Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Top Ten Shows of 2011 (#10 - #6)

For the year 2011, I have been to 25 shows.  You can't imagine how hard it was to pick my top ten, but I did it!  Here are numbers 10 through 6!

#10 - Mayday Parade on The Noise Tour 11/08/11
Before semester even started I was looking forward to this show a lot because it'd been too long since I had seen Mayday Parade and There For Tomorrow.  Plus, I was always curious to see We Are the In Crowd and You Me at Six, so it was like a win-win situtation.  Even The Make on their first tour did a great job.  Sarah Ann really impressed me with her multitude of instruments and has inspired me to become a better musician!  Overall, the bands did awesome performances and left me wanting more, which is a good indicator of how good the show was.  Down below is a song from my Top Ten Songs List of 2011:

"Hunt, Hunt, Hunt" by: There For Tomorrow

#9 - Bo Burnham at the Student Activity Center grand opening 02/08/11
Every year since I came to UT I've seen Bo Burnham perform.  He does a great job mixing a comedy show with music, so it's the best of both worlds!  I'm a part of the Music and Entertainment Committee on campus, and when we were trying to plan out a week of events to kickstart the grand opening of the Student Activity Center, I suggested Bo Burnham.  I never thought it was going to happen but come spring semester 2011, he was scheduled to perform - not to mention he was one of our biggest turnouts next to Zach Braff.  One of the most memorable moments of that night was when I lent him my capo for the guitar.  He has a bad habit of not having either a guitar pick or a guitar capo when he performs, but luckily he had me to save his show.  Other than that, Bo never disappoints his audiences.  His scripted act is hilarious, and his improv is even more hilarious!  I think the best part of his artistry is his use of words - lots of metaphors, puns, idioms, etc.  Listen carefully cause he's a word wizard.  I definitely recommend seeing him live if you ever get the chance.  Appropriately enough, here is his music video that showcases his clever use of words:

"Words, Words, Words" by: Bo Burnham [Hm, I like titles with repeated words.]
 
#8 - The Autumn Advance Stickam Show 04/27/11
The Autumn Advance is a one man band from North Carolina.  The main guy is my amigo, Tripp Rowe, and he does weekly webchats on Stickam Wednesdays at 8:30PM CST.  He had an acoustic EP drop back in April and to follow up on it, he had a stickam show, which is essentially a concert via the interwebs.  Before he became The Autumn Advance, he the drummer of a six piece band with his brother and friends by name of The Fear of Falling.  They too had weekly chats on Tuesdays and once or twice had online stickam shows with the people from Stickam, and they got good audience turn outs.  Anyway, Tripp has continued this "ritual," if you will, and had a stickam show to promote his album.  Usually he has his chats in his room (and more recently also at a friend's house), but for the stickam show he wanted to have better sound quality so he went to another friend's home studio.  I helped him with sound check - the sound improved by 100% - and later that night, he had a good crowd to perform to.  The reason why this made my top ten is because I think it's unique how he's able to have a show that broadcasts around the world.  He's able to reach out to his fans that he can't physically see on tour.  It's amazing what the interwebs can offer us nowadays.  Currently he's thinking about having another stickam show soon, so stay tuned for that update!  Here's his first single that is very popular with fans:

"Watch That Girl" by: The Autumn Advance

#7 - Joy Island on the Spring Fling Party Tour 05/01/11
Many people will probably recognize the guy behind Joy Island as the guy from Rookie of the Year.  His music shifted from each project: pop rock to electronic club music.  The performance was rather raunchy as he was accompanied by his fellow bandmates and his exotic dancer who didn't hold back from being seductive in her movements.  The band that played before was Rocky Loves Emily, and I probably wouldn't have discovered this group of lovely boys if it weren't for the boys from The After Party, whom I was going to this show to see.  Rocky Loves Emily has a pop rock sound similar to The Summer Set and The Maine (as they told me) - very cute sounding.  Before them was, of course, The After Party, who never fail to get the crowd going!  I think I've talked about them enough that you get the picture. Nevertheless, all three performances got me dancing in the crowd, and I quite enjoyed myself.  I wish I could go back to that night and re-live it all over again.  Here's my favorite song from The After Party:

"Falling Out of Love" by: The After Party

#6 - Panic! At the Disco at Discovery Green Houston 04/02/11
To end this post for tonight, Panic! At the Disco takes the #6 spot.  I've seen them twice this year, but the first time I saw them (and for the first time ever AND since they announced their split up) was when they played at Houston's Discovery Green for FREE!  My sister and I were invited to go see them play live, and I was more than ecstatic to go because I had just bought their new album, Vices & Virtues, that week.  It seemed like fate.  There were a lot of people there sitting and standing in the grass.  I wanna say it was close to 1000 people there.  Words cannot describe how I felt seeing them play live for the first time.  I had always loved them in middle school and high school and became very devastated when they "broke up," but after seeing them live, it was awesome.  There is no doubt that they are talented and deserve to be on stage.  Brendon Urie's vocals alone are insane (not to mention sexy) - he can go low and he can go high into the stratosphere with his falsetto.

"Let's Kill Tonight" live by: Panic! At the Disco [the syncing is a bit off but it's still great!]

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