Best Friends, Florida, & Framing Hanley

Last weekend was a good one.
I figured I'd throw together a little post about it.
Friday morning we headed out, on our way to Florida for the weekend.
Two purposes of this trip was; 1- spend the weekend with my best friends & Doug to go fishing with M's hubby. 2- For C, M & me to go see Framing Hanley. (It was M's first FH show too!)

The show was Friday night, so we got to M's around 3 and got dressed real quick & headed out, we had about a 45 min- hour drive to the venue, which was in Jacksonville.

We leave, decide we'll get Taco Bell since we thought we were pushing time. It was about 4-something and because we didn't know where we were goin, we wanted plenty of time to get there.

Well, plenty of time we certainly had..

Let me back up..
I got an email on March 22 stating that the time had changed from 7:00 to 6:30. No biggie, really.
So that was factored into our rushing. We wanted to stop and get dinner at a sit down restaurant but figured we wouldn't have time. Even though FH was headlining & would be going on last, we wanted to get there when doors opened.
Now...then venue.
Let me set the scene...we're driving & are now in an area of Jax that M (who lives there & is familiar with Jax a little) is not too familiar with. So we just follow directions & it has us pull into a shopping center. The only legit store in the center is a Dollar General on the end. Then there is like a nail salon & a couple of other stores that I can't remember. On the opposite end there is a club (or something) that M see & says, "oh, there have been shootings there before." Holy God. Great.
Well, after driving back and forth & being blind, we finally see the venue's sign on the building, which happens to be right next to the other club.
I called to double check that we were in the right spot & to ask when doors opened, thinking it was at 6 or 6:30 since, ya know, that email. Nope. Doors open at 7. What?
So, here we are, in a sketchy ass area with an hour and a half to wait for this place to open up.
We pulled across the road to a nicer looking gas station & I ate my food while we sat and talked.
Finally it's almost 7 so we went back across to where the venue was. Thankfully there was a small line formed. So, we found a parking spot as close to the door as we could & then got out.
We felt a little better then & finally at about 15 or 20 after 7, the door opened.

There were 4 or 5 openers. That's a lot. And I didn't get into all of them.
Actually the only opener I really like was the one right before FH, and there were called Avenue of the Giants. (Check 'em out).
We got our merch & chatted with the guys before they went on.
And then around 10:30, or maybe even 11, Framing Hanley went on stage and all was right with the world! They played a lot of their new material & of course some of their songs from the past 2 albums. As always it was an amazing show. I may be biased but, that's honestly besides the point. If you've never been to a show, go. Tickets are always reasonably priced. :-)
After the show we chatted a little more & M & I took a picture with them.
We got home about 2am.

The rest of the weekend was good & bad. My lovely husband was supposed to go fishing Saturday with M's husband. BUT, poor D, he ended up waking up with a stomach bug. So, while M's husband went fishing & us girls went to do a little shopping, he stayed on the couch allllll day. So much for hoping he could have a little break. :(
We stayed in and watched a movie Saturday night.
Sunday we just sat around until time to say good-bye. Thankfully D was feeling better so the long ride would be too miserable.
After saying bye, we stopped at Chili's for lunch. (At which we saw a woman who looked like she was about 8 months pregnant enjoying the hell out of some margaritas. -We are bout 90% sure she was pregnant, it wasn't like a fat belly, it looked like a pregnant belly, belly button sticking out and all-)
And then we took the looong drive home.
And viola! That was my lovely weekend! The only thing that would have made it better was is D wouldn't have gotten sick.
Did you make it to the end of reading?
If so, yay!
Remember how I said I took a shit ton of pictures at the show & only a handful came out. Here they are...

Blurry, but I love it.

Avenue Of The Giants

Guitarist, AOTG

Devon, lead singer, AOTG

Nixon
Framing Hanley

Jon
Framing Hanley

Nixon
FH

Ryan
Framing Hanley

Jon, Brandon, Nixon, Chris, and Ryan
Framing Hanley

Jon & Nixon
FH

Nixon, Jon & Ryan
FH

Nix

Ryan
FH

Chris
FH

Brandon
FH

Framing Hanley & Me
4.11.14

After looking if I did a little editing, there are a couple more that would probably be halfway decent, but oh well...

Framing Hanley has a new album coming out April 29, it's called The Sum of Who We Are.

