Concert Katie

the same song over and over again

Television

The Voice – Live Rounds (1)

Katie 0 Comments

Last night was Round 1 of the Live Rounds for The Voice.  8 contestants performed, Team Christina and Team Blake.  I am still not entirely sure how all the voting works – but it seems like 2 will be advancing to the next round from each team – one that the viewers save and one that the coaches save?  Either I don’t listen when Carson talks or he just didn’t explain it 😉

Raquel Castro was up first and I really was not too into her performance of “Blow”. She seemed a bit too screechy for me.

Jared Blake did “Use Somebody” which I have heard done so, so, so many times… so I didn’t really enjoy it.

Beverly McClellan did “I’m The Only One” and I thought her performance was decent, though she is not my fave from team Christina.

Dia Frampton did “Heartless” and while nothing will ever be better than Kris Allen’s rendition of this, I thought she was the best of the night up to that point.

Xenia’s performance of “Price Tag” was a bit awkward, but I think she is my favorite from Team Blake.  I’d like to see her grow in this competition.

I really did not enjoy Lily Elise’s version of “Big Girls Don’t Cry” some of the “notes” she was hitting sounded really odd and squeaky.

Patrick Thomas did “I Hope You Dance” and I found his performance to be pretty boring – and another overdone song.

The night ended with Frenchie Davis doing “When Love Takes Over” a song I am not familiar with – but I think she did well with it.  It was not perfect by any stretch but she was by far the most entertaining (in my opinion) of the night.

My picks moving on would be Frenchie and Bev from Team Christina and Dia and Xenia from Team Blake.

(Although to be honest – the best performances of the night were the ones the teams did with their coaches!)

There are 3 ways to vote and each can be done 10 times per account.  1) Call the numbers. You have until Monday morning to get your 10 votes in.  2) Vote online. You can vote 10 times per artist per email/registration you have on NBC.com  3) Buy the $1.29 single on iTunes.

I wish the singles were $0.99, I think that might incline more people to purchase… but since iTunes takes such a HUGE cut and I am sure The Voice is out to make some money, $1.29 is more in their best interest.  I am not sure there is anyone from last night whose single I would purchase – but I am prepared to buy all of Javier’s songs 🙂

American Idol

Idol Thoughts

Katie 0 Comments

My last Idol Thoughts of the season! (Or so I think. Who knows when I might be inclined to post something Idol related…)

I opted to NOT review the final performances from Lauren and Scotty mainly because I knew that the show was going to be a big ol’ snoozefest and I didn’t want to bother with having the blog open while I was watching.  (I was actually wandering around the living room and kitchen through most of the show.)

I do think that Lauren outsang Scotty in at least 2 of the 3 rounds, but from several weeks back I was well aware that with the fan base that Scotty has – if he made it to the finals, no one stood a chance against him!

I have to say, I do prefer Scotty’s single over Lauren’s, but that’s not really saying much.  It seems as if once and for all the singing the same lame “I’ve come so far… I’ve made it past rainbows… I’ve overcome everything in my path” blah, blah, blah coronation songs are a thing of the past.

The finale show was entertaining – though I didn’t like that TLC reunited to perform with a track of Left Eye. That made me sad. I loved TLC when I was in 5th grade.  Wait… were any of the Idol contestants even ALIVE when I was in 5th grade?  Well, maybe a  few of them.  I act like I am *so* much older then them, but in fact Naima and Paul were born in the same year as me. (Though I am a couple months older than them both)

Beyonce doing a solo performance and Gaga being there at all was a bit of over kill for me. And I thought it was kind of odd that Haley got paired with – Tony Bennett? When Lauren got Carrie Underwood, Scotty got Tim McGraw, Casey got Jack Black, James had Judas Priest and Jacob had… well I can’t remember the name but someone right up his alley!  Although Haley did wonderfully with what she was given which just proves a) she can sing anything b) Idol is out to get her.  (Or maybe they didn’t intend for her to make it so far so last second they had to scramble and be like “Who is around that we can get for Haley now that she has made it to #3?!”)

And then there is the Nigel / Lee controversy.  Lee is saying that he was not asked to perform and then last second Nigel wanted him to jump on stage to hand the winners trophy (where did that even come from!?) to Scotty and Lee declined.  Nigel is saying that they asked him a week in advance… but I am not sure the time table matters.    I also can’t even remember if the winners usually do perform on the finale or not – but most people seem to be saying that they do…  and if that is indeed the case then my memory is shot and Nigel is an idiot.  Granted, Lee was one of the worst selling Idols of all time – but he’s a good guy and wouldn’t promoting him on the finale help to sell a cd or two perhaps?

