New Music Monday

What an exciting post I have for you music enthusiasts today. I had a weekend FULL of music goodness. I traveled north to Minneapolis to visit my BFF Tonia for her 23rd birthday. Her fiance Adam and friend Mitch joined us as well. When I arrived Friday I got to visit Tonia's kindergarten classroom and she showed me around. As a fellow teacher I always love visiting other schools and seeing other classrooms! It's just an added bonus I got to see my bestie in action. Friday night we went to the Shout House in downtown Minneapolis with our friend Ellie and the boys. That was a lot of fun. Here are a few photos from Friday:

 Gang's all here!

And then it got weird...but entertaining.

Now, onto the good stuff! We went to a Manchester Orchestra concert on Saturday. IT. WAS. AMAZING. I can't rave enough about it! Tonia and I worked our way to the front row and enjoyed the concert front row center. We met a few boys from Iowa so that was fun! They were very tall and let us stand in front of them. There was no barrier between the crowd and the stage so we were RIGHT there. Amaze. There wasn't a lot of "moshing" and the crowd was pretty tame, which was great. Perfect concert going conditions. I was rocking my little heart out.

The two opening bands were fantastic and MO did NOT disappoint. The Dear Hunter was the first band and I must say, I found a new favorite band. It normally takes me a few listens to get into a band, but they had me hooked at their first song. They have an awesome sound and are overly entertaining live. Mitch said it best, "It's always best to discover a new band by seeing them live." True that, homie. I bought their "CD" after the show, met the band, and they even signed it for me. I say "CD" because it comes with 36 songs, 3 discs of music and 1 disc of video, as well as a little booklet with all the lyrics and story behind the record. It's called The Color Spectrum and I HIGHLY recommend it if you're into Brand New, Manchester Orchestra, Kevin Devine, Taking Back Sunday, or any other indie rock band. It's fantastic. Each CD has a different "mood" and color associated with it. For example, "Black/Red/Orange" is a darker album with heavy drums and percussion. Yellow/Green/Blue is a little more upbeat with more stringed instruments. Not to mention, the lyrics are pure genius. This band has the trifecta. They were super nice and personable and very eager to meet and talk to a new fan. LOVED THEM. I could go on and on but I'll stop. Here are a few pictures from The Dear Hunter. I was so amazed by them I failed to take many (if any) good ones:

Yep, that's all I got. Picture of the lead singer with a microphone blocking his face and a picture of the drummer with a blurred face. Since, I suck, here are some from my friends at Google Image Search:

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I can only assume that last one is a joke. Epic beards all around, folks.

The second band was called White Denim. They were also very good, but I didn't get into them as much as The Dear Hunter. They seemed to "jam out" too much and it was like, "Ok, we get the point, you can play the guitar, now show me something else." The bass player looked like he was about 16 but he was very talented and fun to watch. At one point, a girl essentially fell asleep or passed out or something in front of us. The drummer stared at her for a while, clearly angry/confused. Eventually, he hocked a luge (how do you even spell that??) and spit on her! I was not impressed by that and that definitely turned me away from them. Here are a few pictures from White Denim:

Aaaand onto the main act, Manchester Orchestra. I was overly impressed with their performance I can't even put it into words. It was everything I had hoped in more. They played every song I hoped they would and put so much feeling and intensity into every line. Oh gosh I just can't get over how amazing it was. I will definitely be seeing them again if they come anywhere near the midwest. And some more pictures:

Set list

Yep, he was THAT sweaty. And yes, I was THAT close. And yes, I got sweat in my EYE. :)

After the concert, we hung around for a bit so see if the band would come back out, and they did. We hadn't planned on approaching them or anything, but they were just so accessible it was hard not to! We walked up to Andy Hull (the sweaty man above/lead singer/guitarist), and I shook his hand and I told him how much I enjoyed his show. My amigos did the same, and we asked for a picture and he said, "Of course, of course." He was MUCH friendlier than he looks, haha. He said he was very glad we enjoyed the show and he had a lot of fun playing for us. 

Such an amazing weekend. If you haven't checked out Manchester Orchestra yet, I recommend it. They have a very unique sound and put their heart and soul into their songs.

Personal note: At the concert, I got to thinking that I feel like I have an alter ego sometimes. My teachers at pre-school would NEVER picture me rocking out in the front row at a show like this, screaming the lyrics I love back to the artists that wrote them. I'm glad to be able to embrace both sides. I just wish my indie rock side was more embraced in the education world. I would quite enjoy wearing black skinny jeans and purple Vans to school everyday.