Tag Archives: Concerts

Catching Up With Any Second Now!

Is it June already? Time is flying, and I know my posts have been trimmed down to once a week, but I promise it’s with good reason! Trying to balance my personal life and work life has been a bit challenging lately, only because I’m still getting used to this new higher profile job that I started last October. It’s wonderful knowing that working all of these years in Customer Service has led up to this point, but I didn’t realize how all consuming it would be. I’m now a Senior Manager of Customer Service at a different lab, and I work hours I never thought I would. Luckily, I love my new job and it actually allows me more freedom to work from home to accommodate appointments and activities I can do with my son, husband and mom. But it does mean sometimes working late into the night, after everyone in my household has gone to sleep. Those nights where I used to work on my blog have become nights where I’m ready for bed!

So I’m playing catch up right now (hence the Depeche Mode photo edit), finding time to put together posts of past fashion related events, product reviews and all of the wonderful concerts I’ve been to in the past year. Just to give you an idea of what I haven’t posted about yet, here’s all of the concerts I’ve been to since my last couple of concert posts (which was Martin Gore and Duran Duran), including upcoming concerts until September of this year.

(Edited 12/2/16 to add all the shows I attended in 2016!)

July 2015: Imagine Dragons, Spandau Ballet

August 2015: Echo & The Bunnymen

October 2015: ABC/Wang Chung

March 2016: She Wants Revenge

April 2016: Peter Murphy

May 2016: Modern English, The Cure

July 2016: Sting & Peter Gabriel, Barenaked Ladies with OMD & Howard Jones

August 2016: Duran Duran with Chic, Rick Astley

September 2016: Chromeo, Blonde, Kraftwerk, KAABOO

October 2016: Tears for Fears, Prophets of Rage, KONGOS with The Joy Formidable

November 2016: Peter Hook & The Light

I’m putting together a blog schedule to map out and plan my posts accordingly. In the meantime, I’m still here and blogging, so hopefully you’re still out there and reading! Cheers and have a great weekend!

Festival of my Dreams!

Coachella marks the beginning of “Festival Season”, and I know I’ve seen the fashion inspiration pretty much everywhere! I’ve thought about this for quite sometime: what would my dream festival be? Who would be in my line-up? I actually have made several lists in my head before, and they almost always turn out to be some kind of Rewind Festival, to which I’ve already gone to (my first post about it here, and my actual experience here). But I know my tastes go beyond the 80s, and with some inspiration from TickPick, I thought about how much fun would it be to include not just my favorites, but those of my husband and son, plus make it fun for all of my friends and family to attend. Honestly, my list ended up being 30 artists long, but I’ve narrowed it down to what I think became an eclectic mix of 10 artists, which is a combination of favorite acts, spanning several genres. My top three are intentional, based on my all time favorite band, a band my husband is just chomping at the bit to see, and our son’s favorite band. The rest is in no particular order, but includes some wants. If I could turn back time, my list would have included David Bowie and Prince, but alas, that is not to be. But how simply awesome is the graphic created by TickPick (who, by the way, is a great resource if you’re interested in finding Concert tickets, NFL tickets and more)?! It almost makes me want to contact someone, anyone, to actually make my Fauxchella happen!

Who would you pick for your ultimate festival? Let me know in the comments, and here’s why I chose my top 10. Cheers!

Depeche Mode: That was a given (too many posts about them on this blog, but see my review of their Delta Machine Tour here). If their line up could include Dave, Martin, Andy along with Alan and Vince, I think I would just have to drop the mic.

Red Hot Chili Peppers: A band that my husband absolutely wants to see, sometime in this lifetime.

Imagine Dragons: Our son’s favorite band. He knows their lyrics better than we do, and don’t even question him about which song is on which album. He schooled me once, and it was embarrasing…did I mention he’s seven? We took him to see them last year, and it solidified his fandom.

Metallica: Another of my hubby’s favorite. He’s seen them live previously, but would not mind seeing them again.

Duran Duran: They were my first favorite British band, until Depeche Mode stole that title from them. But I still adore them and they produce great music to this day, and are fantastic live (post here).

Bruno Mars: He is a spectacular entertainer and musician. My husband and I saw him two years ago (review here), and it was so good.