And you can’t forget the kiss between Lauren and Scotty! Are they dating? Aren’t they? It seems like it depends on the day.  One day one of them says yes the other says no, then they switch sides.  I think they are just trying to confuse the hell out of all of us.

Giveaway

Win an Ashlyne Huff signed CD

Katie 16 Comments

Ashlyne Huff’s debut album “Let It Out” is in stores today! It contains the singles White Flag and Whatever as well as 7 other great tracks!   You can catch Ashlyne on tour NOW with NKOTBSB.

Ashlyne’s CD is available on Amazon.com for $8.07 or $7.12 via digital download OR you can enter to win a SIGNED copy here at Concert Katie!  The winner will also receive a limited edition White Flag.

WIN IT!
Please leave your email address in each comment so I can email you if you won.  Prize can be shipped Internationally.   Winner will receive 1 Let It Out CD 1 Signed Let It Out CD booklet 1 Limited Edition White Flag

Mandatory Entry

Leave a comment with your favorite song to rock out to while on a road trip!

Optional Entries

(All are 1 entry / comment unless otherwise notes)

-Follow Concert Katie on Google Friend Connect
-Follow Concert Katie on Twitter
-Like Concert Katie on Facebook
-Tweet about the Giveaway (Must be a twitter follow, can tweet once per day)
WIN IT! @Concert_Katie is giving away a signed copy of Ashlyne Huff’s Let It Out CD! http://tinyurl.com/3en6hye
-Subscribe to our mailing list (3 entries)
-Add our button to your blog (leave the link) (4 entries)
-Blog about this giveaway (leave the link) (5 entries)

Contest ends June 21, 2011 at 11:59pm EST.  Winner will be chosen via random.org and emailed.  Winner must respond to email within 48 hours or an alternate winner will be chosen.  Prize sponsored by ConcertKatie and is in no way affiliated with Ashlyne Huff or her record label.

Concert Photos SK6ers

SK6ers at Fairfield Theater Fairfield, CT

Katie 0 Comments

Saturday night I headed down to Fairfield to see one of my favorite bands, Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers (SK6ers) perform at one of my favorite venues – The Fairfield Theater. This was my 22nd time seeing them perform and as usual they did not disappoint.

The opening act was Dennis Crommett. I liked that he told stories between his songs about how they were written and stuff like that. I am not sure why, but that kind of thing interests me. Probably because it just fascinates me that he can be like “That song mentioned rocks because I wrote it out on the rocks” whereas if I was out on a rock… I don’t think I could write anything that would even closely resemble a song!

Then it was time for the SK6ers! I just love how much emotion Stephen puts into his music – his songs are for the most part about his friends, family and life experience and you can see the emotion in his face when he performs them all as well. He totally wears his emotions on his sleeve and it just makes the performances that much better because of it. (Although at one point he said the label asked him to write more songs with less specific names and dates in them – I hope that he doesn’t stop doing that because all of his songs kind of tell his life story and family history in a way, which is really cool. But since he said “And this next song is called 1993”, I’m not sure he’ll ever stop doing it…)

I could see 2 of his 3 daughters off to the side, they are adorable. Dennis called SK6ers on the stage for a song and one of the girls was yelling “Daddy!”, it was cute. Then Stephen said they had hired dancers for one of their songs and the 2 older girls came out to direct us on the dance moves for Big Easy. Adorable, and when it was not time for the chorus dancing they were doing a bit of some sort of an Irish jig. I am not sure the moment could have gotten any cuter!
The band ended up doing 2 encores. And I could tell Stephen was so proud that we gave them a standing ovation both times. We even got to pick what the final song would be – 2 or 3 different songs were getting screamed out and one of them was the one that they played.

At the end, Stephen’s pick went flying but landed in front of me – or so I thought. I ended up spotting it on a chair but girls were near it and I wanted to hang around to grab it when the girls behind me told me there was a pick between my feet! I grabbed that one – though I’m not sure yet whose it was (Ill figure it out eventually) and one of my friends went back to the seat after the girls left and Stephen’s pick was still there so she got that one. I am pretty sure that is the first time that a pick has ever landed that close to me AND I ended up getting it!

