a classic of old.

in the not-so-distant past i had the opportunity to see one of my fave bands: the classic crime. it was the first time i was seeing them live and i was pretty stoked on it. i met up at the show with another tcc lover, we soaked in the entire show from the screams when they stepped on stage to the "thank you and good night."
after the show we milled around watching the crowd get autographs and pictures. about this time, matt, the lead singer of the classic crime wandered by. we started chatting and i thanked him for playing "salt in the snow"- a song that i was obsessed with for a solid 2 months. he said he was taking all the credit cause the other guys in the band didn't want to play it and he pulled his "front man rank" and made them. i was glad he made that executive decision! we made a bit more small talk and he was pulled away by another fan. seems like a pretty standard encounter yes? fan gushes, rock star takes it in stride, we all move on with life. awesome.
what made this particular conversation interesting is how matt greeted me and bid me farewell....both with a bow. a palms together, knees locked, head bent, fold at the waist, bow.it was a pretty humbling experience actually, i have never been bowed to before and don't foresee it happening anytime again in the future but it struck a chord in me. bowing can be a sign of a lot of things including submission, gratitude, and sincerity. here was the one that everyone in the room had put on a pedestal bowing to an excited fan. now maybe he's just a germ-a-phobe and didn't want to shake hands with everyone but it showed his humanity. it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that musicians (along with athletes, actors, politicians, etc) get elevated to god-like statuses in our culture and matt's simple gesture of a bow immediately reminded me (and maybe himself) that he's just a dude. he was grateful that people had come out to watch him do the thing he loves and showed his appreciation in an age old way. it proved he knows he is no better than you or me just because he gets to do what a lot of people dream of doing and that he knows he couldn't do what he does without the support of fans buying cd's and coming to shows.
hopefully this post is a reminder to those who read it to be genuinely thankful for everything you have in life and know that you are no better or worse than anyone else. maybe an act of submission would do some of us good, put us in our place so to speak. and maybe being on the receiving end would help others realize just how valuable they are.
xo
ps. i think i'm honestly going to take up bowing

i WILL marry a rockstar.

the other day my mom told me she thought i was going to marry a guy who wears khaki pants.
it broke my heart.
xo

say it loud and clear.

by the time i hit my freshman year of college i had already gone to my fair share of shows, had more autographs than you could shake a stick at, and my dorm walls were covered with band posters. one of the most memorable shows, however, happened at my school. every year the school brought in a band that was a "national" band but they were the up and comers, the ones who had one album out, played any show they could get their hands on and wore rumpled clothes that smelled like 15-passenger van. that year the band of choice was sanctus real.
i had the only sanctus real cd out at the time (say it loud) and made sure i knew every song by heart before they came. concerts are so much more fun when you can sing along! so i was pretty pumped to see their show and made sure i was front and center (which wasn't too difficult since i don't think majority of the student population even showed up). matt hammit is a bang on singer, in person he sounds just like he does on the cd. the concert was fun and the crowd was really getting into it. then he decided to throw in a little crowd participation, he started dragging people up on stage. first up was a guy named mike who had been going nuts the entire show. his "job" was to get onstage and dance. next matt asked for a guitarist, my sister raised her hand and up she went. she was handed a guitar and told what chord to strum. he scanned the crowd, our eyes locked, he pointed at me and said, "you. you've been singing along all night, get up here."
my stomach leapt into my throat as i was handed a mic. we launched into the chorus of the title track, the mic was on!! my voice along with his filled the gym, i thought i was going to throw up on the spot. but i held it together and finished the song. he thanked all of us and we went back to our places in the crowd, i don't remember anything about the rest of the show. afterwards matt signed my cd jacket and told me i did a "wonderful job".
i didn't stop smiling for a week.
xo

a taste of the future?

maybe some of you are pondering the question, "if this girl is so in love with rock stars and bands, why isn't she just in a band?" okay, maybe you're not pondering that question but i'm going to answer it anyway....i was in a band! it consisted of myself (electric violin, bgv), my sister (guitar), one of my roommates (drums) and another friend of ours (lead vox, bells). chick bands rock. we played a grand total of 3 times in front of people and recorded 4 songs. yeah, we were a pretty big deal.
gig #1- roommate's moms' 40th birthday party. we did a snow patrol cover, everyone sang along quietly. which was nice since when we played our original stuff they only clapped politely when we were finished. we ate cake.
gig #2- super small festival in a super small town. we ate pizza "backstage" in the church basement where the festival was being held. a couple of wonderful people came and watched our set. my violin kept going out of tune....grr. we felt like rockstars.
gig #3- played on tv for a telethon called jingle bells. we wrote our own christmas tune. i played bass (i don't even play bass) and we all wore matching hand-knit scarves. i'm really bad at knitting and my scarf wasn't finished so i had to safety pin it together. the drums were broken and propped up with hymnals. the sister had 4 day old hair that was standing on end. my mom, dad, and brother came to sit in the live audience. if that doesn't say rock star, i don't know what does.

our band. plus a toddler.

needless to say, we disbanded. our lead singer moved to denver and we weren't so certain we were that great anyway. we may not have played any more shows but the nervous excitement of playing for a crowd was embedded deep within my bones and is just itching to get out....this summer it may just have that chance. stay tuned!
xo

rock stars and thrift stores= 2 of my favorite things.

i grew up shopping at thrift stores. we shopped at thrift stores before thrift stores were cool. i used to be embarassed about shopping in said stores, now the thought of paying retail makes me throw up in my mouth. i love thrift stores so much i even worked in one (it's called ThriftSmart and if you're ever in nashy you should hit it up- say hi to martha while you're there).
the second greatest thing about working at this particular thrift store were the amazing customers that came in. the first greatest thing was tuesdays when clothing was a quarter- my closet grew tenfold. but back to the customers......they were awesome. from the little mexican kids who only spoke spanish to the ridiculous old man who wintered in florida and asked me what it was like "kissin the boys with that thing in your lip [my lip ring]" to the rock stars who came in. true story, rock stars came into my store.
the first one that came in was randy owens, the lead singer from the band alabama. he was there for a 'hands on nashville' event so he wasn't shopping but it totally counts.
the second one was todd milsap (ronnie milsap's son). he was there doing community service and called me "sara baby" and paid for his purchases with quarters. epic. thirdly there was britt from the now-defunct band, the swift. he was donating a bunch of stuff to the store and we got chatting. his band had played at my college once and he said he remembered playing there. he couldn't believe how "remote" it felt (that's when i knew he actually remembered). i seriously considered telling him that me and one of my friends have matching "the swift" shirts and wore them one day to be twins but figured he probably didn't care even a little bit so i let it go.
fourth (and last for this post), was jason from a great nashville band called shirock. he also used to be in a little band called paramore, heard of them? anyway, he came in and was buying a bunch of silverware. i thought it was weird but i also thought it was a great excuse to talk to the handsome guitarist so i asked him about it. turns out, he makes jewlery out of it. lots of rings, bracelets and pendants. he was wearing a few of his creations and they were really cool (and i'm not just saying that because he happens to be in a band, they really were cool). after i oogled his jewelry i admitted that i knew who he was and how i had heard about shirock from a friend of mine who had filled in on bass for them for awhile. our conversation was going great, we had stuff and people in common, i said i wanted to buy one of his rings, he said i should come to a show, pure magic. i haven't seen him since.
so if you see jason (or any other rock star for that matter) let them know i wear a ring size 6.
xo