Snoop Dogg: Because I just want to see him. Do I need a reason?

Q-Tip: I cannot believe I’ve never seen A Tribe Called Quest in concert (but I did a post about them here). Now that Phife Dog has passed, I know I will never have that chance. But Q-Tip has done some solo work, so I hope I get to see him someday.

Maroon 5: I have been watching Maroon 5 for years because they opened for Guster and John Mayer before heading out on their own. I then went to see a headlining tour with my best friend once a few years ago, and I think she would enjoy meeting them, especially Adam. I have met them before (picture here), this was ages ago.

Chromeo: I thought about a DJ to round out my line-up, and then I realized that Chormeo both DJ as well as perform their own songs! My husband and I have seen them before (post here), and we would see them again in a heartbeat.

Doin' Time in the Moonshine Jungle

It’s been crazy trying to get regular posts up because of my family’s busy schedule. For instance, Deon and I will be spending our anniversary in Palm Springs this weekend (where I’ll be shooting some outfit posts). In the meantime, the next two posts will be music related, starting with concerts we’ve been to in the last couple of months. Following the Boy George concert in April, my husband and I attended a Bruno Mars concert at the Hollywood Bowl in May. Then over the 4th of July weekend, we saw Sublime with Rome as a spur of the moment date night. Both of these recent concerts were favorites of my hubby, and most likely concerts I may have not attended on my own. But that’s the wonderful thing about being married: you get to experience things you may not have because you want to be with the person you love. I’m so lucky that Deon loves music as much as I do, because these were absolutely fantastic shows. What concerts have you attended so far this year? Let me know in the comments below!

Pharrell Williams opened up the show…with a very special guest. He said “Would anyone like to see the Queen of Awesome?” This confused many people in the audience, until we heard the first few words of the song. Awesome doesn’t begin to describe the performance. Check out the brief video below!

One of the highlights of the evening was when Bruno Mars played a medley of songs they used to cover when he played smaller clubs and bars. One of the songs was “Your Love” by The Outfield, one of our all time favorite songs. These tickets and the whole weekend were already a birthday present for my hubby, so hearing that song was like the concert was personalized for him. Then the show ended with fireworks. So perfect!

Edit this setlist | More Bruno Mars setlists

I really like the shirt I got for Deon. I got a different one, but I think I’m going to find that one and get it in my size!

What a fun venue! Neither of us had seen a show at The Mandalay Bay Beach!

Our silly drunk selfies!

My Favorite Mode: Odds & Ends

Some Great Reward Tour 1985

I thought I would just close out this week with one last Depeche Mode bit, while I’m still on a concert high from their show this past Sunday. In a post last week, I took a picture with some of my Depeche Mode concert ticket stubs (original post here). Well, I decided to scan all of the ticket stubs that I could locate, which makes me a bit sad because I’m usually so diligent about keeping all of my ticket stubs. I’ve been to nine Depeche Mode tours (although I attended two shows of the Exciter Tour). Not pictured are my stubs for the Devotional Tour (November 16, 1993), Exciter Tour (August 11, 2001 and either August 14 or 15, 2001) and Touring the Angel (November 19th, 2005) ticket stubs. I also attended Dave Gahan’s Paper Monster tour and Recoil with Alan Wilder. I’ve only missed one tour ever, and that was the Tour of The Universe (August 14th, 2009), due to cancellation. I have the unused tickets for that tour as well, although it may be lost with the others.

Lastly, I’ve also included the very first newsletter I received when I joined Depeche Mode’s fan club, known back then as The Depeche Mode Info Service (I joined in 1986 and hand wrote the date on the newsletter). When a new member joined, you had to send six self-addressed stamped envelopes, and you were sent a simple tri-folded newsletter all about Depeche Mode. It then turned into a mini-magazine and other goodies would come with the subscription, such as post cards and flexi discs (as seen in my post here). I kept the subscription through the Violator album, then I stopped subscribing. But I do have the newsletter where the Info Service held a contest to change the name, and the final choice was the Bong Magazine (I’m unsure if it’s still being produced). It’s always fun to go back and look at those, because it was initially run by Dave Gahan’s then girlfriend and now ex-wife, Jo Bailey. Once their fan base grew, it then turned into the magazine format. I’m sure this shows you the depth of my love of Depeche Mode, but I’m sure you had no doubt about that, right?

