As I'm nearing my departure to the other side of the world, it is a good time to look back at the year so far in ticketed events. I wasn't planning on seeing anything else before I leave, although I am starting a new campaign to get myself and others up to Milwaukee next Friday to see Girl Talk perform at Summerfest - but that's besides the point of this post.
What stuck out the most in my mid-year self review was the diversity of the company I kept for these shows. There's no way to explain this without sounding conceited at worst or humblebragging at best.
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| Peter Bjorn And John perform at Chicago's Lincoln Hall in April |
Girl Talk at Congress with DG & RM (with a fourth ticket going to JJ's friend)
Machinegun Mojo at Elbow room with ZC (with MC & RS there too)
Mountain Goats at The Vic with MB
Cut Copy (& Holy Ghost) at The Riv with JK
Park Ridge Chorale at St. Luke's with PB, SW and more
Delorean at Lincoln Hall with LT
Arcade Fire (& The National) at UIC with RG
Foals (& Freelance Whales) at Metro with DS
Peter Bjorn And John at Lincoln Hall with ?*
Janelle Monae (& Bruno Mars / Mayer Hawthorne) at Aragon with SS, MP and CW
Foster the People at Lincoln Hall with NB
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| My Morning Jacket perform at Milwaukee's The Riverside Theater in June |
And then most recently My Morning Jacket at The Riverside with RG.
I'm separating out the last show because it's the first time I had to repeat a fellow concert goer. I was happy to tell RG he was the first person this year to go again with me to a show. It's a feat that I'm not sure I'll ever be able to repeat, even if it was done somewhat intentionally.
Since I made the choice to stop lamenting at home wishing I'd be at these concerts I kept hearing about and start going sometime in 2007, I've slowly figured out what kind of music my different friends like. Knowing I'd never be able to find one person that I can lean on to repeatedly join me, it became a challenge within a challenge. It also took on another appreciation for me.
For example, I did not discover Janelle Monae. My friend SS had brought over her album during one of our marathon Madden nights and I was instantly impressed. SS is not one to actively seek out, let alone attend anymore (he's been through the concert ringer - hip hop shows can do that to you), concerts. However, he said he'd go see Janelle Monae live. Therefore, I instantly started following her on Twitter, which granted me access to her fan club allotment of tickets - securing them before the quick sellout ensued. It was a great show, but I was too far away and don't have a picture to share here. The highlight of the concert was not only getting SS to the show, because he had discovered Monae for me, but also getting CW out there - who also doesn't get out to many shows and is someone who I introduced the wonderful dynamo named Janelle.
It didn't work out perfectly however. The "?*" next to the Peter Bjorn And John show refers to a night when I had out driven my headlights so to speak. I was unsuccessful finding anybody to go with me - even when I had offered to give the other ticket away for free. The show was sold out (in fact, even the second show they added at Lincoln Hall that night had sold out as well) which meant I could've unloaded both of the tickets with little hassle. But I really wanted to see this show and decided to go solo. Someone outside was looking for people with extras - so whether you count that stranger as someone new to the list or even the fact that I was by myself makes it unique experience among the rest.
As far as the other shows are concerned, I did write a post centered around the Foster the People concert and intend to devote a separate post to My Morning Jacket in the future - for that show was too great to be buried this deep in a post.
While I'm tooting my own popular horn with my full stable of concert going friends - here are some more stats to really drive home my point:
Not included in the above list is the Comedy show featuring Todd Barry & Brendon Walsh at The Hideout with BM.
Finally, I took five different people to Marquette basketball games this year:
-the win versus Notre Dame with DQ
-the loss versus UConn with JW
-the win versus Syracuse with MQ
-the win versus Providence with ZC
-the loss versus Cincinnati with AS
(Note, only ZC is a repeat ticketed event attendee, and he probably wins the virtual tiebreaker with RG because he is a Member of the Park Ridge Chorale - so technically he was at that performance too)
As much as I didn't want to write this because it looks like an awful attempt at a modern day yearbook that has to have all it's pages filled to convince an older me that I was somewhat popular - I really wanted to write it as a thank you to all of my friends who have had to deal with my constant propaganda efforts to convince them to join me to bands you have never heard of or basketball games involving schools you never attended. 2011 is shaping up to be a record year for yours truly - I couldn't be more appreciative... The song at the bottom is dedicated to you all:
