doctor_tony and I went and saw Brand New together for the fourth time last night. As usual, they were awesome. Rach braved the crazy roads to come and get me and we arrived alive, which was pleasant! My ears are still ringing, which is a natural effect to a Brand New show. I don’t care how old it makes me seem, next time we see them I am wearing ear plugs. I’m too old for this shit, I’m over the hill here.

The only bummer of the night for me was that they didn’t play my favourite song (Play Crack The Sky), but I’m over it.

After that I came home and Roomieface, her boyfriend, and I ordered pizza because we’ve been living off of perogies and popcorn and will continue to do so until Monday, when I go home to the parental’s. Tonight my friend Mike’s band is playing a show downtown at the Kathedral so Roomieface and I are heading down there because a bunch of kids from my class are going and its our last hoorah of the semester, which ended for us yesterday.

Projekt Revolution: Since we both had to work, Julie and I only made it there in time to see HIM, Taking Back Sunday, My Chemical Romance and Linkin Park. HIM we sort of listened to from afar, as we were wandering around the grounds aimlessly, not interested in sitting down yet. Taking Back Sunday were terrific, as per usual. I really love them live. The drummer and guitarist were both away (due to back troubles and a new baby, respectively) and were replaced by dudes in other bands. Adam talked about how the band had gone to see Justin Timberlake live at the Air Canada Centre the night before (which is true, since their buses were parked outside of Julie's building which is just down the street) and Fred played Human Behavior by Michael Jackson which was just hilarious.

Work: Tomorrow I start my last week of full time work at The Country Club, and while I am beyond excited for school to start again, I'm also going to miss seeing everybody every day. On wednesday about fifteen of us from the Turf Department went bowling, which resulted in a lot of early afternoon drinking and fun.

The Wedding: My cousin Collin got married yesterday, and it was just beautiful. I got to see all of my family (on my Dad's side, at least, though my moms cousin Liz did show up to see her) which was just awesome. Made me wish we saw each other a lot more, though Christmas is just around the corner.... I guess. Pictures are at the Flickr.

Random shiz:
- I'm coming home next weekend! Saturday morning, so (Rachel and Brittany) we should do something Saturday night. Call Patrick, Christina, Amanda, and anyone else!
- I'm addicted to Arrested Development... why was this show canceled?
- I'm reading Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer... the main character really pisses me off. A lot.

Rachel and I went and saw Brand New last night for time #3, and we ran into a kid from high school. My ears are still ringing, but its always worth it. The opening band was amazing, there were like 90 of them! They sang about cute things like bugs and gardens and I don't even know. Oh, Jesse Lacey, you sure can pick 'em.

Holy Hell. I just got back from seeing Rancid. Anybody who knew me well when I was fourteen knows that Rancid was my life. Matt Freeman was the reason I picked up a bass guitar. I had all the CDs and knew all the songs and I just loved them. Needless to say, they will always have a place in my heart. I saw them play Warped in 2003 and figured that was it, I'd never seen them again. Don't ask me why I thought this, I just did. I've seen Lars and the Bastards since (and met Lars, mwah ha ha) but seeing them tonight was just fantastic. And it was all thanks to Lars getting sick in September, which is a horrible thing to say.

Shan was lovely enough to take me along with her. I slept through the first band, dozed through the second. Apparently I'm reverting back to when I used to nap frequently at shows. I'd had a long day of waking up at 6am, going to school, hanging around with people until four, meeting up with Julie at five and finally meeting up with Shan at six. That calls for a nap, okay.

Anyway, back to Rancid. Wow. Aside from Brett being mysteriously replaced by Branden Steineckert (formerly of The Used) it was everything I imagined and more. They were all amazing and Matt's solo during Maxwell Murder (the specific song/solo that made me want to play bass) actually left me slackjawed and wishing those lessons I took had paid off. Lars and Tim are still obviously an old, gay, married couple and Branden seemed beyond excited to be there. They played a bunch of my favourites (and they actually played St. Mary, holy cow I love that song) and they had videos playing in the background the entire time of stuff like clips from Evil Dead and other horror flicks. Fucking cool.

Now its time to wash the smell of other people off of me and rest up for my English exam tomorrow.

