Well, I’m fairly confident that I can now post videos w/o getting my youtube account suspended or deleted. With at most just getting a warning so without further ado – here are videos from Saturday night:

A portion of Jump Rope:

The End:

Italian Radio:

Hate Me:

Come In Closer:

Click here for Day 1.

So, saturday morning started out around 8:30 when Sarah, Keith and I went down to the lobby to get some free continental breakfast. And it was amazingness. haha They had buttermilk waffles, blueberry waffles, scrambled eggs, bacon and more. Good stuff.

So after hanging out for a bit relaxing… and then everyone getting ready, we headed over to one of the three casinos that was within a mile or two of our hotel. We grabbed a quick bite there and then hit the casino floor. I was on a mission to play some blackjack, but the only open tables were $5 or more tables and I didn’t want to do that. The lowest denomination they had were $3 which was still high, but I could have played that for a bit. I ended up hitting the slots and some video poker instead.

After awhile, we moved to another casino and played there for a bit. We then headed back to the hotel because it was about time to get ready for show #2. We had decided the night before that we all wanted to be further up front. The first night, we were over 3/4ths of the way back in the venue and it just wasn’t as great, even the show is awesome, it’s hard to stay focused when you’re far away.

So, we got to the venue a few minutes before doors, having to stand in the rain. So, we got in and I quickly grabbed a spot on the rail – though it was directly in front of the right speaker stack as you’re looking at the stage.

The first part of the set was exactly the same, they played through all of “Approaching Normal”. Afterwards, it continued with some of the same songs as the night before, but then instead of playing “You Make Me Smile” and “Libby, I’m Listening”, they did “HRSA” and “Blue Sunshine”. So, that was nice to have it changed up a bit. Justin again was on fire – dancing and jumping around. Very much more animated that he had been previously.

Here’s the 2nd night’s setlist:
Weight of the World
Say It
Dirt Room
Been Down
My Never
Should Be Loved
Kangaroo Cry
Picking Up Pieces
Jump Rope
Blue Skies
Blue Does
The End
Congratulations
She’s My Ride Home
Into the Ocean
X Amount of Words
Sexual Powertrip
HRSA

Encore:
Blue Sunshine
Italian Radio
Hate Me
Come In Closer
—–

After the show, we headed back to the hotel again. Sarah and I started packing up – putting everything in the car that we wouldn’t need that night or in the morning and got ready for bed. We had been watching the weather for a few days and there was a bad snow storm that was supposed to be coming through the area. So we decided that we should probably get up early and see if we could be the storm. So the alarm clocks were set for 5:45 AM and out the lights went.

Here are pictures from the saturday night show:

Justin singing w/ his guitar

Justin again singing

Justin pointing and CB rocking the guitar

Justin Screaming

Justin on guitar and Ryan RAWKING the electric violin.

Ryan on Mandolin

There may be videos to come as well.  I’m waiting for word that my YouTube account won’t get shut down if I post videos on there.

Click here for day 3.

I’m going to try to blog about the weekend. I think I’m going to split up the days respectively though. I hope you’re okay with that. Cause, if you’re not. Then whatever.

Day 1.

I had started to pack up the night before (thursday night) since I wanted to get up and leave early friday morning. Well, I’m not known for being the most motivated person in the mornings. So, I wanted to be as prepared as I possibly could be by that point.

So I got up about 6:30 AM friday morning and finished getting ready. This was day one of my 3 day trek to Council Bluffs, IA / Omaha, NE via Rochester, MN. I left about 8:30 from La Crosse hitting Sarah’s house about 9:30. We were on the road by 9:45-10ish on our way to what would turn out to be a completely crazy awesome weekend.

The trip there actually ended up being pretty uneventful. We talked, listened to the new Blue cd and just drove. About 5 1/2 hours from her place. We ended up arriving at our hotel in Council Bluffs just before 4PM. Checked in and unloaded our car. We then made a quick run to WalMart to grab a few extra things and back to the hotel to meet up w/ the Nebraska peeps.

