Loud Music + Moshing = ??

If you follow Squeaks' blogs, either Hidden Doorways or The Minstrel Warrior, you'll know that she got to go to a Manafest concert on Monday. Read all about her Epic experience here. I suggest you check it out; she has some insight into things I didn't even pick up on.


Now, that isn't nearly as random as some of you may think, because last night my siblings and I (plus one of Goose's friends) went and saw him too. (I was actually going to invite you, Squeaks, until I read your post and realized you had already seen him. :)


Leauphaun and I knew about seeing Manafest for several days, but we kept it from Goose (who really likes Manafest) until yesterday morning. When we told him that we were going to "a pizza party... with Manafest", his eyes practically bugged out of his head. *happy grin* It was so worth waiting to tell him.


Yes, pizza party. After the concert -- which was completely awesome, as there were maybe 100 people there, tops -- we got to hang around with the band and eat pizza with them. Correction: the band didn't eat pizza, but everyone else did.


Prior to last night, Leauphaun and I had each seen Manafest twice and met him at YC Alberta 2010. When Leauphaun approached him (last night) to get a drawing she did of him signed, he mentioned that she seemed familiar, to which we replied that we'd already met before at YC. Because of that, Chris actually stood and talked to us for a good five minutes after most of the people there had gotten what they wanted signed. He's such a nice guy, very friendly and encouraging too.


There were dozens of funny moments that happened over the course of the evening, but probably the best one was at the end when we were waiting for our parents to come pick us up. Manafest drove his van/trailer around the church so that they could begin loading their gear into it. As he drove by where we were sitting, he rolled down the window and asked us if we wanted to go on tour with him. Of course, we all said yes, then Leauphaun added, "'bout time you asked!" o_O I don't think he heard her.




Leauphaun and I bought t-shirts and got them signed, and Goose bought a hoodie and Manafest's live CD/DVD combo, which he had the band sign it. That makes it... *counts on fingers* Four DVDs of bands Leauphaun and I saw at YC.




All in all, I had a great time last night. Oh, sure, I can barely move my neck and right shoulder, and I'll probably fall asleep during supper tonight, but who cares? I actually got to enjoy a Manafest concert, had Chris scream in my face at one point (during the concert) and got to headbang to my heart's content. Now I can't wait for September. TFK, Newsboys, Manafest...


I can't wait.


PS: Happy anniversary, Chris!! Thank you for sacrificing your eighth anniversary to be with your fans. But make sure you do something for Mrs. Greenwood. Soon.
 ~God Bless~

YC Is Back In Full Force

Hello, Blogger world. Long time no see. Oh, wait. That's not true. . .

As I said yesterday, I have "finally recovered from a full month of spazzing out/screaming in my brother's face at very random moments/general weirdness that I've been plagued with."

Hopefully now you are curious. And even if you aren't, I'll tell you anyway:

As I mentioned three posts ago, Thousand Foot Krutch was getting ready to release their first ever live CD/DVD set. The one that Leauphaun and I got to be a part of (even if we aren't "actually" seen on camera).

Yup. We bought it.

*points at CD cover* Hey, Leauphaun, look! It's YC!!!!!

Well, maybe I'm not entirely back to normal yet...

Anyway, we're so happy that we did buy it (the day it came out, of course). The details of the concert have grown fuzzy over the last year, and it's awesome to have the memory completely refreshed.

I love every song on the DVD (except What Do We Know? and Already Home), but my absolute favorites are Move, Rawkfist, and Puppet. The entire album as a whole is incredible, however.

There are one or two issues, though they are fairly small. First, the DVD cut quite a bit of Trevor's speaking, while they left most of those parts in the CD. I would have preferred that they reverse that. Another thing is that the DVD isn't in surround sound. I mean, come on! Why wouldn't they put it in surround sound? *throws up hands in exasperation*

There aren't any special features. *teardrop* I wanted to see Dad eating wasabi peas in the mile-long lineup for TFK signings. (Really. You just had to be there.)

