Giveaways Ending Soon!

The Where Will You Go From Here book giveaway ends tonight at 11:59pm EST.  Easy mandatory entry and several optional entries as well! https://blog.concertkatie.com/2011/06/where-will-you-go-from-here.html

So Ready Designs is giving away a shirt to one lucky winner.  This contest has low entries  and ends tomorrow at 11:59pm EST.  Another easy mandatory entry with several optional entries available! Be sure to check it out and enter – I can not emphasize enough how COMFY this shirt is… I absolutely love it! https://blog.concertkatie.com/2011/06/so-ready-designs-giveaway.html

We still have 1 more copy of The Voice (WINNER!) Javier Colon’s single “Stitch By Stitch” to give away.  Make sure you are following @Concert_Katie on twitter and reply to the tweet with your email to win a copy of it from iTunes.  USA iTunes accounts only eligible.

Once the @Concert_Katie twitter reaches 500 followers (we are very close!) we will be doing another twitter contest for a signed Siobhan Magnus photo.  More details on that contest to come once the 500 mark is reached!

Honor Society at the Gramercy Theater

Sunday night Honor Society took their “Wherever You Are” Tour to the Gramercy Theater in New York City.  The show was oversold by at least 50 tickets and was a huge hometown crowd!  Opening was I Love Monsters (also from NYC), Katelyn Tarver and Action Item (from NJ).

Things got started out a bit late – the M&G was supposed to go in at 3pm but ended up going in at 3:30, which then pushed doors back and of course the venue staff really had no idea what was going on. (but what else is new?)  However, the show did not start late – I Love Monsters went on while there were still people outside (and lots of them).

Things got delayed again when checking the equipment before Katelyn and Action Item’s sets went a little bit long.  I think Action Item’s set may have even been cut a bit short to make sure that Honor Society had ample time to perform.

Honor Society’s set started out similar to the MA show on Friday, but they added in “Sing For You”, “Gentleman After Dark” (I was psyched to hear this one live!) and “Full Moon Crazy” (They also did not do “When I Get Home”)

At times, the guys just took a step back to take in all the cheering after songs. It had been over a YEAR since they had played in New York City so we were all definitely excited for them to be there!

After the show the line for the after show M&G wrapped around the block. (If you pre-ordered their soon to be released EP, you got a wristband for a photo with the band after the show)  Things were a bit rushed but I managed to get a hug from Andy even though they “weren’t allowed” and he told me that they’d be around again soon.  Let’s hope so!

When we made it back to Grand Central we wanted to take the 10:22 train back.  However, it had no track listed for where to get on. (We had picked up food at 7-11 and really wanted to be sitting down and eating it!)  We waited and waited watching the big screen to see when the track would pop up, worried that we’d be delayed – or worse – the train would be canceled and we’d be stuck there another hour.  It was not until after 10pm (We got to the station around 9:45) that a track was listed and by that point everyone was running to get to the track.  The train arrived shortly after and we gave everyone a chance to get off before making sure to get a seat.  The train was PACKED, tons of people standing.

On the way home, getting off my exit there is a blinking red light (if it is after midnight).  I was going to go right, but a car was coming down the hill from my left, so I waited even though I might have had enough time to make the turn. (I get paranoid and figure it is always best to just wait until nothing is coming than try to judge if I can make it or not).  A car came FLYING down the exit ramp and turned left – definitely cutting off the car I was waiting to pass by.  Turns out – it was a COP car and the lights immediately went on and he made a U-turn to pull over the speed demon.  Good thing I waited – I definitely didn’t want to accidentally cut off a cop!

Setlist is under the cut!
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'THE VOICE' LIVE ON TOUR

As announced last night on the top-rated new television show, “The Voice,” the final eight contestants from the smash hit program will hit the road for Sprint presents “The Voice” Live On Tour. The Live Nation-promoted tour has confirmed six shows beginning July 27th at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, with stops in Las Vegas, New York, Chicago, Boston and Wallingford.

The surprise live event of the summer will kick off shortly after tomorrow’s highly anticipated Season 1 finale on NBC (check local listings). The tour will feature performances from the show’s top contestants including Team Christina’s top two artists, finalist Beverly McClellan and runner up Frenchie Davis; Team Blake’s top two, finalist Dia Frampton and runner up Xenia; Team Cee Lo’s top two, runner up Nakia and finalist Vicci Martinez; and Team Adam’s top two, runner up Casey Weston and finalist Javier Colon.

About “The Voice”:

“The Voice” is a vocal competition series modeled after Holland’s top-rated vocal talent discovery show, “The Voice of Holland.” Hosted by Carson Daly, the show features four musician coaches: Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton, who will coach only the most talented vocalists.

The show’s innovative format features three stages of competition: the first begins with the blind audition, then the competition enters into a battle phase, and finally, the live performance. The show’s casting team is working with the music industry and searching the country for the best singers to bring to the blind audition process. During the blind auditions, the decisions from the coaches are based solely on voice and not on looks. The coaches hear the contestants perform, but they don’t get to see them – thanks to rotating chairs. If a coach is impressed by a contestant’s voice, he/she pushes a button to select the contestant. At this point, the coach’s chair will swivel to face the contestant selected. If more than one coach selects the talent, the power shifts to the contestant, who may choose which coach they want to work with throughout the competition.

