best of 2015: concerts.

it's time for another look back at 2015.

this time we're going live. 

not actually live, this is a blog after all and you can read it whenever you very well please, but live music. 

we're counting down my top 10 concerts of the year for the very last post of the year.

this list is completely my own opinion because these are shows i actually went to and i can't add shows that were probably awesome but i didn't have the pleasure of seeing. thanks for reminding me that i missed some killer shows this year, thanks guys. 

and this list isn't even completely random! it's based off the timeline of the year. so still not naming a number 1 but i'm calling it progress. 

10. the little machines tour

lights and X ambassadors

i have zero pics from this show but it was fan-frickin-tastic. and they were some of the only brave souls to come to my snow-laden state in the winter months. bless them. 

9. just kids tour
mat kearney, parachute, and judah & the lion

this was the first tour of the year to make my heart flutter. i loved all of the bands something fierce in the line up and they each hold a special little spot in my heart. 

8. andrew ripp's unplugged tour
andrew ripp and hope country

i just feel like you can't go wrong with a stripped down set when you've got songs like mr. ripp. plus it helped that i worked his merch table and it allowed me to take pictures like the ones above without seeming like a huge creep.

7. jeremy loops' first US tour
jeremy loops (and some openers i didn't care about)

i hope and pray jeremy loops comes back to minneapolis because his show and music are absolutely killer. and his south african accent is just too much.

6. tour de compadres
needtobreathe, switchfoot, drew holcomb, colony house
i cannot believe i don't have a pic on the blog from this ridiculously amazing night. and because i lost my old phone on tour all my pics were stored there i can't even find any. but this tour is literally the stuff my dreams are made of. there's a picture of it on my instagram...look at it here!

5. cultivate festival
x ambassadors and walk the moon
a huge storm rolled in and walk the moon was actually kept from playing so that was a huge disappointment but x ambassadors put on a show that made my heart smile. i tried to pull a picture off my phone but it wasn't working so here's another instagram link. sorry that my technological skills are depleting the closer we get to midnight.

4. up the middle tour
the classic crime and like a million bands that i skipped out on

and an instagram pic here! love those classic crime boys...they don't make it to MN nearly enough so i was stoked to hear that they were coming to town. lighting and sound was a bit rough but they were as charming as rock and roll gets.

3. andy grammer at the state fair
andy grammer

this dude. years of busking on the street has made him a top notch performer. the icing on the cake for my cheap-action self is that this show was free. looking forward to more from andy g in the future.

2. fall US tour 2015
mutemath and quiet entertainer 

hadn't seen these guys in years and they were better than i had remembered. they played a LONG set but hit almost all of my favorites. true musicians. 

1. fall tour 2015

colony house, coin, and flor

 

best colony house performance i had seen yet. so excited for these guys and where they'll go. definitely going to claim that i knew of them before they were big. 

2015 has been an epic year for shows. i got to see all of my favorites (a few of them multiple times) and i'm sure in their heart of hearts they knew i was in the crowd. 

but let's not make this sad, there are some great shows on the calendar for 2016 including some of these same faves and some new faves like firekid!

bring it. 

xo

"i was madly in love with him from 12-15!"

there are always some casualties when it comes to tour...sometimes it's a musical instrument or a stage light that breaks, sometimes it's hurt feelings because someone snapped at someone else because no one has had enough sleep, and sometimes it's my ego when i say something stupid to another human being without thinking. 

this is a story of the third type of casualty. 

we were about 4 days into the tour and my coworker and i were sitting in catering having lunch. we were eating a bit later than everyone else because our morning duties had run long so we were the only ones in there. apparently antonio* had been busy as well because he came in, grabbed lunch, and joined our table to chat. 

i hadn't talked much to antonio so lunch started out with polite small talk. somehow that morphed into this conversation:

antonio: oh, do you know phil joel?

me: oh my gosh yes! i was madly in love with him from 12-15! 

antonio: oh...he's one of my really good friends, we used to be in a band together. 

and then i wanted to crawl under the table and die. 

you guys, there's really no great way to recover from that. you try to be taken seriously and as an adult and then you go around telling strangers your adolescent crushes WHO HAPPEN TO BE FRIENDS WITH YOUR ADOLESCENT CRUSH.

i'm not entirely sure how we moved beyond that moment, he probably kept talking like a normal human and at some point we got to the neutral topic of donuts and then it was smooth sailing from there out. we actually talked a lot about donuts after that. actually, i could really go for a donut right now. is there ever really a bad time for donut?  

anyway, by the time tour was over we were friends and when we hugged goodbye he rested his chin on the top of my head like a big brother. i keep telling myself he forgot our first conversation though it's one of those i won't stop telling. mortifying in the moment always makes for funny later. 

xo

*definitely his real name

the day switchfoot called me.

