one hundred and one through one hundred and ten

ONE HUNDRED & ONE - july 12th at chain - we only showed up for eye alaska's set cause ashley and i rule like that but it was amazing of course. i'm sure the other bands were great too but they couldn't have compared to eye alaska. and ashley's skills at calling which songs they'd play were pretty sweet as well. ".. unless they play divorce first and encore with i knew you'd never fly..?" ... "OHHHH!" hahaha. brilliant i tell you. definitely try to catch them when they get back from touring cause their shows are very much worth it.

ONE HUNDRED & TWO - (be warned: this is gonna be a long one) july twenty first at the roxy theater - brian bonz and mike strandberg were swell. brian bonz's voice is pure soul. it's incredible. his singing was just beautiful. kevin devine played after him and i'd only heard a bit of his music before but it was greater live than i ever expected. he could literally put me to sleep in the best way possible. his lyrics were clever and catchy and his music was so mellow that you had to pay attention to them because there wasn't anything to distract you from hearing every word. he was great. and of course, jesse lacey was nothing less than spectacular. if i were one to obsess over band members, i'd probably have a shrine to jesse lacey in my room. his set pretty much ruled. he playedddd untitled 01, a modest mouse cover, the boy who blocked his own shot, jude law and a semester abroad, luca (really sweet performance with kevin and brian), play crack the sky with kevin and vinnie from brand new singing and playing tambourine (this song made my month, no joke), moshi moshi<3, a neutral milk hotel cover, jesus christ (southern style with kevin and brian), cotton crush (kevin devine song), soco amaretto lime (audience participation was beautiful on this one), degausser (fucking incredible, top choice after play crack the sky for me), and coca cola. such a damn good show. literally a once in a lifetime experience for me, but i think i've ranted about it enough. :)

ONE HUNDRED & THREE - july 30th at the glasshouse - i forget what the first band was called but it matters not because their music was repetitive and forgettable, obviously. we only listened to two songs and then opted for walking around outside. thennn princeton played. they were cute and fun, very interesting music too. not your average pop punk whatnot, which i love of course, but it was nice to hear something different. takota was swell of course. it's been way too damn long since we've seen them and i hope they start playing more often again. check them out at the block on the tenth, they're playing for free with the plain white t's. :) we caught a few songs from grand ole party too before leaving, and they were another very interesting sounding group. i think it was a three piece with a girl on drums and vocals. she seemed very talented. not a bad show at all.

ONE HUNDRED & FOUR - august tenth at the block - plain white t's opened at the little simon dtour thinger. they were good. their new stuff sounds swell. they played "write you a song" which i've been hooked on lately so i was stoked. takota ruled. of course. all the little kids thinking they were cool for watching a band but not knowing a single lyric were not so cool. kind of obnoxious. but it's all good cause i've seen them like eighteen times or something insane like that. :)

ONE HUNDRED & FIVE - august nineteenth at chain - halos opened, and did quite a fine job at it. i hadn't seen them before and they said they don't normally play acoustic but i thought it suited them. the singer compared chain to satan's asshole because of how ridiculously hot it gets in there, pretty amusing. their set was good though. matt pryor played after them and i honestly only knew about one song he played because he ended with "out of reach." his entire set (same with chris conley's) was like a massive sing-along though, which is one of my favorite things about shows. when the crowd gets involved like that and you almost can't hear the performer over all the combined voices it just blows my mind entirely. matt was great though, he's got such a unique voice and his guitar sounded like exactly what an acoustic should. it was beautiful. the wonderful chris conley headlined and i really liked how he handled his set because you could tell it hadn't been decided what he'd play beforehand. he just asked "what's next?" after every song and played whatever people wanted to hear. i was hoping to hear "freakish" at some point, but no go. he did play "sell my old clothes, i'm off to heaven" though, which was nice. i've only really recently tried to get to know saves the day's music better very recently so i didn't know a lot of the songs he played either but it was still a great set. very good show. :)

ONE HUNDRED & SIX - september 26th at the glasshouse - takota. :) they played with smile empty soul and trapt but we only stayed for takota cause they're better. :) they played lioness, a little honesty, afraid of the dark, lost angeles, satellite and turn up the radio. and i was happy. because they're brilliant. too bad no new album until next fucking year. what the hell is up with that? it's been FOREVER. that's like.. two and a half years between albums or something. jesus. like.. i love them to death but that's just way too damn long hahah. anyway, they are wonderful and no matter how many times i see them, watching them on stage will always make me smile.

ONE HUNDRED & SEVEN - october eighth at chain - a bunch of shitty bands + kris roe. we stayed inside for maybe the first song of each band and ended up leaving because they were all pretty awful. hahaha. it was so sad, but kris roe made up for everything we dealt with because his set was wonderful. i was worried about how much i would recognize of his setlist because i only really know so long astoria all that well but he played quite a few songs off of that, including "the hero dies in this one." :) that made me a very very happy camper. at one point he started to play an older song that apparently has the same chord progression as a lot of other mainstream hits because he rattled off into a medley that included U2, bush, miley cyrus and a bit of "closing time" by semisonic. that last one tripped me out a little considering my top two choices for senior quotes were between the ataris and a line from the semisonic song. not the best overall show i've been to by any stretch, but kris roe's part of it was definitely awesome.

ONE HUNDRED & EIGHT - october seventeenth at active in irvine - takota played an acoustic set. we started out at the wrong active store and had to rush over, thinking we were going to miss the thing completely but we arrived in time to hear turn up the radio, satellite, just before morning, a little honesty<3, style="font-style: italic;">ivory tower and now the new record version. i've said it a million times and i'll say it a million more, this band is so worth listening to.

ONE HUNDRED & NINE - october twenty second at the glasshouse - the status, valencia, the matches, and bayside. the status was fun. kinda cutesy pop rock. not the most original thing i've ever heard, but they were good at it. i'd see them again. valencia was great as always. love them so much. i was hoping to hear listen up but ohwellz. the matches were fun too. i've seen them twice now and they're pretty interesting. kinda rough, edgy, but still melodic. and they encouraged everyone to go out and vote which was nice. very entertaining. bayside was great too. the entire crowd was singing along with every song. this was a great show all around for crowd involvement actually, which ends up being one of my favorite things about shows every time. very very good.

ONE HUNDRED & TEN - october twenty fifth at san diego house of blues - same show as the one above this. unfortunately i missed valencia's set because the show started before schedule. i caught the matches and bayside and i talked to all the guys except max. i got them to sign my cd. :) and i talked to them all on my own, without any help! yay me. i also got hit on by a drunk guy. interesting night. ALSO, if anyone wanted to know the setlist because valencia played the same one both nights (i asked): where did you go?, three thousand miles, the closest that i am to living life on the edge, better be prepared, holiday, all at once, and the space between. :)