So, if any have you noticed I have been MIA on glamorous gamer girls. I apologize to my followers. I was in the process of moving and hadn’t realized how much time moving actually takes. Everything has now been sorted and I’m glad to say that I will be returning to my Friday posts.
For my boyfriend’s birthday we celebrated his belated birthday by attending his favourite band, Muse. They were simply amazing! If you’re into Muse and have a chance to see them I will have to say that you will be attending one of the most outstanding performances you could ever experience.
This was the beginning shot of their concert. We were to the left of the band at the very top venue at the Toronto ACC Center
Slowly a screens of TVs descended from the ceiling forming a pyramid
The pyramid changed from multiple colours: red, orange, blue
The pyramid ascended into the ceiling and the band emerged from under it, rocking out!
The audience request for an encore by lighting their phones. The band belted out their final performance, Survival from their latest album The 2nd Law
This was their opening performance of the night, Supremacy from their latest album The 2nd Law
Muse were electrifying! Sometimes I felt like I was watching a music video. It felt almost surreal. The fans were head banging, air guitaring, and bass pumping to the music and I was doing the same! My second favourite concert I’ve ever been to.
Last Friday my boyfriend and I redeemed my best friend, Nikki’s birthday voucher for a surprise night out to N’awlins in downtown Toronto. She has a love of jazz and my boyfriend and I thought that it would be really interesting to bring her to see a live jazz band. Here was our experience!
The restaurant was covered wall to wall with photos and paintings of great jazz bands and singers. The atmosphere was romantic and full with candlelit tables.
Each martini was named after jazz singers and bands How creative!
We started with cajun crab cakes and omg, if you’re going to this location be sure to grab a few of these! 9.5/10
I had the Seafood Dream: linguine with tiger shrimp, calamari, scallops, mussels and baby clams in a white wine tomato basil sauce . 8/10
My boyfriend had the Bourbon St. Penne: bacon, chicken, and cremini mushrooms in a vodka rose sauce. 9/10
Nikki had the penne mushroom pasta: a cremini, oyster, Portobello mushroom pasta with shallots, basil and garlic. 10/10
For dessert I had the cheesecake. It was a fine cheesecake. I think it may have been the best cheesecake that I have ever tasted. There was no gritty texture in the cheese. 10/10
My boyfriend had a red velvet carrot cake. It was a very tasty cake with a fine texture covered with a cream cheese frosting. 10/10
Nikki had a chocolate truffle cake. It was a little too rich but it was still delicious. 8/10
Brooke Blackburn Triowere the live entertainment. They played in the middle of the restaurant and they were impeccable! They had a blues type jazz sound. I was impressed with the fact that were able to play most requests. We had requested from them to play Stormy Weather for my boyfriend and I and they played two special songs for Nikki. Happy Birthday and Georgia by Ray Charles.
This is a video of Brooke Blackburn Trioplaying Georgia. If you listen carefully, you can hear the slight change in the song.
Overall rating: 9/10
I love how the place gave off a romantic vibe and I was so happy that the food, the atmosphere, the music was all outstanding. My only complaint would be how much of a tight squeeze it is in the restaurant but you could easily turn that around by saying it’s cozy lol.
My boyfriend and I also gave this to Nikki on the same night for Christmas. She loved it!
Happy belated birthday Nikster! Love you <3
When he went away the blues walked in and met me – Etta James, Stormy Weather
Listening to: One Hundred Sleepless Nights – Pierce The Veil
My boyfriend and I went to the Pierce The Veil: Collide With The Sky concert in Toronto and O.M.G I couldn’t have been more amped, pumped and astonished. It was worth lining up for an hour and a half in freezing cold weather. Unfortunately, we had missed the first group but luckily we got to seeTonight Alive, Sleeping With Sirens,and of course Pierce The Veil!