Read More

Television

Platinum Hit

Katie 0 Comments

Platinum Hit is the latest Music related reality television show.  It is a song writing competition looking to find the next great hit maker.  The winner receives $100,000 (cash!), a publishing deal with Sony, BMI Songwriters The Writing Camp and a recording deal with RCA/Jive.

The show is hosted by Jewel, who also is one of the judges.  Joining her is former American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi.  Keith Naftaly (SVP of A&R for RCA/Jive) also judges and throughout the series they will be bringing in guest judges to help with the competition.

The show premiered on Monday at 10/9c.  Aside from Kara, there are also a couple of other American Idol connections – one of the 12 contestants is Jackie Tohn, who was on Season 8 of the show.  Scotty Granger is also a contestant and he is currently the Creative Director for American Idol winner Jordin Sparks!

The first competition on Monday was to write a hook about Los Angeles.  It was interesting to see how completely different each of the 12 hooks were.  Kara and Jewel announced the Top 4 hooks and their prize was that they got to choose their team of fellow contestants to help turn their hook into a song.  I didn’t agree with all 4 of the choices – but then again Jewel and Kara write awesome songs and I do not so I probably should trust their judgement.

The teams of 3 then had 8 hours to write the full song and then they had to perform it in front of the judges. (Jermaine Dupri was a guest judge)  The teams were split between the top 2 and bottom 2.  The top 2 were safe and the absolute bottom team was going to lose a member.

I think Platinum Hit is a pretty interesting show and will continue to check it out.  I do find it hard to keep up with which contestants are which though because as of right now we haven’t gotten too much background about each of them.

If you missed the first episode – my cable company has it offered on Free On Demand – so if your cable company offers something similar, check for it there.  Otherwise, look for reruns of it airing on Bravo!

Songs from the show are available for purchase on iTunes and you can find out more about the show at http://www.bravotv.com/platinum-hit/season-1

Backstreet Boys Concert Jordin Sparks NKOTB Photos

NKOTBSB – Take 2!

Katie 0 Comments

Thursday, June 2 I decided to once again head up to Mohegan Sun to check out the NKOTBSB tour.  Jordin Sparks was opening at this show and I found a decently priced single seat on StubHub that afternoon.  It was the front row of the upper section, but on the opposite side of the arena from where I had sat during Monday’s show.

When I got to the venue, doors were already open.   Buying tickets off websites other than livenation/ticketmaster always makes me a bit nervous (especially when they are e-tickets) and when it was scanned – the kid’s scanner said “INVALID”  I tried to remain calm but inside I was FREAKING OUT.  He called over a supervisor and she scanned it and it still said “INVALID” but then did something else and told me I was all set.  Whew!  Then I spent the 40 minutes before the show started paranoid that someone was going to come with a ticket to the same seat. (Never happened, but the 2 girls next to me were in the wrong section so they had to leave when 2 girls with the ‘same seats’ showed up!)

The first opening act was once again “The Goonies”… they did the same set but the Arena was even less full for them than on Monday. (They also went on stage 20 mins earlier)  Next up was Ashlyne Huff.  She also did the same set but she and her dancers had on different outfits.

While I was sitting in my seat I saw Donnie tweet that it looked like JON would be joining them for the show! I am not sure why that got me so excited, but it did. (Originally Jon had tweeted that he thought he’d be cleared by the doctor to start shows back up again Friday)

Next up was my girl, Jordin Sparks.  Her set was No Air, S.O.S., One Step at a Time, Tattoo and she did a mashup/medley of Irreplaceable (Beyonce) / Price Tag (Jessi J) / Perfect (Pink) / Where Is The Love (BEP).  She decicated her song “Battlefield” to “her soldier Brian” who is her bodyguard that is heading off to Iraq soon.  She said his family was in the audience (I believe he is originally from CT) and she finished off her set with her new single – I Am Woman.  She had 2 male dancers that joined her for several of the songs.

Then it was time for NKOTBSB!  The intro gets you soooo freaking hyped up for the show, it is ridiculous.  Even when I knew what was coming – it still made me so excited in anticipation for the curtain to drop.  And then there were 9 instead of 8!  It was cool to see how the show changed to add Jon back in to the set up.  He also seemed a bit rusty on his dance moves and was often looking at the other guys instead of straight ahead or wherever he was supposed to be looking and at one point Donnie grabbed him to take him down the stairs because it looked like Jon was a bit lost.  In the beginning he seemed to be keeping up quite well with all the dance moves, but he kind of toned it down a bit more towards the end.  I don’t blame him – it is a LONG show and a LOT of dancing!