If you're interested in following or keeping up with them you can either:
Like their FB
Follow their Twitter
Follow the FHan Twitter
Follow the Street Team Twitter (A lot, not all, but a good number of the tweets from it are me)
And then of course there is their Website.
And the FHan site

Look for The Sum of Who We Are in stores on April 29.
You'll here me mention it more, obviously! :-)

And, I'm out!
Lovins!
♥♥♥
Brandy

Concert Fever.

I've got it.
I've got it real bad.

It's really one of the best escapes.
There is nothing like your mind clearing of everything except for that moment...and the music.
Do you know what I mean?
For at least 2 to 3 hours you just forget about the stress, drama, or whatever is troubling you and it's amazing. Gives you chills and such a rush. Surely I'm not the only one who is impacted this much by music, let alone live music.

Music is my drug.
And I'm ready for my next hit.

There are so many concerts being announced and I am dying to just buy tickets to all. of. them!
I'm going to try to make it to as many as I can.

Here's my concert "wish list" for this year, in no particular order:
subject to change (& by "change" I mean "have more added to it")
Fall Out Boy & Paramore
Luke Bryan w/ Cole Swindell
Def Leppard and KISS
Linkin Park, 30 Seconds to Mars, AFI
Framing Hanley
Panic! At The Disco
Jason Aldean w/ Florida Georgia Line & Tyler Farr
Journey & Steve Miller Band
The Backstreet Boys
George Strait and Sheryl Crow

& I wouldn't mind maybe seeing...
One Republic
Brad Paisley
Alabama
Willie Nelson & Allison Krauss
Queen (w. Adam Lambert)
Dave Matthews Band
Alabama


There are some more that I wouldn't mind seeing but I'm not looking at Ticketmaster at the moment & so my mind is a little blank. :)

So, yeah.
There you have it.
There are some that I prefer more than others. Shows I'm convinced I need to go to.
So, we'll just see how it goes.

I have 3 planned for sure already. 2 soon and 1 in October. lol
I'm ready to add more to the plans!

Any of y'all have any concerts that you'd like to go to or are planning to go to??

