It would be hot as Haiti’s for The Killers concert and they weren’t lying. It felt like I was trapped in a sauna with scores of people surrounding me and incredibly stuffy it was hard to breathe, but who cares… I was FINALLY seeing The Killers. Ever since they hit the music scene, I’ve been waiting ever so patiently for them to come to Raleigh or anywhere in the state of North Carolina. My dreams came true on August 12th when they performed at Red Hat Amphitheater.
Due to the insane heat we had to get some “air” which basically meant we needed to get out of the massive crowd. While we were standing off to the side a man came out of the pit and ripped his wristband off and proceeded to give it to us. For the remained of the show we took turns going in the pit to get an up close + personal view. It was oh-so amazing. I felt like I was on cloud 45,985 watching Brandon Flowers commandeer the stage. The only downside of the night was the heat, it was rather unbearable, but we mustered through it!
Not my best concert photo, but here’s Brandon Flowers of The Killers. Swoon.
Maybe I’m still trying to process the L’il Wayne + T.I. concert or maybe I’m in denial that I was at a concert venue with filled with hot messes. Nonetheless, this is a belated post.
I suppose I’ll start from the very beginning.
Of course there had to be a torrential downpour before the concert. Not cool. Luckily we came prepared with ponchos and raincoats. As we sat in the car at Walnut Creek Amphitheater waiting for the rain to ease up we couldn’t help but watch in horror all the tragically dressed girls getting out of their cars. (A little bit about Walnut Creek; it’s a massive outdoor venue which I despise and it’s like walking through the shire like on Lord of the Rings). Like I said earlier, it was POURING rain… girls were emerging from their cars in stripper shoes and what looked like outfits from 5-7-9 or _____. Most of them were wearing sizes that were too small or too short. My deer in the headlight expression made me realize, this is what’s wrong with society… it’s going downhill. Then again, maybe I’m getting old and that’s my age talking.
So as we were making the long trek to the gates, two girls fell. One of the girls was wearing heels… in the rain… walking on grass. She should have known better. The other girl was wearing white shorts and literally fell on her butt in a puddle. When she got up, let’s just say it looked like “oops I crapped my pants.” I laughed at both girls. I always laugh when people fall and I give permission to people to laugh at me when I fall.
Once we approached the gates… it was still raining and our feet were wet from all the rain (maybe my choice of wearing Havaianas flip flops wasn’t the smartest decision I made). As we were hanging out waiting in line a surge of people started coming towards us and I was sandwiched in a mass crowd. I’m still surprised I didn’t have a massive panic attack, I get claustrophobic easily. It was pure chaos. I had a couple to my left smoking cigarettes and blowing their cancer stick smoke into my face (apparently they weren’t raised with proper etiquette… don’t do that) and I was literally sandwiched between two dudes. I was pretty much violated. There was no such thing as “personal space” while we waited. While standing there, I thought to myself I’m going to get trampled and die. My parents would have to tell friends + family that I was trampled to death while waiting in line to see L’il Wayne + T.I. and that all was left of me was my North Face raincoat. Alas, I survived and made it safely in.
After we all got beers (we needed them after dealing with all the chaos), we decided to hangout in a gazebo to regain our composure and strategize our next move. It was there we met Gilligan from Gilligan’s Island.
Before Gilligan went on a 3 hour tour
Once we found a spot on the lawn everything was much better. T.I. put on an amazing performance (he’s my jam) and L’il Wayne is quite the talker. We left early because 1. We didn’t want to get caught in the mass chaos and, 2. We had a hankering for empanada and wanted Calavera.
Final Thoughts:
I doubt I’ll go back to Walnut Creek. It would have to be someone absolutely amazing for me to see to go back to that hell hole and I would purchase seats, not lawn seats. Speaking of Walnut Creek, they really need to work on maintaining their bathrooms. Not only did a majority of the toilets didn’t work, but I also saw a sink hanging out of the wall. Classy. I’d like to thank those I got to witness who fell down, thanks for the laughter. I needed it.
Ok, so I realize I’m still waaaaaay behind on all my blogging. Way behind. I saw Passion Pit 2 weeks ago… so yeah, I’m behind on everything.
So the day after I saw The National, I had tickets to see Passion Pit. (My last post was yesterday so that means I saw The National 2 weeks ago too). Enough about all my tardiness.
My gal pal, Natalie and I grabbed a quick bit to eat at the Hibernian in Cary (the one that didn’t burn down… too soon?) before we headed to Koka Booth Amphitheater to see Passion Pit. Due to time constraints with getting off work + going home to freshen up, we skipped the opening act. For the record, I don’t always skip the opening acts.
Passion Pit put on amazing show. I realize that I refer to every concert as “amazing”, but it’s true. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a bad concert. As for the Passion Pit concert I’d say I enjoyed their performance of Sleepyhead (my fav) Carried Away, Moth’s Wings and Take a Walk.
Here’s some of the pictures I took from the concert…
Passion Pit at Koka Booth in Cary. I realize this is a bit blurry, but I wanted to show what the over look of the stage was.
Passion Pit at Koka Booth in Cary.Passion Pit at Koka Booth in Cary.Passion Pit at Koka Booth in Cary.Passion Pit at Koka Booth in Cary.