Another difference with the show was that Joey McIntyre had a baby in the time between Monday and Thursday, so they showed a video of Joe wrapping the baby up and kissing her.  Kira Katherine is adorable and has a TON of hair. (He said he hopes it doesn’t get crazy curly like his was as a kid lol)

About an hour in to the show my camera battery was blinking so I decided to turn it off and just enjoy the show and wait until the end of the show to get bow photos.  It was nice that way I could attempt to pay attention to everything that was going on rather than focus on the lighting and when I could get a good photo, etc.  I really need to keep a stash of batteries in my car for these last minute decisions!

During the encore, Nick came out in a white tank top instead of his jersey and I thought my camera had died after taking a few photos of him.  Turns out – it didn’t… I just kept re-arranging the order the batteries were in and I was able to get a few more photos each time!

Ray Allen came out with NKOTB for the encore which was cool. He played for UCONN so I thought he’d get more of a cheer but maybe a lot of the audience didn’t know who he was?

The show was a lot of fun and I am glad that I got to see it a second time with Jordin and Jon included! The setlist was the same as Monday’s show so I am not going to bother posting it again.

Product Review

Newtons Fruit Thins

Katie 0 Comments

I was recently sent a package of Blueberry Brown Sugar Fruit Newton Thins to try out.  At first, I wasn’t quite sure what the expect – would they be like the Fig Newtons I was used to with the fruit filling? Or something different?

The answer was something different.  While I do enjoy Fig Newtons, I have to say that I really loved the Newton Fruit Thins.  The serving size is 3 cookies – which is plenty for a snack and they only have a total of 140 calories! I can’t say that about many other cookies.

The rest of the family enjoyed the cookies as well – my Mom said that she thinks the brown sugar cookie would be great on its own – even without the blueberries!

For more than a century, Newtons has been one unique cookie – wholesome goodness made with real fruit and a taste all its own.  Now, with the creation of Newtons Fruit Thins, Nabisco is breaking the mold again with a cookie unlike any other withreal fruit in unexpected combinations packed into a thin andcrispy cookie.

The four delicious varieties include

  • Cranberry Citrus Oat
  • Blueberry Brown Sugar
  • Chocolate Raspberry
  • Fig & Honey

And because Newtons Fruit Thins are made with real fruit and 8 grams of whole grain per serving you can feel great knowing you’re having a deliciously wholesome snack.

Nutritional Information

Serving Size – 3 cookies
140 Calories
5 grams total fat
1-1.5 grams saturated fat

To find out more about Newtons, be sure to check out their website http://www.nabiscoworld.com/newtons/

I was sent a free box of cookies from Newton Fruit Thins and One2OneNetwork.  By posting this review, I will be eligible to win one of ten VISA giftcards.  I was not otherwise compensated and all opinions are my own.
Rock N Roll Fridays

Rock N Roll Fridays

Katie 0 Comments

The site where I used to get my Rock N Roll Friday memes has decided that they are done and will no longer be posting the questionnaires.   Such a bummer!  I am going to try and go back through their archives to see if there are any that I had not previously done and I will try to do those every Friday until they run out.  It was one of my favorite memes and I am sad to see it go, but I understand that everyone has to move on at some point!

If you happen to come across any music-related day of the week memes – please let me know 😉

GetGlue

Get Glue May Stickers!

Katie 0 Comments

These were requested around May 5th and arrived May 26th!  I believe I earned these all around Halloween… which was about when I registered for the site, so the theory of them being sent in chronological order seems to be correct.

this batch included:

A Capitol Fourth
Ace of Cakes Fan
An Object of Beauty
Assholes Finish First
Circus
Ghost Hunters Live
Lone Wolf
Masterpiece Mystery Sherlock
Night Owl
Ghost Hunters Live Panic Button
Pretty Little Liars Halloween
Rescue
Room
Safe Haven
Simple Times
Stieg Larsson
The Confession
The Walking Dead
Ghost Hunters Live Up Late
Washintgon

Also included are 3 generic glue bottle stickers that are on the last panel of all sticker sheets.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Social Media Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com