Black Celebration Tour 1986

Music for the Masses Tour 1987

World Violation Tour 1990

The Singles Tour 1998

The Delta Machine Tour 2013

Such Great Heights: The Postal Service in Concert

A couple of weekends ago as a belated anniversary date night out, my hubby and I went to dinner, then saw The Postal Service in concert at the Open Air Theatre, on the campus of San Diego State University. Before we met, both my husband and I coincidentally bought the Give Up album separately back in 2003. If you are unfamiliar with the band, The Postal Service is vocalist Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, producer Jimmy Tamborello of Dntel and Headset, Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley and indie rock musician, Jen Wood. For this tour, they are joined by Laura Burhenn instead of Jen Wood. Give Up is one of my favorite albums, and I was lucky that tickets were still available for the tour celebrating the 10th anniversary of the album’s release.

There were two opening acts: Baths and Big Freedia. Baths was first, and I found their sound very compatible with The Postal Service, so it made sense that they would be an opener. A spectacular surprise was Big Freedia, the queen diva extraordinaire from New Orleans. If Hollywood from the movie Mannequin and Lafayette of True Blood had melded together in some alternate universe, you would have Big Freedia. I loved her set, but I’m certain she surprised many a Postal Service fan because I suspect many of them didn’t expect to see and hear bumpin’-booty-shakin’-bounce-hip hop. The crowd reaction was mostly positive, although a group behind us was really taken aback and one of them kept proclaiming how offended she was. I found Big Freedia and her twerkin’ lovelies fun and entertaining, and I wasn’t lying when I told her crew who interviewed me for a documentary that I would definitely grab a CD or two after the show. I’ll be sure to post it here if I make the final cut!

The Postal Service took the stage right around 8:30pm, and they did not disappoint. I want to say they sounded just like their album, but they actually sounded better. They performed all the songs from the Give Up album, plus four additional tracks and two covers (set list below). The stage lighting was dynamic, yet simple and beautiful, allowing the music to be the focus. We didn’t stay for the entire concert, missing the encore. Being that we didn’t take the following Monday off, we wanted to beat the traffic and get home to rest. We both were happy to hear the songs we wanted (“Nothing Better“, “Sleeping In” and “Such Great Heights“), so we didn’t mind if we missed a couple of songs. It still made for a very nice evening out. Hope you had a great weekend!

The original CD, purchased back in 2003 (this one is mine, we can’t find my hubby’s CD). There is a special 10th anniversary reissue available from Sub Pop with extra tracks.

This is what happens when you wait until the last-minute to get tickets…

Baths

A shot of my outfit, which turned out to be perfect for an evening outdoor concert.

Hell-to-the-yeah: BIG FREEDIA IN THE HOUSE!

The Postal Service

The shirt my hubby got (I just got the simple black tour tee with the dates). The front says “Side A” and the back says “Side B”. Clever! Now I want the tote bag that has the same images.

Edit this setlist | More The Postal Service setlists

“Nothing Better” as recorded from my hubby’s iPhone.

You Can Never Win or Lose, If You Don’t Run The Race

Check off yet another group on my 80’s bucket list: Janice and I got to see The Psychedelic Furs in concert! Due to an epic fail on my part, I had tickets to their sold out show at The Belly Up on June 1st. But because I wanted actual tickets rather than tickets printed from my computer, I thought I would wait until closer to the show to go to the venue to purchase real tickets. Thank the retro gods that they were the headlining act for The Rock n Roll Marathon on June 2nd. In an ironic twist, the show was FREE! No ticket stubs from this show, but I did get my shirt.

Fresh faced with no make-up at 10am!

We arrived at our secret parking place at 10am and walked over to Petco Park, where the end of the race festivities were being held. It was pretty crazy and hectic when we arrived. I believe the half-marathon runners arrived as we got there, and I wish I got pictures of the crazy amount of people in the parking lot. Once we got in, we made our way upstairs to search for the stage area. After finding it, we made our way down and sat just a few rows away from the stage, which allowed me to take the amazing pictures in this post. This had to be the earliest I had ever watched a concert in my life! During the show, I spotted my friend Eileen and her sister, who actually ran in the marathon. Realizing I was just there to see the show, I felt slightly inadequate. I think I need to make running in a marathon also a part of my bucket list.

