holy upcoming shows.

Bold = definite
Normal = maybe
Italicized = possibly not

March 21st - Coventry, We Drive Yeah!, Middleweight, & Fire and Forget @ Elk Grove Community Center
Marh 28th - The Frantic, Danger Is My Middle Name, State and Madison, Cavashawn, & Jynx'd @ Mojoe's

April 2nd - Dashboard Confessional & Treaty of Paris @ Illinois Wesleyan
April 4th - Craig Owens, The Color Fred, & Versaemerge @ Mojoe's
April 5th - We the Living @ Beat Kitchen
April 7th - The Cute Lepers, The Frantic, & M.O.T.O @ Beat Kitchen
April 11th - AP Tour 2009: 3Oh!3, The Maine [gag.], Family Force 5, Hit the Lights, A Rocket to the Moon @ House of Blues
April 15th - The All-American Rejects, Ace Enders and a Million Different People, & Shiny Toy Guns @ Aragon

Whee!

live fast, die young.

"I don't know if you guys know this, but you're missing the fucking Grammy Awards tonight. Well, that's cool. At least nobody's into popular music these days."
- Tim Rogner; the Collapsed

And to that I say, hell yeah.

So last night, I went to my favorite place in the world: Beat Kitchen. This venue has never done me wrong, besides being at full capacity for the White Tie Affair/Powerspace/Silent Sirens show. Grr. The guys who check bags are always there for a good laugh ("Holy crap, you've got two big ass cameras. Your shoulder must be killing you"). I stood by the stage, waiting for the show to start. Everyone else was either in the back or sitting against the walls. It's a rock show people. Get the hell up. Diana and her friend (whose name I can't remember) came by right before the Collapsed took the stage.

The thing about the Collapsed is...they're fucking awesome. The lead singer is Tim Rogner from Allister, which is one of my favorite bands; along with Lucky Boys Confusion and the Dog & Everything, they got me into local music. The sound is similar; the Collapsed has got a lot of the same pop punk sound as Allister did, so that definitely brought me back. I saw these guys play at Mojoe's a couple weeks back, and I thought they were pretty good then, but standing 100 feet away from the stage and standing by the stage are two different experiences, so I thoroughly enjoyed myself. They may not have the best stage presence at the moment, but they've got some pretty good songs. I can't wait til they record more and get an EP out or something.

Oh, Swizzle Tree. After seeing them live for the first time, I knew there was I reason I hated listening to them. Some of the songs kind of sounded like Lucky Boys...but no. I'm sorry, but I spent the first 10 minutes laughing to myself. The only people who really seemed into the set were family/friends and the two total bro-tastic fans who were trying to start a mosh pit. I was going to burst into tears in the middle of their set. There was like a family of Swizzle Tree fans there, with a little boy and girl. This drunk old guy, who I'm assuming was her dad/uncle, picked up the little girl to put her on his shoulders and he fell backwards. She started crying a little. It was so sad.

It definitely seemed to get more crowded for The Graduate, but there were actually not that many people there. This girl came in yelling "PHIL KOSCH BOUGHT ME A BEER." I had a good laugh. The Graduate put on such a great show. The last time I REALLY saw them was June 07 (I caught some of their set at Warped 07 and like a song at the show they played with Secondhand Serenade in August 08). Oh, man. It was just great. I had forgotten how much I loved them. They're working on a new album so shows are gonna be defunct for a while. I hope its worth it.

After the show, I talked to Tim. I was trying really hard not to go fan girl on him. My 13 year old self was dying inside. They had one type of merch: a shirt, and I'm pretty sure I was the only one to buy it. It's comfy. The Graduate were selling shirts for only $5, so it would've been stupid not to buy one. I got myself a nice v-neck. It's also comfy.

Of course my good friends Nickolas and Mark were there afterwards, doing what they do best. Talked to them for a bit. Met some interesting new people, who were also Jack's/Treaty fans. Holler. I then managed to drive to Taco Bell without getting lost. Woooooo. What a great night.

Cavashawn, Tonka, & "Ozzie Guillen"

Cavashawn and Ha Ha Tonka are playing at DePaul today.

The boys have been gone for a month, and I haven't seen Tonka since Ribfest,

so you could say that I'm pretty stoked.

