Concert Katie

the same song over and over again

September 16, 2024

Concert

Festival Preview: Soundside Music Festival Bridgeport CT

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For 2024, the Sound on Sound Festival has rebranded as Soundside Music Festival.  The lineup is pretty stacked, but unfortunately I won’t be making it this year.  But I figured I’d preview some of the artists I have seen before.  I was very happy to see that several of the more main acts each day will have an American Sign Language Interpreted set – if you remember last year I had some issues with figuring out how accessible they would be (although there still seems to be no accessible markings on this years map) I am happy that they are stepping up for those who may be hard of hearing and need the interpreter. (I also find them really fun to watch!)

Saturday September 28

Rijah
Madi Diaz
Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram
Thee Sacred Souls
Grace Potter
Boyz II Men
Fleet Foxes
Goo Goo Dolls
Noah Kahan

Sunday September 29

Darren Kiely
Hurray for the Riff Raff
The War and Treaty
Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors
Gregory Alan Isakov
Norah Jones
Teddy Swims
Bleachers
Foo Fighters

On Night 1, I have only seen Boyz II Men (6x) and Goo Goo Dolls (1x).  Boyz II Men are always a lot of fun and put on a great show and have some great harmonies! For some reason I thought I’ve seen Goo Goo Dolls more than just once, but while they aren’t my favorite they put on a good show.  Lisa Loeb, Grace Potter and Noah Kahan are all artists I’d have enjoyed checking out, Noah is a New England guy and his show at the Amp in Bridgeport last year seemed like a good time – most of the videos I saw the crowd was singing even louder than he was and were really into it.  Since he’s headlining, I’d expect a lot of those fans to try and come out again.

Night 2 features one act I have seen before – friend of the blog – Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors. They just released Strangers No More Volume 2 quite recently and while I haven’t had a chance to take it all in yet, if it’s anything like Volume 1, I’m going to love it.   For Sunday’s set I’d have liked to see Norah Jones, Teddy Swims and Foo Fighters.  Bleachers were a last minute addition when Queens of the Stone Age needed to back out, and while I haven’t seen them specifically, I have seen Jack Antonoff in one of his previous bands, Steel Train, when they opened for Hanson back in ’09.  A lot of people are complaining that they aren’t a good replacement, but I think many will be happy with the addition.

For those of you who may be fans of some of the other acts I am not familiar with – what can you tell me about Rijah, Madi Diaz, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Thee Sacred Souls, Fleet Foxes, Darren Kiely, Hurray for the Riff Raff, The War and Treaty, and Gregory Alan Isakov? Any songs of theirs I may know and not realize it? Who should be on my radar?

Anyone going to the festival – who are you most excited to see?

Sports

Battle of the Badges 3

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Thursday I made the trek to Citi Field for the first time since 2020 to check out the Battle of the Badges, hosted by David Wright.  When it was announced, I curiously looked up where the ADA seats were and was pleasantly surprised that they were right on the field and all tickets were only $20.  When we arrived we found out we had access to the Delta club and free food, drinks, snacks, etc. Unfortunately, no ice cream.

When we got to our seats, David was near the 3rd base dugout doing promo.  He then did some on field stuff and ended up coming right through the door next to us to leave the field, unfortunately paying more attention to the people behind us so all I was able to get was a selfie of half my face and his back.

The game was a lot of fun though, not a lot of people and the crowd, seemingly made up of mostly NYPD and FDNY members and their families, were really rowdy and into the trash talking.  The FDNY scored first, NYPD later scored a run and for a while the game was tied, but then the FDNY ended up breaking things open and winning 5-1.

David spent some time in each of the dug outs during the game.

I hope that the event raised a lot of money for the FDNY Foundation and NYCPA Widows & Children’s Fund.  It was nice to honor NYs Bravest and Finest.

Concert Hanson

Hanson at TN Valley Fair

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One day I had decided I was going to really focus and get all of my work done early. And then I realized that a new Hanson show was announced at the TN Valley Fair in Knoxville, TN and then I realized that I had just spent $700+ on 6 front row seats before asking any of my friends if they were even interested. Turns out most of them were in, and plans commenced.

I flew in to Nashville Thursday afternoon, which when I got to the airport it had no gate listed, but eventually some staff members came and realized the mistake and the screens were corrected and the flight was otherwise uneventful. My friend picked me up at the airport, we got lunch and then went back to her place to decide what to do in the evening and opted to check out a nearby resort and ended up seeing a Halloween light show, having dinner and riding a boat ride that doubled as a silent disco. It was my first time doing a silent disco and it was a lot of fun and definitely something I’d consider doing again. Later in the evening the rest of our crew arrived, we made a rough plan for the next day and went to bed.

Friday we headed from Nashville to Knoxville with a stop at Cracker Barrel for lunch and of course Buc-ees to load up on snacks. We then made our way to the fairgrounds, which apparently was built on nothing but hills and they had no accessible parking spots anyway. When we kept asking, every lot near where we wanted to be was for vendors. Finally we found a lot that said the giant concrete hill was “accessible” because it was concrete and not grass.  I think they missed the part of ADA where the parking spots are supposed to be flat? We slowly made our way to the stage, finally finding a first aid golf cart that was willing to give me a ride the last bit of the way there.  We ended up bumping into Taylor and chatting for a bit and getting a photo and then headed inside to our seats.  Apparently none of the ushers/security there knew how to count… but after some drama turns out, we were right and knew better than they did what seats were sold.

Before the show we had made a mock setlist and we were pretty close, but they did end up throwing in a few surprises – Look at You, Can’t Stop and Hey that we weren’t expecting.  The show was a lot of fun, the crowd had a ton of energy and all the ridiculousness we had to go through to get there was forgotten.  After the show we waited over by the van, but it was straight up teeniebopper land with people screaming for ‘Zachary’ – when he came over he quickly did some photos and I was able to snag him for one – but he didn’t stick around for very long.  I’m not sure if anyone else came out as they were closing the building we needed to exit through so we got told to leave – but we did manage to get someone to track down the first aid golf cart again and get us back to the car.  I wanted to take a picture of how ridiculous the “accessible” parking was, but I had forgotten.

Sunday night I ended up returning the rental car, “stealing” a car with a staff member, getting dropped off at the terminal, grabbing a wheelchair and heading to the gate. But not before my Buc-ees snacks needed an extra inspection… Upon arrival at the gate I was told that the plane held 175 people but would only have 23 on board and that we’d all get our own row (and then some) and we had to make sure to spread out for weight and balances.

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