Sam Smith @ The Riv 9.22

This concert is the one I've been anxiously waiting to review for months and I am so excited to finally be writing this post! Sam Smith is one of the most in demand singers in the world right now and for good reason. He is absolutely incredible and even that word is a massive understatement for how talented he is. Everyone with a radio has surely heard Stay with Me and Latch as well as some other songs from Sam's debut album In the Lonely Hour. I had actually discovered Latch well before I had heard his other music and it's my favorite song in the universe, I will NEVER get sick of it. When I found out he was coming to Chicago, it was a no brainer that I was going! Tickets weren't expensive at all and it was at one of my favorite venues, the Riv. I love seeing great artists at smaller venues before they eventually play larger places. I hope that Sam continues to play these venues because his voice sounded phenomenal in that space! The opening act was a duo out of New Zealand called Broods. I didn't see much of their set, but from what I heard/saw they seem like a pretty cool group. Right before Sam took the stage, I moved to the side so I could get a clearer view of the stage. When he came on that stage, I thought the roof was going to cave in due to the roar of the crowd. It was unbelievable! I can't even imagine how it feels to be so young (he's 22, my age) and have that much success and so many fans that absolutely adore you. I found a copy of the setlist so here are the songs in the order they were performed; Intro, Nirvana, Together, Leave Your Lover, I'm Not the Only One, I've Told You Now, Like I Can, Restart, How Will I Know (Whitney Houston), Good Thing, La La La, Lay Me Down, Money on My Mind and the encore which was Latch, Make it To Me, and Stay with Me. After a beautiful intro, he opened the show with a song I had never heard called Nirvana. It was a great song to kick off the show with. He played a fantastic setlist that included songs off a previously released EP, songs from his debut album In The Lonely Hour and a new song called Restart (LOVE it).  Everyone in the audience knew all the lyrics to every song, including the security guards! The acoustic version of Latch almost made me cry, it's my favorite song to begin with but the stripped down version is so beautiful. His voice is flawless and he really knows how to interact with a crowd. He kept saying how much he loves Chicago and that the audience was his favorite from this tour so far. He is basically the female version of Adele, down to the accent. If they ever did a collaboration together it would be one of the greatest things to happen in the music world. Right after the show I almost left but I am so glad I didn't because I met him and got a picture with him! He is the nicest person I've met and was so sweet to everyone. After I grabbed coffee and started heading home, he was STILL in the line talking to people and taking pictures! It's so rare for an artist nowadays to actually spend so much time with their fans, it really tells a lot about the person. He also smells amazing and is way taller in real life than I expected haha. I can't wait until he comes back to Chicago and I hope that I'll be able to meet him again. I took a few pictures and snippets of some songs but if you want to see the full length performances there's a bunch of great videos from the show on Youtube. 

Latch (acoustic) 

Stay With Me 

Restart 

 

Talking about Disclosure in his cool British accent

My favorite picture in the world. 

DO YOUR EARS A FAVOR AND GO SEE SAM SMITH LIVE! He is such a fantastic performer and has the voice of an angel. I hope that he continues to be successful for many years to come and that he never changes his wonderful personality because he is truly a class act. 

The Bluebird Cafe-Nashville, TN. 8.22.14

This past weekend I made my fourth trip to Nashville where I FINALLY got to experience the infamous Bluebird Cafe first hand! After attempting to get seats for a few years, I wanted to make sure I got there this trip. Waking up at 6 am and fighting to get a table was so worth it because the Bluebird is one of the most well-known music venues in the world. Taylor Swift, Garth Brooks and many other very artists got their start there and it continues to be a landmark in any musician's road to success. The ever popular show Nashville also helped the Bluebird gain more visitors due to the exposure it gets throughout the season. I thought that it was a free-standing building but it actually is located in a strip mall next to a diamond store and a dry cleaners. Pretty random, but maybe it wasn't like that when it was first built. Although the Bluebird is not how it looks on the tv show, it still has some of the same characteristics. The floors are carpeted in real life, whereas in the show they are hardwood. The stage setup is mainly the same but with less surrounding room. The actual venue is extremely small, which is why it is so difficult to reserve seats. There are only 20 tables available to reserve otherwise you have to wait in line to take a chance at one of the bar or pew seats. Since the venue is so small, there really is not a bad seat in the house so whatever table you can find will be more than fine! Sometimes there are pretty well-known artists that play but the night I went featured 2 husband/wife duos. They were alright but I mainly came for the atmosphere and to see such a huge part of music history. The artists that performed were Heino Moeller,  Paul Jefferson, Lisa Brokop and Carrie Moeller. Lisa is from Canada, which was interesting because there were a large amount of Canadians in the audience. The sound system was great and every performer's voice was crystal clear! The food was also pretty good and they have a wide variety of choices on the menu. Recording wasn't allowed, but they did allow photography so I have a few pictures of the inside/outside. If anyone reading this gets the chance to visit Nashville, you have to check this place out! You will not regret it and it'll give you an insider's look at one of the most famous music venues in the world. Also, if anyone has any questions about the Bluebird or Nashville in general, do not hesitate to contact me. I LOVE sharing information and I have a ton to give out about Nashville!

 "The best songwriters in the world pass through this door." 

The stage is what resembles the show Nashville the most, love those lights! 

They have all the pictures of the musicians that have played all over the walls, too many to count. 

Pre-show picture of the stage. 

This is the view from the outside. 

I will definitely be going back to the Bluebird, hopefully when some well-known artists are playing! I am so thankful that I was able to even get tickets, so anytime I go will be special. Hope you enjoyed this post and be on the lookout for a concert review in the next few weeks! 

Disclosure @ the Aragon. 8.1.14

I recently attended my first Lollapalooza Aftershow this past weekend and am so excited to finally be able to review this show. Disclosure is a fairly new act, an English duo consisting of brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence. They are complete geniuses! You have to see one of their shows to understand what I mean, the lighting and effects were absolutely incredible. They’re both also very young, Guy is 23 and Howard is only 20. It’s so interesting that a lot of these DJs come from the UK and they’re all so young, it really blows my mind!  Anyways, this show was at one of my favorite venues ever aka the Aragon Ballroom! I hadn’t been to a show at this place in a few years, so it was nice to be back. Since this show was an after show, it didn’t start until 10 and there were two other opening acts before Disclosure. The first opener was better than the second, in my opinion. The first was a super cool, soulful electronic group called Wrestlers. I really enjoyed their set and everyone was dancing! The second opener was a solo DJ named Julio Bashmore. His music wasn’t as dance friendly as Wrestlers and a lot of his songs sounded the same to me.

By the time his set ended, it was almost time for Disclosure and I was getting pretty excited! They ended up going on around midnight and the place was completely PACKED. I’m glad I moved to the upper level because everyone was so close together on the floor, it was insane. I’ll admit, I was only familiar with one or two of Disclosure’s songs, but the others were equally as good that I was not familiar with! They gained popularity from their massive hit “Latch” featuring Sam Smith that was released earlier this year, which is one of the main songs people associate them with. They played songs from their debut, album,Settle, and everyone seemed to recognize “Latch” when they played it.

I love music you can dance to and these two insanely talented brothers did not disappoint! I am SO glad that I was able to see them at one of my favorite places and will definitely be seeing them again. They have played in Chicago many times previously, but I either was in school or hadn’t discovered them yet. They played a show at the Mid last Thursday and I heard great things about that show as well! If you want to learn more about Disclosure or hear some of their incredible tunes, check out http://disclosureofficial.com/ or https://soundcloud.com/disclosuremusic. They also were on Jimmy Fallon recently and performed Latch with Sam Smith, so that’s another cool performance that is worth checking out. I look forward to attending another Disclosure show and hope that they gain some new fans after this post! My next show that I have planned is Sam Smith at the Riv on September 22nd, so keep your eyes out for that post as well as a new album review in the coming weeks! 

EXCITING NEWS!

Yesterday I received some incredibly exciting news....I'm officially a blogger for Q101! I couldn't be more stoked to be able to share my music experiences with the Local 101 fans and Chicago community. I will still continue to post on here but you can be the coolest person ever and also check out my posts when they're up on Q101.com! My next show that I'll be posting about is happening in 2 days and is a show I'm really looking forward to: DISCLOSURE AT THE ARAGON! I am also super excited because Sam Smith is here (and no one knew!) which I'm pretty sure means that he is going to be at their gig at the Mid tonight and hopefully at the Aragon on Friday. If he doesn't end up being there for my show but is performing at the show tonight, I'll be extremely disappointed. Even though I'm seeing him in September, the song Latch just isn't the same without both artists! Regardless, this show is bound to be a good time and I can't wait to experience my first Lolla after show at my favorite venue ever. Stayed tuned and leave a comment if you're a Disclosure fan or if you're going to the show! :)

