screaming at me.  for 30 minutes, i listen to her scream at me, scream at her insurance case manager on the phone, and curse us both out.  finally, she agrees to the discharge and she and the patient leave.  come to find out, the wife spit on my unit clerk.  you read that right - spit.  73 years old.

then, as i'm standing by the front desk talking to the unit clerk, i notice a sign on a patient's door.  it is a sign asking for donations to help her pay for her medications because her case manager (that would be me) told her she can't help her.  she has a big sign and an envelope.  it's outrageous.

then, i go through my emails and find out my boss is calling a mandatory meeting at 2pm.  meetings in the middle of the afternoon are always a pain in the ass.  meetings in the middle of the afternoon on a friday are a total fucking nightmare.  no one is really sure what this mandatory meeting is about, so we're all in a little bit of a panic.

so, you know, not a super-fantastic start to the day.

but then.  then, i get the email that changed my day.  honestly, pretty much anything could happen today and it would not dampen my mood.

matt and i live very close to this little theater called the keswick theater.  they have concerts there all the time and matt and i love to go because they get good acts, tickets are reasonable, and it's 5 miles from our house.  i have a friend from high school who is in marketing there.  she emailed me the other day to tell me that they would announcing a new show this week - ben gibbard (lead singer of death cab for cutie).  she said i could either order through the presale (she gave me the presale password) or she would just order them for us.  i asked her to go ahead because i was afraid i'd miss my chance if i tried to do it myself.  she just emailed me back today to tell me that we have 2 tickets for the show - 2nd row, right in the center.  i kid you not, i started screaming.  i am so.freakin.stoked.  i heart ben gibbard in a way that is probably unnatural.  death cab's music changed my life.


seriously, i'm on such a high right now, i feel like almost nothing could bring me down. 

snow patrol

tuesday night, matt and i had tickets to see snow patrol at the electric factory.  snow patrol is one of my favorite bands and plays one of my favorite songs, "chasing cars," which also just happened to be our wedding song.  i saw snow patrol a few years ago (also at the electric factory) and the show was great.  i had gone with a coworker friend of mine who was also a huge snow patrol fan (and who was also considering using chasing cars for her wedding song).  unfortunately, we both changed jobs and kind of lost touch with each other, but this time matt wanted to come, so it worked out.

the electric factory is a pretty cool venue.  it's basically like a big warehouse.  when you first walk in, there is just a big open floor, with a few cocktail tables set up near the bar (but no seats).  off to the right is a flight of steps that takes you to the balcony.  on the balcony are 2 more bars and a bunch of stools that line the railing.  our goal was to get in line early so that we could get upstairs and score some seats.  we did (not without being practically run over by some asshat behind us that i wanted to punch in the throat because he literally almost knocked me over) and we were right along the railing with a perfect view of the stage.  the other nice thing about our seats is that i could use the railing to steady my camera when taking pictures.  i always turn my flash off in concerts but then my pictures are often kind of blurry because it is physically impossible for me to hold my hand steady.  with the railing there as support, i was able to get some really nice, clean pictures.

the opener for the show was this guy called ed sheeran.  i'd never heard of him, but holy shit, he was amazing.  he was just one guy with a loop machine.  so basically, he'd play a bass line, then start looping.  then he'd play a rhythm on the guitar and start looping that.  then he'd play another rhythm and start looping that.  then he'd do some beatbox and loop that.  and so and so forth until it sounded like there were 12 people/instruments on the stage.  not only that, but he had a great voice, to boot.  and he's one of these guys who can sing so quickly that it sounds like....like i don't know what.  he was incredible.  i'm not sure, though, how it would translate into a studio album, which is why i still haven't downloaded anything.  here's a video i took.  the quality's not that great, but you get the gist.  check out this video to see him in action, though.



snow patrol came on around 9pm.  i don't know if he's changed and opened up or if i just didn't remember, but gary lightbody was really funny!  he was joking with the audience and really interacting with the crowd.  i love when bands do that because it makes you feel like a part of the show and makes you feel more invested.  what i also loved about snow patrol was that they had fun up there.  and gary lightbody was very appreciative of the success they've had, and he was so genuine and thoughtful about it.  you know, so many times artists are like "thanks for coming out" and that's kind of it.  gary must have thanked the crowd about a hundred times and not just for coming to the show but for being fans and for giving them the opportunity to reach the level of success they've reached.  it was really cool.  anyway.  they played a lot of my favorite snow patrol songs, and then played quite a bit off the new album, which i actually hadn't downloaded yet.  i often don't like when bands play all new stuff because i don't know it and i lose interest, but i was really caught up with everything in this show.  all the new songs were fantastic, and made me run home and download the album that night before i went to bed.  i've listened to it nonstop since then.  gary said during the show that he thought it was their best album yet and i would definitely have to agree.  the song writing is beautiful and every song has a lot of depth to it, lyrically and musically.

here's the set list for the show:

berlin (remix) - i'll never let go - take back the city - hands open - this isn't everything you are - run - in the end - crack the shutters - the garden rules - new york - make this go on forever - shut your eyes - chasing cars - chocolate - called out in the dark - fallen empires - you're all i have // encore: lifening - open your eyes - just say yes

it was excellent.  i bawled during "chasing cars" because the song is so beautiful and holds so much meaning for me.  i cried again during "lifening," which is a new song but they lyrics were so moving.  the girl standing next to me was also crying.  bunch of saps, we are!  here are a few pictures and video i took.

if you ever get the opportunity to see snow patrol, i definitely recommend it.  it was a really good show and especially with ed sheeran opening, i can almost guarantee you'll have fun!