CRASH KINGS ROADTRIP WEEKEND (featuring JET)

OH HI. i almost didn't see you there!!!!!

figured i'd start the most awesome blog entry with the most awesome greeting.

folks and friends, prepare to be rocked. this entry is going to be EPIC. both in length, pictures, links to videos which you must watch, and in awesome.

epically awesome. that's how i am going to describe this.

OH, GET EXCITED.

there are a lot of sexy guys ahead. sexy, pretty guys wearing tight pants. YEAH. now you're excited!

i know i updated you once from the hotel in Albany, but i'm going to do a little rewind and start from that show. because i have pictures!!!! hott hott pictures of hotties!!!!!! (that's another good way to describe this entry)



6 MARCH 2010 - Clifton Park, New York. (Neon blue "over 21" bracelet.)

me and my new friend Ryan meet up in Needham, Massachusetts. we start heading west on the Mass Pike at the absolute worst time of day. the sun with directly at eye level and not ideal for pre-concert rocking out.

Ryan made totally wonderful, delicious cookies for the weekend. YUM a lot.

after stopping at a CVS quickly we arrived at the venue. Northern Lights. i believe i told you that this place was in a strip mall in the middle of a dollar store and a church. but i think it's so strange and bizarre for a rock concert venue, that i will tell you again:

this place, Northern Lights, was in a strip mall, in between a dollar store and a church.

we walk into the place and just happen to pick the spot in the crowd next to Tony and Mike. of the band CRASH KINGS. oh, beautiful brothers. we talked to Tony for a few minutes and told him that we would be at the next few shows. he was very excited to hear this. and very appreciative of our superfandom.

the opening band was the scary band Owl. with the creepy drummer. they were screamy a lot and i didn't really get into the music at all.

this place was also very foggy. like, they had the fog machine set on "super" or something. i mean, when Crash Kings came onstage, i was standing pretty much right below Mike, and i could barely see Tony on the other side of the stage, as evidenced in these photos:



MIKE!!!!! AND TONY!!!!! bro shot!! you know how i love those bro shots. see how foggy?



TONY! kind of. his set up was different than the other three times i had seen them. he was playing on an actual piano this time. a very cool folding piano. and his clavinet was set up on top of it. he's such a pro.



Mike. hottie.

I had a really great view of Jason on drums at the NY show. and he kept looking over at me, i think because i knew all the words and was dancing. that made me excited.

and i got a great video of my fave song, 'Carry On.' at least, i think it's my favorite song. i really can't decide. every time i hear a Crash Kings song i think, "oh, it's my favorite!" they're all so freaking good.

what was great about Northern Lights was that the "loading area" where the bands load and unload all their stuff, was behind these big glass doors. so, you could see everything! which was awesome. especially when Tony was talking to that guy and he was laughing and smiling a lot. oohhhhhhh that smile. so, even after they went offstage, we could still see them hanging around outside.

and then we were waiting for JET. and they took a SUPER long time to come out. it almost made me think, "wow, these guys are divas." because they took so long. and people were getting really impatient. and then it was just getting silly.

and then they finally came out!!!!



IT'S JET!!!!!



It's Nic, the lead singer! one of the brothers in the band. his bro is the drummer. Mark? Rob? i don't know. hold on, i'll find out the guys names in jet.

Nic = lead singer
Chris = drummer
Cam = lead guitar
Mark = bass
Louis = keys

and Nic and Chris are the bros. which means that Cam, Mark and Louis would be in the Non-Brother Band, which will be the opening band on the Bro Tour 2011.



Nic liked to come to the front of the stage a lot. i tried to resist whipping out my camera like every other person. but, i did get this one shot.

also - he wore the same plaid shirt for all three shows. i made sure to document this. i guess it's kind of hard to see the plaid here. but, it's like a cream and navy plaid shirt. and in NY and NJ he wore this gray denim jacket over it. hip!

also - Jet = tight pants. you can't really see the tightness of all the boys pants here. but, i have also photo-documented this in later pictures... :)

BUT WOW - i loved Jet. i loved them a lot. they had a killer opening song, "She's A Genius" which they opened with all three nights. my favorite song of theirs is "Skin and Bones." LOVE IT. and, it was very exciting to hear them play, "Are You Gonna Be My Girl." they did not play the other slow song. all three nights they didn't play it. but, they totally rocked. a lot. a mega lot.

and then Ryan and i ventured over to our hotel, which took longer than expected due to crazy construction that didn't make any sense. the hotel was on this super wide road and the whole thing was just covered with orange cones and construction workers. it was very hard to find the path you were supposed to drive through.

and also making it hard was the fact that we had just been to a killer rock concert and didn't really care about anything else at that moment. eventually, we found the hotel and were able to figure our way into the parking lot.

and then i blogged. and then fell asleep around 3am. maybe it was 3:30am. i slept good.


