Summer Ends Music Festival

     After this weekend it really does feel like summer is over. Not that I'm complaining, I can't wait for this fall/winter. This past Friday and Saturday I went to this really awesome music festival. I'll break it down by days because I feel like so much has happened.

Friday:
     I made my way down to Tempe Beach Park at about 6pm, an hour before my first volunteer shift. I signed up to volunteer on Friday and Saturday which allowed me to get into the entire festival for free so that was really nice. The first act I saw was O.A.R. I didn't think I knew who they were so it was a happy surprise to find that I was able to sing along to a lot of the songs. It was a cool night and the entire park was filled with university students. After O.A.R., I began my shift at the water truck. I spent the next two hours with another girl filling up little water cups. The water table was right next to the main stage so we had the perfect view to see Lindsey Stirling perform. If you don't know who she is, I suggest looking her up. She plays the violin and she resemble a pixie the way she dances and hops around stage.
     After volunteering, I stuck around for a couple more hours to watch the American Authors and Capital Cities. American Authors were my favorite act of the night. The lead singer, Zac Barnett, got really involved with the crowd. He said he felt too far away from us,so he jumped off stage and sang a few songs while leaning across the barricade that separated him from the fans. There was one time that he ran over to exactly where I was standing and he sang with such passion. I love those kind of performers, the ones where you can tell they are doing exactly what they want to do in life.
     Capital Cities did a really good job but I didn't stay for the last half of their set. I was surprised that they attracted an older audience. I don't know where they came from, but a bunch of people in their late 30s, maybe 40s, were dancing and singing. I love seeing that the festival was able to make everyone happy.

Saturday:
     Where do I start. Well, if you don't know, this was the named "the wettest day in Arizona history". Before the rain hit, the day was beautiful. The sky was filled with clouds and there was a nice breeze. I got to see a local band called Katastro play. My dad sat towards the back of the park while I had the best spot in the house, right up against the barricade, slightly right of center stage. There was a reason I made sure to have the best spot. The next act to perform after Katastro was going to be one of my favorite bands, The Maine. I loved being slightly right of center because I was able to see all five members perfectly, especially Garrett, the bassist. I spotted Pat (drummer), Kennedy (guitarist), and Garrett setting up on stage before IT happened.
     A giant, dark cloud was quickly approaching but that was not going to make me give up my spot. Unfortunately, that choice wasn't up to me. Security made everyone at the festival take cover under the bridge. Everyone laughed because, well, it couldn't be that bad. It was Arizona, after all. Oh, were we wrong. The storm was nothing like anyone expected. I later found out that the storm had 60+ mph winds and up to 2 inches of rain in just two hours. I know I would've fallen over a few times if it wasn't for the nice people around me. Police ordered everyone to head towards the parking garage. By the time I made it to the garage, I felt like I just went swimming. I soon got a message saying that the event had been cancelled for the day. I couldn't - wouldn't - believe it. I was literally just about to see The Maine and they had announced that it was their last Arizona show for the year.
     Anyways, I'm going to fast forward a few hours. A new message went out saying that the rest of the shows planned for the day had been moved to the Marquee. If you don't know the Marquee, it holds just about 1,000 people. Good thing there were less than 1000 people who paid for tickets, but people who had comp tickets (like myself) had to rely on "first come first serve" to get into the venue. (Side note: A few weeks ago I won tickets for Day 2 of the festival because I wrote this thing about how much I wanted to see The Maine and a website gave me a pair of free tickets.) I waited two hours in front of the venue, impatiently watching all the paid viewers go inside to get ready for the first act which just happened to be The Maine. I'm not even sure how to say this because I can't even describe how I feel. While I waited outside, The Maine performed their show inside. They had the shortest set - only 20 minutes, just enough time for four songs. The second I got inside, they walked off stage. I was speechless. How ironic was it that I won tickets to see this band and ended up missing their show? Who knew free tickets could be a bad thing...
     Moving on from that huge disappointment, I was still able to enjoy a few other bands. The first band I saw was Switchfoot. Even though I was most looking forward to Taking Back Sunday and The Descendents, these guys were probably my favorite part of the night. They were so energetic and lively. The lead singer and bassist (I think it was the bassist) were brothers so I thought it was pretty cool how they have had the experience of being in a band together. The lead singer was also one of those performers who like to get close to the audience. He stood against the barricade and there was even one part of the show where he crowd surfed!
     The next band was Taking Back Sunday. I felt bad because a lot of the equipment was destroyed in the storm so their sound was a bit sketchy. They still put on a great show though. Unfortunately, they didn't play my favorite song (Flicker, Fade) but they still played a lot of songs I knew and was able to sing along to.
     After TBS, The Descendents took the stage. I never, ever would have thought that I would see The Descendents live in concert. They were first formed in 1978, 18 years before I was born!! Age had no effect on these four guys, they played with as much energy as they probably did in the 80s. I have to admit, it was funny to hear guys in their 40s sing a couple songs about girls and how much school sucks! They are literally the fathers of punk. It was amazing to be able to hear them rock out.
     The next group was The Replacements, which I am sad to say I missed because I left after The Descendents. I heard it was The Replacements first club show in twenty something years which is pretty incredible.