Heartless Bastards at Durty Nellies. 7/14

Let me first start off this post by saying that this is the first show I've been to in my area that is actually worth blogging about and I couldn't be happier that it was a Heartless Bastards show. This band is absolutely INCREDIBLE live! Seriously, they're a tight band and you can tell they've been doing this a long time. I first heard them on WXRT 2 years ago, when their most recent album Arrow was released. The song that I heard was Parted Ways and I was floored at how powerful singer Erika Wennerstrom's voice was, I haven't heard anything like it in my life! I immediately researched them and found out that they were discovered in Ohio (they're from Cincinnati) when a demo was given to the Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney. He passed it along and they ended up being signed to Fat Possum records in 2004, such a cool story! I had been wanting to see them for a few years but school always interfered so I didn't get the chance but I finally saw them live and it was well worth the wait. The show was in my hometown too, which is crazy considering where I live and the lack of decent venues that are here. For those unfamiliar with Durty Nellie's, it's a bar/restaurant that has pretty good food and live music most weekend/weekday nights. It's definitely worth checking out if you're ever in the area and the Metra station is literally 2 steps out the door, so it's also convenient if you live in the city. Heartless Bastards ended up playing around 10:30 after the two opening acts, which by that time everyone was ready to see the main act. Anyways, the band consists of Erika the guitarist/singer, Jesse Ebaugh on bass, Dave Colvin on drums and Mark Nathan on guitar. They're all extremely talented and I have never heard drumming or guitar playing like that in my life! Erika was really nice and they genuinely looked so happy to be playing music with each other. They mainly played songs off of Arrow and every single song they played was even better than the previous.  They are reminiscent of the Black Keys (which contradicted what I said in my last post about them haha) and have such great energy on stage. I enjoy bands that don't require any kind of production to make themselves sound/look better than they are, so this band is perfect for someone that just enjoys great music.  I would definitely be seeing them again and hope they come back to the Chicago area soon!

Gotta Have Rock N Roll (Video from YouTube) 

Here's an incredible studio performance of Parted Ways 

My favorite concert experience so far.... attention, Local 101!

This post will be focusing on the best concert experience I've seen so far, which took a lot of thought! I've gotten to see some pretty incredible performers over the years so this was definitely a challenge. I'd have to say that my favorite concert experience I've had was when I saw Wild Belle at the Metro last October. Since I've previously posted on this show, I won't be posting pictures/videos but I'll be focusing on the show itself including the venue. I happened to discover Wild Belle while browsing my Facebook feed last summer. I follow Nylon magazine and they posted about this new band that were on the verge of becoming well-known. I love discovering new music, so naturally I checked them out. After hearing "Keep You", I was sold! I can't even describe their sound, it's that unique. The genre it's most similar too though is reggae, but it's so much better.They're from Barrington, which is really cool because it's local. Another interesting aspect about them is that the incredible vocalist (Natalie) and the equally incredible sax player (Elliot) are siblings. So many instruments are used in their music, including tambourine, keyboards, kalimbas, the list goes on! I absolutely love it when a group has a wide variety of sounds in their music. I had been wanting to see them live for the longest time since discovering them so when I found out they would be playing the Metro, I made the decision to come home from school that weekend. I had never been to the Metro before so also that contributed to the experience. I've been to all the main venues in the Chicago area, but this venue is at the top of my favorites list. It has such a history and so many great performers have played there! The concert itself was phenomenal and I loved that it wasn't anything fancy, just a group of talented musicians playing great songs. Natalie has such a unique voice, I haven't heard anything like it. They played songs from their debut album, Isles, as well as a few others. I love every song on the album, but a few of my favorites are "Shine" and "Twisted". I also like an older song called "Mrs. Franklin". I found a video of Natalie performing it acoustically and it's unbelievable how good her voice is! The opening act was a band called Saint Rich and they also put on a great show. All of the band members looked really young but it turns out they're in their mid-20's! I can't wait until Wild Belle go on tour again and put out a new record. If you like music you can groove to, check out this band and I promise that you won't be disappointed!

It's concert season!

I haven't been very up-to-date on my posts recently, BUT I have a lot of incredible shows lined up for this summer and can't wait to post about them! I'm seeing the Heartless Bastards at Dirty Nellie's on July 14th, Disclosure at the Aragon Ballroom on August 1st and Sam Smith on September 22nd at the Riv. I'm excited about all of these shows, but I'm particularly stoked to see Disclosure. They've achieved massive success due to the highly popular song "Latch" (which features Sam Smith). I've also checked out their other songs and can say that I'll be getting out my dancin' shoes for this show! If you like good dance music, this is the group to check out.  British singer-songwriter Sam Smith has gained a huge following from his song "Stay with Me" and his debut album In the Lonely Hour has climbed the charts since it's release. He's only 22 years old and has the voice of an angel! The band Heartless Bastards are from Cincinnati, super cool and have been compared to the Black Keys. I personally don't think that they sound like them but listen to the song "Parted Ways" and let me know if you think they do! I'm really surprised they're playing in my area, considering good bands rarely come to Palatine so this show should have a pretty good turnout. If anyone is going to any of these shows or attending other shows this summer, feel free to leave a comment in the comment box!