7 MARCH 2010 - Sayreville, New Jersey. (lime green "over 21" bracelet.)


i awoke on sunday (emily's birthday!!!) at 9:30am. went to the lobby for the continental breakfast which consisted of bagels that were really small. definitely not normal sized bagels.

then came back to the hotel room. showered. watched Ryan's concert videos from the night before. SHE GOT A GREAT RECORDING of "All Along," which is a new Crash Kings song. this one might be my favorite. oh, it's so good. i strongly encourage you to watch that video because it's a beautiful song.

and then we drove.

we drove from the Albany area of New York to Sayreville, NJ. which was like, just over an hour south of New York City. it was a long drive. i think just around 4 hours.

we pull into the venue, The Starland Ballroom, which is across the street from a VFW hall. also very strange. i had never been to these concert venues that weren't like, right downtown in a city. where there was no parking. these places had huge parking lots. and Starland Ballroom was on this long road full of factories and other depressing things. it was also very strange.

but! we pull into the parking lot and it's empty. except for one other car.

so we get out of my car and walk over to the box office. it's closed and they won't even let us use the bathroom. lame.

and then we go back outside and see a girl walking over to us from the other car. she is a Jet fan!!! who got to the place super early in hopes of seeing/making out with Jet before the show.

Ryan and i tell her that we're Crash Kings fans, but saw Jet last night and really liked them. her name is Jenny. she had never heard of Crash Kings, but was excited to hear their music. so, we walked back over to my car, and had a jam sesh in the parking lot to the Crash Kings cd. it was awesome.

then we got hungry and ventured to the little strip mall at the end of the street. we ate at a Filipino barbeque place that was really good. and got to watch an episode of Hannah Montana that was playing on tv. bonus!

then we headed back over to the parking lot. i parked next to Jenny's car. she was from Manhattan. cool.

the Jet tour bus was parking out back. we had a great view of it. no Crash Kings van. i believe they call their van "Ol' Blue."

eventually, Ol' Blue drives up with the Crash Kings inside. freaking out ensues. yeah, it was pretty awesome. watching the guys unload stuff. and that folding piano must be pretty heavy because of all the obscenities we heard the guys yell whilst carrying it.

and after all their stuff was unloaded, Tony drove away in Ol' Blue WHILE texting on his iPhone. we were very concerned about his safety.

and then the crabby parking attendant guy made us move our cars into a straight line AND made us pay $6 for parking. LAME. more people started showing up. we got into line around 6:30. doors were at 7. we had been there since about 3:30. HARDCORE.

the place was pretty big inside. and there was a full bar around every corner. the opening band was called One Lonely Boy. no. that's not right. ONLY Lonely Boy. no! ONLY LIVING BOY. that was the band. Only Living Boy. i keep getting them confused with Los Lonely Boys and Badly Drawn Boy. and also, Simon and Garfunkel.

they were pretty good. i definitely liked them better than Owl.

haha, but, while we were waiting in the parking lot with Jenny, we told her that the opening band the night before was Owl. and she was like,

JENNY: Oh! Don't they sing that song....."Fireflies!?"
JULIE: NO!! I made that same mistake. That's Owl City. It's confusing.

remember that night? where i downloaded all that Owl City music because i thought they were the opening band? i vote that Owl change their name. i'm sorry! i'm not an Own fan. they scare me. and so does that owl on their website.

ANYWAYS. finally we get inside and get a good spot next to some other Crash Kings fans!!!!!!! AWESOME!



Tony being hott on the clav!!!



During "14 Arms," which might actually be my favorite song, Tony kept going between standing and sitting. and you could tell he just wanted to DANCE AND ROCK. and finally towards the end of the song, he stood up and KICKED the piano stool behind him. it went pretty far. and then he continued to rock.

AND, i got the whole song on video. you should watch that. great song. it's their most 'screamy' song. but i love it. and the piano stool kick is hotttt.