Tonight Alive
I’ve actually never heard of Tonight Alive until I bought tickets to the concert but their performance was wild! By the end I was rocking to songs I hadn’t heard of before that night. Tonight Alive is an Australian pop punk rock band who’ve had two albums thus far. Unfortunately, I have no video clip of my own from their live performance but here’s one of my more favourable songs from them! Their performance of Wasting Away live was fawesome!! I’ll definitely be following them now :)
Sleeping With Sirens
I first heard this band at Warped Tour in Toronto a few months back. My boyfriend and I were waiting to watch Taking Back Sunday perform when the beautiful lead vocalist Kellin Quinn caught my eye. Honestly, I kept my eye on him throughout their whole performance lol. Sleeping With Sirens is a post-hardcore pop rock band. They have two albums so far and Kellin Quinn has performed for many other bands including Pierce the Veil. Their performance was great! The band was raging and the fans loved it and the girls couldn’t get enough of Kellin . The video is of my favourite song by Sleeping With Sirens, Don’t Fall Asleep At The Helm. Btw, I apologize about the video I took. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the best spot in the audience but it’s always about the music in the end.
Don’t Fall Asleep At The Helm – Sleeping With Sirens
Oh goodness, I apologize for my singing I couldn’t help but follow along
Pierce The Veil
This was a photo at the end of PTV’s performance in Toronto. My boyfriend and I are in the far right (we’re not in the picture lol)
Pierce The Veil is a post-hardcore pop punk rock band from San-Diego, California. They’ve developed three albums: ‘A Flair for the Dramatic’, ‘Selfish Machines’, and their latest album ‘Collide with the Sky’ which the tour is based around. As it was at Warped Tour, Pierce The Veil had a heart-stopping performance! I was completely beside myself when they were on stage. Like litterally, I felt bad for my boyfriend because I basically jumped to the side and left him behind . Sorry babe. They were completely live and I couldn’t be more lost in the moment <3. Here are several videos from the performances. I didn’t take any pictures. I had hoped to capture the whole thing but I ran out of memory in my phone but at least I got some good ones here. Enjoy my most favourite band of the moment or perhaps ever
May These Noises Startle You In Your Sleep and Hell Above – Pierce The Veil
This was the first performance from Pierce The Veil that night. Mind my incessant screaming.
A Match Into Water – Pierce The Veil
Bulls In The Bronx – Pierce The Veil
Hold On Till May – Pierce The Veil ft. Jenna McDougall
Jenna McDougall from Tonight Alive graciously filled the female vocals to this song. This is one of my most favourite songs from Pierce The Veil and by God, was it well performed <3
Yeah Boy And Doll Face – Pierce The Veil
I love how Vic Fuentes (lead singer) began this song as an acoustic and near the end the band belted out a fire of energy and got us all on our tippy-toes.
The last two songs were definitely full-blown and electrifying! The crowd were cheering for an encore. Unfortunately, I couldn’t video tape it because of lack of memory but I don’t regret it as I wouldn’t have been able to rock as hard as I did had I been holding a camera in the air.
Psy is a Korean singer who belongs to YG Entertainment (includes Big Bang, 2NE1, etc.) This is his 6th album, and he usually writes his own music or for other artists. The youtube video hit 200 million in 2 weeks, so it was spreading fast internationally. He was in Ellen DeGeneres, Saturday Night Live, and other television shows in America.
You can see many different versions of parody, or reactions to his music. Also, Psy’s reaction to parody videos.
He’s not that good looking compared to other K-pop idol artists, but he’s become pretty famous. There are so much shares of photos or videos that is related to Gangnam Style online. They even play the song on the radio in North America. I feel like it’s being overrated but the song is still good.
My friends and I always dance to this song at Korean karaoke LOL
Warped Tour 2012 Toronto was insane! As posted on my Twitter and Facebook feed, “I couldn’t love yesterday anymore than I already do.”