Another great show in my books! My next concert is July 27th… brace yourselves…. I’m going to see Weezy aka L’il Wayne and T.I. I’m mainly going so I can go see T.I. Shout out to Groupon for $22 concert tickets!
FINALLY!! After a few years The National made it back to Raleigh. I can officially now mark them off my bucket list of bands I want to see. P.S. AMAZING show… I would definitely go to another one of their shows. I’m absolutely smitten with Matt’s voice, he could totally have his own radio show with that deep, smooth voice of his.
Ok, back to the show. I honestly wasn’t sure how the weather would pan out since we had thunderstorm warnings/ tornado watches out the night of the show. The skies cleared as soon as we arrived (I missed the first act) and it was smooth sailing from there!
Despite buying seats I still couldn’t see over all the tall people. They need to make a section at Red Hat Amphitheater for fun size people like myself. I always get stuck behind a guy that’s as tall as Shaq. Not cool. That’s what I call, “short girl problems.” Luckily I was able to shuffle around since there were some unsold seats around me and I got a good spot to see the band. Not only did I get entertainment from the band, but the 50-something year old man in front of me was dancing his heart out and was super crazy.
Here’s some highlights from The National show:
The National at Red Hat AmphitheaterThe National at Red Hat AmphitheaterSo Matt came out into the audience + walked right by me. This is a photo of him and since I spazzed out taking the picture this is what I got. Fail.
The National at Red Hat AmphitheaterThe National at Red Hat AmphitheaterThe National at Red Hat AmphitheaterThe National closing the show at Red Hat Amphitheater
The National closed out the show with Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks. You can check out the full video here (I didn’t record the whole song and let’s get real, I’m not a professional videographer). They are truly a beautiful band… amazing show!
The Killers are coming to Raleigh on August 12th (happy early birthday to me)! Y’all don’t know how excited I am about this concert. I’ll probably say this about all the concerts I’m going to this year, but I’ve been waiting for them to come to Raleigh since FOREVER! I pretty much wanted to do the “Carlton dance” once I secured my tickets, but thought it would be best if I didn’t break out in dance in the marketing department. I’ll save that dance for a rainy day or when our department needs a laugh.
Mr. Brandon Flowers, I’ll be seeing you in August!
Last night was my first concert of 2013 and boy was it amazing!
If you have never been to a Band of Horses show, you must drop what you’re doing immediately (when I say immediately I mean after you read my post) and then find tickets to one of their shows. You’ll thank me. Seriously, you will. This will mark the second time I’ve seen them perform (they’re officially tied with New Kids on the Block). Don’t tell them that, I doubt they would want to be associated with an 80’s boy band. I hope this blog post doesn’t ruin my street cred.
Back to last night’s show.
I’m pretty sure I went a little nuts when they played my FAVORITE song of theirs, The Funeral. When I saw them last year with My Morning Jacket, I’m pretty sure they closed the show with The Funeral (which was the perfect song to close the show with) so you can imagine my excitement when they included it in their set list. This leaves me to rate my top 5 concerts of all time (this could possibly change since I’ve got 6-7 more shows this year)
New Kids on the Block (yeah I know I’m being judged, but those guys can put on a good show AND they’ve still got it)
Like I said earlier in my post, go see Band of Horses. If you like them you can thank me, if you don’t then you need to listen to them again because you’re obviously missing out on something great.
Enjoy some of the pictures I took from last night’s show!
Band of Horses at The Ritz in RaleighBand of Horses at The Ritz in RaleighHe totally posed for me in this picture.Band of Horses at The Ritz in Raleigh
I’ve never been to Bonaroo or Coachella because I don’t think I could handle the insane crowds. I’m lucky if I can hang out at the NC State Fair for an hour without the crowd driving me nuts. In case y’all didn’t know I don’t celebrate massive crowds.
I’ve discovered a happy medium… go to three concerts in one week! Sounds reasonable, right?! On the upside I’ll be able to go home, sleep in my own bed, and take a shower in the comfort of my own home vs. camping out for multiple days in a row and probably get zero sleep. The only downside I can think of is having a terrible time getting out of bed the following day to go to work. I think I can do it! (Just as long is I live off of coffee and water).
For those of you curious as to what shows I’m going to…
6/10- The National at Red Hat Amphitheater. I bought seats for most of my concerts because frankly, I’m too old to be hanging out on the lawn.
6/11- Passion Pit at Koka Booth Amphitheater. Remember in the above statement when I said I was too old for lawn seats? Yeah, well I bought lawn seats for this show. Koka Booth is a small venue, so I think I should be able to see the actual performance (fingers crossed).
6/13- The Lumineers at Koka Booth Amphitheater. Ok, so I had jazz hands when I was purchasing pre-sale tickets and I meant to purchase lawn seats (again, Koka Booth is a small venue.. blah, blah, blah), but it turns out I bought pit tickets. Fail! I guess the upside is I can be super close to the band that’s if I don’t get trampled.
Needless to say I’ll have different views at each concert… lawn, seats and the pit. I wonder if I can score backstage passes to see the JoBros when they come to town…
I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty excited about some of the shows coming to town this year. I just bought pre-sale tickets to see Fun. at Red Hat Amphitheater and Band of Horses at the Ritz in May. I also learned that The Postal Service will be coming to town this summer too. The things I find out on Twitter is enough for me to spazz out at work.
I have a wish list of shows I’m itching to see and my fingers and toes will be crossed until they come to town.