bastille...

last night we went to go see bastille in concert with a few friends. while i certainly liked the band beforehand, i definitely wasn't in love with them; however, i'll say they definitely put on a good show.

 grizfolk opening the show.

 bastille!

along with their album songs, they sang a few new songs, sang a few covers (no scrubs by tlc), and of course, they finished the show with pompeii. bravo boys, it was a good night.

cityfest...

everyone likes free stuff, right? *raises hand* as soon as i hear about free things being given out, or free concerts and festivals, if i can get there, you bet your bottom dollar i'll be there. i find toronto to be a pretty great city in the "free things" department, which is a good thing, because it's one expensive city to live in! over the weekend, there was a free concert/festival, called cityfest. it was the first year for it, but overall, i would say they did pretty good. free things we got? well let's see: 2 beers, apple fritters, 2 poutines, sunglasses, tshirts, pops, candy, free coffee vouchers, and a few other little things. i mean, not bad, eh?

here's dyl being a plane trying to win 2 free roundtrip tickets (anywhere they fly) with porter airlines. still haven't heard the winner!

beer garden.

we love poutine. we love free poutine even more. and our free sunglasses, too.

photobooth fun.

free swag. not complaining.

we had never heard of any of the musical people that were on throughout the day, but there were a couple good ones. now, if only we could get free poutine more often...

concerts on the beach...

red bull canada has decided to put on what they call the red bull tour bus, where bands play for free in their hometown city on a red bull tour bus that transforms into a complete sound stage. playing in toronto was tokyo police club (i've heard of them, but didn't know any songs), and opening for them was a band i hadn't heard of, dinosaur bones. they were playing at sugar beach, so we decided to check them out. tokyo police club did 1 song during sound check, then the other band went on and got through maybe 4 songs and the clouds let loose and it started pouring. luckily we were under a small tree, so at first it was providing a little shelter. that is until it started raining sideways. everyone was huddling together and although it didn't last very long, we decided to forego the concert because we didn't want to spend the rest of the time wet and cold. the only solution to make ourselves feel better was to order pizza and then go to dairy queen.

tokyo police club during sound check.

dinosaur bones.

it's weird when i'm the tallest (i'm 5'2")

and here comes the rain.

we finished the day with very grey skies, but a beautiful sunset.

the concert..that didn't happen...

what.a.nightmare. my 2 girl friends and i had tickets to see carolina liar, the fray and kelly clarkson (which we bought about 3 or 4 months ago) in toronto. the first band went on at 7 and the fray (who we really wanted to see) went on at 7:50. they asked me what time i thought we should leave and i said between 3:30 and 4, simply because of traffic. during non-rush hour traffic, it takes less than an hour to get into the city. i said i knew it was ridiculously early and we would be waiting, but it's better than sitting in traffic and being late. having lived there for 5 years, i know what traffic is like, even though i didn't have a car. well, my idea was a no-go and we left at about 5pm. surprisingly, traffic wasn't bad and we flew into the city in great time. it's once we got off the highway where the problems started.

at this point, it was about 6pm and we still had nearly 2 hours. what would normally take about 5 minutes, or less, to get to the venue off the highway, took over an hour. we passed 2 parking lots on the right with LOT FULL signs. after we inched ourselves along for an hour, we turned around and looked for parking on the other side. all the while, the traffic is still bumper to bumper. we passed another 2 parking lots on the right and yet again; LOT FULL. this all had to do with the ex that goes on every year (rides, food vendors, attractions etc) right across the street. we literally had NO WHERE TO PARK. obviously, parking further away and taking a cab wasn't an option either, and transit doesn't really go right down there. once traffic opened up, we said screw it, because the fray was already on for 25 minutes, and went and drowned our sorrows at a bar with sangria and nachos.

a little diagram above for visuals. point "B" is where we got off the highway, point "A" is where we made the turnaround and the red outlined star in the middle is where we needed to go. as you can see on the left, we made a 5km circle, one that would normally take approximately 6-12minutes. it took us 2 HOURS. we passed 4 full parking lots on our useless circle.

 sitting in traffic.

 super happy with our situation.

 at least toronto was pretty.

and the sangria was good.

while sitting in the car, i joked that i guess i was right, and we really should have left at 3:30/4, but i still don't think they took me seriously..

at least the tickets were only $33..but still, $33!!

oh, AND on the way home, we were stuck in traffic yet again at about 10:30pm. why? because police had found 'remains' on the highway and were investigating. it turned out to be a pig.

what a night.

need your love...

last minute concert plans are all kinds of fun. i got a text on a friday from my friend saying that, "omg! the temper trap is back in concert on tuesday!! should we go again!?" without a doubt, i had to say yes; tickets were only $30 after all. and i got a chance to go back to toronto, even if only for a few hours. i've been in love with this band for years now, and saw them 2 years ago, too. they put on such a good live show, and it was a good mix of their first cd, and their newest one that just came out.
i personally loved the venue they were in because it's quite small and no matter where you are, you can see pretty good. we were maybe 10 (?) 'rows' from the front (it's all standing), and of course, i had a 6'5" guy in front me and another 5'9" girl, and they were both swaying, so i could sometimes between their shoulders. but with all their swaying, we were able to move up a little bit and increase our views by 300%. tall people, you should be relegated to the back at concerts!!

