You're wearing your skin like it's too tight,

Craig Owens...

Is the man. Friday night I went to a concert with Zack and Derek. Opening was a local band, Travis Gray, and then the lovely Automatic Loveletter, then headliner Craig Owens with The Classy Gents. The venue was awesome in itself, the second story of a small bar, one room with only a practice room off to the side and a bathroom. We were able to get in the second row, no problem. We were actually right in front of the microphone too. The first was a tow man band, who I'm not sure the name of, but I enjoyed them. A boy playing an acoustic and singing while his bandmate sat on a stool next time him shaking the tambourine. The next band, Travis Gray, really surprised me. I had never heard of them before, but damn. They were good. Their sound was realloriginal, the singer had a great voice, they incorporated the keyboard, it was just alltogether great music. Now I need their EP haha. Next was Automatic Loveletter, which I never listened to either, but apparently had a decent fanbase there. It comes to no shock to me after hearing them, the girl has a phenomonalvoice, really soulful when it needs to be, and delicate in all of the right places. She looked like an Indian/hippie too, I loved it, really gorgeous girl. Her brother/bandmate was good too, they were constantly cracking jokes, ragging on eachother. It made the show even more interesting. I made a point of going home and looking up their songs afterwards.

Pretty much the whole show was spectacular. Never was I like "Ugh, I just wish this band would leave." I enjoyed the entire thing. I definitely got the most excited when it was time for Craig Owens though. In case any of you didn't know and are interested, he's the frontman for the band Chiodos, where he's famous for his more "hardcore" side, even though his vocals are higher and more beautiful, I'd say, than most bands of that genre these days. He also has a softer band, Cinematic Sunrise on the side. He hates it when he isn't busy. The performance he gave was awesome, the man knows how to interact with his fans. He made the audience laugh, coaxed us to sing along, and talked directly to certain people in the crowd. Since we were so close, I made a point to take plenty of pictures. His voice was perfect the whole way through, but then he began having problems towards the end of the set because he's been sick lately. He played the accoustic versions of Chiodos songs, one from Cinematic Sunrise, and he had a new group formed to help him that night, The Classy Gents. Partway through the performance, when he was ready to play from his new EP, he asked everyone to take three steps back, and sit on the floor. Then he got rid of his microphone and sat on the edge of the stage in front of us all, and we had a little kumbaiya session ;). Now that's what I call "unplugged". He said he felt like this is the way his songs are supposed to be heard, natural, without all of the fancy equpiment. This is how it sounds when he makes them up in his living room, and this is how he wants his fans to hear it. He encouraged everyone to sing right along too. I just admire how real he is, fame hasn't gotten the best of him. It was adorable how he talked about missing his girlfriend all of the time, too. She was there that night, but I never saw her. He wrote a cute little song for her though :), "Joanna". After the show he had a meet & greet over at the tshirt table for everyone who bought the $5 EP, which was like--everyone, hahah. Definitely worth it. Zack was wicked excited, Craig's his favorite artist ever, and when it was his turn, Craig said Zack was one of the best sing-a-longer's he's ever seen :P. That boy knows like every song by heart. Derek asked him to sign his chest hahah, it was great. He's usually into more heavy, hardcore music, but after the concert he has a new appreciation for Craig Owens and his music. I got to meet him too of course :), I told him it was my first time seeing him, and it was definitely one of the best shows I've ever gone to, and I asked him to sign my cat bag. He gladly did :P. Oh yeah, the singer of Automatic Loveletter did too, she thought it was awesome haha. But anyways, I wish I went in for the hug when I met him like some other people did, but I was too shy. I guess it's probably good I didn't, I bet he gets tired of stinky people leaning in towards him in attempt to swap sweat. But it was an amazing time, I'm so glad I was able to go.

We were close enough to see the set list on the stage floor ;)

Zackie and I :)

Yes, the kumbaiya session :).

Zack's meet and greet.

YES, my catbag is 100x more awesome.

Anyways.

After that crazy evening I fell asleep and hung out with Kindra the next day. I never hung out with her before,
but I figured we ought to change that, she's wicked cool :). We watched television and talked about a bunch of things, then went out to see The Time Traveller's Wife at a dinner and a movie venue. It was a really good movie I thought, cute and sad. Of course I haven't read the book yet--shame on me--, but I didn't want to have to wait until its dvd release. The book is always better, so I kind of like doing it in reverse, so that way the movie doesn't disappoint me, and I have the book to really anticipate. Yeah, I'm weird :). Yesterday morning I also hung out with Amanda for a bit, we took senior pictures again. I'll post whichever one I choose once she sends them to me. I want to keep writing and rambling on, but unfortunately I have homework to do, so I'll leave it off here.

I hope everyone had a great weekend :D,

Olive