Jason on drums and Mike on bass!!!! if you haven't noticed already, Mike is wearing a tight plaid shirt. just something to point out...



See those post-it notes on Tony's clav? set list!!!! yep. he told us the night before that it might be boring going to three shows because they were going to play the same set. and then he was like, "i guess we'll have to switch it up!"

AND THEY DID. yeah they did. the set was different ALL THREE NIGHTS. because of us? probs. because they love us? probs again.




YYEEPP. tight shirt and tight pants. i have no problem with that.



IT'S JASON!!!! i feel like i never get a good pic of Jason. and i think this is a pretty good one.






Jason throwing his drum stick!!! what a great shot!




and all three of them. niiiice.

they played a killer set. and Tony was rocking out so hard at one point, that his soundboard which is to his left, fell right off the stand and knocked over two bottles of water on the floor. he picked it up very quickly and got back to rocking.

and then! Mike helped Tony move the clav to the front of the stage and they KILLED on their 'War Pigs' cover. remember how crazy i went when they did this in Providence? and i could barely describe it for you because it was so awesome? well, they did it again. and this time: i was prepared.

"War Pigs," Crash Kings.

in THAT video, Tony starts rocking so hard that the whammy bar on the clav almost falls off. he has to screw it back in real quick. i would very strongly encourage you to watch that video. it's PRIME TONY ROCKING. and jumping. and headbanging. and dancing. full out, "making love to the clavinet," to quote that reviewer from Bowdoin College. it's amazing to watch him. for serious. he's an amazing performer.

AND THEN WE SAW JET AGAIN!!!!!! they didn't take as long to come out onstage:



BOYS. WEARING. TIGHT. PANTS. yep.



please note the same outfit as the previous night.



and the classic, 'side head rocking' shot. remember my first Rooney concert i got that great shot of Robert Schwartzman doing the "side scream?" same idea as this photo, only with a scream.




this was when he came and stood on the speaker RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. what a great photo, right?!

and i got two Jet videos that night. but, i'm going to post someone else's video because it's the whole song and overall more exciting seeming than my video.

ARE YOU GONNA BE MY GIRL

i promise you'll recognize the song. my "blog singing lyrics posting" of Jet songs really don't do it justice.

"well it's a 123 take my hand and come with me because you look so fine that i really wanna make you mine!" cool.

i really enjoyed Jet again.

and then sadly, the show ended. we met up again with Jenny at our cars to say goodbye and exchange Twitter names so we could start following each other. she was super cool.

THEN came the marathon drive.

we left Sayreville, New Jersey just around midnight. got lost in Sayreville a lot. first, the directions were confusing. and second, Ryan got to talk to Tony for a while while Jet was playing and she was recounting their conversation and i was not paying any attention to road signs. or thinking about any productive to getting us on the Garden State Parkway. how can you when you're thinking of Tony? you can't.

Ryan had asked Tony what the meaning was behind some of their songs. awesome! except for the fact that he said he wrote "Non-Believer" about his girlfriend. but later on whilst recounting this, Ryan decided that him and his girlfriend had probably broken up. i wholeheartedly supported this. especially since i still think he wrote "Non-Believer" about me. i mean, come on.

"you're gonna light me up in a way i could never explain...."
"i would love you monday through 'til sunday...."

i mean, it's gotta be about me, right? OH so sweet.

it was on the drive back from NJ that Ryan spoke this piece of Crash Kings wisdom:

RYAN: Not only are they rock n' roll sex gods, they are excellent musicians, and overall really nice people.

how true!

we stopped for gas just south of NYC, i think.

AND THEN!!!!! something momentous happened. in New York City, just as "Come Away" was starting to play......

MY CAR HIT 100,000 MILES!!!!! yes! i got a picture of it with my phone, but i don't have the cord with me right now, so i can't show you. lame, right? i'll show you later.

around 4:30am we were both getting tired. so, we stopped at a rest stop on the Mass Pike to get coffee and a super second wind. and then entered Boston around 5am ish. maybe just after.

i dropped Ryan off at her apartment. sad times. and then i headed to Maine.

and i arrived in Berwick, Maine at 7am. not too bad, eh?

NJ
NY
CT
MA
NH
ME

all in one night!!! crazy times. and the Crash Kings' CD was playing the entire time. yep, the entire time. and the CD only lasts like, 36 minutes. that's a lot of repeat. but still, every song was super exciting.

and there was one time where we thought the Crash Kings van Ol' Blue was passing us on the highway. and we had a mini freak out moment. but, it wasn't. i mean, they were heading the same direction.

wow, what a great night.