They got there about 5:30 and we ate dinner and started prepping for the show that night. We got there shortly after 8 PM and walked in to Ours rocking the stage. Everyone else ran got in line to get drinks and I went up front to watch Ours. I’m a huge fan of Ours. Have been into them for many years. I’ve even driven to Toronto, ON to see the singer do a solo acoustic set. But anyway, they played from 6 to 8 songs and I thought sounded absolutely amazing! After getting done about 8:35, the stage crew took over breaking down Ours equipment and starting to get Blue’s set up.

At exactly 9PM – Blue October took the stage w/ the music of Kanye West preceeding them (the song “Amazing”). Blue proceeded to play straight through their most current CD – “Approaching Normal”. After finishing the last song, they proceeded to play a few more songs, some from “Foiled”, some from “History for Sale” and some from “The Answers”. The setlist went as follows:

Weight of the World
Say It
Dirt Room
Been Down
My Never
Should Be Loved
Kangaroo Cry
Picking Up Pieces
Jump Rope
Blue Skies
Blue Does (with an assist from Ours singer)
The End
Congratulations
She’s My Ride Home
Into The Ocean
X Amount of Words
Sexual Powertrip
You Make Me Smile

Encore:
Libby, I’m Listening
Italian Radio
Hate Me
Come In Closer
—-

For those of us that were disappointed by the shorter sets that they were doing during the “Foiled” tours, this was absolutely awesome. They played for just under 2 hours exactly (like 1 hr 55 min). And the guys were dead on. They sounded awesome. The light show was GREAT! Awesome lighting for taking photos. There was A LOT of movement from Justin (who, by the way, has lost a lot of weight and looks great. He’s back to “Argue With a Tree” dvd form). Doing a lot of dancing and running and jumping around. It’s a lot of fun to watch!

After leaving the show, we ended going back to the hotel and hanging out for a bit before everyone crashed.

That brings the end to day one.

Click here for Day 2.

Blue October’s “Approaching Normal” is far from what I would consider a normal rock record. But they’ve never been the normal rock band though either. They got signed, put out a cd, got dropped by the label, put out a cd on their own, got picked back up by the same label and have gone on to fame.

This is their 5th studio album, and 4th major I believe. They’ve also put out 2 live cd’s – one called “Argue With A Tree” (which was also a DVD), and one as a complimentary disc to a rerelease of their last cd – “Foiled”.

Anyway – the CD starts out with a song that “Argue With A Tree” fans are familiar with. It’s a song called “Weight of the World” which was done a cappella by Justin (the lead singer) on the DVD. Well, on Approaching Normal, this is the first time we’ve heard it accompanied by a band in studio. It’s a fairly dark song about the fight within.

The cd moves on to “Say It”, an upbeat guitar driven song that has a SUPER CATCHY refrain. “I don’t want to hear you sa sa sa sa sa say it!” While being an upbeat song, the song sounds like it’s about a bad relationship that has been had. Something, which if you’re a fan of Blue October, you would know is a common subject. But it never gets old because Justin always finds new ways to portray his thoughts and feelings.

“Dirt Room” comes next. There was a video release prior to the CD getting released. It’s about a how a robber steals from a family and basically about how revenge will be taken. I’ll link the video at the end of the review.

That brings us to “Been Down,” a piano laced song about someone that’s possibly just come out of a depressive state and are talking to the people around them trying to figure it all out.

“My Never”, about the relationship that never happened. It’s kinda slower, but still a pretty decent song.

One of my favorite songs on the CD is “Should be Loved”. It’s upbeat, catchy guitar riff, talking about how everyone should be loved.

Kangaroo Cry is another a fairly upbeat song, which displays Ryan’s talents on the various string instruments that he skillfully plays.

Picking up the Pieces, another song about past relationships and the ability to move on. It’s a partly talking song, and features xylophone and bells throughout.

Now, my absolutely favorite song from the album, is called “Jump Rope”. When I first read the tracklist, I couldn’t really imagine what this might sound like. But I absolutely love it. Right from the beginning you want to nod your head w/ the strings and then maybe tap your feet and by the end of the song, you’ll be up dancing. I promise. One of the highlights, I truly believes comes about halfway through the song when they’ve got a chorus of kids singing backup to Justin.