So I'm taking a break from writing a research paper due tomorrow to say that Rach and I went to see Brand New tonight, for the second time this year, a-thank-you. I met her downtown after hanging around aimlessly at school for a while and then we had dinner. Now, because we were going to Arrow Hall, everything HAD to go wrong. First we couldnt pay for parking because it wouldnt take a fifty. Then we got extremely lost. Driving with Rachel is an extreme sport already, and when she's lost... wow. Good times were had, though. I thought for a while that we were gonna miss out on little Jesse and we would have to get second class sass from Chris from Dashboard Confessional. We made it, though, after some random dude in some random gas station gave her some random directions.

The show was great. There are really no other words for it. We love Jesse. We also love Vinnie, especially since he looks like Spock. They surprisingly didnt play too many new songs (thank God) so I was pretty into it. So was the really tall guy standing in front of me, but whatevs. We were going to wait for Sexy Dashboard is hot like fire to come in, but we opted for going home and listening to their CD instead. Cause we're cool like that. Now, its back to my paper! Unless somebody wants to write it for me before 8:55AM......

Holy crap. I've been so busy in the last few weeks, and it all ended off this week with two shows and a visit from my beloved Love Monkey, Erin. Monday night after my huge presentation (which I got a respectable and undeserved 80% on) I came home, napped, and met Erin downtown at the Mod Club where we saw The Living End just a few months ago. That was weird. The show itself was wonderful. I dont usually drink at concerts but Erin kept feeding me drinks so the night was pretty good. They played to a crowd that was about half the size of the last one, which made it all the more enjoyable for us. I will never get sick of that band. Erin and I met Chris Cheney after, thanks to some random dude we met in a Ramones shirt. I took some videos that I'm going to put up on YouTube probably. I got like no pictures cause we werent that close and my camera is not that good.



Then, last night, after getting not nearly enough sleep on Monday night or Tuesday night I went to see 30 Seconds To Mars with Jena (a girl from my class) and her boyfriend. The show was origionally supposed to be in October at the Guvernment but it was delayed until last night and moved to Kool Haus. I stayed at school until 7pm with a few friends because going home at 2pm after Announcing Skills (which I finished with an A) seemed pointless. So I made my way down and got there at a good time, since the doors were set to open at 8pm. The line moved really fast, which was impressive. I'm not the worlds biggest 30STM fan. I like their albums.

They came on when they were supposed to, which Jena and Matt informed me was really odd for them. Other things I found odd: they only played for an hour, they didnt do an encore, and they stayed behind to meet fans? The show was good and Jared Leto is a pretty good front man. During The Kill he jumped off stage and ran through the crowd right past us, and later on Matt mentioned how much of a 'sweaty little man' Jared is. I concur. Now I'm going to sleep cause I have to get up at 6am, and I'm totally going home this weekend. Finally!

Nobody I know went to school today. I woke up at eleven to a call from Veronica and multiple text messages from others who had skipped, too. The cause? For Chris, Stan, Mike and Derek it was Guns and Roses. For Vee, I don’t even know. But for me, the culprits were the gents and lady in Heavens.
I wasn’t really as excited as I should have been, since I’d had the most hectic day ever, but in the end it was a great show. I met up with mailboxarson, Sarah (who I met waiting to see Alkaline Trio in May), and Julie (who I met a few weeks ago waiting for My Chem).

Anyway, the openers. I usually hate openers, and I almost didn’t get up to try to get to the front because I wanted to sit through them but I’m really happy I went up because they were awesome. Darker My Love were a really pleasant surprise and I adored the hell out of them. I’d never heard them, so I thought the fact that we could barely hear when the singer was singing was a shitty sound guys fault, but upon hearing the album it’s meant to sound like that. Even when I couldn’t hear them, I was thoroughly enjoying their sound.



( darker my love pix )

Heavens were awesome. At first it didn’t seem like many people were going to come to the show, since by the time we got there at 7:30pm there were only like twelve people inside the venue, but the end turn out was pretty good. They played amazing live, and the guitarist Nate was fricken cute as a bat’s ear. I took way to many pictures for my own good, and I’ll probably keep uploading most of them to my Flickr when I get back from the audio suite later. I took videos of them playing Annabelle, Patent Pending, and I Wanna Be Adored by Stone Roses. The sound is kind of shitty though, blame my camera.




