Concerts

Technically, I've been going to concerts since I was a baby.

Then again, that statement is really misleading.

When I was actually a baby my parents would take me to rock concerts quite often. (Don't worry! I was equipped with earplugs and never went near the mosh pits.)

Since then though, I hadn't been to a concert, with the exception of a few school band concerts where, I assure you, there was no moshing.

In the past three weeks though, I've been to two different concerts.

On February 5th, I went to see Flogging Molly at the Fillmore. It was awesome! Even though I ended up going an hour and a half after it started, I still got there when the first opening act was playing.

The first musician was David Hause, who had excellent crowd manners. The following band was Skinny Lister, who, I must admit, I've become pretty smitten with since then. I love their music, and hearing it live for the first time was excellent.

Finally, when Flogging Molly actually got to the stage, I found out that I actually liked Skinny Lister more than them, but it was still a great concert. I ended up in the mosh pit a couple of times and got to crowd surf.

The weirdest part about the concert was probably the mosh pit. It's just such a weird tradition. It was particularly strange at the Flogging Molly concert because the mosh pit was so polite. As soon as anyone fell, or if someone needed to down the rest of their beer, the pit rushed to get them to their feet again or to protect them from extra sloshing. The politeness seemed so contrasting to what the mosh pit was at it's heart when people were violently throwing themselves around, and purposely, at each other.

Weirdness of the mosh pit aside, it was a great concert.

The second concert I went to was to see Pentatonix at the Fillmore. It was FANTASTIC. I've always kind of liked a cappella, but when I first heard Pentatonix on youtube a while back, I never imagined that I'd get to see them in concert.

One of the awesome things about seeing an a cappella group live is that it makes it more real. With technology and lip synching and autotune and all of this fancy stuff, an a cappella group on youtube, especially one that sounds as good as Pentatonix, almost might seem suspicious. But truth be told, they are great.

The other really nice thing about the concert was because they are such a small group that got started off not too long ago, is that the concert was pretty relaxed (aside from the screaming girls of course). Two of the members, Avi Kaplan and Kevin Olusola, got to show some of their insane musical talents.

Avi, an incredible bass, not only sang Misty Mountains from the Hobbit (fangirl freakout!), but also showed his ability to sing overtones, which is singing two notes at the same time. Let me say that again. Two notes, were produced by him alone, AT THE SAME TIME. It was awesome.

Then Kevin, the beatbox for the group, showed his talent for cello beatboxing, which honestly sounded so cool, I thought that it had to have been recorded. But no.

Over all, one of the things I liked about both concerts was how accepting the crowds were. People were polite (well, most people were) and even in the tight vicinities, helped each other. Also, so many different people and ages all came together over one band. It was lovely.

Beginnings

Throughout our life we are constantly being confronted with endings and beginnings. Endings can also often be beginnings.

Last weekend I had closing night of Taming of the Shrew/Tamer Tamed. It was extremely exciting and went very smoothly. My cast had a full house for our last performance, and the energy was higher than it had ever been (with the exception of a spastic student run rehearsal we had, which was just crazy). Then of course we had the cast party!

The cast party wasn't the end of the show though, because this past Tuesday and Thursday we had set strike. Set strike is always bittersweet. On one hand you get to look back and be proud of the show that you put on, all of the new friendships you made, and how much fun you had. On  the other hand you're completely cleaning the stage of the show, leaving it an open canvas for the next show.

I really love stages.

You might think, of course you do, you're an actor, but it's not just about being on stage. Sure, I love to perform and be a part of a performance, but there are so many things I love about "the stage" in general.

One thing is that stages are such a part of culture. The architecture is personally tailored to the people and community where the stage resides. An effort to have a stage built is an amazing thing.

The stage gives you power. Have you ever just stood on an empty stage by yourself? It activates your imagination. It makes you feel like you are the center of attention, even if no one is in the room. Even when there is an audience, you can't actually seem them because of lights typically, but you can feel them.

The stage is an amazing vehicle for communication. It houses live music (and I think we can all agree that music is very powerful), and gives countless opportunities to get your voice out there simply by existing.


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I'm pretty closely connected to the stage. These are some of the pictures of me from Taming, as well as pictures of the stage I built with a group this summer in Montana. A friend and I built the doors by ourselves.

A Stressed Time

Well it's getting to that time of year, and I am freakinnnn out.

It is currently in between show weekends of the Taming of the Shrew/Tamer Tamed for me, so I figured I would have a little time to relax a bit. So I decided I'd like to see Flogging Molly at the Fillmore.

Hopefully it will be awesome fun, but it's making it quite difficult to get everything done.

Everything that I'm doing I would usually enjoy a lot. In English we're starting our short stories, which I've been looking forward to all year. I so much prefer creative writing and the freedom it brings. I also love the success of finishing a great story, which I must say I struggle with a lot.

In Journalism we're also starting in on our feature stories, which I'm also pretty interested in, but I'm extremely concerned that I just don't have time for the proper amount of dedication and work it will take to write a decent story and do it justice.

In Media we're taking a break at least, but by the end of the week we will be back to trying to finish our documentaries, and the deadlines that are coming along with this short project are nothing if not intimidating.

In NSL we've been doing some pretty relaxing things, but it's kind of making me tense up for what's to come.

I hope that besides my classes I can get everything together, especially with missing some class next week to sing on Valentine's day (Intonation, Blair's a cappella group, is performing singing grams! Buy one near the SAC on February 11th, 12th, and 13th, during lunches).

Also, auditions for the spring musical, Into the Woods, are coming up just next week which is slightly terrifying.

I know this post is kind of ranty and pretty much just me complaining, but hopefully I'll be able to get back on track by the time the next post is due.