best of 2014: concerts

this year was a good fantastic year for concerts. i saw a lot of doubles because i'm a sucker for bands who put on killer shows. these were my top shows this year...they are listed in chronological order because you can't make me choose a favorite if i don't want to.

• andrew ripp and judah & the lion on the simple tour. back in february, bitter cold, first time seeing either of these acts. my roomie bought me the tickets for my birthday and she definitely gets some extra friend points for that one. 

• green river ordinance at the triple rock in march. they played 19 songs, it was amazing. i could have done without the 2 opening acts and just heard the GRO boys the whole time. their last song was played completely acoustic in the pit. love.

obviously not my photo...but i didn't get any from the show :( 

• needtobreathe on the rivers in the wasteland tour in june. it was in a venue i'd never been in before, there were a ton of people at the show that i knew and it was probably the most vulnerable i've ever seen the south carolina boys on stage and while i think vulnerability is a terrifying thing i appreciate it when musicians wear their hearts on their sleeves.

• andy grammar at oake on the water in june. i don't know if i was more excited to see andy or oake but they BOTH did a stellar job. andy has got effortless vocals and oozes charisma and oake is one of the best radio personalities out there. i was a little starstruck by both.

• imagine dragons at the all-star baseball game concert in june. can't say enough about how fantastic they were live. and they just seemed so genuinely excited to be there.  

• sonshine in july. they crushed it with the line-up this year. ravenhill, brady toops, switchfoot, needtobreathe, thousand foot krutch, we are leo, hope country, judah & the lion, family force 5, green river ordinance, harbor & home, household, etc. 

this is a creeper shot i took of drew shirley from switchfoot.
he was face-timing someone before their show. paparazzi status.

• parachute and matt wertz on the meant to be tour on labor day. first time seeing matt and he was surprisingly incredibly entertaining despite that it was basically just him and his guitar. and those parachute boys always make my heart flutter. 

• colony house at the turf club in october. another first for me. they were "ugh, so good" good. 

• switchfoot on the fading west tour in november. does this even need an explanation? 

there were a slew of other concerts that i went to that were phenomenal (i mean, i saw judah & the lion four times this year alone AND i rode on the plane from johannesburg to cape town with south african musician jeremy loops) but these were my absolute favorites for 2014.  

2015 looks like it's shaping up to be equally as wonderful...LIGHTS in february and mat kearney's just kids tour in march. 

bring on all the live music.

xo