( a few heavens pix )

So I just got back from seeing The Killers for the first time and they blew me away. They played a bit of older stuff and a bit of newer stuff (which was awesome, since the new album has definitely grown on me). Brandon Flowers is one sassy sassy man. Pervstache aside, he was very beautiful. I watched a few minutes of them on I&I last night and was worried they wouldnt sound very good but they really were good, save for the between song talk which I couldnt make out at all. Then again, who cares what he has to say, he's pretty.



How gorgeous.

After that Britt and I were forced onto an adventure. Has anybody seen the movie Dark City? In it the main character is trying to find his way out of the city, which is inivitably on a space ship, and everywhere he goes there is no way out. That was us. The DVP was closed (for no reason, obviously) and we couldnt find our way home. I think we tried three seperate exits and spotted eleven Starbucks locations. Eventually we went like two hours out of our way just to get home and now I'm not even tired anymore, but I have a matress on the floor calling my name.

Got back from Toronto about forty-five minutes ago. Danger Erin and I went to see The Living End, finally. We’ve only been dying to see them since we were fifteen. The first time they came around was with Jet, and reasons I don’t even remember (probably us being broke, drivers licence-less and young) prevented us from seeing them then. Then I believe there was a second time we were supposed to see them but they weren’t allowed in the country. But, yes. We finally saw them and it was amazing. I think Erin had fun, judging by the sheer amount of alcohol she consumed and the dancing she partook in.

I also saw two people having sex in the handicap bathroom on the train on the way home. This poor girl went to use the bathroom, opened the door, caught an old couple (well, not old, maybe 35?) in there getting as horizontal as they could in such a minimal space. First and last time I’ll ever sit on the lower level of the train.

( There really aren’t any words for the performance, so lets use some visual aids. )

In other news, I was sweating my balls (not that I have balls) off today and I’m going to New Jersey in six days.

Rach and I saw Brand New last night at Kool Haus and they were fantastic. I got into them later than almost everyone else in the world, so I'd never seen them before they disappeared or whatever for a billion years. I really like them but their show was better than I imagined. I don't think I'd ever seen the venue that packed before. My ears are still ringing.

I came home, checked my email, and was in bed at 1am so I could get up at 6:45am to head to the gym with Laura. I got a months membership so I could go with her until I move away to school. I dont get enough exercise since, you know, I'm not working this summer and I knew that I would be dead the first few days of school so this seemed like a good idea. It has been. I actually like it quite a bit.

( Jacked from Jenna D. )

The plan for today is to hang out with little Britt. I believe we are watching Dead Poets Society.

So I just got back from the first real family outing we've had since our trip to the zoo twelve years ago. My brother was given tickets to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young a few days ago because a bunch of tickets were given to the people who volunteer at Oxfam, and he took us.

We met up with Derek at Union and went for dinner at Jack Astors, which was really good. I'm not just saying that because they accidentally gave me a free gin and tonic, either. I only had fries but they were delicious. You get to draw all over the table and their was a huge painting of Bubbles from the Trailer Park Boys hanging from the ceiling. On the way back my dad reminisced about how he watched them put the top on the CN tower, which he has never been inside. I havent either, actually. Clearly I have never lived.

The show itself was amazing. It's sort of surreal seeing a band you've been listening to your literally your entire life. You can tell those guys have been at it for a while, and I was really just impressed by their show. They played a lot of newer stuff and stuff that they'd done separately, but a lot of the classics too. There were these drunk guys behind us that wouldn't shut the fuck up through the entire first half, but by the second half (after we scolded them) they mellowed out a little. I think they were too stoned to realize where they were at that point.

There was no opening band, and those guys played from 8pm until 11pm. You dont see a lot of bands that are younger that have that sort of stamina. You could tell they were just having fun. Near they end of the show they played a new tune that was completely anti-Bush, with videos of him in the background and stuff. It was pretty glarly (for lack of a better word).

KEEP ON ROCKIN' IN THE FREE WORLD! Oh Neil Young, Canada loves you.

NOY was awesome tonight. Ja and I caught the bus to get into Union at about 7:40, and we made it there and got into our place about five minutes before the band came on stage, so our timing was impeccable. Jordan had never heard them, or even of them, and she was really into it. I was actually surprised at how responsive the crowd was. Brandon at one point thanked us for being respectful, so that was cute. Jordan and I spent almost the entire time watching Ryan dancing and playing his bass. He is pretty hypnotic.

