Ocean Grove Media Post!
Katie A few photos and a video from Friday night’s show!
Ocean Grove Takes Manhattan
Ocean Grove might look familiar to you, especially if you have ever been to a Jonas Brothers concert. The 4 guys who are usually backing the Jonas Brothers and helping them round out their sound have formed their own band. Jack, Greg, Ryan and John recently released Ocean Grove’s debut EP, “Little Record” Last month they played their debut show in Los Angeles, CA and last night they played their first East Coast show at the Gramercy Theater in New York, NY.
Kicking off the show was a band called Meadowland, made up of 4 teenagers. I wasn’t really into them, but the lead singer gets bonus points for mentioning all the song titles before singing them. (Although I did not start keeping track of them until the end of their set so most of their setlist is from memory and therefore has no guarantees of being accurate!) Jackie, the lead singer, was really working the stage – as some times I completely could not see her because she had run off to interact with fans. You can check out more at their website: www.meadowlandband.com and they have a free download available on their facebook page!
Next up was The Prigs, a band from Brooklyn. They had 2 saxophone players in the band, which was awesome. They were incredibly high energy and really got everyone pumped for Ocean Grove who would be coming up next. They had a setlist at the soundboard so some of the song titles mentioned might be abbreviations. They have a few songs available for download at their website, www.theprigs.com. If you like what you hear be sure to donate to help keep the band going! I think that they won over a LOT of the crowd, as after the show they were getting a lot of screams from girls as they were walking the M&G; line promoting their website.
Then it was time for the main event – Ocean Grove! There was some trouble getting the banner to hang even behind them on the stage and one of the guys at the soundboard actually turned around and asked us if we thought it looked ok. At that point, it did, but then it seemed to drop a bit right after! Finally, they got it looking like a good backdrop! The band opened up the show with I Want You In Love. I recently purchased their EP on iTunes but hadn’t yet had time to listen to it, so I really was not familiar with any of their stuff (save for what my friend Christine had played for me when we were in her car a couple weeks ago) But I definitely liked what I heard and am looking forward to them releasing more material!
They did a cover of the Beach Boys God Only Knows which was dedicated to their friend and bus driver Kenny who passed away a few weeks back as well as to those in Japan who have been affected by the earthquake and Tsunami. They also were donating $1 from each poster sold to the Red Cross. (The poster, designed by Greg had a wave on it crashing into the beach from the iconic Japanese painting The Great Wave off Kanagawa)
Then they said they had a surprise for us that the kids in Los Angeles didn’t get because they are spoiled. A lot of fans thought that they might be calling the Jonas Brothers to the stage (Kevin and Joe were there) but instead they brought The Prigs back on stage and they all did a great cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born To Run”
Since the band had mentioned several times they wanted to meet everyone after the show, we decided it might be in our best interest to get in line for the M&G; before the show was over so we wouldn’t have to wait too long to meet them. We weren’t the only ones with this idea so we were sent outside to wait where the line began wrapping around the block. Once the line started moving things moved quickly, although it was incredibly unorganized. We were told time and time again that they were only allowing group photos, no matter how big our group was – yet somehow they yelled at me for my photo before Lauren was even up to the guys in line so we managed to get solo photos with the band… except there was so much confusion because another girl had hopped in line in front of Lauren that the photographer took a pretty crappy photo for her and somehow it came out dark and blurry 🙁
We somehow managed to juuuust make the 11:22 train, which of course had no seats. We walked through a million and one train cars looking for seats and finally decided to just stand until the first stop and hope that enough people got off that we could grab a seat. That worked, although my wrist was so twisted from holding on for dear life that I think it will be a couple days still before it is back to normal. Then before one of the stops the car went dark and we were stopped. It didn’t look like we were at a station. It turned out we had lost power from the overhead wire and the crew had to get downtown to get it back up and running again. We were stuck for about a half an hour with 3 dumb drunk guys who were trying to pry open the train doors. When power went back on as they were getting a door open they decided it was them who fixed the train. Have another drink, guys!
Setlists for all 3 bands under the cut… photos and perhaps some video will be coming soon. I’m heading out for the afternoon so it probably won’t be posted until tomorrow 🙂
Meadowland
Boyfriend
Lovesick
Are You Gonna Be My Girl
Over You
Girlfriend (?)
Rock N Roll Highschool
Mr Right
The Prigs
TV Reporter
2nd Ave
Glass Slipper Shoes
Boys and Girls
Video
Tonight Tonight Tonight
SF Girls
Laundry Day
Ocean Grove
I Want You In Love
Grab Your Coat
Not You
The Best
Away
Dreamdate
Take It Easy
God Only Knows (Beach Boys)
We’re Still Breathing
Won’t Say Goodbye
Born To Run (Springsteen)
Our House
Giveaway Update + Bonus Entry
So far, the Amazon $10 gift card giveaway will still only be having 1 winner drawn because only my twitter is at 100+ followers. However, facebook is very close and needs only 18 more people to ‘like’ and Google Friend Connect is 25 followers away from the big 1-0-0!
