Contagious Insanity

Musical nerdy joy!

May 29, 2011 • 2 Comments

I don’t remember if I posted over here about it, but I went to a concert on Friday.

What concert?

Panic! At the Disco, that’s what concert.

You remember this post where I said I wanted to see them live to see if they were just as theatrical as in their videos? Well, the stage looked AWESOME, and the band sounded AWESOME, and Brendon randomly showed up in the upper left balcony and danced onstage and messed with the band and the audience, and they all wore adorable suits and bow ties, so the lack of stuff like bizarre stage tricks and/or pyrotechnics really doesn’t matter, now does it? Besides, we were indoors with hundreds of people crowded on the floor, pyrotechnics would’ve been impossible to do. x]

Um.

The opening acts, fun. and Foxy Shazam were great. Foxy Shazam, I might even add, was epic. Lemme see if I can post this video…

As you can see, Foxy Shazam was wild. Seriously, they were absolutely nuts. The singer, Eric, would do these crazy stunts — like standing on his head and eating cigarettes and randomly spazzing out and threatening that “After the show, I’m going to leap into the audience…like a crowd shark” — and the rest of the band was the same way. They were SO much fun to watch.

fun. was pretty good, too. While Foxy seemed like they all had characters they were playing onstage, fun. felt more like the band members were actually being themselves, y’know? They didn’t really have a set genre, but they did a little bit of everything. They also told us that Panic! was actually a bunch of zombies that wanted to eat our brains. Luckily, we all escaped alive.

And when Panic! finally came on. Ohmygoodness.

They started off with “Ready To Go,” which happens to be one of my favorite songs, actually. My video for this turned out bad, so I’ll spare you. But ohhhh my gosssshhhh. <3

And the third song they did? “The Ballad of Mona Lisa.” I do actually have an alright video of that, so I’ll post it as soon as it’s uploaded.

I have more details and longer stories over on my other blog, but pictures are only over here. x]

^^ This is Adam and Candice, two of my friends who went with me. We were in line to buy merch, and Adam just kind of randomly put his sunglasses on and said, “I’m just gonna wear my sunglasses all night, just watch me. Like at a rave or something.”

^^ Foxy Shazam’s lead guitar, trumpet player, singer, and drummer, from left to right. The trumpet player was entertaining, too. Butttttt mostly Eric. x]

^^ If you look behind the evil hand that kept blocking the flash, you’ll see Nate the Great ((as Eric called him “because it’s a detective book,”)) the lead singer of fun. And that sign above the drummer? It flashed different colors in time with the drummer’s beats. AAAWWWWWW YEAHHHHHH.

^^ Candice, Ali, me, and Adam waiting for Panic! to come on. Literally, we were squished so close to all the other people that we could barely put our arms down. It was so hot, it wasn’t even funny. We came out dripping sweat. xP

^^ Adam’s “OHMYGOSHTHEBANDISWALKINGONSTAGE!!!!1!1!” face. Except they weren’t actually. x]

^^ The techies finishing up setting up the stage for Panic! At the Disco. YOU SEE HOW DELICIOUSLY STEAMPUNK IT IS?!

^^ SPENCER ON DRUMS AND BRENDON ON KEYS. 8D Sorry it’s so blurry…I couldn’t really hold the camera still. x] Pretty sure this was during “Ready To Go.”

^^ “If I was a superhero, I’d be Distraction Man so I could move 20 feet from the stage without any of you noticing.” Brendon performing with his acoustic guitar in the upper left balcony.

^^ Brendon and the band’s never-introduced bass player. I think this was the best shot I got all night. ((It’s now my desktop, haha.))

^^ “Past your bedtime, Atlanta?” This was during the encore, when they performed Kansas’ “Carry On, My Wayward Son” and the last song from their new album.

Ah! Here’s the video for “The Ballad Of Mona Lisa.”

Oh my goodness. We had SO much fun. SOOO much fun. I’d definitely go see them again; I might even go to a show just to see Foxy Shazam. x]

We danced and got our feet stepped on and run into by, um, everyone. We sang at the top of our lungs until our throats were sore. We couldn’t hear for hours after the show. We got beer spilled on us and I still have a random cut on my right thumb.

It was the best Friday night ever.

Category: Life in Technicolor Tagged: music, panic! at the disco, you can dance if you want to

Not. Amused.

May 12, 2011 • No Comments

Dear American Idol,

I thought it was going to be different this time.

The first two years we met, my pick for the winner, Taylor Hicks, well, my pick won. Don’t judge me, I was young and naive. What a wonderful introduction gift, I thought. I think I’ll stick around for a while.

