I have many pictures to post from last weekend's trip to FINALLY meet my friend Shelly and visit The Mall of America while I was at it, but not enough time tonight - stay tuned for that later this week. In the meantime, here are 2 things that both made me announce, "Yes, please," this weekend:
1. THIS:
There really is nothing more to say to that. Yes, please, INDEED. Damn.
2. Billie Joe looking fine-as-wine in the new Green Day video. As a bonus, I love this song as well:
Oh, those DeGraw boys - how I love them so. Gavin's spring tour made a stop in Boston on Friday night and we were one of the lucky select cities to also have the bonus of Joey as one of the opening acts. I always say, the only thing better than one DeGraw is two. Lucy, Paul and David joined me at the show, but seriously people - I get in THE ZONE and pay very little attention to anything/anyone else. THE ZONE!
Anyhoo, we were lucky enough to be in the 21+ group so we could wait inside the lounge part of the concert hall before the doors opened while the 18-20s waited in line outside. This meant we also got to go in to the club first, so I scored a sweet front row position. And the thing I love most about this club is that there is no security pit, so I was leaning up against the stage. I actually sat my purse on it for most of the show. I loved it so much. See? Being an old lady does pay off sometimes. Just wait until I can start getting senior discounts and shit - watch out world!
ANYway - Joey opened the show with an acoustic set. I've never seen him do an acoustic show and I loved it. It was just Joey and his pal Andy Clayburn (who you may remember from my trip to the National Underground in February) on guitars and it was really cool. Joey sounded incredible, and it was a great way to start the show. Here are some pictures I grabbed:
And my favorite, the Joey smirking at me picture:
Here's a short clip from 2 songs that I took a little bit of video of (you can totally hear Joey's A&E voice coming out when he sings all low):
I had run into Joey in the bar before the show and we talked about him coming back to Boston as a headliner in a few weeks, so I'll get more/better pics and video then.
After Joey's set, the "official" opening act came on, a band called honeyhoney. I had never heard of them before, but I fell in love immediately. It's just a girl and a guy, and she plays the banjo and fiddle and he plays guitar and bass drum. They were fantastic. Lucy and I were laughing during the set because the guy in the band was literally 2 feet in front of us. It was so awkward. We couldn't look at him! In any case, you should totally check them out. I bought their album immediately when I got home. Here's Suzanne, the lead singer:
I didn't really get video of them because I was loving it so much that I didn't even think to, but here's their video of my favorite song from them at the moment:
After honeyhoney, it was time for Gavin. This tour is a bit different to go along with the feel of his new album. It's very stripped down with a lot of acoustic stuff going on. It was a whole new feel and I loved every single minute of it. Here's a little video taste of what went down:
I love him looking at my camera at the 1:49 mark. Anyway, here are some pictures I took during the show:
This next one is my favorite from this show:
LOVE that.
Here's a few more from the encore:
Now, onto my favorite song and picture from the night. First, I have been waiting to hear Gavin perform his song Glass for years now. He finally recorded it for this album, so I figured it was finally time for me to hear it live. I hadn't even prepared properly when he just busted right into it for the second song of the night, hence me not having my camera ready and not getting part of the first verse on video. In any case, here is the rest of it:
Man, I love that song.
Now onto my favorite picture from the whole night, me and Gavin:
He teased me a little for seeing me getting down during the show, but he loved that I was having such a great time. Oh Gavin, I always do, I always do.
I don't know, but here I am!! Where the hell have I been? Sorry, sorry! I've got an extended post coming, but no time tonight, so I'll just leave you with this:
That's the first single and video for Tinted Windows, the "supergroup" with James Iha, a guy from Cheap Trick, someone from Fountains of Wayne and Mr. Taylor Hanson on lead vocals. That still makes no sense to me. Anyway, as you can see, Taylor is clearly dressing for me now. Good boy. Also? Very catchy tune.
Their album came out today and I gave it a listen on my way to and from work and aside from about 2 bum songs, it's pretty good. Very power-poppy and different. At first, I was looking at the album from the standpoint of the Taylor Hanson scholar that I am, so I was all, "Hmmm. He clearly didn't have a big hand in writing these songs because he's not playing to all of his vocal strengths." (People, I could write a dissertation on him - remember when he called me? Oh my God.) But once I got all of that out of my system, I just started listening to the tunes from an unbiased standpoint and most of them were quite catchy and fun. The album isn't going to change anyone's life, but it's a fun listen. I'm missing the patented Taylor moans and shouts of "come on!" that pepper most Hanson records, but in return I do get him dressing for me and singing a song called Cha Cha. It's no moaning, but I'll take it.