Once the teams are set, the battle is on. Coaches will dedicate themselves to developing their singers, giving them advice, and sharing the secrets of their success. During the battle rounds the coaches will pit two of their own team members against each other to sing the same song together in front of a studio audience. After the vocal face-off, the coach must choose which singers will advance.

At the end of the battle episodes, only the strongest members of each coach’s roster remain and proceed to the live stage shows. In this final performance phase of the competition, the top contestants from each team will compete against each other during a live broadcast. The television audience will vote to save one contestant on each team, leaving the coach to decide live who they want to save and who will not move on. At last, each coach will have his/her best contestant left standing to compete in the finale. From these four, one will be named “The Voice” – and will receive the grand prize of a recording contract and $100,000.

Karaoke Battle USA

On Camera Audiences and I have been in contact and it seems the possible discrimination issue has been resolved and we are all set for ADA compliant seating on Sunday. (WHY they chose to word the important announcement on the tickets as they did, I don’t know) Now the only thing to do is to make sure that we arrive early enough to be let in before it reaches capacity – I guess since the stage has yet to be completed they don’t know how much room it is going to take up and therefore don’t know for sure how many people will be let inside for the episode tapings!

I will be sure to report back with full details after Sunday 🙂

Win It! Javier Colon's song "Stitch By Stitch"

<s>The first person to comment on this blog post with their email address will be sent the song “Stitch by Stitch” by Javier Colon from last night’s performance on The Voice.

Song was purchased using USA iTunes and may only work being redeemed using USA iTunes accounts.</s>

Blog and Facebook songs have been claimed.  Twitter is still up for grabs at the moment!

The Voice Finale & Giveaway!

Last night was part one of The Voice finale.  In addition to the final 4 singing original songs, they also did a duet with their coaches.  The 4 coaches performed “Under Pressure” together and we also got performances by Pitbull w/ Ny-Yo and Brad Paisley who was joined by Blake Shelton.

The voting window has just ended (with the results show the next night the voting window has changed from the end of the show to 10am EST – which kind of stinks as part of the appeal to the show originally was having such a HUGE window for those who might watch later on DVR) and the winner will be announced tonight at 8pm EST.

All of the original songs were great – though I have to say that I enjoyed Javier and Beverly’s the best.  Hearing Dia’s every breath got annoying during her song and Vicci’s performance had spots that were off to me.

The duets were also pretty cool too. Dia and Blake sang Tom Petty, Christina and Beverly sang Christina’s song Beautiful, Adam and Javier did a great rendition of Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror and Cee Lo and Vicci did quite an interesting performance for Love is a Battlefield.  I ended up buying all 4 duets on iTunes because they were ALL awesome (and none of those purchases counted as votes lol)

It was also announced that the Top 8 would be going on tour.  There are only 6 dates, but fortunately one is in Connecticut! (Probably thanks to Javier!) Tickets are on sale now and VIP packages are available through I Love All Access which include a M&G with all 8 contestants.  I managed to get 3rd row seats despite not knowing they were on sale until Carson said so and I am very excited to see the top 8 🙂

I have been watching the twitter numbers, and if that is any indication – Dia will win. She already had a pretty big following before the show so if they all vote for her, there should be no contest.  However, Javier is slowly catching up to her numbers so I guess it really depends on how devoted everyone is.  I have voted on every email address I can remember for Javier 10x each, called 10x from my phone (I had access to more phones last night but unfortunately his line was busy!) and I purchased his single on iTunes 4 times – which brings me to the giveaway.

I have 3 “Gift” versions of Javier’s original song Stitch by Stitch to give away.  1 will be given away here on the blog, 1 on twitter and 1 on Facebook so make sure that you are following me everywhere so you don’t miss out.  All 3 will be given away at some point today.

If you are the first to reply with your email address, you will be sent the download code.   It is ok to disguise your email from spammers, for example – blog AT concertkatie DOT com.

These songs were purchased on the USA version of iTunes so I believe that you have to be living in the USA in order to redeem them.

Karaoke Battle USA

As you may know, I love NSYNC and my favorite member of NSYNC is Joey Fatone.  I like to support Joey in his various ventures and his most recent is hosting the show “Karaoke Battle USA”.  Recently, my friends and I found out that they would be filming several episodes of the show in New York City and we researched how to get tickets.

Tickets were made available yesterday from ‘On Camera Audiences’ and I booked for Saturday and a friend booked for Sunday.  However, after the tickets were reserved, the email confirmation we got had the following written on it:

IMPORTANT NOTICE TO ALL POTENTIAL AUDIENCE MEMBERS

This is a casted event and due to the nature of the set, anyone participating must possess the physical ability to stand for extended periods, walk up and down stairs as needed, follow verbal and visual instructions without assistance, and be in general good health without any conditions that would restrict or limit any of the above activities. By presenting yourselves for check-in you and your guests certify that you meet these requirements.