And the final thing that bugged me (although I was actually expecting this one) was that they cut out the part where Trevor had us singing O Canada. I can understand why they wouldn't put that in a DVD that's going to be sold all over the world, but it was a bit disappoint not to see it in there. (In real life, it was quite the random moment, but totally awesome!)

Then again, I don't think we sounded very good, either. Most of the singing in the DVD is dubbed (but don't tell anyone I said that), and I think they left O Canada out on purpose, so as not to wreck peoples' hearing. Or sound systems.

We now have at least four live DVDs, including Skillet's Comatose Comes Alive, U2's Live From Chicago, the TFK DVD, and RED's special edition End Of Silence. Visually, I actually like Skillet's DVD the least, as it's so effects heavy, it's hard to figure out what's going on some shots. But that's a completely different rant... er, blog post.

Speaking of RED . . . (yes, it's true I can't go much longer than three or four posts without talking about them), the other reason I was very close to freaking out was because they released their "Feed The Machine" music video on Monday. I've just been too busy to post about it until now.

As many people have already said, this music videos plays out more like a mini-movie than a music video, what with being a full seven minutes and twenty seconds long. Do take the time to watch the full thing, even if you aren't a huge fan of RED. There's an inspiring message in this song, and the video shows that in a very literal way.

As one comment I saw said: I agree, but let's not just watch the video. Let's do something about it. Let's wake up and kill the machine.

If this video doesn't get as many views as bieber and gaga... i'm really worried about what my future kids will listen to... :S

Hmmm. After watching it again, I feel there may be an interesting plot here somewhere. . .

Anyway, what are your thoughts on the video?

PS. Having identical twins in a band makes for some very interesting family moments, does it not? *laughs* Randy's choking Anthony. Oh, that's just great for their relationship as brothers, isn't it? Check out RED's Death Of Me video for more twin verses twin action.

~God Bless~

*happy dance*

Those of you who have been following my blog for a full year will remember how my family went to YC Alberta last year. I spazzed about it in three different posts. You can read the craziness of those three days here, here, and here (if you dare risk your sanity *hehe*). That first evening of YC, Thousand Foot Krutch shot a live DVD. We've been waiting for them to release it ever since.

And waited. And waited. And waited for even the tiniest of news articles on them. Did I mention we waited?

Well, two days ago they finally release the first five minutes of the DVD. I bounced my entire way through the preview. June 7th can't come fast enough. Before watching this video, please maximise the quality and set your speakers as loud as they can go. Thank you.

I feel sorry for those people that couldn't make that concert. But now we can share the experience with the whole world!!!!! *giggles* I've been dancing around the house ever since I learned the release date for the DVD. Now I'm cartwheeling.

While I'm on the topic of music, RED's released an eighteen second preview from their new music video, Feed The Machine. Leauphaun and I agree that this preview looks more like a clip from a movie than a music video. Just how much money did they spend on the filming of this one?

Since I'd rather not freak anyone out by totally ranting (in the best possible way, I assure you) on both of these videos, I'm only going to say this:

Can I travel forward in time to when these videos are both available? Please?

~God Bless~

10 Things On My Mind - A Tag

Squeaks' post of 10 things on her mind inspired me to do the same thing, so here are ten things currently on my mind.

1. RED. I've been rockin' to RED's latest album, Until We Have Faces, since we got it almost two months ago, but I've been listening to it even more this past week, due to these two videos.

2. Birthday parties & chocolate cake! There are five birthdays in my family in just over a month's time, and they're starting this week. Woo-hoo! We get to eat lots of cake!

 

3. Knitting. I've been working on a scarf on-and-off for the past couple of months, and it's getting very close to being completed. Unfortunately, my left pointer fingers is too bruised to continue right now.

4. Writing. Like Squeaks said, writing should always be on a writer's mind, but sometimes it seems to be closer to the front of my mind than other times. Currently, I am actually (and please don't hurt me for this) out of ideas for how to keep pushing the tension higher in my current story. My characters seem to want to work together (and they never want to do that) and I'm not sure what else I can throw at them to make things worse. I'm sure my devious mind will come up with something, though. *malicious grin*

5. Lego Star Wars. The Goose is renting the game for the Wii right now, and we've been challenging each other to see who can get more of the game completed before it has to go back tomorrow. I already know that I won't win, as he's over 50% and I'm only at 39%. At least we know what game we're buying next.