The last concert I’ve been to was The Edge Fest in 2006 at the Canadian Molson Amphitheater. Warped Tour this year was also at the Molson Amphitheater but a whole lot different experience. At The Edge Fest, the concert was actually spent all in the amphitheater. The bands would each come up to the same microphone and we would have seats. This year no seats, eight stages, plenty of running around. Each stage has their own name to help narrow down where each band is playing: Kia Rio, Kia Soul, Monster Energy, Tilly, House of Marley, Kevin Says, Ernie Ball, and Acoustic Basement. My boyfriend and I gravitated mainly towards the main stages of Kia Rio and Kia Soul. We were lucky enough to see all of our bands except The Used and Falling In Reverse just because they weren’t there. There weren’t any seats so we had to push through the crowd to get a good enough sight. We stayed clear of the circle pits and crowd surfers. I’m not too interested in getting my teeth broken into lol. But if you’re ever brave enough I say go for it! I hope to one day have the courage to crowd surf
Our Bands
Four Year Strong
All Time Low
We The Kings
Yellowcard
We Are The In Crowd
New Found Glory
Pierce The Veil
Taking Back Sunday
Mayday Parade
I took pictures of each band and had videos for all of them except for Four Year Strong and I wasn’t there for New Found Glory because We Are The In Crowd were playing at the same time at another venue. My boyfriend got to watch them and I preferred We Are The In Crowd. I’ll be posting pictures 0f each band and a video. I’ll input my reviews of each experience with each band. I was much closer to the stage then the videos made it look out to be and for the videos, I’m a jumper, head banger, and arms flailing type so when I filmed it was very shaky but with Youtube I stabilized each video for you folks. Personally though, I love the shakiness. It gives the videos some sense of realness.
Four Year Strong
Four Year Strong is a hard, heavy screamo band. Their performance was pumped full blown! In the last picture is an example of a circle pit. It’s basically an area where a whole bunch of fans run around in a circle and flail around dancing.
All Time Low
All Time Low is a punk rock band. They had an ear pumping performance! Their quite the profanity type band. I mean in between each song almost every single sentence consisted of the F word and sexual references but I loved it! They got me pregnant! Kidding
The song in the video is Jasey Rae – All Time Low
We The Kings
We The Kings by far take the tied spot of best performance at Warped Tour 2012 Toronto to me . I could hardly keep my feet on the floor. The atmosphere from the band spread throughout the crowd. There were cameras everywhere to film for one of their newest music video so omg, we may take part in their next video lol.
The song in the video is Skyway Avenue – We The Kings
Intermission
Here was when the downpour begins. Our excitement was drowned in rain for the next hour or so. Many parts of the ground of Ontario Place was flooded and my boyfriend and I were drenched to the bone hiding under the trees. We missed out on two signings from Taking Back Sunday and We Are The In Crowd but when they announced that the show was back on we were beside ourselves! *Note: if the weather forecast shows rain bring a poncho, a pair of socks, extra underwear, and Ziplock bags for your electronics instead of trying to tough it out lol.
Yellowcard
Yellowcard is the only band that I’m a fan of that actually has a violinist member and I LOVE the violin. They were pumped but the energy from the crowd had the rain suck it right out of them. Before they performed, we were all running from shelter to shelter and the rain was pounding hard with cold. Yellowcard commented on our lack of excitement and I couldn’t blame them. Now, I don’t know if it was solely because of the rain or perhaps we were just waiting for their older work. I’ll admit that that was what I was waiting for. Mind my singing screaming in the video lol.
The song in the video is Only One – Yellowcard
We Are The In Crowd
We Are The In Crowd is one of the few bands where there is a girl vocalist and a guy vocalist. During this time, New Found Glory and We Are The In Crowd were playing at the same time but We Are The In Crowd is one of my more favourable bands so my boyfriend and I had to split up. The crowd was a lot smaller than the other bands I’ve been to that day so I was about three rows away from the front until this stupid hussy pushed her way in front of me. But at one point, I think Taylor was looking straight at me . Unfortunate thing was the microphone for the singers were drowned out by the drums . But We Are The In Crowd know how to bring out the crowd and almost every single person there sung every lyric including myself <3. I was so close to grabbing a drumstick.
The song in the video is For The Win – We Are The In Crowd
New Found Glory
As I mentioned before I didn’t go to see NFG but my boyfriend did so this will be his comments about their performance.
“Wow, I feel privileged to be contributing to this blog. It’s gained such a reputable reputation (for lack of better words) so thank you smajoyful and fellow GGG’ers. So, New Found Glory or NFG are a pop punk rock band. I first heard about them in high school when they were only performing cover songs from the 80′s and have been following them ever since. I dug their backdrop banner the most. For a couple of their songs they went old school and it made me feel a bit nostalgic. They even played the song ‘Basket Case’ from Green Day’s Dookie album which really went back. Kick. Ass. Anyway, NFG still brings out as much energy and jump from the crowd as they did in the past. Glad they made it to Tdot.”