If anyone happens to host any blog hops/facebook hops or knows of any good ones – please leave a comment with the details! I just love a good blog hop and it will hopefully bring us that much closer to the goal and 3 winners!
I went to check out Ocean Grove last night and decided since their new EP “Little Record” was just released recently, that the bonus entry word is “Little Record”! All you need to do is leave an additional comment containing “Little Record” on the Giveaway post (click the “Giveaway” button to the right –> to get to the post) The mandatory entry still must be done first in order for any other comments to count in the contest. The Bonus Entry word will be valid until 3/13/11 at 11:59pm EST. Any posts with the word made after that time will not count as a valid entry.
A review on Ocean Groves show (only their 2nd show EVER!) will be posted in the near future so definitely keep an eye out for that 🙂
The Daily Post
If you could bring one fictional character to life for a day, who would you choose?
This one was EASY! Justin Russo from Wizards of Waverly Place. He is everything I want in a boyfriend. He is nice, smart, funny and most importantly – he likes the Mets! We would go on a date to a Mets game, of course. Although, now that I think of it, bringing him to life for only one day would be a major tease and a bummer so maybe I shouldn’t have picked him…
Hanson WPST Music Lounge
Yesterday Hanson performed for contest winners at WPST in Princeton, NJ. My friend Kim won her way in and invited me as her guest! We were expecting there to be 30 winners (therefore 30-60 people) but they only had 10 winners and a guest each for 20 people. Except that 3 winners didn’t even show up so there was only 14 of us! (And a couple extras got added in just before Hanson performed)
In usual Hanson fashion, they were late. We were put in a conference room for a bit and we assumed this meant that they only had one entrance to the station and they didn’t want us in the lobby when Hanson arrived. Then we were moved into the “lounge” which was just a small room with 3 rows of chairs (In the random draw, Kim drew 2nd row for our seats) and shortly after Hanson came in the room.
They did 4 songs – Thinking Bout Something, These Walls, Where’s The Love and Give a Little. Before These Walls, they were talking about jughandles. For those of you who don’t know, in New Jersey (I am not sure if it is all or just some areas) you can’t make left turns instead you turn right to go left. I believe it is done because it is safer and causes less accidents this way but if you are not used to this concept it can be VERY confusing. (Especially if your GPS says that the location is on the left and you are not prepared by being in the right lane!) Taylor ended up singing a bit about jughandles in the song, which led to him completely messing up the song a couple of times, but it was so funny no one seemed to mind.
Taylor also explained that he got a new, smaller keyboard instead of his professional best recording interface and keyboard, for when they travel and it has a TON of buttons on it, so he was hitting a few and Zac started dancing. I swear, Taylor hits a button by accident on his keyboard all the time – and it always leads to Zac either dancing or making up a ridiculous song.
They took a few requests, but unfortunately most of them were not songs they were able to do acoustically so they had to turn them down (Georgia, Dying To Be Alive, Runaway Run) and they ended up doing Where’s The Love. Their last song was their latest single, Give a Little.
After they performed, we were taken out of the room an walked around the studio in a loop (jughandle?) and lined up to meet the guys. We were able to get something signed and a photo of just us with them which is a VERY rare thing and very awesome 🙂
Zac ended up taking my CD from my to sign first… and then dropped it on the floor. Isaac had it and was ready to sign but was talking to Kim about Boomerang (their first album which she was having them sign) and then Taylor went to grab it from him to sign but Isaac grabbed it back because he hadn’t yet signed it. Then Taylor got it and asked my name and added a “To Katie ROCK ON” to it!
We went down in to the lobby and chatted a bit with some other fans who were there, and a few minutes later food went by so we assumed Hanson would be staying to eat at the station. But instead, they came downstairs a few minutes later and said hi/bye and went out to their car. We followed them and they all walked past my car – Zac had parked their van just a few spots over from my car so he had to drive right by me to leave. I am not sure why that was so exciting to me, maybe because I did not have much sleep – waking up at 6:15 to get ready to go after falling asleep at who knows when! (After 1am, for sure)
Overall it was a really fun day and I am glad that Kim invited me as her guest 🙂 Even if being stuck in ridiculous traffic for 45 minutes when you are super, super tired can be considered a form of torture – it was worth it!
