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

thankful thursday.

we've made it another year and to another thanksgiving! GO TEAM.

i know thankful posts are overdone but we're to the end of the actual day and this post is half-baked anyway so i'm going to do everyone's favorite thing: a list. here's a list of 30 things for which i am thankful; one thing for each year i've been on this earth.

1. Jesus
2. family
3. friends
4. my health
5. my job(s)
6. my city (minneapolis)
7. all the fur-kids in my life (who are basically family)
8. music that makes my heart constrict and my eyes well up with tears
9. music that makes me want to dance and sing at the top of my lungs
10. coffee
11. diet coke
12. the ability to travel and seeing new places
13. other cultures
14. creativity
15. the goodwill outlet
16. books
17. my winter boots
18. dark chocolate
19. the ocean
20. hope
21. hot tub club
22. concerts
23. airplanes
24. friends (the show)
25. my cozy apartment
26. modern technology
27. nail polish
28. hugs
29. this lil blog of thoughts
30. love

hope you're feeling especially blessed this year...i know i am!
xo

how to make awards shows better.

i could wax eloquent about how great i thought justin bieber sounded and danced at the ama's or how alanis morissette crushed you oughta know or all of the swanky attire...

but why do that when i can complain and suggest a better way of doing something?

disclaimer: i thought the show was entertaining and most of the performances were fabulous.

it was the actual awards that really annoyed me. it felt like the same 5 bands/people were nominated for everything. i mean, i don't actually know how these nominations happen...are they fan voted? is there a committee that decides? i could quickly google and figure it out, i am on the internet after all but i prefer to just blaze ahead.

let's say they are committee decided.

here's how to make the ama's (or really any awards show) better: ONLY ALLOW SOMEONE TO BE NOMINATED IN MAX TWO CATEGORIES.
why this is a great idea:

• more nominees (which just means more famous people show up since they all seem to hate awards shows, hello better crowd shots)
• i don't have to listen to the same couple people give acceptance speeches (by the 4th time they are up there they don't even really care anymore and frankly, i have stopped caring too)
• it'll make winning that much sweeter (when you've only got one or two chances to win it means more)
• the converse is true too, when someone loses all five categories they've been nominated in it seems worse than just losing once or twice (it's kinder for the runner-ups)

it's basically genius.

still working on a theory how this could work if it's fan voted. maybe the artists who get enough votes in multiple categories have to choose which 2 categories they want to be in....like i said, a work in progress.

xo

everyone loves a behind-the-scenes.

no idea how i didn't see this until right now. if one of my friends saw this and didn't pass it along i swear to you i have a new enemy. 

if you've ever wanted to see the inside of a tour bus, i present to you jon foreman showing off the switchfoot bus. 

if it didn't make me love him more i would probably be angry that giving a tour of their bus he still somehow manages to be inspirational. i mean, maybe it's just because i already find him insanely inspirational but he's so genuine and makes single serve coffee and is such a normal dude that the tags on his shirt hang out and talks about their crew guys being family and gah i wish i was his friend. 

if you don't already, you know you are beginning to love him too. 

xo 

unrequited love.

my life is one giant unrequited love story.

i tweeted this years ago and it's sadly still true today. i have a tendency to fall for fellas who don't feel the same way about me. or i assume they don't because they don't tell me and i certainly don't have the kahones to say anything so i just love them from afar (and for a ridiculous amount of time) until they fall in love with some other girl and get married and then i finally get over them. it has happened multiple times. it's super healthy.

just pretend with me that the silver lining in all of this is that my soft spot for unrequited love songs has boosted sales or something. these are some of my favorites:

drive you home by parachute

lyric that gets me: "yeah summer heat, staring at the ceiling 'cause i just can't sleep, wondering what you're doing when it comes to me, there's nothing i can do it's always up to you." 

realize by colbie callait

lyric that gets me: "no it's never the same if you don't feel it too...if you could meet me halfway it could be the same for you." 

prove you wrong by he is we

lyric that gets me: "give me your heart, i don't want a piece or part i want it all, i want you to fall." 

i can't make you love me by bonnie raitt

this version by adele

lyric that gets me: "you can't make your heart feel something that it won't." 

they just resonate within the walls of my tiny, loving heart. if you've ever felt one-sided love you know the ache of wishing the other person would just understand how incredible you'd be together because you see it so why can't they, gosh darn it?!