Pierce The Veil
Pierce The Veil tied it with We The Kings for my favourite performance of the night. Wow! I was at a lost for words! I was most excited to see them that whole day. They’re those types of bands who don’t sing exactly the way they recorded the song and I’m not usually up for that but I couldn’t believe how breath taking they were. I really got lost in the moment. I’m screaming again, sorry XP
The song in the video is Bulletproof Love – Pierce The Veil
Taking Back Sunday
Taking Back Sunday has an alternative, pop punk sound. They had a heart pulsing performance! It was an energy flowing and electrifying sound performance. The crowd was consumed in their words especially when they sung their older songs.
The song in the video is Make Damn Sure – Taking Back Sunday
Mayday Parade
Mayday Parade had their performance pushed back because of the rain but they were worth the wait. Every single band member was throwing themselves to the crowd. They had a thundering performance and it was a wonderful finish to an already impacting day!
The song in the video is Jersey – Mayday Parade
Here are our souvenirs
Mine: We Are The In Crowd shirt, Pierce The Veil shorts, Vans mustache smiley tank, Vans bag
My boyfriend: Taking Back Sunday shirt, Vans hat
We had the time of our lives but this won’t be the last. Until next year Warped Tour!
*sigh* so, this was my initial intention to talk about the Radiohead concert but I never would have imagined that I would be talking about what I didn’t get to experience.
For those of you who haven’t heard, the Radiohead concert at Downsview Park in Toronto on Saturday, July 16th never happened. Unfortunately, during the building of the stage only 2 and a half hours before the show, the stage had collapsed! Tragically, one person was killed and others injured. I will say that it’s better it had happened then then to have it happen during the show where more people could’ve been injured or killed and the world would blame Toronto for the destruction of Radiohead. Nonetheless, I was greatly disappointed along with the many over 40,000 other fans!
My boyfriend and I arrived at the gates three and a half hours before the show. Our tickets were on will call and the park was on a first come first serve bases so, we hoped for a good spot. Upon arrival, there was a kiosk selling Radiohead t-shirts. My boyfriend and I thought it would be best to buy the shirts before the crowd came swarming in. At least we can call them our “almost” Radiohead concert t-shirts.
We were crazy pumped when we finally got our tickets. Sitting quietly and patiently waiting for the doors to open.
It was an hour after sitting in the blazing sun when my friend called to tell me, “The concert is canceled” I just couldn’t believe it! I was in shock! My boyfriend couldn’t believe it! I felt more bad for him because this was his band. He was the reason why I enjoyed them. All you can hear was a chorus of cursing from the crowd. We weren’t going to see Radiohead.
There was one thing I enjoyed about that day. Before my boyfriend and I arrived at the concert we rode on the bus. Next to us were a few tipsy individuals who had just met on the bus were talking about the concert. They began singing Creep, one of Radiohead’s more favourable songs. In that one moment, strangers were alike. That is why I love concerts!
Here’s another cover from one of my favourite Disney movies of all time “Beauty and the Beast.” For those that don’t know what the movie is about, here’s a brief summary: An old woman tries to sell a prince some apples but he turns her away because of her ugly appearance. She then casts him into a beast. The beast needs to find someone to love him to break the spell. Belle comes to the castle looking for her father Maurice. The beast’s staff (they look like household items) – hopes that she will break the spell. At first she is repelled by him, but later on finds out that there is a beautiful person deep inside him. But will she break the spell?
Enjoy the cover guys! And you can sing along to it
Piano has been in my life ever since I was 4. I always wanted to learn since I was very young, so my parents enrolled me in lessons. Since then I’ve graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Music, got my teacher’s certificate, went to school for Music, and now I’m working with music everyday. I can’t picture my life without piano. It has brought me many accomplishments, it’s made me reach my goals, and I probably wouldn’t be the person I am today without my music. Here is a cover of me playing To Zanarkand from FFX… all sight read…
Hope you enjoy and there will be many more to come!!
How creative!
. The video is of my favourite song by Sleeping With Sirens, Don’t Fall Asleep At The Helm. Btw, I apologize about the video I took. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the best spot in the audience but it’s always about the music in the end.
lol)
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smajoyful