Idol Thoughts – Top 13 Performaces
Sometimes I like to read Ryan’s teleprompter with him “Good Evening! And Welcome To American Idol!” This week the Idols sang songs from their Idols. I do really hope that they continue to use genres in the future – how great would it be to hear Scotty coutry-fy an R&B; song? Although I have read that it might be one of the things that they drop with this new season. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see! The Idol’s Idols was almost “too easy” of a subject. But it is just the beginning of the competition so I guess I will let that slide.
I think most of the contestants did really well this week. I actually can not decide on a bottom 3, so I have a bottom 4. I know, I know, that’s cheating! But it is my blog so I can do whatever I want! 😉 The 4 are – Naima, Ashthon, Stephano and Paul. I am not sure America really “gets” Paul, though I do enjoy him. (Although his dance moves were a bit odd. But it was hilarious when Ryan tried to imitate them!) The judges seem to love Ashthon, but I don’t seem to hear what they are hearing. I think Naima didn’t make the best choices last night, which is a shame, because I really like her. And Stephano… my favorite… but he took on a song that was too big for him AND it said “Goodbye” in it, which can often be the kiss of death on this show. (I have had a running theory about this for years so last night my mom yelled out “HE SANG GOODBYE!” as he was singing lol)
According to DialIdol, 2 of my 4 are “correct”… but I am still not sure how they are taking into account the online votes. And they usually are not that accurate in the beginning of the season but I guess we’ll just wait and see. They have Paul and Ashthon in the bottom 4 – with Casey (what?!) and Haley. I can see why people weren’t into Haley’s performance – the “yodeling”, even though that is how the LeAnn song goes! (I never did like that song)
Under the cut are my raw notes from as they were performing. I was VERY sleepy last night (details on why are coming up later today)So I hope they at least make some sense 🙂
Lauren – Shania Twain – I think she was going a little too fast for herself in the beginning and got out of breath, but then she seemed to find her way. I agree with Steven that she could have done more with the song, but I don’t think she was bad.
Casey – Joe Cocker – I think this was a perfect choice for him. Though I am not sure why he had so many backup singers.. I get the whole “friends” thing but I just didn’t think it was needed. Seems a bit early to be pulling out stops like that but I guess I should realize that things aren’t the same as they were in the past.
Ashthon – Diana Ross – Not impressed with her… she might have picked a song that was too big for her. (And I just realized her name is spelled Ashthon and not Ashton…)
Paul – Ryan Adams – He has an interesting stage presence. And I’d like to know how he has such white teeth haha I’m not sure I liked his performance this week, it could be because I am not familiar with the song he chose. It was a bit of a down song too – I think I’d like him more in a more upbeat setting.
Pia – Celine Dion – Pia is the real deal. At first I was hesitant with her artist choice because Celine is one of those that is tough to sing and I think Pia did the song great justice and combined with last weeks performance I think she’ll go far in this competition.
James – Paul McCartney – He was good. Again. Darn! And he seemed to keep his Adam screeching under control too so bonus points there from me.
Haley – LeeAnn Rimes – Ok when the spoiler list first came out everyone was like “omg Haley will yodel” but.. that is how the song goes so I am not sure why that was such a shocker lol I thought she did good.
Jacob – R Kelly – I’m again not a fan of the extra singers. For the finale, fine. But the first round? I want to hear Jacob! I feel like he had some off moments, but for the most part did well.
Thia – Michael Jackson – She is a good singer but I don’t know if I liked this song for her. I don’t think it will keep her from advancing though.
Stefano – Stevie Wonder – Stevie is another one that is hard to sing. I think this song was a bit too big for him – but he is still my favorite (Even if he sang goodbye which is always the jinx! UT OH!)
Karen – Selena – I wasn’t really wowed with her performance, but I didn’t hate it either. There are definitely stronger girls in the competition. (despite what JLo said after I typed this out lol)
Scotty – Garth Brooks – I actually opted to get dinner during his performance but from what I heard it was a safe choice for him and I’m sure it’ll get him through.
Naima – Rihanna – Not all that impressed with her performance. I think she either should have changed the song completely or just did it the way we are used to. It is always a challenge to do a “current” song.
Book Review: We Be Big By Rick Burgess and Bill Bussey with Don Keith
Recently I got the chance to review We Be Big – The Mostly True Story of How Two Kids from Calhoun County, Alabama Became Rick and Bubba by Rick Burgess and Bill Bussey with Don Keith.
Before reading this, I really knew little about Rick and Bubba. Honestly, all I knew was that they were on the radio and I figured – what the heck – I will check out the book and see what they have to say. (Connecticut doesn’t have any stations with their show in syndication – it is aired mainly in the south)
The book tells about growing up for Rick and Bubba and what led them to become interested in being in the radio business. Chapters alternate telling Rick’s story and then Bubba’s of about the same time in their life and all the paths that God guided them too before eventually bringing them together (again.) They first met in a Spanish class where they made their teacher’s life miserable!
