Archive for July 2016
Music Feeds My Soul
I listen to all kinds of music, and I’m not ashamed to tell people when I like a band even if it isn’t the most popular thing to say. I also try not to judge others for their tastes in music.
Today is one of my favorite local musician’s birthday. He is a well-known piano player in Kansas City. I always use him and his music as examples when I explain my love for music to people and how I have to feel an emotional connection to the music for it to mean something to me. The very first time that I heard him play piano, I felt it in my soul and I was hooked and I’ve been following him ever since.
Mark, my favorite Jazz piano player, and I at one of his gigs on my birthday 4-5 years ago.
This week was a whirlwind week of live music for me and although I’m utterly exhausted and ready to collapse, I loved every minute of it.
Last Saturday I headed out to a rooftop bar at the Legends
http://www.kc1021.com/event/dave-and-busters-summer-concert-series-odyssey-road-726-dave-busters/ (I know, right?) and saw my friend’s pop cover band, Hot Caution https://www.facebook.com/hotcaution/?fref=ts , come off of their hiatus to play upbeat tunes on a breezy summer night. My favorite thing about this band, in addition to their wide repertoire of pop favorites spanning several decades, is their lead singer’s voice. She just belts out the chords and I can feel her voice in my soul. This band is a great group of Kansas City folks and their followers are always super friendly, so I made new friends which is always great!
The lead singer of Hot Caution at their gig at the rooftop bar at Dave and Busters at the Legends in Kansas City.
That same friend invited me to the debut show of a new project, Bloodletters https://www.facebook.com/bloodletterskc/?fref=ts, a rock band with a set of local Kansas City musicians. They played the VIP stage at Starlight Theatre for the Weezer/Panic! at the Disco concert last Wednesday. They sounded great and I’m really looking forward to seeing them develop and progress as a band.
I learned a valuable lesson at this show…never, never, never, attend a concert at Starlight in the summer without getting a VIP ticket. The VIP ticket gets you access to the air-conditioned lounge, with private (clean) bathrooms, unlimited free ice water, two private (cash) bars, and an optional buffet dinner for purchase. The lines to get in are almost nonexistent compared to the hundreds of people waiting in line for general admission access to the venue. I’m forever spoiled! It was 95 degrees outside, but I was able to literally chill out in the air conditioned lounge and watch the opening band on a nice video screen while hydrating in preparation for the headliner. There is no way that I would have survived for 4+ hours in the Missouri summer heat and humidity. LOVE the VIP lounge!
I also learned that I am WAY too old and don’t have nearly enough body piercings and tattoos to go to a Panic! show. But they were high energy and put on a good show. This was my first time seeing Weezer live, and they did not disappoint! It is so great to see that they have such a strong following nearly 25 years into their career.
Panic! at the Disco and Weezer
I headed back out to Starlight on Friday evening for the Shinedown/Halestorm/Blackstone Cherry concert. I’m surprised at the number of people who I’ve talked to this week who don’t know who Shinedown is. My college boyfriend was in various rock bands and introduced me to them. I LOVE them. Their lead singer has a voice that really resonates with me. Their rock ballads are very moving. I had also seen Halestorm and Blackstone Cherry at Rockfest several years ago. Shinedown was so amazing. I don’t know what else to say, other than that I’m in love with Brent Smith, their lead singer. It was crazy hot out, but taking ice water breaks in the VIP lounge made it bearable. The bonus of the night was the band playing the VIP stage. The summer rock camp kids from the Kansas City School of Rock played a set. They were a great group of kids who were really great performers and I could tell that they were having a blast on stage.