Lovinsss!
♥♥♥
Brandy

P.s. Sorry it's been so long. I miss y'all!♥

Star 94 Jingle Jam 2013

Finally gonna rave about Jingle Jam that I went to 2 weeks ago.
I went to the Star 94 Jingle Jam again this year and it was pretty damn amazing, if I do say so myself.
If you've been around these parts, you may remember my post raving about it last year. I was SO excited to be seeing Ed Sheeran, and the other artists that were there were all amazing as well. Jason Mraz? Duh! Andy Grammer, Alex Clare, Grace Potter & Phillip Phillips? All amazing. You can read it here if you'd like.
This year, I decided I wanted to go again, depending on the line-up -of course.
It felt like it took FOREVER for them to announce the line-up and I remember when they did.
I was driving home from running errands, patience at an all time low with idiots on the road & I was listening to the station that puts on the show & all of a sudden there it was, "Star 94 Jingle Jam, featuring *plays music*" It confused me at first because I thought, "why the hell would you start an announcement and then cut it off half way through to play a song?" Then it dawned on me, that's who was going to be playing! Well, one of the artists anyway. And that artist/band alone was enough for me to say yes. I called Doug immediately, I'm talking as soon as the announcement stopped, and told him I'd be buying 2 tickets to this show AS SOON as they go on sale. And I did. And I even bought FLOOR seats, a first for me in a "bigger" concert. And boy was is worth it! And luckily Carla went with me (and had just as much fun as I did.) ;-)
I'm honestly still kind of pinching myself.
The line-up? Colbie Caillat, Avril Lavinge, The Fray, The Goo Goo Dolls,...and...The BACKSTREET BOYS.
Never in my life did I think I would be able to see them live. Ever. Same with the Goo Goo Dolls. Like, what? I think I knew them even before BSB.
Let me just start from the beginning.
They show was on December 16th.
We got there early, because I'd rather sit in the parking lot & wait than to be stuck in traffic.
Found our seats fairly easy & was blown away at how close they were. Definitely closer than I thought, and I am not complaining.
I feel like it was a good build up of artists. Started out slower with Colbie & ended with the big finisher BSB. Every artist in between built up the energy more and more. With a snag or two.
Colbie Callait was actually great. I like her music. I feel like some people don't because all or most of her music is more mellow and slow/soft, but I like it. It's good, chill music. So I think she was a great opener. And she seems just as chill as you would imagine in person.
Avril. So, you know Avril Lavigne, right? Pop-punk princess. Rebellious type of attitude/image and all? I didn't get that vibe out of her performance at all. She wasn't awful, but I honestly expected more from her just based on her music and such. I didn't fully get that punky attitude that you'd expect. I don't fully know how to explain it. Regardless, I still sang along. I was just a little sad at how it ended up sounding.
The Fray. They...are...amazing! Not even exaggerating in the slightest. If you ever get the chance to see them, I would take it. I like their music anyway so I was okay with them being in the line-up, but there was a small part of me that thought someone else could have went there. BUT, let me tell you, they fit RIGHT in. Isaac puts me in mind of someone from the 90's and I cannot for the life of me think of who it is by name right now. He's got kind of a nasal-y crackly voice and I loved it. He even walked out in the audience (he stopped about a row in front of me) and stood up in a chair and sang. Then he sang on top of his piano. They have great stage presence & the entire band in amazing. I know that they lead singer always get's raved about, but it has to be said that they whole band was great. 200% pleasantly surprised by them. Love it.
Goo Goo Dolls. I mean a dream come true for anyone old enough to appreciate 90's music, right? Duh! It doesn't even matter that they were the oldest artist/band in the line-up, they were amazing. And getting to hear some of your favorite songs from years ago, live, is just amazing itself. But unfortunately this is were the snag came in. They had a 30 minute set and they ended, of course, with their major hit "Iris". Holy excitement! Well, about halfway through the song, Avril comes out and decides she want to sing with "one of her idols" -as she said-, SHE. DIDN'T. KNOW. THE. WORDS. She fumbled the song, wasn't singing the right line in the right place, and just kind of seemed like a space cadet. The just when you think she's going to leave the stage to they can finish the song properly, she doesn't. She just continues to butcher it. I sat down. I couldn't take it. I know it's probably rude to kick someone off the stage when they want to come out and accompany you in singing, I mean it should be flattering right? But Johnny so should have booted her somehow. I don't know. I was sad about it though. So was Carla, and so were the people behind us. It just one of those things. I don't know....I was embarrassed for her. I actually hope she was drunk.
Backstreet Boys. I'm seriously so excited I got to see them live. I cannot express that enough. I'm also glad it was in the venue it was in, cause even though it's an arena, it's a smaller one. And you know what? They are ahh-mazing. I'm not kidding. For them to be a 90's boy band, all grown up and having gone through some of they things they have and just life in general, they are amazing. I'd totally pay to see them again. I also recommend if you like or liked them that you go see them. Not only will they make your preteen/teen dreams come true by singing some oldies, their new stuff is good as well. They did I don't remember the exact set list, but it was a mix of new and old & they threw in a Christmas song so there were only a few songs I didn't really know. The rest of them I belted out at the top of my lungs while trying to contain myself just a bit. Haha.
Overall it was an amazing show, very well worth the money. Such a fun experience. Star94Atlanta did great again with putting together a great show as well as getting together a great line-up. Even though I wasn't fully happy about Avril, I'd still recommend seeing her, especially if you're a fan. I was happy to see her because I have liked a lot/most of stuff she's put out since the beginning so seeing her for that alone was good. That's just one of the risks of a concert, you have to know that there is a possibility that they won't sound the same. But everyone else sounded as they do on radio/album if not better.
Also, there was a photographer there that was walking around taking pictures of the show and the audience. He stopped and took pictures of Carla and I a couple of times. I do not know who he was taking pictures for but I would surely appreciate finding him so I can see those pictures because I feel like I look ridiculous because we were kind of having a blast! lol. Leave it to me to throw in comments about the photographers. I just want to do it. Star 94 should get an extra photo pass and let me try it out. I would love to shoot a concert with my Rebel as opposed to my P&S. Maybe one day.
Anyway, here are photos & videos!
Photos are mine, videos are not. Sources will be below. :-)

BSB- I Want It That Way

source

 

BSB- Everbody

Source

 

The Fray- How To Save A Life (long)

Source

 

The Fray- Over My Head (Cable Car)

source

 



I'm not going to post the Iris video,...but you can watch it here.
And if you want to see any other performances just look up "Star94 Jingle Jam 2013" in YouTube.
:-)

Lovins
♥♥♥
Brandy

I still can't believe I saw AJ & Nick & Brian & Kevin & Howie live. LIVE. Mind Blown.