It's all about what happens after the 4:49 mark when they post the footage before the interview started. "You want me to point my groin this way?" Love it.br>
People, I still don't know what to think of this a week after hearing about it. Tinted Windows is a new band formed by James Iha from the Smashing Pumpkins and it also has someone from Cheap Trick, someone from Fountains of Wayne, and TAYLOR HANSON as the lead singer. I am so confused. Now there is this video teaser:
Taylor is dressing for me, but I still don't know what to make of all of this. What say you?
Last Friday David and I headed to Hartford to go see the DeGraw boys in concert. It's not often that Joey opens for Gavin, so the double feature was a special treat for me. Since Hartford is about a two hour drive, we decided to book a hotel room because I knew I wouldn't feel like driving home if we were out late, which I planned to be. The rates were good at most of the hotels, so we just grabbed a room at a Days Inn that was about a mile away from the venue. Y'all - now I know why the rates were so cheap. David and I spent most of the night saying to each other, "We're going to die in Hartford tonight."
For those who have never been to Connecticut, it is generally a really pretty and nice state. Hartford, however, is disgusting. There's really no other way to put it. It's nasty. The last time I was in Hartford, I ended up having to get a tetanus shot a few days later. Seriously. (I had cut my foot somewhere on the filthy streets of Hartford.) Anyway, Connecticut traffic can get a little clogged in the late afternoon, so David and I decided to both take the afternoon off from work and head down to the city early to avoid any of that mess. Surely we could find all kinds of things to do in the city, right? Eh, not so much. Sure, we could have gone shopping for CAT BOOTS:
WTF??? Can you get tabby boots? I am intrigued by the dingo boots, but cat boots????
Creeps.
Anyway, in lieu of cat boot shopping, we decided to just drive around the city and see where that took us. It...was scary. We almost ran over the same rabid-looking chihuahua TWICE, and the rest of the time we bemoaned the fact that our wills weren't ready yet, which was a shame because we were pretty sure we were going to die. Then we went to McDonald's for dinner and I was about to use the restroom until I saw a sketchy-looking woman wandering around the whole restaurant openly scratching her hoo-ha through her filthy sweatpants. She was just scratching that thing for days. Then she headed into the bathroom, so that was enough for me in terms of any need to use that bathroom EVER. Instead, we headed next door to the only other happening place around, VIP. VIP, of course, stands for Very Intimate Pleasures. I assumed it was a sex shop, while David thought it was a strip club, which led to both of us wondering what we would do if it were a strip club.
DAVID: How do titty bars work? Do they just come up to you?
PAM: I don't know, I've never been to one! What happens in the movies?
Because clearly, everything you see in the movies is totally true to life. Anyway, lucky for us I was right and VIP ended up being a sex shop, and it was gigantic. We wandered around for a while and then headed back to the hotel, where I noticed an odd looking stain on the rug in our room:
Is that a face? And is it made out of blood? What is that? Does he know Bedface? And still, and most importantly, IS THAT BLOOD??
Instead of pondering the horrors that could have taken place in our room, we busied ourselves getting ready and, doing things like taking a time out in the random chair in the corner:
Reading The Bible:
Wrapping a towel on your head and singing into the hair dryer:
And building pillow forts:
You know, the usual things you do to get ready. We then headed out to the show, and all of the thoughts of impending death drifted away as soon as I the first of the DeGraws hit the stage. Joey opened the show, sounding terrific yet sporting a new Freddie Mercury-inspired mustache. He had the mustache when I saw him at the bar a couple of weeks ago, but I just figured it was a fluke. Apparently, not. So now Joey looks a little like a child molester:
Okay, maybe he looks more than a little like one.
Eh, no matter, because he put on a great show. Here's a clip from my favorite Joey song:
After Joey's set, there was the little matter during intermission of some drunk girls who wandered off trying to reclaim their spots in the crowd near me, but people had taken them. This prompted one drunk girl to start pushing up against the new people that were standing there, trying to get them to move. It ended with drunk girl being removed by security and having to stand in the back for the concert, but there was a brief moment in the middle where I turned into a completely different person when one of her drunken pushes sent two people flying into me and led to me knocking into other people. I may have shoved the girl hard and yelled something along the lines of, "STOP IT, YOU STUPID BITCH!!!" That may have happened and David may have loved every minute of it. Moral of the story: don't mess with me while I am waiting for Gavin to take the stage. Speaking of which, shortly thereafter, he did take the stage, and all was right in the world again:
By the way, this was my first night using my new fancy camera and I love it to death. Especially when it captures Gavin shooting at me:
I love that.
The sound is also better in the videos - here's a clip from a non-album track that I have a live version of and love, but have never seen Gavin perform, so I was quite excited when he did. I mean, how can you not love a good ol' fashioned drinking song?