I'll update about the show later tonight.

:D

P.S. 

MadTV, you're hilarious.

Ludo, whut!?

Holy deposit slips, Batman.  It's Saturday Sunday (it was Saturday when I started).

So I decided to change my layout, since Miss Chelsey Foster decided to steal mine.  She is a thieving individual. As 30H!3 would say, "Don't trust the ho, never trust the ho..."

(JUST KIDDING (but not really...))

I really have nothing to say about today except that I thoroughly dislike my job and can't wait for it to be November so I can fucking quit.

What do I do? I work at a church rectory.  Yeah.

I realized how much I hate it today when:

- this one priest who works there who I thought was a bit odd, but still alright, came in and was almost yelling at me for being late (I was 10 minutes late.  Sorry for not having a car and having to walk over there), and then when I was actually doing my job by asking him a question someone called about, he said, "I have no idea."  You're supposed to know these things.

- someone called asking to talk to a priest about the special mass today (Francis Cardinal George came), so I went to the kitchen where he was and said, "Someone is on the phone, wanting to talk to a priest," and he said, "Tell them I'm busy."  That's been maybe the fourth or fifth time he's done that.  And then I feel like a total dumb ass, telling the person that there was someone there, then saying that they're not available.

- people call asking about things like CCD (Sunday School) or something that I wasn't trained to handle (I wasn't trained at all; we just had to answer phones) and I have to sound stupid and say, "I'm sorry, I have no idea" because I can't ask one of the priests because for some reason, they're never around, and sometimes I get an, "Alright, thank you" or a "What do you mean? Go find out."  Yeah, peace be with you too, you bastards.

- the head priest comes in saying that he's going to replace me if I'm late again.  And then I cried a little when he left.  You know what? Maybe I just won't come into work.  Fire me.  I've been waiting 3 years for it.

The only reason I'm sticking with it is because I desperately need the money, which isn't much ($7.50 an hour, but I work an average of 3 to 5 hours a week) and one of the girls who works there has volleyball tournaments or practice every Saturday until the middle of November, so I have to take over.

I need to find a job downtown.  It's going to be so difficult, and I'm pretty much swamped with school but I really need the money.  

I'm trying to save up for school, obviously, but there are a few shows that I wanna go to, but they're a bit pricey, like Ben Folds and Jack's Mannequin/Treaty of Paris.

Not enjoying life at this moment.

I did enjoy life most thoroughly last night though.

Went to the Conaway Canter with Heather, which was cool, because we haven't actually hung out since Mobfest.  

We met up with Claire, Kady, Lindsey, Kat, and a couple of their friends from their building.

Amanda, Agata, and their friends came as well.

Then Drew showed up and hung around with us.

We ate barbecue chicken pizza and drank little shot glass sized cups of this tea that tasted like apple juice (which prompted me to later purchase a bottle of apple juice at 7-11 after the show).

Danced to Kid Color, jammed to Matt and Kim (who I surprisingly enjoyed; they've just got so much energy, and they're funny as hell (Matt mostly)), and had an all around bitchin' good time with Ludo, as per usual.

My favorite part of their set was during "Hum Along," where the crowd sings "Maybe you'll be kidnapped by pirates..." because only a select handful of us knew it, so it was very cute. :D

After the show, I found Rac and Nickolas, who I didn't know was coming, so I was pretty stoked when I saw him.  We hung out for a bit until they started kicking us out.

Heather and I took the Blue Line back, but of course, she forgot to inform me that they were doing construction (I don't take the L on weekends) and we had to get off at Addison, 4 stops from where we were gonna get off.

So my dad came and picked us up.  Whew.

That's pretty much it right now.  

Sorry it's pretty long.

(That's what she said.  Am I right? -high five-)

I'm in dire need of sleep, so I guess this will finish it off.

Kudos if you read this all.

P.S. I lied.  Here's a video of "Please."  I don't think I've ever heard them play it live.  Speaking of which, I've never heard them play "Mutiny Below" live, so...they better get on that.

I also have one of "Topeka," but you gotta go here for that:

http://www.youtube.com/dublinwaltzx

You can see some of my other videos there.  Party.