Thu 24 Apr – Franz Ferdinand, Cate le Bon

I went to see Franz Ferdinand at Showbox SoDo today, and I’m definitely glad I did! Young The Giant and Switchfoot earlier this month both ended up selling out before I could buy tickets/find someone to go with, but I’m glad this one worked out.

Franz Ferdinand’s not quite one of my favorites, but I have kept up with them ever since “Take Me Out” came out, and after tonight’s performance I’m sure they’ll be moving up in my charts!

This was my second concert at the Showbox SoDo, the first…

I guess I'm doing these on Last.fm :P
I read this trilogy and really enjoyed it, especially the last one! So I was really looking forward to the movie coming out, which I saw yesterday. My thoughts:

- It was definitely cool seeing the society come to life: the different factions and the L (Chicago subway).
- There were more faction tests than they showed.
- Mom tying Tris's hair in preparation for the Choosing Ceremony…definitely reminded me of Hunger Games!
- Caleb choosing Erudite, Tris choosing Dauntless, jumping off the subway, jumping off the building were great!
- It…

Sun 9 Feb – Biffy Clyro, Morning Parade

Yesterday I went to see Biffy Clyro at Showbox at the Market!

They're an alternative rock band that's really big in the UK, but not that big in the US yet. It was my first time seeing a show at the Showbox at the Market (cap. 1,100) – it's a little smaller than Showbox SoDo (cap. 1,500), but I think it has a better atmosphere than the SoDo one. There were a good number of people there, but there was definitely a space between the bar and the GA area so it…

Fri 24 Jan – Emery, The Classic Crime, This Wild Life, Peace Mercutio, Shoreline Drive

On Friday, I went to see Emery and The Classic Crime at El Corazon. It was definitely better than the Barcelona concert I reviewed earlier this week!

I wouldn’t call either of these bands one of my favorites, but I do enjoy them. Emery is pretty much the only screamo band I can stand – everything else is too much for me. :P I do remember some angry moments listening to “Walls” and “The Cheval Glass” though. And I only knew a couple songs by…

Sun 19 Jan – Barcelona

On Sunday, Barcelona played a free concert outside the Seahawks stadium for the NFC championship game. I decided to go for Barcelona, but it was also cool to be immersed in the Seahawks craziness (even though I don’t care much about football myself). Almost everyone there was dressed in Seahawks clothing, there were people yelling “Sea!” “Hawks!”, etc.

This was my second time seeing Barcelona – I saw them open for Mae back in 2009. Overall it was a small affair, I feel like only 10 to 15 people showed up for the concert and…

Hey! Well, as far as new releases I don’t think 2013 was as good as 2012. Some of my favorite bands released awesome albums in 2012 (Yellowcard, Anberlin, Snow Patrol, Owl City), and there was a group of bands that broke out in 2012 that I think are absolutely amazing (Imagine Dragons leads the charge!!! followed by Walk The Moon, AWOLNATION, Of Monsters and Men, fun.). Looking back at my 2012 review (http://www.last.fm/user/kalsonberry/journal/2013/01/03/5pncjm_music_year_in_review_-_2012), I think I would pick the top 7 or 8 albums over anything that came out this year.

That’s not to say that no good music came…

Nov. 25, 2014:

Update for Mockingjay Part 1!

Definitely a different feel than the first two movies - it seems like a whole different movie with the revolution as the central plot instead of the games. Some pretty intense stuff…the scene "if we burn, you burn with us." And blowing up the dam! and shooting those rebels in the head for making the hand symbol. Effie brought a bit of comedic relief - I'm glad they kept her in the third movie.

Main plots:
- Katniss is in District 13, chooses to be the Mockingjay only if Peeta, Annie, and…

Fri 23 Aug – Switchfoot

Yesterday I saw Switchfoot for the first time! It’s kind of surprising how long it took for me to see them – they’re one of my favorite bands and have been on my radar ever since my sister was into the A Walk To Remember soundtrack. So it’s safe to say they’ve been a part of my life for the past ten years!

I was actually thinking about this event for a few months – I saw that they were playing at Wild Waves (a water park near where I live) and thought it would…

This has nothing to do with music, but Last.fm has pretty much become my blog :P

Today I watched the series finale of CSI New York. I guess I’m writing a note because CSI:NY was one of the first tv shows that got me into TV, and was the first detective show I watched that got me hooked on detective shows. :P I’m sad to see it go!

New York has always been my favorite of the CSIs – part of that may be due to the fact that I watched New York first, but I really like the characters…

Musically, I feel like a big part of this past half-year was watching some of my favorite artists of 2012 explode in popularity: most notably Imagine Dragons, but also Phillip Phillips and fun.’s continued success. I’m fine with that and I think these artists definitely deserve the fame they’re getting, but I’ve kind of discovered them for a while now. :P However, there have been some notable releases, and two of my favorite bands released an album in the past month, so that has been pretty exciting!

Concerts I went to:

Imagine Dragons (acoustic) – Mar. 5, 2013…