Next was The Dillinger Escape Plan, but all I remember about them was there was a dude in a pink shirt and the light show was obnoxious. We watched about four songs from AFI before heading home. We ran into my brother at Union Station and he was drunkenly having a Harvey's burger, so we had some company on the train.

Now NOY needs to do some headlining dates here.

This day was so astounding that I'm not even going to go into detail. So allow me to point form it:

-Meet and Greet with the band, they were amazing. It was really relaxed and they said it was difficult getting into Canada and Skiba said they have to pay ahead of time now.
-Derek said at the show the night before not many people were familiar with Goddammit, which I definitely felt at last nights show.
-Jenna D. arrived late! No good university student. It was good to see her since I handn't in almost a year and a half.
-It started raining right as the doors opened.
-Met some nice people in line, got some emails, gave mine. Sweet.
-The set was amazing. All of Goddammit as promised and a bunch of favourites that some others scratched their heads at.
-Went back to Jenna's, was very tired. I ate for the first time that day (mm, poptarts) and then crashed on the couch.
-Woke up and watched season one of an old favourite of ours Titus. That show still cracks me up. I had completely forgotten that his girlfriend on the show was Libby on Lost.
-Got home at like 4:30pm and had pizza.

Happy two-four, people.

Last night was Taking Back Sunday at the Kool Haus for Rachel and I, and we were both pretty excited. The Kool Haus is definitely one of my favourite venues in Toronto. It is a good size and it has a disco ball. We left at fourish for the doors to open at six, and we got there in something like fifty minutes so we parked and made our way to Subway, where we ate fresh. Rachel has Subway-dar so she could smell it before I even know where we were going. She is that good. So we wasted about an hour getting to Subway and back and when we got there, there was no line. We chillaxed in the bar for a pretty long time. One of the opening bands didnt play, so we kind of twiddled our thumbs. I cant even remember the name of the opener. Never mind, they were called Chiodos and are apparently on Adam Lazzara's roommates label. Anyway, I didn’t get into them but we watched from our cushioned bar seat.

We watched a couple of their songs until this girl in a short mini-jean skirt appeared with her friends and amused about nine of us with showing her ass by accident. Her skirt kept riding up and it was to the point where the music was drowned out and all we could focus on was the horror of this girls ass hanging out for all to see. It was a painful display and when she finally pulled her skirt back down the music came back and then they finished. All members of the band were limp wristed, but no so much as Adam is.

Then we made our way into the crowd because I think Rach's spidey sense was telling her that TBS would be on next. I thought there was going to be a second opener so I wasn’t convinced, but I was wrong because then they came on and it is really a wonder why I hated those guys as long as I did. One of my worse personality traits is I'll hate something just because everyone else likes it, and a lot of the time I am missing out, and I definitely was with these guys. I saw them with Blink and The Used back in 2004 and wasn’t really impressed but its hard to be impressed when you're in seats and the dudes on stage are the size of your pink nail.

Rachel and I got separated almost instantly and she was pulled to the front and I hung back for a little while before trying to go and find her. I'm going to take a minute here to complain about girls who have long hair. If you have long hair and you plan on going in the mosh pit or anywhere near the mosh pit, put it up because nobody wants to taste it/feel it when you're jumping up and down squealing like a spazoid. Disgusting. Enough to give Howie Mandel a freaking seizure.

They sounded great. The little sign/light thing they had going on was pretty sweet. Near the beginning somebody threw their shoe up and Matt Rubano put it on, insisting it was his size after Adam told him it wasn’t. Then more people started throwing shoes and Adam jokingly told people to stop throwing things, and pointed out Matt's head (which he bludgeoned with his swinging microphone in England) and said threatened to fight back.

I can't even remember the entire setlist, but they played for a good hour and a half, I think. From the new album they played: MakeDamnSure, What If Feels Like To Be A Ghost?, Liar (Which is my favourite from the new album, and they had apparently only played it once before), and Spin. Other highlights were: Timberwolves At New Jersey, You're So Last Summer, Bike Scene, Cute Without The E, and Great Romances Of The 20th Century. They encored with: You Know How I Do, and One-Eighty By Summer.

