Break away from everybody...

The Incubus post plus pictures I took during the show are in this post as well. I just didn't happen to start there. Though, I am starting about music because well, this post is pretty much all about music. One of my favorite bands is a bands that I get a lot of shit for digging. While I love hard rock and metal bands like Lacuna Coil, Bleeding Through, Amon Amarth, Flyleaf, Lamb Of God, Killswitch Engage, Children of Bodom, Trivium, Type O Negative and Rob Zombie to more symphonic/melodic metals bands like Opeth, Sirenia, Nightwish, Epica, Kamelot, Apocalyptica and Avantasia... (and on and on and on, lol) I also like a lot of rock bands that you hear getting played on the radio a lot more regularly. I like tons of bands and artists that get almost no airplay to absolutely no airplay. Doesn't mean I hate everything that I hear on the radio though I do admit, I'd rather have my iPod or a CD going in the car. (Currently, one of the Nightwish CDs we have is in the CD player in the car. I love listening to them while I drive, as does Boyfriend.)

Anyway, none of those are bands my hard rock, gothy and metalhead friends give me shit over. No, one (of many) bands they give me shit over is Three Days Grace. Yeah, I know some of you reading this just made a face that wasn't entirely pleasant. That's your prerogative to dislike (or like) them. I have have seen them live many times. The first 3 times happened during summer when I was 18.times and no, I didn't have to travel out of the city we lived in at the time to do so. They were touring a lot and opened 2 different shows then came back and played a small show where they were the main thing and didn't even have an opener. I fell for them the first time I saw them live, opening for a much more awesome, popular and harder rock bad. Though I already liked them anyway. You know how sometimes, seeing a band live is either disappointing, right on or you end up liking them even more? Yeah, I liked them so much more after seeing them live. I love the way Adam Gontier's voice sounds. I can also relate really well to the lyrics in a lot of their songs. Also, I love when I see a band perform and you can feel the emotion pouring out of the person singing those words and watching him sing, you can feel the emotion pouring out of him as he sings. Some songs more so than others. He, as well as the actual band, all have killer energy too. They're fun to see. Which is why I've seen them 7 times in the 6 years of fandom. Though the first 3 times was easy as I said.

The thing with me though, my friends and others can give me shit all they want about the music I dig. A few of them really don't understand the concept of being able to like music outside of more than one genre. I like a lot of everything. All kinds of rock, dance/techno, country, hip hop, classical and stuff by bands that came and went before I was even born and some singers that were around before my parents were even alive. I couldn't give a fuck less what anyone has to say about the music I like though. I'm the one that has to listen to the CD's I buy and the music I put on my iPod. So why should I care if anyone else likes it? I'm the one paying for it and listening to it. I have no shame in what I like because music makes me happier than almost anything in the world. Going to see music is pretty much my favorite thing to go out and do. A big concert, a little show at a hole in the wall club, a symphony at the downtown music hall; I dig it all and love going to take it in. I love going to sporting events, love going to bars, love drinking, love shooting pool with friends, love doing this that and the other thing but if I have a chance to go hear some music somewhere, that's my first bet. Music is a big part of my life and a big part of who I am. I don't even understand the concept of owning an embarrassing CD or liking a song and feeling embarrassed or ashamed over it. I like what I like for whatever reasons. I don't mind good natured ribbing about it either but people that want to really be a dick about it do piss me off. Also, good natured ribbing gets really old if it happens too often.

TDG's new album is coming out on the 22nd of this month. I love their other albums and I heard the new song off the new one yesterday. I love it I really fucking wanted to pre-order the new CD and do the $60 package since you get a lot of cool stuff with that. Of course it really doesn't matter, I can't afford it. Though I did sit there pondering over things I could sell on E-bay or people I could get out on corners so I could afford it, lol. Though neither option turned up anything that would get me the $75 I needed for the package. (Shipping fees & tax be damned.) *Sigh*

Oh and about that Incubus concert that I keep forgetting to write about from August 22nd. Okay, so first off. It was at an amphitheater. I couldn't afford tickets but my mom surprised me by telling me she was going to buy me tickets and send me to go. Incubus has been one of my absolute favorite bands for a little over 10 years. I've NEVER got the chance to see them live though. Something always happened to where I couldn't go when they were playing in a city I was in or near. My mom, knowing I'm broke and disappointed that I would again be missing them when they came through, got me tickets. She got me four tickets to be exact. So I could take Boyfriend and two friends. The seats however, were not pit seats, which is fine. I didn't pay for them and I couldn't even afford the cheap seats. I wasn't complaining. I would have been happy to sit outside the amphitheater and listen, lol.

So, we find out that one of Boyfriend's friends is going to be working security at the amphitheater that night. He does security there but wasn't sure if he would get to work Incubus. He did and told us he could get us wristbands and get us down into the pit. We got there, met up with his friend and his friend's uncle who also does security. They walked us down to the other security people who were checking tickets and passing out the wristbands for the pit. They punched our tickets, wristbands were put on and there we went. I was freaking the fuck out. I was excited as hell just being there, finally seeing them. Now, I was in the pit and MUCH closer than I would have been. We were there early too and there was still plenty of room on the rail. The rail being the barrier gate thing set up to keep people from getting on the stage. The only thing in front of me were the security guards. I was so fucking happy.

Stage before Incubus went on.

Also, they put on an AMAZING show. I was dancing, singing and jumping around. I was hot as fuck from all the movement and from everyone being all squished in together. Not that it was a small venue, it's huge actually. The pit is standing room only and once a band is on, it gets squishy in there with everyone trying to get as close as they can. I don't mind that much since I'm always early enough to shows to get a spot on the rail. I don't have to deal with any people in front of me. Just people beside and around, lol.

Brandon Boyd has such a beautiful voice. He sounds just as good in person as he does on the albums. They're interactive, have good stage presence and they just put on a really great show. I was happy they didn't get carried away in the stage show. Just some lights, nothing too much. I hate when you see a band that has more emphasis on the lights, pyrotechnics, videos and in general just making it a really busy, distracting show. I like it more simple, lol. They also played a 3 song encore. I was a very happy girl. Now hopefully I just won't have to wait another decade to see them live again, lol.

I got some pretty cool pictures too. I only had the use of my cell phone for pictures though. I didn't bring my digital camera because heh, I thought we would be sitting back much further, not standing right in front of the fucking stage.

I have all 58 pictures uploaded to my MySpace account. I used MySpace to make a slideshow. Mainly because I uploaded the pictures to MySpace by transferring them directly to the website via my phone. I didn't feel like saving all 58 shots to my computer and then uploading them to my Flickr and then making a slideshow from there. Though I will do that, just not yet, lol. So here are a few I got. Like I said, had to use my camera phone since I didn't bring the digital camera since I wasn't anticipating being so close. If you want to see the rest, watch the blog, I'll post something when I get them all uploaded to my Flickr account.






He didn't change clothes at all during their show, the jeans look like that due to the lights that were going on at that moment, lol.











HAPPY WEDNESDAY!