i haven't seen you in a month!! i love you!

opening act; doldrums. they were...something else.

kisses to the crowd.

doldrums-  i've never heard anything like this in my life. it was so different i barely know how to try to explain it; indie electronica with a touch of tribal? but then later in the show, they almost went into a skrillex style? i tried finding them on youtube to show dylan, but nothing compared; they were way more wild live. the one guy was swaying his hips like no tomorrow and with those moves, he could have been on dancing with the stars. they were probably, most definitely, high on something. i found a few of their songs here, but this still seems toned down to a live show.

maybe we'll be seeing the temper trap for a 3rd time in the future? 3rd time's a charm.

i need you so much closer...

oh death cab. how i love thee. as i mentioned, this was our second time seeing them, and we must have seen before i started blogging, because i can't for the life of me find a post. anyways, they are amazing and we love them, and we'll probably see them again :)

 seats were still being filled as the opening band 'frightened rabbit' played

 neither of us had heard of them, but they were really quite good. and from scotland!

 obviously we're having a way better time than the straight laced guy behind us

 unfortunately, as you can see, they came on when it was dark and my little canon powershot just can't manage in the dark. too bad.

and another shot when we were walking home

and a video i put together of clips of 10 or so songs. the audio is good, but the quality of video is less than stellar. and it's choppy from me cutting it to put together. it's also long. i couldn't pick and choose. ;) (you can also hear dylan talking to me a few times in the video)

a couple things:
-the concert started right on time. the first band went on right at 8. they were done by their scheduled time and death cab went on at their scheduled time as well. much appreciated.
-they came back for an encore. and they didn't disappoint. 4 songs! and they ended with transatlantacism. which is probably my favorite song. yay.
-i think our seats were better than they appeared. my camera just kind of sucks. and we were exactly centre, which was great.
-i yelled to dylan during the concert, "he's married to zooey deschanel eh" "who's that?" "the girl from 500 days of summer!" "OH! she's like the perfect woman!"
-they're just really awesome.

a moment, a love, a dream, a laugh, a kiss, a cry, our rights, our wrongs...

ok, so i missed my post yesterday about the concert, but i had a paper to write, which is due today! so, my apologies. but here we are now! so my 2 girlfriends came up around 12:30 (and i didn't go to my class, oops) and we just walked and shopped around the city. it was such a crummy day though; damp and little sprinkles of rain here and there. luckily, the heavy rain didn't start until we were about 10 minutes away from my place, and we had umbrellas. i ended up getting a major part of my halloween costume while out, which i am so so excited about!! i'm not giving it away just yet..you'll have to wait ;) the best part? it fits like a glove, no alterations needed and it was only $38. i only need a few other little accessories and they should be cheap. so yay for that!

we got back to my place around 5 and just freshened up from being out all day. soon enough, we were off to a restaurant around the corner from me for some much needed dinner and then it was off to the concert. my friend decided she wanted to drive instead of take a cab and it totally worked to our favor. parking only cost us 50 cents because we could use a meter and it wasn't enforced after a certain time. score!

so who did we see? The Temper Trap. ever heard of them? no? (that's a lot of questions) well, they're awesome. and if you've seen 500 days of summer, then yes, you've heard a song! *sweet disposition* (that will take you to their youtube video). seriously, every song is so good.
they played at Phoenix Concert Theatre. i had never been there, but it was a pretty cool venue. a good, small size with an upper level that had some seating too. it's a place that no matter where you stand, you feel close and can see perfectly. bonus in a shorty's book(ie me!) anyway, 2 bands played before but we only saw the second one. not sure who they were, but they were pretty good. then it was the guys i've been waiting for! what a good show it was. short, but that's because they only have one cd.

i love seeing a band live and they're just as good as what you hear on a cd. it's nice to know they're not manufactured and fake, ya know? overall, they put on an awesome concert, and the lead singer is adorable. he's got such a wicked, kind of different, somewhat high voice. i'm sad to say not a single picture turned out of the show, my camera hates dark concerts apparently. but, i did get 2 videos.

 ready to go!

 hoodies and jackets required in rainy weather :(

see, this is what i got. not impressed. btw, that's the singer with his head kind of back playing guitar, because it probably looks like a blob to everyone.

a little clip of 'fader'

'sweet disposition'-my favorite. although i'm a little peeved i missed the very beginning "sweeeeeet dis-po-sition..." part..i didn't start recording fast enough.

i wish the show had gone on longer :(  and i'm also hoping they have a new cd coming out soon! 

but really, go listen to some of their songs. now. go! ;)