Sassatron Lazzara was beautiful. Rachel and I left far more smitten than we were when we arrived.

Fourteen days until Alkaline Trio.
One month, one week, three days until Nightmare Of You.
Two months, two weeks, three days until Brand New.

Last nights concert was astounding. Britt and I got there early enough to get wristbands to be on the floor, which in our state of sleep deprivation and being on a serious colds doorstep, we were almost bummed about. We wanted to sit and be lazy. Brittany got a t-shirt and waited in line for something like forty minutes while I twiddled my thumbs, tapped my feet, cringed at scenesters and had my shoes complimented.

After that we found our way to the floor and I was surprised how few people were down there near the stage. We set up camp in the middle of the floor and before Franz Ferdinand came on and ended up pretty close pretty easily. We missed the The Cribs while waiting for the shirt, so we just waited for Franz and texted back and forth with Laura, who had gotten seats with her friend Josh, Josh's sister, and company.

I was never really fond of Franz Ferdinand; every time I listened to them I got distracted, but I didnt hate them so I was still excited to see them but they really ended up being a pleasant surprise show wise. The light show was sort of blinding but they had a really good energy and I ended up dancing my face partially off through their entire set, even though I only knew about half of the songs. They were just really good and at the end Britt and I were both more than happy with the performance. Laura said from the stands that she didn’t like them as much, but from where we were they were amazing and I would probably see them again if the chance arose. Kudos to you, Franz. The singer was also very sassy, despite looking like someone we all hated in high school. His was a musical sass, though. At one point there were like three people drumming and the little keyboard player was shaking his little Scottish booty. Quite enjoyable.

For Death Cab’s performance, there aren’t even words. They brought these random little houses to set up on stage which ended up having lights inside. Ben opened solo with Passenger Seat and by the time he was finished with just that I was basically smitten. They were so amazing live that even the fire alarm randomly going off and making recorder noises for something like fifteen minutes couldn’t even stop the rock. On that note, why are fire alarms in Canada so retarded? I thought it was just the one that Clarke that was stupid (sounding like someone in the hall banging the bell with their pen) but the one at Ricoh sounded like someone blowing obnoxiously into a recorder every two seconds. Cracks were made by Gibbard about Toronto's finest. We were given the option of leaving for five minutes and coming back or playing through the noise, and the crowd decided to play through it. Ben gave the order to turn the volume up to "ear bleeding" levels and they kept playing and it was still amazing. We were so close that the sound wasn’t really a problem while they played.

They rocked. We almost died. Brittany and I took turns wanting to give up and sit down, but luckily we never did at the same time and managed to keep each other on our feet. We would have regretted losing our spot, too, and right as we were about to both give in Gibbard announced it would be the last song so we sucked it up and danced what remained of our faces off. The end. Until encore! Gibbard came back alone and played I Will Follow You Into The Dark and everyone did their cellphone and lighter thing and I was so beautiful. Everything else is a pleasant blur and Britt and I made it home alive, somehow. She had to wake up at like 6am to go back to school and I woke up at like 1pm.

So after being sick with a weird 24 hour flu all day yesterday and a little bit sick today, Brittany I made our way into Toronto. Sadly, little Rachel was sick and couldnt make it out with us. The show was flipping amazing, though, and I dont think we have ever been as excited for a concert. We parked in Scarborough because we're awesome and took the subway. We went to McDonalds because we were hungry and had lots of time and I inhaled my fries like a mofo becuase I hadn't eaten any solids since Thursday night. So we mosied on in there and after we sold Rachel's ticket to some lady with an accent we sat down, and Brittany spotted Brandon at the bar. I think the conversation went something like this: "Is that Brandon at the bar?" "Heck yes it is!" "He really does look that dead.." We then sat there and acted creepy for the remainder of the wait. I won't even repeat the rubbish that came out of our mouths. What I will say is Ryan Heil was reading to Brandon from the newspaper and Brittany came to the clever conclusion that Mr. Reilly is illiterate. But still sassy.

