the beginning of my birthday week.

so far so good. two great shows this week, and two AMAZING shows coming next week, and i'm so stoked.

on thursday, i saw anthony raneri of bayside perform an acoustic set, with vinnie caruana of i am the avalanche and destry (ex-straylight run members) opening for him at maxwell's.
it was nothing short of fantastic. anthony raneri is one of my favorite musicians, which is to be expected considering i've seen bayside sixteen times or something ridiculous like that.

the first band, destry were totally adorable. i've always really liked michelle da rosa's voice, but i was never straylight run's biggest fan or anything. i think i appreciate this band more. much more.





next up was vinnie caruana. may i just say, he is a total badass, and i love him.
he totally flipped out on some assholes in the audience and threatened to knock them out if they were rude one more time.
i commend him for that. but anyways, he's just awesome in general. super charming and just an awesome dude.





last but not least, was anthony raneri. he never fails to impress me, whether he's playing an acoustic show or if he's with the rest of the boys. he did a few covers including "good fucking bye" by alkaline trio and "i will follow you into the dark" by death cab for cutie. he also did a new song which he had written this week. it was fantastic.



sadly, he didn't do any songs from sirens because apparently they sound bad when it's just him on the guitar, and he needs jack in order to sound good. i don't blame him .... it's true.
hopefully they'll throw in some old songs for warped tour.
i'd like that very much.

i'm back, thank goodness.

so, i've been in monmouth county for the last god knows how many days without internet.
oh grammy, you're so behind the times ... so of course, i came back to 98 notifications on facebook, 23 unread e-mails and surely, no time to take a nap.

i messed up my finger when i was adjusting a chair, so i'm obviously not at my bass lesson right now.
whatever, i needed a break.
nasty blood bubble ... i keep thinking it's gonna pop all over my macbook while i'm typing.


as soon as i got home from my lovely grandmother's home, i was right back out again to go see maria taylor (some may know her as conor oberst's ex-gurlfran) and whispertown 2000 at maxwell's.
good show ... i love her voice so much!



maria's bassist, nate nelson was perhaps one of the most attractive young men i've seen in a while.
i kid you not, it's as if gael garcia bernal and devendra banhart collided in a tornado of handsomeness and made a love baby.
it is most definitely this boy:


and a note to whispertown 2000 ... YOU HAVE THE BEST MERCH!
yes, that's a baby harmonica necklace


somebody make this rain stop.
thanks.

apparently, heaven runs on rainbows and glitter.

ok, so on saturday the 17th, i went to see nightmare of you and the orion experience at maxwell's.
i had been looking forward to this show for quite a while, even though nightmare of you are on my list of bands that i'm mad at.
little did i know that this might be the last time i ever see them because they managed to bring me to my breaking point.
i'm so confused and upset right now. i don't even know what's going on.
i've never been so upset during a show before.

the night started out like any other show.
the first band, bottle up and go was whatever ... kind of disturbing, but entertaining i suppose. the next band, u.s. royalty was good. i like the lead singer's voice a lot. the orion experience was splendid as usual ... jersey city represent! apparently they live in bklyn now though. so nvm, i guess orion is no longer holding down varick street.

then there was nightmare of you.
it was just beginning to sink in that they have a new drummer considering this was only the second time i'd be seeing them with the new guy. mike, i think his name is?
anyways, he was on stage setting up, then brandon and joe came up.
but where was my beloved ryan? i didn't see him anywhere.
suddenly, this guy in his early 30's maybe, came onto the stage. he was holding a bass and plugging it in to the amp.



my heart dropped. who was this guy? i had no idea.
it certainly wasn't ryan heil.



sure enough, this mysterious ugly man started to play as the first song started, which btw was a new song.
i couldn't even ENJOY the new songs because i was so baffled. or maybe the new songs were just that bad. who knows? setlist?only 6 songs from their s/t, one from the ep and the rest was new. it was terrible.



brandon was drunk out of his mind, slurring his words, messing up the lyrics. it was a mess.
that alone would've made me upset, but this new bassist added to my anger.
eventually brandon introduced the guy.
"this is our new bassist, brandon meyer ... i hate that there are twooooo brandons in the band now," brandon reilly said to us.
i started crying. i kid you not.

i refuse to see nightmare of you ever again.
not only has my favorite member left the band, but they have thrown out everything i loved about them.
brandon reilly is a wreck, i realized that when i saw them over the summer.
and unless he gets himself together, they can say goodbye to one of their most loyal fans.

remember the time i used to see you every month?
the time when i would collect your setlists and ryan told me i had enough to wipe my ass with?
the time when you knew exactly who i was, even when you were drunk?
the time i used sit down and talk to you after the shows, then tell you to slow down after your 5th beer?
the time when you would ask me why i was always at the shows and i'd answer, "because you're amazing!"
of course you don't.

i'm sorry nightmare of you.
i just can't deal with you anymore.
i feel like i just wrote a break up letter.
that's basically what it is i guess.

photos ... the orion experience:






the last pictures i will ever take of nightmare of you:






































if anyone has any information on why ryan heil is no longer in the band, please let me know.
he's still listed as a member on the myspace, i don't get what's going on.

don't throw your bra and young boys.

umm, so last night was pretty much life changing.
tokyo police club played at maxwell's ... and although i've seen them once before, that was just an in-store, so this was a million and one times better. yes, they played 20 songs ... but it seemed to go so fast. every song just ends so abruptly and goes to the next booty bumpin' tune. seriously, every one of their songs gets me excited. they're one of the few bands that can do that to me.

opening for them were mobius band.
super enjoyable, but their keyboardist was making me feel uncomfortable. like you know when old guys dance really hard and shake their asses, and it's a little unsettling? yeah, it was like that.
but um, they were really good.

tokyo police club came on around like 10:30 or something, and boy oh boy ... it was so wonderful.
they basically played every song they have. they seemed especially adorable last night, and dave has gained better stage presence since the last time i saw them.
aghh, this definitely goes into the top 10 shows of the year.

but a quick note to the girls standing behind us, i get it, you were super excited, but that didn't give you the right to scream at the top of your lungs in our ears, and yell at the band to play "cheer it on" ... what are you, retarded? of course they were gonna play "cheer it on."
and yeah, people were giving you guys dirty looks, don't wonder why. you knowwwwww why!
you don't know how close i was to slapping all of you.
chill the fuck out.

oh and, whoever threw that bra at the stage ... why??
it touched me, and it touched dave when you threw it again.
he seemed disgusted ... disgusted enough to remove it from the monitor with his foot!
HAHAHAA!
oh lord.

and one more thing, this was the second time this week that someone told me to turn my flash off or stop taking pictures.
what gives??
of course i kept taking pictures, pshhh.































































amazing.