one more miracle

I just went to see We The Kings at my local venue and they were adorable! I'm not sure their adorableness was worth going by myself and waiting through three semi-decent opening bands standing in the very hot balcony, but they were still adorable and I made it so there's no point whingeing :) They're a lot of fun live, and Travis seems like an absolute sweetheart. He told a story about how 2 days ago Hunter jumped off a bridge (?!? he did not clarify why!) and landed on a kayaker. Um. Hunter ended up with a huge gash that required nine stitches, but they did not elaborate on the condition of the kayaker! Oh how faily, silly boys. Speaking of Hunter, HIS HAIR WAS SHORT. Either he cut it and I wasn't aware, or he had to get it cut to have the stitches put in D: Very depressing, as I found him extremely attractive with the long hair. His brother Drew was like a ninja on bass, quietly doing his thing, it was pretty awesome. And I'm a big fan of Travis's hair you guys - it goes all over the place!

Their set was short but fab. Check Yes Juliet, of course, and they opened with Skyway Avenue, which is my personal favorite. They also played Secret Valentine and Whoa, and probably at least 2 more but I don't remember which. Whoa is really fun with a whole room singing along. It was very very crowded, much more than I anticipated - so many teenies! I was just lucky it wasn't sold out.

One of the opening bands was called Kingsfoil. Their singer had floppy bleache blonde hair and was quite attractive and funny, but he was the most faily dancer I've ever SEEN. It was lolarious. It mostly amounted to sitting back on his heels and moving his butt from side to side. Hilarity.

While I'm talking about concerts, I might as well ramble about HUSHIES!!!! Of all the bands I could have seen twice, I'm really really glad it was them, because wowwww I adore them ridiculous amounts.

The first night, I was not working on very much sleep, and I'd had a miserable drive, so for the openers I was headachey and impatient and didn't get much out of them. However, the next day, I paid attention and I ADORED Morning Light. I find the two singers thing to be adorable, and the keyboardist/guitarist/singer guy (whose name, I believe, is Harrison) with floppy blonde hair was the cutest thing I've ever seen. I really enjoyed their set a lot. Does anyone have their album? candidlily perhaps? I'd love to hear it.

And then Steel Train was just so much fun. That's pretty much what I got out of it. I loved when they all sang together, and I loved how members of Morning Light kept coming on stage. The singer of ML came on once and slapped the guitarist on the ass, shared a mic with him for a while, and then blew him a kiss before he went off stage. It was precious. The lead singer of ST is spastic and reminds me a lot of one Bden Urie. Overall they were totally win too.

Thennnn Cab babies. Okay, they're very good live, and I really like a couple of their songs. But Cash irritates the hell out of me (WE KNOW YOUR BASS SAYS CFOB.COM, STOP FLIPPING IT OVER), and when Singer says things like "Has anyone heard of us?" just to get screams, well. Meh. I had a lot of fun watching Marshall flip his hair about though, and try and fail to make sexy faces. I also enjoy Ian a lot a lot. However, I don't understand how ANYONE finds Johnson attractive. He looks all sleazy and greasy. Yuck. ANYWAY. Singer sang "A Whole New World" when a girl in the audience asked on Friday, and he also started us up with a snippet of 'NSync. I have video of the Aladdin bit later in the post. Oh Singer. I do like his voice.

THEN HUSHIES!!!!!! They're just... so fabulous, you guys. We got a great spot about five back from barrier way on Greta's side of the stage, so we were super close to her and we were either in a draft or air conditioning, which was awesome. I was very pleased, especially as there was no one behind us, so no pushing or contact at all! \o/ Greta is... incandescent in person. She absolutely glows. She had her hair down to start and then kept putting it up because it got too hot. She apparently took that lesson to heart because the next day she came on stage with it up in pretty french braids. I was glad I got to see it down because it's beautiful. And Bob - okay, Bob is thoroughly attractive to me now. I never saw the appeal before but he's got a lot of presence and he's a great performer and I am enamored! On Saturday I was more in the middle and could see Chris better, and hot DAMN he is pretty. I lovelovelove the scruff on him and hope he doesn't lose it. Ditto Bob. And DARREN!!!! He wore a basketball jersey both nights, and is just the most ridiculous, happy, wonderful boy ever. I heart him a lot a lot.

They opened with the beautiful piano and Greta bit from the beginning of Goodbye Blues (video below), then went right into Love You Much Better. I love that song! They played pretty much all of my favorites except A Dark Congregation. Hurricane is goooorgeous live (also video below), and Molasses is a rollicking good time. They also played Honey, Medicine Man, As You Cry, Not Your Concern, We Intertwined, Wine Red, Sweet Tangerine, Don't Wake Me Up, and Momentum, not in anything resembling that order (though Momentum was the encore). As for special things, there was lots of fun shenanigans - they played their Back to the USSR cover, which is awesome, and We Believe In (Barack Obama) which is SO much fun live. Darren rapping is a thing of joy and beauty, as is Greta frolicking with a tambourine. They closed with a cover of Tom Petty's "Last Dance with Mary Jane," for which many members of the other bands came up and sang verses, including Ian, who also played harmonica and keyboard! Geez, Ian! Multitalented much? He's amazing. On Saturday, Harrison (aforementioned cute blonde from Morning Light) came up and played keyboard with them some, which I enjoyed muchly. There was a lot of shenaniganating and preciousness and I had THE BEST TIME EVER EVER! My little sister LOVED the show so much, and I was really glad. I'm afraid I've gotten her addicted to concerts at a very young age, whoops! And Michelle totally fell in love with the Hushies, so yay! \o/

Now for a few pictures and videos :) I sadly don't have any pictures or videos from Saturday when I had a much better view of Darren and Chris, because my battery died :( :( Oops. Oh well.