The next year, my pick, Blake Lewis, made it to the finals, but came in second. That’s okay, I thought, you win some you lose some.

Then when a certain David Cook won it all, I decided I was going to stay and that the voters weren’t all mindless pop zombies. Because frankly, David Cook’s awesome. I mean, just listen to him. He’s awesome.

The next year, things started going downhill. Danny Gokey, um, well he kind of lost. And Adam “Man-Skank” Lambert and Kris “Adorkable” Allen were in the finals, so it wasn’t all bad, I guess, especially since Kris won.

Last year, after Lilly Scott was voted off in the prelim-prelims, I didn’t give a crap. Whoo, Lee Dewyze won. Big deal.

This year, I was going to call it off. I was about to say “We’re through, American Idol. I don’t want to see you anymore.”

But then.

James Durbin.

I kind of liked him in the beginning, though Casey Abrams’ beard was quite distracting. But then James performed Elton John’s “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting.” And set the piano on fire. Let me repeat: he set the freaking piano on fire.

But what really got me was when Mr. Durbin performed one of my all-time favorite songs, “Uprising” by Muse. He had a drumline. And an epic coat. And pulled off the song after being challenged by Matthew Bellamy himself.

I was sold.

And I was convinced that James was the greatest since David Cook. I was once again convinced that your voters weren’t mindless pop zombies and knew a good musician when they heard one, not to mention recognized a true performer.

How foolish I was.

Tonight, at approximately 8:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time, James Durbin was voted off of American Idol, leaving two country singers, Lauren Alaina and Scotty McCreery, and Haley Reinhart.

Have I ever mentioned that I despise country music?

I am so, so disappointed in you.

We’re through, American Idol. I don’t want to see you anymore. Time and time again you have disappointed me with your shunning of the unique ((though welcoming Steven Tyler as a judge was a baby step. The man is unique, to put it politely.))

But that’s it. Unless you can prove to me that a rocker and a performer can win once more, our relationship is hereby nullified and over.

I go to listen to rock music.

Good day, sir.

Aja

Category: Silver Hammers Tagged: american idol, muse, music

Prom!!

May 1, 2011 • 1 Comment

Prom was Friday night. AND IT WAS SO MUCH FUN. 8D

((Um, before I go any further, two things. ONE, I’m blogging significantly more over on my other blog, at http://pictureifyouwill.blogspot.com if you wanna catch up with my boring life and see me spaz over music and movies and random GIFs. x] And TWO, my ‘b’ key is kinda screwy, so I apologize in advance for any typos involving the lack of the letter ‘b.’ That is all.))

I got this really pretty black and pink dress, and we made a matching feather clip to hold my hair back. I’m trying to find pictures, so gimme a sec.

Ah! Here we go.

I love this dress so much. :3 I almost got one that was the same exact style only it was completely black, but I liked this one better. It’s the first short formal dress I’ve ever had…all the other dances I’ve been to, I’ve worn long dresses.

OH!! And I got black heels and wore them for a significant amount of time and didn’t fall over and kill myself! Huzzah!!

Um, here’s my hair clip…

Winter and her mom came to pick me up around 3:30, and we drove to the place where the dance was going to be held to wait for the others. We took TONS of pictures ((my friends are very much picture people, and it kind of weirds me out sometimes. o3o))

This is my favorite group shot, by the way. ^_^

So after Lindsey, Imani, Chris, Jeanette and their respective dates ((um, except Chris and Jeanette, they didn’t have dates)) showed up, we all got in the limo.

Oh yes. :3

We met a bunch of other people — Beth and Ben, Sam and his date, Chapman and his two dates, Angel, and I think that’s it — at Longhorn for dinner and oh my gosh. It was divine.

Winter and I split the delicious filet and salmon ((and the price, haha)) and everyone on our end of the table had some of Jeanette and Imani’s macaroni and cheese ((which is absolutely amazing; it has bacon in it. 8D)) Like, the steak was so tender, it was insane. And the salmon was AWESOME. There are no words. Heeheehee. :3

But they kind of messed up our checks and some of us didn’t get our food for a while. So what did the staff do? They brought us two free desserts. What dessert did they bring us?

Have you ever heard of the Chocolate Stampede?

It looks kinda like that.

And it is divine. Diviner than divine. Oh. My. Gosh.

So after we were all stuffed and popping out of our dresses, the limo took us back to the dance, which, by the way, was Alice in Wonderland themed. So much love. SO MUCH LOVE.

It was pretty much a great night. :]

OHOHOH. What totally made it, though, was that they played Daft Punk and Florence + The Machine.