Not So Silent Night

On Friday I skipped worked and braved the cold to wait in line for maybe over 3 hours for NSSN2013. The line-up included a local band whose name I forgot but the beanie-wearing bass player was real cute. Then Capital Cities played and they had the coolest trumpet player. And finally, the moment I had been waiting for, Arctic Monkeys! They came out looking pretty sharp, Alex and Jamie especially. My dear sweet Al has changed since last I saw him. For one thing he kept on moving and shaking those skinny hips of his (not that I'm complaining) and the dance moves during Arabella are pretty priceless. What I'm really happy about is that I got see them preform Do I Wanna Know? live, and the let me tell you, the performance was just as sexy as the song sounds. After AM came AFI, not really my type of music but I appreciated the energy onstage. This is when the crowd went crazy though; everybody pushed and shoved, pressed up on one another,  there were several crowd surfers. After that Queens of the Stone Age came on, I actually forgotten they were even playing so it was a nice surprise to see Josh Homme, one of Alex's good pals. After that, the other moment I had been waiting for, Vampire Weekend! They played a nice selection of all the songs I wanted to them to play, from Holiday to Diane Young. Ezra looked oh so cute in his Babar jean jacket and Chris Tomson was the only one who walked past right in front of the audience but silly me, I got too scared to even shake his hand. And the final act, Kings of Leon came one. To be honest the only songs I recognized were Sex on Fire and Use Somebody (1D did a cover of this song fyi),  but it was a great set nonetheless. Because of the crazy crowd, it was really difficult to hold my hands steady while trying to take a picture, also from where I was, I only really had a good view of the lead singers and occasional glimpses of the other band members, so that who I have pictures of.


Out of all the pictures I took during AM's set, these were the only two decent ones.

Here's one of Josh Homme.

Vampire Weekend! (ok so they're mainly pics of Ezra with a cameo from Chris T.)

Kings of Leon. (Just a pic of Caleb and his hot brother Jared)

Top 6 covers part two

As promised, part 2 of my favorite covers.

1. One Direction - One Way Or Another (Teenage Kicks)

Where do I even start? The video? The vocals? The lads? I was blown away to say the least, and I might have rolled around the floor in tears whispering about how much I love this silly little band after the video premiered (yeah so, i'm not ashamed). Let's start with the video, OMG the video!! It's just the lads being lads, super fun, silly, and oh so likable,  I could not stop smiling throughout. I think the boys did both Blondie and The Undertones more than justice in covering the songs, all of their vocals are just perfect, which is what sets this band apart I think. And which is why you should listen to the songs they covered when they were on the x-factor, my personal favorites include: All You Need is Love, Your Song, Chasing Cars, and Forever Young.

2. Arctic Monkeys - Come Together

AM making an appearance on the list once again with another Beatles cover. They played this at the opening ceremony at the Olympics and I might have shed a few tears because I was so proud and this cover is perfect ok.

3.The Ramones - Baby, I Love You
For the classic cover in my list; is there anything better than a rock band singing a 60's girl group song? I don't think so.

4. The Black Keys - She Said, She Said
The Beatles are my favorite band, if you didn't know, and the Black Keys are one of my favorite modern bands, and I just LOVE that they took this psychedelic song and turned it in a bluesy rock song that still sounds amazing.

5. Little Mix - I Will Wait
The girls showing off their out of this world vocals in this Mumford & Sons cover. Be sure to check out their version of "We Are Young" as well.

6. Ed Sheeran - Wonderwall
Now, Ed has done quite a few great covers (Chasing Cars, Baby One More Time, Skinny Love, Someone Like You, to name a few) and Wonderwall has been covered like a million times, but there is something about Ed's version that just soothes the soul.

The Quiff

(teamgrimmy? more like teamquiff)

Ah, what can be said about the quiff? It's probably the sexiest, most rock and roll hairstyle a guy can have, that's for sure. As with most things, I first noticed just how much I loved that particular hairstyle when I got into the Beatles. And then this past summer Alex Turner debuted his new hairstyle and I was left speechless. All of a sudden all these lovely looking male models started popping up with this "omg-is-it-hot in-here?!" hairstyle. AND THEN, the guys in One Direction jumped on the quiff bandwagon, and then I was like, "Well I might as well jump off a bridge because I can't handle this anymore?!?!?!" Anyway, enjoy the following pictures of my favorite boys and their quiffs.

Can't forget the inspiration behind this... Elvis.

The inspiration behind Paul's quiff... Tony Curtis.

Another icon.. James Dean.

Here we have the Beatles in Hamburg in all their rock and roll glory. They were trying to imitate Elvis, but I like them and their quiffs so much better.

Fast forward over 50 years to 2011 and we have the 'super stylish without even trying' Alex Turner debuting his quiff.

Al and the rest of the Arctic Monkeys looking like they're from the 50's.

Not too long ago I saw Cry-Baby for the first time. I was missing out big time because Johnny Depp is in it, with a quiff.

Never forget Nowhere Boy era Aaron Johnson and his glorious quiff.

And my current fave raves, the boys of 1D go rockabilly!

At the VMA's all of them (except Harry, come on Harry) sported quiffs.

The Concert: Part 1

"HELLO SACRAMENTO! Sacramento. I like saying Sacramento. It's fun for me to say."- Alex Turner

This past weekend was probably one of the best weekends I've had in a while, especially 5/05, otherwise known as Arctic Monkeys day. I finally got to see Alex, Matt, Nick, and Jamie in person and it was electrifying, surreal, magical, beautiful and absolutely perfect. As you may know, my dream is to become a music photographer, so armed with a new digital camera, I arrived at the venue 2 hours early determined to get a good spot and great pictures. I obviously should have arrived earlier than that because I was in the 2nd row, all the way to the right of the stage, with of course, a giant high schooler right in front of me. Thank goodness for optical zoom! So, what is there left to say, other then AM put on a great show, with Alex doing all the talking and pointing, being his perfect self, singing his amazing songs, I do wish he would have moved around more though. Jamie was right in front of me, so I got a great view of him. Although I could barely see Matt and Nick, they were amazing as well and I managed to get pretty good pictures of the both of them too. And I highly doubt anyone will, but if you post my pictures somewhere else, please make sure to credit me/link to my blog!

My 2 favorite pictures of Alex.

Matt, Nick, and Jamie.

Other favorites from that night (mostly of Alex).