The story tells about their trials and tribulations once becoming ‘Rick & Bubba’ and having their show move from various stations as well as the personal tragedies they had to overcome and how their relationship with God and each other helped them through.
It also explains why the book is called We Be Big – self proclaimed sexiest fat men alive, they had their toll-free number for callers to reach them be 866 WE BE BIG.
Now that I know more about Rick and Bubba I am bummed that there isn’t somewhere local where I can listen in on their radio show! I’ll just have to try and stream it online from their website, http://www.rickandbubba.com
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
$10 Amazon GiftCard – Up to 3 Winners! {CLOSED}
We did it!
Since my twitter has over 100 followers, I will be giving away $10 to Amazon.com to one lucky winner. BUT! This contest has the potential of having 3 winners.
If my facebook gets to 100 followers during the contest period, one more winner will be drawn.
If my Google Friend Connect gets to 100 followers during the contest period, one more winner will be drawn.
If my Google Friend Connect gets to 100 followers during the contest period, one more winner will be drawn.
And yes, you have the possibility of winning ALL 3 giftcards! I will be using random.org to select comment numbers. I will discard any duplicate numbers, but if you have multiple entries you will have a chance of winning more than 1 giftcard!
Contest Ends: 3/21/11 11:59 PM EST
WIN IT!
Actions are worth 1 entry/comment unless otherwise noted.
Please leave your email address in all comments so I can notify you if you win!
Please leave your email address in all comments so I can notify you if you win!
MANDATORY ENTRY
(this must be your first comment in order for your entries to count!)
Follow Concert Katie on Google Friend Connect
ADDITIONAL ENTRIES
(1 entry unless otherwise noted)
(1 entry unless otherwise noted)
Follow Concert Katie on Facebook
Follow @Concert_Katie on Twitter
Tweet About the giveaway using the following (2 entries, leave link to tweet)
“Win It! $10 to Amazon.com from @Concert_Katie Up to 3 winners! #giveaway http://bit.ly/g60PpE“
Subscribe to Concert Katie via Email (3 entries)
Add my button to your blog and leave a link where we can find it (4 entries)
Blog about this giveaway, linking back to the contest and leave a link to the post (5 entries)
Follow @Concert_Katie on Twitter
Tweet About the giveaway using the following (2 entries, leave link to tweet)
“Win It! $10 to Amazon.com from @Concert_Katie Up to 3 winners! #giveaway http://bit.ly/g60PpE“
Subscribe to Concert Katie via Email (3 entries)
Add my button to your blog and leave a link where we can find it (4 entries)
Blog about this giveaway, linking back to the contest and leave a link to the post (5 entries)
This giveaway prize is being provided at the blog owners expense. It is not sponsored by Amazon.com in any way.
A new giveaway is coming!
A giveaway is coming!
As soon as I hit 100 followers on either Twitter, Google Friend Connect or Facebook I will be giving away $10 to Amazon. The giveaway will run for 2 weeks. If during that time I end up with 100 followers on all 3 sites- I will choose 3 winners! (If I have 100 on only 2 sites, I’ll choose 2 winners)
Want to get a head start?
Follow me on twitter: @Concert_Katie
Follow me on Facebook: Concert Katie
Follow me on Google Friend Connect (link in the right sidebar)
As there will be multiple ways to enter the giveaway (all 3 above will count as 1 entry each) it is possible that one person can win all 3 giftcards! I will be using random.org to choose the winning comment numbers. I will not use the same comment numbers twice.
I am at 90 followers on twitter so this giveaway can be starting as early as tomorrow!!
Be Like Brit Organization
Hanson’s performance at WXLO on Friday was in conjunction with a fundraiser for the Non-Profit Organization “Be Like Brit” The story of how this organization started was very moving and I thought I would share and try to bring some more attention to it.
Britney Gengel was a college student who had traveled to Haiti. While there, she was touched by the orphans she had spent time with and sent a text to her family, “They love us so much and everyone is so happy. They love what they have and they work so hard to get nowhere, yet they are all so appreciative. I want to move here and start an orphanage myself” Not long after she sent the text, an earthquake hit Haiti – one that I am sure we have all seen coverage of on the news – and Britney was killed, her body recovered 33 days later.
Britney’s friends and family started “Be Like Brit” in an effort to make Britney’s goal come true – to build an orphanage in Haiti. They have recently broken ground on the foundation of the orphanage and after several attempts at drilling for a well, they now also have water!
They are doing a lot of great things, but they definitely need everyone’s help to continue to make Brit’s dream a reality. Be sure to head over to http://belikebrit.org to see how you can donate to help keep Brit’s dream alive.