     The third day of the festival still took place. Much of the equipment and stage was ruined during the storm and the power at the park was still not on, so the shows had to go on in the Marquee. I didn't go to third day but I was still able to get something out of it. Volunteers, who were allowed to go to all three days for free because of their help, were unable to get into the venue because it hit full capacity. To make it up to us, the coordinators of the festival are gifting us with a pair of tickets to any upcoming Marquee show. While I'm still bummed that I couldn't volunteer and help out, you can say I'm pretty happy with this news. Some of the bands that headlined Sunday included Foster the People, Violent Femmes, Fitz & the Tantrums and Kongos.


And that was my weekend.

✖ Nikole ✖

Some of the songs I listened to while writing this:
Cigarette Daydreams (Cage the Elephant), Young Hearts (Strange Talk), Bad (The Cab), Off to the Races (Lana Del Rey), When the Sun Goes Down (Arctic Monkeys), Voo Doo Doll (5SOS), Bad Blood (Bastille) and then a bunch of songs from Jimmy Eat World

I'm Back! (...hopefully)

     I could have sworn that I had more than two posts on here. I have a feeling I started a second blog somewhere but I have no clue where it would be. I really wish I would've stuck with this blogging thing over the summer but too late now. There are a couple of reasons why I wanted to bring it back up. One, I just finished my first rough draft of my first story for my school's magazine this year. I was a little nervous to start writing journalistically (that's not a word) again because for the past two years I thought I was going to major in biology... Yeah, that's not happening. The research part of biology was cool and I still love the subject, but the thought of doing it for the rest of my life is scary. So I'm going back to my game plan when I was a freshmen which was to go into journalism. Honestly, I regret ever taking a break from magazine/writing. At least I'm back again. The second reason I decided to dig this blog back up again was because I've been reading my twin's blog and it's really inspired me to start blogging again. Okay, so she's not really my twin, but we are a lot alike.
     I might start blogging regularly, I might not. I'm probably going to treat this blog more like a diary (again, inspired by my twiiin). It's less formal and easier read, so why not. I still want to blog about the concerts I go to. That will be the major theme of my - whatever you want to call "this."
   
      Here's a list of my future concerts and (hopefully) future blog topics:

     September:
     Summer Ends Music Festival (THIS WEEKEND!!)

     October:
     -Blink 182 (Oct. 11)

     November (I really can't wait for this month) :
     -Pierce the Veil and Sleeping with Sirens (Nov. 8)
     -5 Seconds of Summer (Nov. 13)
     -The Ready Set (Nov. 19)
     -The 1975 (Nov. 20)

     I might even write about a couple of the recent concerts I went to. I was at Warped Tour over the summer. I also got to go to the Monumentour (Fall Out Boy, Paramore, New Politics) and Where We Are Tour (5sos, One Direction).
     Not sure how to end this. I hope I'll be on again soon. I have a feeling I will be. Until then, farewell.

✖ Nikole ✖

Some of the songs I listened to while writing this:
Stuck on You (New Politics), On Your Side (A Rocket to the Moon), Photograph (Ed Sheeran), Beside You (5SOS), Always (Panic at the Disco), Trouble (nevershoutnever), If You're Wondering... (Weezer)