MINIMUM AGE: 18

Now, I understand there being a minimum age – but what is with the discrimination against those with physical disabilities (like myself!) and hearing and seeing impairments?  What are we going to be expected to do as an audience beside sit (or stand) there and watch the filming? Would they turn me away if I showed up in a wheelchair?

Even when I went to see Joey host “Let’s Make a Deal”, there were no provisions about not going or not signing up to be a contestant if you could not get down/up the stairs to be on stage for the show.  I have also been an audience member at various other TV shows and you have always just gone to your seat and that was that.

It is taking place at the Gramercy Theater – I have been there before (Sunday, most recently!) and I don’t quite understand why there is an issue.  I know that even if we are told we can’t sit in the seats, there are bars I can stand near and be ok.  In the event that it takes place in the downstairs lounge, there are walls I can stand near (provided they are not blocked off by equipment).  Not to mention – I will have my friends there to help me out – but apparently needing assistance with this is frowned upon.

I really hope I get a response to my email and/or facebook comment soon because I definitely don’t want to go somewhere where I feel like I am not wanted (which is the vibe I am getting right now!) But I also don’t want to miss out on getting a chance to see Joey as well as getting to attend another TV show taping.

I Won the Lotto! (or not)

The other day in the mail I got an envelope with just my address on it, no return address postmarked from Canada.  I thought it looked strange and when I opened it there was a check inside for $4,450! Also inside was a letter which stated that my numbers were drawn in the lotto and that I was to call my agent about getting the rest of the money.  The letter also implied that I would have to send $3,400 in taxes to my tax advisor or something like that.

Of course my immediate reaction was, “This is fake, right?” and then I went off to google the phone number and names included on the letter and sure enough – it is fake and a big scam.

Basically – the idea is they send you the check and then you deposit it and write out a check for the taxes and mail it to the tax agent. Meanwhile, the check is no good so when the bank goes to get the money for it, it is not there so  the money comes back out of your account.  And you sent off the taxes and are now out that money.

Since the addresses and accounts are in Canada and London, I am not sure if I can actually do anything to get these scammers in trouble legally – but I figured the next best thing would be to try and get the word out.  If you get anything that looks similar in the mail – shred it! (Especially if you never entered any Canadian lottery!)

Platinum Hit – Episode 4

On Monday night’s episode the top 9 had to write a hook for a rap song. The guest judge was Rodney Jerkins who has worked with a bunch of great artists – including Michael Jackson. (This of course got Nick’s ears to perk up as he loooves MJ)

The theme for their rap had to be super powers. I thought some hooks were much better than others and once again I didn’t exactly agree with the top 3 that the judges picked! Coming in 3rd place was Jackie – her rap was about wanting the super power to have the ability to rap. It was a very silly hook and definitely not one that I would have chosen to be in the top. 2nd place was Sonyae whose super power was the power to control herself and not let her emotions get the best of her – to have a heart of steel. And winning was my fellow software engineer Johnny, who wrote about having the ability to walk through walls.

Teams were picked – Johnny, Scotty & Jes; Sonyae, Nick & Melissa; Jackie, Brian & Amber. They had the remainder of the day to create their songs. They also had to incorporate another genre into their raps to make things a bit more challenging.

Scotty came up with the idea to infuse some opera in to Johnny’s song, Sonyae and Nick worked on a rock aspect with their rap and Jackie’s group did some doo-wop. Ultimately, the 3 songs came in the same order as their hooks and someone from Jackie’s team would be going home. The judges felt that Amber did not contribute enough to the song and she has left us. (Much to the upset of Nick – who thinks she is good looking and that Jackie should have gone home based on looks alone. He’s such a sweetie, isn’t he?)

There was also a lot of drama – Scotty felt a bit like a third wheel when Johnny and Jes being all lovey-dovey. Everyone still hates Nick. And Scotty told Jackie how everyone felt about her which led to a HUGE blow up amongst the contestants. But without all this drama the show would not be half as entertaining as it is.

It is interesting to me that week after week it seems to be the contestants I know nothing (or very little) about that are going home. Is the editing featuring other contestants more? Or are these mediocre contestants just laying low and trying to ride coattails? I’m not sure.

Setlist Journal

In February of 2010 I purchased a John Mayer journal at his show.  At first I wasn’t sure what to do with it, but then I quickly decided I would use it to keep track of the setlists of all the concerts I had gone to.

I went back through reviews and did searches to try and come up with all the setlists I needed (some are still missing) and thought that I would NEVER fill the book.  Not that it is huge, but it just seemed like filling it would be a long way off.

However, Friday night’s show marked the filling of the book! Wow!  I had purchased a Paul Frank Julius journal to use once this one had filled – it is appropriate because Julius is playing the guitar on the cover.

I am looking forward to filling another book starting later this evening when the first concert written in it will be Honor Society at the Gramercy Theater.

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