8 MARCH 2010 - Berwick, Maine.



i went to bed around 8:30am after downloading a bunch of Jet songs that i liked.
slept until 2:30pm when Kara came and woke me up.
we went car shopping. lame.
came home and the power was out. for like, 4 hours. lame and cold.
power came back on and we went to get chinese food for supper. nice.
THEN,
Crash Kings tweeted. this was their tweet:
Just had a great dinner at our parents house in Boston with Jet!

how excited did this make me?? yeah, this made me really excited. to think that Jet was hanging out at the Crash Kings parents house?!?! OMG. they are friends!!!! and also rockstars.

and how lucky are Mike and Tony's parents?! they get to hang out with Crash Kings AND Jet! all while having their children home. aw, that must be great. right? to have your kids come home and be so successful?

i wonder if they all had a sleepover after this. oh, this makes me so excited.


9 MARCH 2010 - Boston, Massachusetts. (Neon orange "over 21" bracelet.)


woke up. put on my red plaid shirt in honor of the last CK show.
had breakfast at Friendly's. nice.
did more car shopping with Kara.
got a coconut coffee coolatta from Dunkin Donuts. not even out of the parking lot when i spill a bunch on the red plaid shirt.
go home. change out of the shirt.

after much stress and debate over whether Kara was going to attend the show with me, she decided not to. and then it was too late for me to drive in and take the T to The Paradise. so, i google mapped it and saw the The Paradise was about .8 of a mile away from Great Scott, where we saw Crash Kings and Paper tongues at the end of January. and we had no trouble parking there.

so, i drove there and parked. in front of a CVS. like, a block away from Great Scott.

and then walked really fast to the show. it was far. .8 of a mile is far when you know Crash Kings are waiting for you.

so, i finally arrive at the venue. it's a sold out show!!!! awesome!!!! good thing i already have my tickets.

i text Ryan and tell her that i'm here, and she tells me that she's in "our usual spot at stage right." i find her immediately.

she points out the "reserved" section on the side where Mike and Tony's parents and grandparents were sitting. along with all their friends. aw so exciting.

Crash Kings come out and the people go wild!!!! THE BAND goes wild!!!!! you could tell right away that they were super excited to be performing at home.


ALSO, what's that Tony is wearing?



YEP. the freaking red plaid shirt. that he was first wearing at The Middle East when i first heard Crash Kings. the red plaid shirt that made me say, "holy crap why don't i have a red plaid shirt?!"

so, on the morning on march 9th, two thousand and ten both myself and Tony woke up and thought, "i'll wear my red plaid shirt today." only, clearly, Tony did not spill coffee coolatta on his. SON OF A GUN why am i so bad at eating and drinking?

ANYWAYS,

Ryan took a video of the song, "You Got Me." which is possibly the sexiest song ever. ooooo the bass line. it's the kind of song that you hear, and then you feel like you need to take a shower, it's so dirty and as Ryan said, "raunchy." it sounds sweaty. Ryan and i were talking about it while listening to it in the car at one point and she said something along the lines of, "can't you just imagine the music video to this?" YEAH. and then we giggled to ourselves.

IT'S A SEXY SONG. and she got a sexy video of it. it's hott and sweaty. and Tony turns back to us at the end and smirks and sexy smirk. oooooooyeah.




and i got a great video of the end of "All Along." including the end of the clavinet solo.

the Boston show was the best out of the three shows. they totally rocked. and you could tell they were just so excited to be playing their hometown. for their parents and friends.

and this time, Tony was rocking so hard at one point that the clavinet became unplugged! so he had to do a quick switch over to piano instead.




and they played War Pigs at the end and again, totally killed and rocked the hell out of it. and the crowd went crazy.

and it was awesome. it was so awesome. there aren't really any words to describe the Crash Kings awesome, because it is so different than a normal awesome.

i've seen them 6 times now. that's 6 times in three months. and not for one minute does their show get any less exciting. it's like you can't take your eyes away from them for a split second because they are so freaking good that you don't want to miss anything.

it's crazy. if i could post every Crash Kings video on youtube for you, i would. because it's all so good. and i can't stress enough that i think you will love them. if you haven't started listening to Crash Kings now then GO.

also, why haven't you? i've been talking about them nonstop for three months, don't you think i'm on to something?