6. Lord Of The Rings. On Saturday, my siblings and I got to see all three extended movies in less than twelve hours. I threw my back out due to lying on a church pew for that long, but I think it was worth it. I'm also in the middle of rereading the trilogy.

7. King Cenred from Arthurian legend. 'Nuf said. Actually, he reminds me of Daymond, only with long hair. Love his double swords! I hopeless, I know.

8. TFK/Skillet/RED/other bands that scream. *pokes Squeaks and Jake* No, I'm not doing this just to bug you. I really do love screaming in CERTAIN songs. I don't think I'd like Bluetree or Third Day if they had screaming in their music. Actually, this should be labeled "epic guitar rifts" because that's the part of the song I enjoy the most.

9. Tuna. Tuna has been following me around all day. I thought the grocery list said "digestive tuna" not "digestive tea". And now the tuna are following me around. I think they're in league with the rabbits.

10. Awesome music videos. This one is made by Leauphaun using (what else?) LOTR clips set to the Iron Man Soundtrack song Gulmira.

Now, because I'm bored, I'm turning it into a tag. Followers of this blog, you have been officially tagged. Get moving. What's on your minds?

P.S. The contest ends this Saturday, so hurry up and enter!

~God Bless~

A Different Kind Of Christmas

Last night, I read Squeak's post about Manafest. (Hey, Leauphaun, I think I may have found someone who likes Manafest as much as you do.) And that reminded me: I haven't posted anything on music in a while, nor have I even mentioned Christmas. Seeing as I haven't been consistently blogging the past month or two (or five), I figured it was probably time to do another post.

Those of you who have been following my blog for a while know that I mostly listen to the rock/hard rock/metal genre. Therefore, it shouldn't surprise you too much if I tell you that I don't really like traditional Christmas music. Shocking, huh? The songs themselves are nice, but a full month of Christmas music for the past seven years (that's when I really discovered the artists behind the music) is way too much for me.

But something interesting happened last year (or was it two years ago?); I began listening to the online station ChristianRock.net. Out of the four stations, rock, hard rock, hip-hop and power praise, only the rock has Christmas music playing (in between all the other, regular music). I've heard some interesting -- though sometimes old -- Christmas songs through it.

I haven't listened to ChristainRock.net nearly as much this year as I did the previous two years, but sometimes I'll be bored with my own music and click it on, just to see what's playing and if any new songs have been added. I discovered that the Christmas music is back, but they've added some new songs from last year. Here are my two favorites:




I bought both songs on November 27th after only listening to them each once, then played them the next day while getting supper ready. My mom then had me play it at least another four times that day. Since then, I'm fairly certain she's listened to it over 25 times herself. Oh, did I mention my mom really doesn't like the cold/snow/snowboarding(hint, Leauphaun, hint)/pretty much anything to do with winter?

Personally, I enjoy The Wind better, even though I usually chuckle my way through the song. No, really, I do.

Ooooh, I just received an Icy Square from my mother. Thanks, Mom! I'd play Heat Miser for you (even though she's listened to it three times herself today), but my iPod's charging.

While I enjoy my wonderful chocolaty treat, here's another song, instrumental this time:

Last year, I bought August Burns Red's "Carol of the Bells," but I think I like this song better. O Come, O Come Emmanuel has been one of my favorite Christmas songs for years. Now I like it even more.

Sorry if this post rambles a bit, but I'm not in the mood to go back and clarify things. If you're utterly lost as of reading this, just listen to the music. Trust me.


Oh, and for those of you that don't like the heat, check out FM Static's "Snow Miser." Not that I'm recommending the song or anything -- I personally can't stand FM Static, nor can I figure out how Trevor can be in two totally different bands (TFK and FM Static). *blinks in confusion*

Now if only I could find some Skillet Christmas songs. . . Haha, or War Of Ages. That would be interesting.

~God Bless~