Blue Skies, starts out with acoustic guitar and Justin singing, it progresses into Jeremy helping out w/ rhythm on the drums, and Ryan coming in on strings. CB quickly follows on guitar and it quickly becomes a quick, upbeat songs talking about how great life is going.

Blue Does… If you didn’t know better, would be a dark brooding song, but in listening to the lyrics, it’s about Justin’s daughter and everything that he’s able to see while watching her grow up.

Hmm… It’s listed as a bonus track, but “The End” brings us to the end of the CD. This is truly one messed up song. It’s about a guy who after breaking up with his wife, breaks into her home one night as she’s with another man and commits a murder suicide. It’s pretty intense.

I just want to comment on one other song. It’s a free one that you can download from their website called, “Graceful Dancing.” It’s got a really awesome melody and just has those haunting lyrics that only Justin can seem to provide.

And now, as promised, the Dirt Room video:
Here’s a link in case the embedding doesn’t work below.

Story of the coolest and strangest days of my life…

Butch Walker at Soundcheck

The blog title is a Butch Walker song. An AMAZING Butch Walker song. It’s off his new CD “Sycamore Meadows”. Check it out. And all his other cd’s too.

So, yesterday… I was to leave La Crosse around noon. As I’m pulling out of my parking spot, my car sputters a bit… and finally dies a few blocks later. After getting it started agan, it seemed like it was fine. So, I got to “Rock-chester” aka Rochester around 1:30 to meet Craig and Sarah for our trip to Minneapolis.

So about 2, we hopped into the car and arrived in Dinkytown around 3:30. Got to the venue about 3:45. We had the soundcheck / meet and greet passes along w/ 27 other people. It was pretty awesome. We all just crowded up by the stage and they performed about four songs for us.

After the soundcheck / meet and greet party. Sarah, Craig and I headed over to an AWESOME Irish Pub for a few drinks, some food and some darts.

Afterwards, we headed back to the venue. The Films started almost immediately after getting there and were good. Definitely a different type of band. They played for about a half hour.

AND THEN… Butch Walker and his band of Merry Musical Melodymakers took the stage. And they rocked my face off. Literally. It’s gone. Butch started out playing by himself on the piano. We got some songs off of Sycamore Meadows. And JOAN!!!! One of my absolute FAVORITE SONGS. I think he actually hit most of my favorites. There were A LOT of songs from Sycamore Meadows, and a few covers (including a bit of “Laid” by James, and “Tiny Dancer” by Elton John).

Butch Walker and Me

I’ll share the videos once I get them uploaded. It was pretty awesome.

The drive back to the rockchester wasn’t great. Rainy and foggy. Oh well…

So, this morning, I was up and ready to leave Rochester by around 9. I get out to my car and go to start it and nothing… It wouldn’t start. So, luckily Sarah had AAA Gold Membership, and I was able to get the car towed back to La Crosse. Yup, I hopped a ride w/ the tow truck and got into La Crosse just before noon’er. Ran home quick and showered and got ready for class. Then I went down and went to my two classes.

On the way home… I got behind a guy driving up Main St., going about 10 MPH and weaving all over the road. At one point, his car crossed all the way over the yellow line. I was talking to Sarah about getting tickets for the Brewers / Cubs game (2nd home game of the season), and finally was like, “I need to call the cops on this guy… this is ridiculous,” as I’m watching the cars in the oncoming lane having to swerve out of the way to make sure they weren’t going to get hit. I ended up giving a short statement for the police. I truly think that it was an elderly person that either 1. shouldn’t be driving anymore. 2. was having some sort of medical problem (like diabetic shock, or heart attack or something). 3. was completely wasted at 5:40 at night. haha But seriously. I was scared for the guy and for the people that were driving around him. It wasn’t safe and something needed to be done.

Well anyway. I figured that it couldn’t have a more fitting ending to the funniest, craziest, strangest 27 hours of my life.

Here’s the videos of my songs:
“Joan”

“Laid” cover

“Tiny Dancer” cover

“Hot Girls in a Good Mood”