Crash Kings will be rocking South by Southwest in like, a week, and here's an excerpt from a "SXSW preview article," as i will call it:
I’m not exaggerating a bit when I tell you Crash Kings put on one of the greatest indie rock shows I’ve seen in the past year. A few weeks ago I caught this buzz band at the Viper Room – it was one of those shows so unique, so exciting, so inspiring I couldn’t help but imagine Crash Kings selling out stadiums in the future.

YEP. that guys loves them.

ok wait, before i get too carried away, let's finish the concert:




OH YEAH, Jet was there too!!! Again! Now i've seen them three times and totally love it.



note: same plaid shirt. by the third time it was great because i actually knew some of the songs and some of the words. i didn't feel like a completely lost Jet fan. and i would totally see these guys again, even if they weren't on tour with Crash Kings.

AND - there was a great moment where Nic thanked Crash Kings for being on tour with them, and everything. BUT THEN - he said,

NIC: These guys are from Boston and last night we all went over to their parents house and had a great dinner!! Thank you so much!!

and then the spotlight went on Tony and Mike's parents in the crowd and everyone went crazy. it was really cool.

i'm so happy that Crash Kings and Jet are BFF.

and every now and then we'd see Mike rocking out in the crowd. with his friends. and a beer.

and then after the show! we were waiting around and Mike just happened to be hanging out with his friends and Ryan overheard his friends telling him this story about sexual acts happening in someone's driveway. Mike thought this was hilarious, while us members of the Crash Queens didn't quite think so.

and then we said a few short words to Mike, who was clearly drunk. he shook our hands and thanked us profusely for coming to the show and said how great it was to see us again.

we then all moved outside The Paradise and met up with other Crash Kings fans. WHO, you ask? WELL, do you remember at the Great Scott show, there was the girl who let me and Kara borrow her sharpie so we could get them to sign the set list????

SHARPIE GIRL was there!!! and we became friends with her! her name is Jo. and she is super awesome. and she remembered me!!! we talked with her for a long time. she said that she had seen Tony run out of The Paradise with some members of Jet and some of his friends and they were all going to a bar down the street.

and we had some very insightful conversation outside of The Paradise....

"Mike might actually be prettier than Tony, it's just that Tony has this incredible stage presence that makes you just fall in love with him."

yeah, that's what we mainly talked about....

anyways. it was great. a great show. a great night. a great four days.

wow. SUCH a great four days. i can't even believe how awesome it was. and i can't believe how much fun i had and how many amazing people i met! and i heard great new music! and went to new places!!

IF THE CRASH KINGS/JET TOUR IS COMING TO A CITY NEAR YOU: i would advise you to purchase tickets immediately. if you're not a Jet fan, if you're not a Crash Kings fan - you will be.

both bands are amazing and they mesh together really well.

i know i have friends in both Colorado Springs AND Austin. both cities where the tour will be going. now, i won't name any names............ but Dave, Renee and Elizabeth - you should go to those shows. and then photo-document the night so it feels like i was there.

if i had enough money, i would FLY to those cities and go with you. and pay for the cost of your tickets. THAT'S how strongly i feel about this.

ok.

i feel really good about this entry. i've been working on it off and on for about 7 hours. no joke. i was at work. and now i'm at home. and i took a few pauses in writing. but yeah. i'm tired.

i've got more to say, but i'm going to save it for a later date.

epically awesome? totally. hott hott pictures of hotties?? yep. i think i fulfilled my end of the bargain.

also, i watched a video of Jet performing thursday night in Richmond, VA and - Nic was wearing that same plaid shirt. for realz. the same one. i really hope there is a washing machine on that tour bus.

OK. please go back now and watch all those videos that you didn't watch before. ok, go!

heck, i'm STILL so excited from the Crash Kings Roadtrip Weekend. i'm still wearing my bracelets.

also, there have been two times this past week where i have been listening to songs featuring an electric guitar. and i hear the guitar, but automatically picture Tony playing it on the clav. like, how he would do it and how he would look. and both of these times i have to remind myself that it's not Tony playing the clav - it's an actual guitar. strange.

anyways. ok, now i'm really going to go. because now you're just getting sick of me. i can feel it. i guess i don't know how to end this massive, epically awesome entry.





Tony's shirt says it all.



have a great day.


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