( HUSHIES and company! )

( Videos! )

Yay concerts! Next up - Reggie and the Full Effect, haha. Without Leathermouth, sadly! Oh Frank, why do you abandon me?

Chemistry is frustrating. I really couldn't do this for my life. I did generate the purest sample of my final product yet today though. So yay? \o/

Let's talk about Friday!! I know at least mmeguilotn, fayemeadows, and chaneen on my flist are going - I'm so excited! What time is everyone arriving? I don't have a sound check ticket, so when should I try to arrive by to get a decent place? I'll have to figure out how early I can pull off leaving work.

Unpopular fandom opinion alert! Jon Walker shaved.... aaand I find him significantly less attractive. He's not my favorite to begin with, but I thought the beard really worked. Alas.

UGH DUE SOUTH. THAT IS ALL.

I feel like my posts are really inane lately. With the exception of happy babbling about Empires loves. Ummmm... sorry? *hands*

I miss MCR, tbh :-/

I'm sleepy.

My flatmate/bestie's birthday was this weekend, and his grandparents got him a 32" flat screen TV. Homg it's beautiful. We just bought cords and adapters so we can play shit from our laptops on it and omgggg you guys. GERARD'S SO BIG I JUST WANT TO LICK HIM.

...that sounded very dirty. OM NOM NOM GERARD. :D

I called the insurance company today and they're mailing me a replacement phone tomorrow \o/ However, since I'm a failboat, I thought that the fact that it requires a signature for delivery meant I had to have it sent home and make sure someone's there. I didn't think to mail it to the school mail room, where they could sign for it. *facepalm* I r dumb. Rob's being very nice and staying home for the morning (his work is all on computers anyway) and I'll cover the afternoon if it isn't here yet. NEW PHONE YAY.

You know that experiment that I've been agonizing about? Well I think I FINALLY fixed the problem. Or rather, Dr. Van Arman did. He was my orgo professor in sophomore year, and if you've been around that long you may remember that I LOVED him. When we had our poster session last week, I explained our problem to him, and he said "Oh why don't you try X or Y?" I ran the idea past MY professor and he kinda went "Huh. I really like that!" *facepalm* My professor is not exceedingly bright. Between us we quite lack imagination, and since I lack the knowledge/experience besides, it leads to some dead ends. Thank god for Van Arman! \o/ So that's a huge relief. Another reaction I ran today also had the best column separation I have EVER seen, and a great (84%) yield. So it was a good chemistry day! \o/

I also made an important decision. I have this grant money (up to $3000) that comes with the scholarship I have here. I could do two things with it: use it to do a project somewhere besides here, or apply it to my research/thesis project here. I was thinking about using it to go to Dublin in December and work in a lab there for 3 or 4 weeks. Clearly the motivation for that was not the project itself, which I felt was somewhat dishonest. So for various reasons, i think I've decided to use the money for my research with Dr. Fenlon. We could really really use it, as the compound that forms the basis of my research costs $1,800 for 10 grams. Yeah. Also, that means I can use the time in December to go visit extended family in Ohio and Michigan whom I haven't seen in over a year in some cases.

My Hush Sound ticket arrived from my dad for Philly! YAY!

Speaking of concerts, I'm trying to figure out this Empires nonsense. The easiest show for me would be the Saturday show in Baltimore, but their MySpace says 6 PM while the venue website says 2 PM, with a fancy flier and another band booked at 8 PM. So I'm thinking the 2 PM is correct, which is fine since it's a Saturday and easier to travel back afterwards. I doubt I'll have to buy tickets ahead of time - I mean, matinee show of an unsigned band? Yeah. I'm excited!!!

Also, the Cobras presale is tomorrow. There are several dates that are in geographical proximity, but only the Philly one is really feasible in terms of date. However, that's right in the thick of the semester and I think I'm going to be SUPER busy this year. As I just saw the Cobras, and they're not my favorite (musically!), I think I'm going to say no to this one. For now. I have to draw a line somewhere!

Also also, people keep talking about the Cab tour, but I haven't actually seen any info on it anywhere. What's it called? I'm just curious, because someone referenced it being a faily name (WHO IS SURPRISED?) but didn't actually say what it was. I don't think I'll go, as, uh, I'm seeing them twice as a consequence of The HUSHIESSSS, and I don't like the album.

I got my paycheck today (the second half of my summer stipend) and, in total, they took out EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS in taxes. Taxes I will just get back because I'm not going to make enough to need to be taxed! Fucking government. I could really use that money right now.

Uh, I don't want to end this post on a down note. Ergo, FRANK.


DO WANT.

I have developed an inordinate fondness of the Hushies as of late. I still don't have an icon (I will rectify soon!) but I am so so excited to see their darling faces TWICE in August. I went trolling through their FOE photos and they are seriously so precious, guys. I can't even.

( Thus, minispam! Adorableness ahead! )

Back to the books! Bah.

I have successfully obtained a ticket to see the Hushies and Cab babies in Philadelphia!! Yaaaay! Only twenty bucks, it's fun to be into babybands :D (I still need an icon though, haha.)

Is it Friday yet?