Thursday, November 14, 2013

1219

I knew last night was going to be great, but I didn't realize how spectacular. A spectacle in every sense of the word...

A couple of weeks ago, David (also known as the husband of my bestie Erica) wondered if me and a few friends wanted prime seating to the Hellogoodbye/Metric/Paramore tour at Madison Square Garden. David's a booker and not only did I want to see the tour, but I couldn't help but want to see him that night since he kind of orchestrated the whole thing. I am a proud friend, because David books a couple of the tour's bands, and he booked them at Madison Square Garden. Huge. HUGE. Congratulations, David.

I absolutely loved Hellogoodbye's last album, Would It Kill You? and they are a charming bunch with a new album (admittedly: I haven't had the time to listen to it yet!). I can tell you it is called Everything is Debatable and it's revvin' to go on my Rdio account.

Metric was next, and, as always, brilliant. I often think about Emily Haines' swagger and varying ways I might attain it. The same conclusion is always drawn: Jessica, you could never be Emily Haines. Last night she took the stage in a silver sequinede SUIT. Not pants though, oh no, a suit with SHORTS. She was a beautiful, icy glitter bomb and she looked damn cool.

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They ended their set with one of their best songs, "Stadium Love." There was a time in my life where I would get up in the mornings, put on that song, and get pumped on life in front of the mirror by bouncing up and down and singing along with the "ooooOOoohoohhhs" and I'm UNASHAMED.

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The last time I saw Paramore live was when they opened for No Doubt a few years ago, and they were pretty good back then, but damn! Consider me blown away. They've grown into real performers, commanding attention. I remember, I think it was 2004, when I was watching them on the Shira Girl stage at Warped Tour and my boyfriend at the time leaned in and said: "This band is going to be huge. That girl...she's got it." And he was right... they just played a giant show at Madison Square Garden. If that's not huge, I don't know what is.

Everybody was on their feet, including Jon Cheese who was dancing next to me the whole time even though he didn't know any of the songs. There were some real memorable moments, like when Hayley sat down at the keyboard to play "My Only Exception" and the phone lights came on and it looked like a star-dappled nighttime sky in MSG. It was wonderful, no joke --


When they were ending their pre-encore set with "Misery Business," Hayley handpicked a fan from the audience to help sing the breakdown and she might have picked the best human in that place last night. His name is Christian Brown, and not only did he know every single lyric, Hayley stage move, and had great charisma -- he ended the song BY DOING A SPLIT. The crowd went wild, including me and everyone around me. People started chanting Christian Brown after they left the stage. I mean. You have to see this guy; his singing portion starts around 5:40 of this video, but the whole thing's great:



And then, finally, the moment I had been waiting for: "Still Into You." I'm not going to lie, it may be my favorite song of this entire year. I don't think they've written a better song. Erica and I jumped around, screamed the lyrics, and held each other as the balloons and confetti flowed down from the ceiling.

Hey you guys, it was a good show.

Afterwards, I stayed up way too late at the afterparty, but it was so worth it. Thank you to David and Erica for inviting me!

Me and Cheese
Man of the hour, David, and Erica
Besties forever

2 comments:

  1. Very jealous of this concert. How awesome is Hayley's outfit?!!! Love it.

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    1. Apparently you can get that top at Forever 21!
      Not that I could wear such a thing...hahaha

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