Saturday night brought a first for me -I attended my very first rap concert. Some friends and I went to the Rihanna concert back in March, and she does a lot of collobarating with Drake, this rapper from Toronto. So, after going to that show, I started getting into Drake’s music and saw that his tour was making a stop at the Sprint Center in Kansas City. I knew that I had to go. It was a very unique experience. It was probably the only show I’ve been to (I have no idea how many shows I’ve been to since I graduated high school -100? Maybe more?) that was a true diverse crowd. There were people from their teens on up to their 60s, black, white, gay, straight, small town, big city, suburbanites, and urbanites all there bonding over their love for this Canadian rapper. The people watching at the Sprint Center was interesting to say the least. I witnessed a dance off ala Save the Last Dance in one of the lower level sections. And I saw two guys napping in their seats. I made some new friends and was exposed to a whole new genere of music that I had not experienced via live show.
Show number five tonight was the show of the week that I was most looking forward to. Last year I got to go to South by Southwest in Austin for the very first time. https://amyguerich.com/2015/03/23/things-i-learned-at-sxsw-2015/ It was an item that had been on my bucket list for a while, which isn’t surprising considering how much I love live music and how much I travel to see shows. I stumbled upon this folk/bluegrass duo, the Lowest Pair http://thelowestpair.com/ and got to see them play twice at SXSW. I really felt a connection to their sound. They are very talented songwriters and musicians. And I’m a sucker for the banjo! Since then I’ve followed them on social media, bought all of their albums, and I check their tour schedule every couple of months. It worked out for me to drive up to Omaha to see them one weekend. But today, they were in my home town!! It was so awesome. They played a cool patio with a great vibe downtown. I’ve been waiting for them to come to Kansas City so that everyone here will love them as much as I do! Traveling to see shows is a blast, but it is even better to have one of your favorite bands come to your hometown.
#NowPlaying The Lowest Pair Say Darlin Say from I Reckon I’m Fixin’ on Kickin Round to Pick a Little
Family Ties
Families come in all shapes and sizes. The older that I get, the more that I realize that the important people in life are not necessarily those that I grew up with or who raised me. I am close to my extended family as I’ve spent a lot of time around my grandma’s siblings and nieces and nephews and their families.
One of the things that I inherited from my grandma is that we claim people we like as relatives regardless of bloodlines. For instance, she had a neighbor who we all called Grandma. Her name was Grandma Meinhardt. Even my grandma called her Grandma. I had no idea until she died that her real first name was Mabel. She was a very dear friend of our family. Grandma also accepted her in-laws as relatives right away. She loved inheriting nephews when her little brother’s eight daughters started getting married. She remembered everyone’s anniversaries and birthdays and always sent cards.
Claire was a dear niece of my grandma’s…Grandma loved bragging about Claire, her niece who was a nurse practitioner. I actually forget that Claire was married to grandma’s nephew, so she is actually related by marriage, accept for the fact that they aren’t married anymore. But she’s still one of my favorite cousins and always will be!
One of my all time favorite things about Claire is that she really doesn’t seem to let much bother her, and she cares so much for her four daughters (3 that she helped raise when she married their dad, and one biological).
Claire invited me on her annual New Orleans trip in June and I happily accepted! The funny part of this trip was when a friend of mine asked who I was going with. Now, I really don’t have a complicated family tree, but when you consider the fact that I’m so close to my extended family and we start getting into Grandma’s nieces and nephews and their kids, it can get a little hard to follow. So, I found myself laughing as I was explaining it.
Claire, and the oldest of the three daughters who she helped to raise, as well as the daughter’s biological mom and step dad were going to be going on the trip along with another one of our cousins. And then me, the random second cousin (I think?)…Six very different people with different personalities from various branches of the family tree living it up in the Big Easy! Half of us had been before and the other half were newbies!
We had an awesome time and the entire trip I kept thinking about how grateful that I am to be connected to these people and how they each have a unique life experience that I can learn from. It was also fun to experience New Orleans with people who had never been before!
Here I am with my unconventional family at a nice lunch at Commander’s Palace, home of the 25 cent martini! I won’t rat people out and tell how many we drank!
Another great trip in the books and another reminder of how grateful that I am for my extended family!
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