YOU GUYS.
SWITCHFOOT CALLED ME.
ME.
ON THE PHONE.
THEY CALLED.
TODAY.

what?! 

yeah, i was as shocked as you. i was sitting at my desk and all of a sudden my cell phone started to ring and came up as "no caller ID." normally i don't answer my phone (i actually really hate talking on the phone) but i figured it was a telemarketer so i answered to tell them to remove me from their list.

the conversation started as follows:

me: hi, this is sara
him: hi sara, this is jerome from switchfoot.
me: wait, what?
him: this is jerome from switchfoot.
me: seriously?
him: yes! you sound surprised!
me: yeah....merry christmas?
him: hahaha, merry christmas to you too!.....

the conversation went on from there, we chatted for a solid 10 minutes about the weather (he brought it up, minnesotan's aren't the only ones who talk about it), live music, fictional characters we'd be friends with, and the fact that they are playing at the founder's weekend fundraiser for my workplace.

at the end of the conversation he said all the guys were waving to say hello (i'm guessing they actually weren't but it was a nice thought) and then thanked me for being a longtime fan (fan is an understatement) and wished me merry christmas again.

and then like the true millennial that i am i posted about it on facebook, texted my roommate and called my mom to let everyone know about my christmas miracle.

best monday.
xo

my top album releases for 2015.

the end of the year always calls for top 10 lists. it's just what you do.
while i don't generally care about traditions i actually like figuring out my favorite things from the year. it's a good practice in being grateful (and remembering!) all the beautiful things in the past year...including my personal picks for top albums of the year.

some of them are well known, some of them are barely known, all of them are ones i've listened to on repeat. this year's list is pretty pop heavy and quite produced so i'm not sure what that says about my life the past year but i'm not upset about it.

as always, they are in no particular order:

mat kearney- just kids

this album was a retreat back to more of his first album's sound and i really liked it...because his first album was when i became a fan of mr. kearney. solid guy, solid album. 

x ambassadors- VHS

saw these guys in february and was pumped for their album to drop. with the exception of the insane amount of f-words during their "interludes" the record is actually pretty clean and it's fantastic.

jeremy loops- trading change 

the south african dreamboat i saw in a youtube video, then saw on a plane, then saw in concert...all before this album released. trading change is as good as all those other things. 

james bay- chaos and the calm

he's british and the album is more toned down and raw than the radio singles. 'let it go' on the radio is good, 'let it go' on the record is heart stopping.

justin bieber- purpose

i loved justin bieber. then i was super over his teen-with-way-too-much-money-and-power ways. and now i'm back on the bieber train. is it too late now to say sorry?

mutemath- vitals

this is probably the most pop-infused mutemath album i've ever heard and i certainly don't hate it. in fact, i really like it. a lot. 

ellie goulding- delirium 

this girl is my spirit celebrity. also helps that i now know one of her front of house guys and he said the next time she's in town he'll get me into the show. score. 

needtobreathe- live from the woods

these guys= killer.

these guys live= dead.

one direction- made in the a.m.

no shame in admitting this at all...listen to this regularly when i'm at my desk.

and in case you were wondering, i'd definitely still be friends with harry styles.

jon foreman- the wonderlands set

if you need my explanation on this one we are not even friends.

honorable mentions:

twenty one pilots- blurryface

adele- 25

2015, you've been good to us. 

top concerts up next!

xo

office life and my tour team.

i am back in office today after two weeks on the road. it's great to see all of my co-workers again and shout out to my roommate and her dog (my dog nephew, wonderdog) who woke up when i rolled in in the wee hours of the morning to greet me and catch up on life.

i really, truly do have some of the best people in my life.

but i would be lying if i didn't say it was a struggle to sit in my chair at my desk and do the office-thing for 8.5 hours. i've said it before and, like the broken record that i am, i will say it again...i was built to live on the road. somehow an 18-hour day in a venue is less draining to me than sitting at a proper desk in a proper office during proper hours doing computer work.

on this tour i got the privilege of seeing more and learning more about actual tour management and it was incredibly interesting! well i thought it was anyway. learning little things like some states have an extra tax (wisconsin is a whopping 6%) or what an NS1 means in the production world or that there are certain rules that bus drivers are covered by in their bus union or whatever were all things i didn't know before and are crucial parts of road life.

and did you know that there's a difference between purified water and natural spring water? yeah, i didn't either and i have no preference whatsoever about which one i'm drinking in case you were wondering.

and all of those things add up to this:

i stole this picture from matt (the dude in the back in the glasses). there was a disco-ball surprise every night that made the audience gasp and that right there is the stellar team i got to work with for two weeks...there was blood, sweat, tears, laughter, chats about life at 2am on the bus, ridiculous amounts of caffeine consumed, inside jokes, friendships formed, and a collective feeling of accomplishment every night when you could tell the audience was into it and enjoying themselves. good people right there.

but now that my work day has been cut by about 10 hours i will have more time to devote to my favorite (or only, whatever) blog. i mean, it's almost the end of the year...gotta have some top 10 lists for 2015! 

xo

sorry for the silence.

i am sitting in a crowded civic center as i type this on my phone. i have no one asking me questions at the moment as all of my volunteers are in place for their jobs for the night. watching the audio and light guys work back by front of house has become one of my favorite parts of the day...the first half of the show when i can sit back for a moment and bask in production of it all...hearing the tunes, watching the bands do their thing, feeling the energy of the crowd.
ever since my first concert i knew that feeling was something i wanted more of. and 17 years later I get to fulfill my little heart's dream of being on the road and feeling that feeling every night. it's good.
the only downfall of tour is my little corner of the internet takes a hit...hang with me, i will be back next week.
xo