The show was amazing. While Astra Heights played we chillaxed at a table next to this amazing gay guy and his friends. They were pretty a pretty good band, and the bass player was dancing around and being cute. It was quite endearing. Nobody really went up to the stage to watch them except this lone dude with a camera. Nightmare Of You were second and they rocked our asses off. Britt and I were in second row and we were both camera whoring to the best of our abilities (which is not very good in my case). They played My Name Is Trouble, which is little Britt's favourite song by them, and she got so excited I think maybe she peed herself. I took a shitty video of them playing Thumbelina. If you look closely you can see the blur that is Ryan Heil rocking out with his bass adorably. Aww.

After they finished there was no way that She Wants Revenge could have surpassed them so we booked it out of there and on our way back to the subway Brittany saw some of the VJ hopefuls. Not Sean, though. I'm rambling now, but its 4am so I'm allowed.

So about an hour ago I got back from the Fall Out Boy concert. Let me start off by saying that I am not a Fall Out Boy fan. I am, however, a fan of Rachel and Brittany and will probably always go everywhere they tell me to. I hadn't been to a concert since Alkaline Trio in June, I think, so I was happy to go. I worked today and it was completely uneventful, except for finding out Amanda was a big Rancid fan, so we talked about that all day. I told her about meeting Lars, and how wasted he was, and she told me about taking her preppy friends into the mosh pits. Good times. I felt sort of sick all day though, so I hoped I wouldnt vom at the concert tonight, cause thats just not classy.

We made it to The Docks in pretty good time, thanks to a couple of wonderful U-turns on Brittanys part. I was right in thinking it would take a while for the doors to open and we got there at pretty much the perfect time, cause right after we got in and went to the bathroom (which had a soap and towel lady, classssssssss) Panic! At The Disco came on. They were probably the highlight of the night and put on the best show, so it sort of sucked that they only played six or seven songs. I think Pete Wentz has something to do with them, damn him. When we watched them this creepy security guy was being a creep and was being anal about the railing which made us all want to lean against it even more, but due to his extreme creepiness (and fugly ponytail) we went further into the crowd to watch Boys Night Out.

They werent good. The only thing I liked about them as the keyboard girl, because she was dancing like crazy and had a nice voice. After that we went to stand by the bar and somehow Rachel ended up with water. Motion City Soundtrack was good, I sort of knew their stuff so they were enjoyable. Justin Pierre has crazy hair, which amused me endlessly. The Starting Line was also good, but I was a little bummed that Kenny didnt have girl hair anymore. I have a hair thing tonight, clearly.

We waited and waited and waited, and the little sluts around us all got rowdy while we waited for FOB to come on. Oh, I forgot to mention Rachel wants to lick Pete's teeth, shes such a freak. I love her, though, despite her creepiness. Maybe even more so because of it. Who knows. Anyway, Fall Out Boy werent bad. A show is a show and they definitely got the little bitches (and loud guys yelling into their girlfriends ears) excited. I was still feeling sort of sick though after a while and so I went to sit down and then like five minutes later Britt and Rach came and we left early because according to Rach, “Food > Pete Wentz.” I couldnt agree more.

We went to Wendy's, and the kid who worked there was basically a black Napoleon Dynamite, THE END.

The concert was amazing. The new songs are amazing live, and they also played some older songs like My Little Needle, Nose Over Tail, Clavicle, and Maybe I'll Catch Fire. It's all sort of a blur but I remember them playing Emma, the end of Blue in the Face, Time To Waste, Mercy Me, Jaked On Green Beers, Sadie, I Was A Prayer, Settle for Satin, Your Neck, Burn, The Poison, Back To Hell, Warbrain and they played This Could Be Love very last. I can't remember anymore, but yeah, it was awesome. Matt said something about being kicked out of Canada but then just driving two hours down the border and getting in. The sound was shit, but the show was still amazing. I cant remember shit about the opening band except they had a girl singer, and Rufio was okay. I wouldnt listen again. I like the Opera House, it's a pretty good size.

The rest of the visit that was spent at the house was overly shitty. It sort of sucks when you go and visit someone and you are basically a distraction from the damn computer. When we were there, I was pretty much watching TV alone, or laying in bed listening to a clicking keyboard until I eventually just went downstairs to read, since it was clear I was not getting to bed before 5am. I should be used to it after the last four visits, but it wont happen again so I'm over it.

Now I'm going to wait until 5 and call Rachel before she has time to nap, and hopefully make plans for later on this week because I actually have a few bucks for once.