*sigh*
xo

frontman spirit animals.

remember how i told you that i loved identifying spirit animals? i think i've pretty much designated an animal to everyone i have ever worked with or am friends with. i've had to double up on some animals though because i'm actually pretty limited in my animal knowledge which is just another one of my shortcomings.

anyway, you are probably wondering what the spirit animals of some of my favorite frontmen are. you're not? 

well then jump off this train now because we are about to pull away from the station. they are, as always, in no particular order.

bear rinehart = grizzly bear

i know this one seems too easy because he goes by the name bear but bear with me (hahahaha!) it actually fits his persona pretty well. he's intense. he's intimidating but you still kinda want to give him a hug. he has a low growl to his voice. 

will anderson = puppy dog

he's got those huge eyes. he's energetic and all over the stage during shows. he writes songs that melt your heart like a puppy falling asleep in your lap. 

jon foreman = chimpanzee

i know this sounds like a slam but chimps are highly intelligent and the only animal shown to have a sense of altruism. and i'm sure they be fantastic surfers and could sing like a dream if they were any more human-like. 

caleb chapman = an eagle

maybe it's because he writes lyrics like "ride the wind like a feather toward home" but i just picture him as a little removed, looking at life from another place. and he's a bit majestic. 

judah akers = wolf

he's got that wolf spirit. and the wolf gaze.

me = unicorn

because it's obvious.

see? it's a gift. 

if you hated this, sorry, but there will definitely be a solo act version of spirit animal identifying happening in the future. 

xo

lights, camera, no pass.

right before tour this summer i picked up a pretty nice dslr camera in hopes that i would have the opportunity to get some great concert shots on the road. i've always thought it would be rad to be a concert photographer and take those really great pictures of the moments you never forget.

turned out, each stop on tour was cray busy and i never got to pull out my new toy and work on taking photos in a concert setting. so i vowed to bring it to all the remaining concerts i was going to this year. but then i got really insecure because i wasn't overly sure how to work my camera and other people seeing me fail is probably my least favorite thing ever so i would make excuses like "it's a sold out show so the club is gonna be packed and i won't get to move around and get good shots anyway," or "it's raining and we're walking to the show," and not bring along my camera so i wouldn't have other concert photographers see my subpar photos.

that has hurt no one but myself.

the other day LIGHTS announced this via her facebook page:

Calling all budding photographers! 

On the current Lights tour we are offering up one "Lights Live Pass" per show for a photographer to have ALL ACCESS to shoot the performance. Beyond the standard photo pass, this photographer will be permitted to shoot the entire performance from any sight line, including side-stage! 

To enter, please email lightslivepass@gmail.com with the date of the show in the subject line, with a sample of your work. Preference will be given to experienced photographers. One photographer will be contacted per city, the week of the show, to be given a pass. 

yeah, notice how that 11/28 location is minneapolis, mn? did you also notice that the mowgli's are supporting LIGHTS on this tour? and the fact that it's at a venue that i have not spent nearly enough time at is just icing on the cake. but guess how many quality pictures i have to submit? you guessed it. zero. so it looks like i will not even be in the running for the lights live pass...and all because i'm too stubborn about looking bad at something in front of others.

i lose.
xo

1986.

with my birthday rapidly approaching and my affinity for looking up useless facts on the internet i recently completed a google search of "famous people born in 1986." i really have no idea why except for the fact that i was curious who has been on this earth the same amount of time i have and somehow they've managed to become household names and i haven't.

some of them i already knew (the olson twins, amanda bynes, lindsay lohan, robert pattinson) but some were surprising. mostly because i thought they were older than me but it's fine, i'm not annoyed at all that we're the same age and they're more accomplished than me. don't even get me started on people younger than me that somehow figured it out before i did.

anyway, here were the surprises of the bunch:

lady gaga.

 maybe it was the crazy costumes and heavy make up but i definitely would have guessed that gaga was older than me. turns out she's a couple months younger. 

brittany snow.

i think it's just because i feel like she's been around forever. 

lena dunham. 

she's so outspoken i figured she was solidly in her 30's. also she kinda

has a mom haircut so maybe that played into it? 

florence welch.

she doesn't look old but she does look like she's seen some life. 

maybe i'm just jealous of her powerhouse vocals. 

mischa barton.

another classic case of "she's been around forever."

