A Musical Weekend

I wish my life was a musical.  I'd be satisfied just to have my weekend turn into a live musical...but anyways not quite what the title was implying.  This weekend I had the chance to see a small gig downtown, as well as a much larger show at the Rogers Center. 

Winchester Kitchen and Bar was hosting a three day "Folk Festival" which a couple of my awesome friends and I attended on day two.  It was a little bit disappointing at first as the place was pretty empty and the music didn't start until about an hour after advertised.  Nevertheless, I was really only there to see one person, and you can best bet she didn't disappoint whatsoever.  The one and only singer/songwriter Alanna Matty backed by Kel Bhatia played a 45 minute set and had the whole venue in silence (it was pretty loud and rowdy during the previous set).   It was fantastic - I think they're pretty much the only live performers I've seen who sound just as good, if not better, in person.  They performed a number of Alanna's originals (some of them I hadn't heard yet, so that was pretty exciting) as well as some covers.  Unfortunately I keep missing the shows Alanna does with her live band, so hopefully I'll get a chance to see them sometime soon!  I was lucky enough to be around when Alanna wrote her first song "Fly" back when we were....10 or some ridiculously young age so watching her perform now is always really exciting.   I attempted to record/take pictures but my crappy iPod obviously didn't do anything justice.  

We found the most random bridge on the way there

And a random passage way that probably goes to Narnia

My personal opinion: don't bother going for the food, go for the music

You should definitely check out her stuff!

:)

-- 
I also went to the Taylor Swift Concert this weekend at the Rogers Center, and I have to say, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be (well...mainly I was scared of the screaming teenie boppers, and admittedly they were still pretty frightening).  I'm not much of a Taylor Swift fan myself, but my sister is, so I got her the tickets for Christmas.  We were sitting pretty high in the 500 section on the right side of the stage, but I kinda liked it.  It was neat being able to see how big the venue was, and the screens were more than enough to get the full impact of the show. 

Tswift concert ticket	Full house at the Tswift Concert

The show opened with two artists, the first was a country singer and the second one was a pop singer but skipping towards the exciting part: Ed Sheeran. Oh my goodness....I want to marry that man :P.  Ed Sheeran is an amazing British singer/songwriter & anyone who knows me, knows I'm all about the Brits and anything UK related.  I actually discovered him when his first single was released in the UK, so hearing him live was pretty flipping exciting. He was....abso-frekin-lutely ASTOUNDING. It was beyond words, honestly.  So first of all, Ed is all about music - quality of music, conveying his message and just a bare bone honest performance.  Best of all, Ed is a one man band, he doesn't have any backing tracks or live band with him, instead its just him, his guitar and a loop pedal.  Basically he played all the extra accompaniment for his song, and he recorded it on his loop machine right in front of us.  He continued to add layers including some beatboxing, some drum sounds (hitting his guitar) and some insane guitaring.  He got the audience involved as well getting us to sing harmony with him in some sections, and he encouraged us to sing along and have a good time.  Besides playing some of his singles, he played a couple covers and songs off his album including an 11 minute performance/mashup of "You Need me, I don't Need You" which was super intense. I'm going to stop myself here, because I could fan girl forever, but Ed Sheeran live is something worth seeing! 

Rogers Center

ED SHEERAN!

Taylor Swift was a very very good vocalist and a dramatic performer (in a good way).  I was a bit iffy when she started talking about the colour red, and so on inbetween songs; I mean for people who were interested in why she writes what she writes, what her album is about and such I guess that's great but - I found it a bit corny, and her persona was a little over the top for me.  But as someone familiar with all her albums, watching her perform, and listening to her live, was really fun and enjoyable. Her staging, dancing, performing, props and set really added to the whole effect, and she really is a very good singer. 

 

There were a number of neat costume & set changes through the night - she changes ridiculously fast!

 Overall, this was actually the first concert I went to where all three opening acts were really good.  I also discovered my camera is even crappier than I originally though.  In the end I had a really good evening enjoying some fantastic music.  The fans weren't completely insane like at the One Direction concert I went to last year, but the energy was still electric, which made it really fun to be there.  On top of that, I got to hang out with my cousin and sister who had a blast singing along so all in all: epic weekend.

-M