“The Ghost In You” 45 vinyl single from my personal collection (original video here).

After a few celebratory congratulations to runners from all over the world, The Psychedelic Furs strolled up to the stage. They played all the songs I had heard on 91x for so many years: “Heartbreak Beat”, “Heartbeat”, “Heaven”, and of course the hit from the movie, “Pretty In Pink”. I know a lot of people think the song was made for the 1986 movie of the same name, but the song was actually a remixed version of their original from the album Talk Talk Talk back in 1981.

I wanted to make sure I got these signature moves from “Love My Way”. See the original moves in the video here.

When my standout favorites “Love My Way” and “The Ghost In You” come on, I felt complete. When I think of “Love My Way”, I think of the first time I heard it during the movie “Valley Girl” back in the 80’s. When I was telling my husband that Janice and I were going to the show, he said he recognized that Furs song from “The Wedding Singer”, a movie about the 80’s. What prompted me to really want to see the Furs was hearing the live version of “The Ghost In You” played on Friday’s Resurrection Daily on 91x. Steve and Oz decided to play the song in honor of their Belly Up show, and mentioned that if you missed the show on Saturday, they have a free show at Petco Park. At that point, I was on a mission to see that song live, and I’m so glad I did. “The Ghost In You” is a gorgeous song that gives me goose-bumps each time I hear it, and just floored me to hear it live. Richard Butler still sounds fantastic to this day, and I am so glad we woke up early on a Sunday to see this awesome show live. Hope you had a great weekend!

I don’t quite remember the order of songs from the concert, but the set list below seems to be very similar.

Edit this setlist | More The Psychedelic Furs setlists

Ranking Full Stop: The English Beat in Concert

Last Friday, I went with my girls to see The English Beat in concert at Belly Up in Solana Beach. For $20, it was a steal to see Dave Wakeling’s version of the band (basically, the US version), so we made it a girl’s night out by starting the evening out with dinner, then ending with the concert. We arrived during the end of the opener, 2 Tone Sounds, and waited patiently for The English Beat to take the stage. I’m glad we decided to go to the Friday show because the Saturday show sold out! The Belly Up tavern is a great venue because any show feels completely intimate. The only issue I had that night was some of the rambunctious crowd members who seemed to think it was cool to pick a fight every 15 minutes. Can’t we all just get along and enjoy the music? While Rholnna and Janice got fed up with being shoved around, Regi and I braved the crowd and stayed on the floor. Eventually, the crowd started to disperse and we had enough personal space around us to dance.

I loved hearing songs like “Save It For Later”, “I Confess”, “Best Friend” and “Mirror in the Bathroom” because those were standards that I heard on 91X when I was a teen and I remember the videos like it was yesterday. I was then very pleasantly surprised when I heard “Can’t Get Used to Losing You” because that was something that I didn’t hear on the radio at all and came to know it because I played it over and over on my cassette player. But I was even more surprised to hear General Public songs, including my favorite “Never You Done That” and every 80’s radio staple, “Tenderness”. I know that Ranking Roger heads up the UK version of The Beat, but I think I like Dave Wakeling’s version because when I close my eyes, I can imagine feeling what it was like to see them back then, and Dave sounds just as fantastic as ever.

I couldn’t recall song order, but here is a rough estimate from my memory. I’m sure I’m missing a song or two:

Rough Rider
The Tears of a Clown
Hands Off…She’s Mine
Twist and Crawl
I’ll Take You There
I Confess
Click Click
Save It for Later
Can’t Get Used to Losing You
Whine and Grine/Stand Down Margaret
Never You Done That
Tenderness
Ranking Full Stop
Mirror in the Bathroom

It was quite a fun night, and even more fun to people watch when you are completely stone (freezing) cold sober. Janice and I are at the start of our Whole30 for the New Year, Regi had a long drive that night and Rholnna doesn’t drink, so it was waters all around for us. There were lots of ladies jumping the stage, drunkenly shaking their groove things, and we all just happily chuckled from the crowd. Even with the gratuitous stage grinding and near scuffles, I will definitely catch The English Beat when they come back in town to have a ranking good time, full stop!

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