and she was on a show that i probably wouldn't have been allowed to watch if we had had that channel so she just seemed older and wiser in the ways of the world. 

so there you have it. all of those ladies are the same age as me and have accomplished so much more that i thought they were years older than me. i hope that florence and i would have been friends if we had been in the same class. 

xo

the dull, beat up penny.

it's 10:30pm and i'm sitting in a random bedroom in a stranger's home in north dakota. i've got a cold that makes it hard to breathe and has me hoping i don't leave snot in my elbow crook every time i sneeze. oh, and i have cramps (sorry for the overshare, i've been alone for a couple of hours).

there is actually nowhere else i'd rather be right now than in my sweats, curled up in a blanket, on my own couch, with some cookie dough ice cream.

i, no joke, just described my last sunday night to you. and while it was good great in the moment i'm sure if you had offered me the chance to go on a road trip while i was on my sofa happily expanding my waistline i woulda been like "screw this made-for-tv-movie i'm watching, let's hit the road!"

we all know that the grass really isn't greener on the other side but that doesn't stop us from wishing for other pastures.

as a self-professed dreamer (um hello, i'm an ENFP and my number one strength according to strengths finder is futuristic) being content is hard. painfully hard. i'm always thinking about the next; the next place to live, the next job to have, the next company to try and start, the next boy to fall in love with, the next vacation to take, the next.... it's never ending. it makes living in the here and now seem like a dull, beat up penny while the next seems like a shiny, new penny. and let me tell you, a cold and cramps definitely feels like a dull, beat up penny.

but both spend the same, a penny is a penny. your life is what you have right now and i'm pretty sure i read somewhere that we aren't promised tomorrow (james 4:14). it is also in a line from a top 40 song on the radio. the song is good but the book is better.

i know i've written about this before but it's because it's something i need reminding of often. i'd hoped to have a job where i would get to travel, and guess what? i do! granted, this time it's just to my neighbor state of north dakota but i've gotten to see some pretty rad places thanks to my job. even north dakota has held a few surprises!

so i need to stop living for the next. i'm definitely still going to dream (it's who i am) but i'm going to consciously try to be better at living in the moment. because at the moment i'm in my pj's in a big, comfy bed, texting my friends and family, and listening to mike birbiglia's stand-up online which is really not a bad place to be.

xo

dirty30.

today marks the day one of my longest-running friends turns 30. THIRTY.
if she's thirty that means i'm not that far behind...ugh. but this is not about me (well it kind've is, this whole blog basically is but we'll pretend like it's all about her).

i met terra at bible camp when we were both 12. we were in the same cabin. she was mostly awkward with waist-length brown hair parted squarely down the middle and tucked firmly behind her ears, was literally always wearing pants (in the summer!), and hardly said 5 words to me the entire week of camp. we maybe didn't actually become friends that week. whatever.

this is actually not from camp but basically how

i remember her from that fateful year. 

fast forward through years on staff at that same camp together, college together, countless road trips together, traveling overseas together, working jobs together, and going to more concerts than you can shake a stick at together and we arrive at her 30th birthday.

i'm not a huge birthday person but it feels like 30 deserves a party. so i was bent on making it a surprise party because it was more fun for me that way (again, most things are about me)! i facebook'd friends, her former co-workers, and some of her family. luckily, she had to work on saturday morning (i know, i'm a terrible friend for being glad my friend has to work on the weekend) so i had time to buy and deliver party favors and balloons to another guest to bring to the restaurant to get set up. it also gave me the time to make a coupon book from her dog with coupons that said things like, "this coupon good for: a dad."

so much love wrapped up in one collage!

anyway, she literally had no idea and almost teared up when we got to casa rio and saw everyone there. i was really pulling for some tears but i'm gonna pretend like she was too happy to cry. after STUFFING our faces with tex mex we watched a halloween light parade and went to a bonfire. it was a fabulous night of friends and celebrating another year of terra being in our lives!

check out casa rio if you're ever in anoka, mn! 

yeah, the pic is sideways but the food was bomb.

parade watchers. two are still rockin' the hats.

we lost some people by the time we got to the bonfire.

seriously, if anyone knows a dad for wonderdog, let me know...she's mostly gotten over her awkward phase and wears shorts when it's hot out now.

this was just because i wanted to put this on here.

cheers to 30, ter!
xo