Here's a couple more of my favorite shots from that night:
And a montage of clips from a bunch of songs, including my favorite clip at about the 1:53 mark when Gavin is singing Proud Mary and shaking his ass. When he starts doing the train-rolling arm motions at 2:35? Pure bliss for me:
Oh, Gavin - how I have missed your shows. Now I'm going to be in withdrawal since there aren't any coming up anytime soon. But hey, at least I have lived to see the next one since David and I weren't so sure about that when we returned to the hotel to crash and were met with the soothing and dulcet tones of people drag racing outside.
PAM: What is going on right now?
DAVID: Are we going to die?
PAM: Who drag races anymore?
DAVID: People in Hartford since there's nothing else to do besides go to VIP and shop for cat boots.
PAM: What is this, Tokyo Drift? Are they Days Inn Drifting?
DAVID: Help!
Ah, but we made it and were quite happy to make our way into the nicer parts of Connecticut the next day, where there were homemade chocolate shops and such. Plus, I'd still go to Hartford any day to see a great concert like that. Double DeGraws makes everything better, even Days Inn Drifting.
Because even though these aren't the highest quality on earth, they'll get me through until the DVD comes out. Or until I see this again in the theater, which, let's be honest, will be soon. Paul and I went to see it for the second time tonight and cried together because we are 10 year-old girls. Anyhoo - here's where we get excited the most:
That one is Paul's favorite. I do love it very much myself, but my heart belongs to Scream, aka the new Bet On It:
You know, oftentimes when I may catch a glimpse or seven at a High School Musical movie, I find myself telling Zac Efron to pull up his pants already. However, let me stress to Mr. Efron that this advice only applies to those movies, and not, for example, when he is out on a beach somewhere. In other circumstances such as a beach walk or something, I am QUITE happy to let him let those pants hang as low as he wants to, and I highly encourage it because DAMN:
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____________________
"We Are Creeps" Winners of the Week: Me and David, during a showing of High School Musical 3 on Saturday night. (What? I went. I know. But it was 10 PM and there were 8 other people in the theater. But I'm going to go again. What? I sort of liked it.) ANYhoo - David and I cemented our "We Are Creeps" status right at the opening shot, when the screen fades from black into a close-up of a heavy-breathing, sweaty and soaking wet Zac Efron.
PAM: Guh! DAVID: HOT.
Fast forward to a scene where Zac is lying on the floor in his girlfriend's room:
PAM: I want him to come lay in my room like that. DAVID: Mmm hmmm.
Later, right before he is about to sing Scream, which is totally the new Bet On It, Zac goes to his locker and turns with his back to the camera and takes his shirt off so he can put on his basketball jersey for the big number. This is what transpired during the naked-back moment:
PAM: (all whispery) Turn around. Turn around. DAVID: C'mon, do it. PAM: Turn around!
Zac puts on his jersey before turning around....
DAVID: Aww! PAM: Dammit! THE PROFESSOR: [The universal "How old is that boy, you creeps?" look]
We are total creeps. Still - now you can see above what we were missing when he wouldn't just TURN THE EFF AROUND ALREADY. Wow, I need help. Does anyone have the number for Creeps Anonymous?
What a way to end my weekend of three concerts - with my boys. The brothers Hanson were playing two nights in town at the same venue - I went the second night and was treated to all kinds of fun songs because they were trying to do an almost entirely different setlist from the night before for the repeat attendees. The boys played one song that I've never heard them do live, a B-side from their third single off of their debut album. It was awesome. And, of course, the boys were as awesome as ever. They played for two hours and it just flew by. The Professor went with me to experience his first Hanson show, and it seemed like he was pleasantly surprised by the talents of the boys. However, the crowd was well-behaved that night, so he didn't have to experience any shoving or craziness. People gave each other plenty of room to move, so that was nice. Especially since there was some creepy older man standing next to The Professor, lip-synching along to every word. He was creeepy.
Anyway, since there is no way to top the greatness of the last time I saw them with the whole pre-show interview and security pit viewing access, I didn't care about trying to get close to the stage this time, so we stood in the back near the bar. The venue we saw them at was a wide and shallow room, so even with being in the back, we weren't very far away. I had a nice and clear view of my Taylor, so I was happy. Speaking of Taylor, he remains too beautiful for words. I have so many pictures from previous shows that I didn't bother taking very many this time around, but here's a couple that I did grab. I know the last one is blurry, but damn!
I also didn't take much video, but I did put together a short clip that really has almost nothing to do with the music and pretty much everything to do with Taylor being hot as hell. So please, do enjoy my "Damn, you one FINE mofo Mr. Taylor Hanson" montage:
Why you gotta be married with 3 kids and another on the way? Eh, who cares as long as you keep shaking that fine ass. Sheeeiiiit.
Apology of the Day: My apologies to The Professor for turning to him during the Hanson concert and saying, "Look at Taylor's crotch in those tight jeans. And that ass." Just the words you want to hear from your girlfriend. Still - even a guy should be able to appreciate that sweet ass.
