Concerts: A Year in Review

If you're my friend in any sense of the word, you know I go to a lot of shows. Music has always been a very big part of my life, but it wasn't until I graduated college, moved to the west coast, and had some extra money/time that I started really getting into going to them. I don't really know how to explain why I like going so much, but being able to see somebody live - to be in the same room as them - performing songs you've been singing along to in the car for months (years) is pretty sweet. There's this energy there, and you're surrounded by strangers who all love the same band you do. You sing and dance and let loose and get to spend an evening with someone you look up to/relate to/enjoy. I thought it would be kind of fun to look back at 2015 and reminisce about some of the awesome shows I was able to see this year.

Decemberists Day

I feel like I have a kind of small circle of bands I follow pretty closely, and a lot of them released albums in 2015 - of Montreal, Titus Andronicus, SSLYBY, Telekinesis, and The Decemberists. The Decemberists are a newer to me band that I'm thankful for having friends tell me about, since they're a local Portland band. They released a new album in January, and the mayor of Portland declared it "Decemberists Day" on January 20th. They held a mini-concert INSIDE City Hall downtown. It was short, cute, fantastic, and we stood next to the sister and parents of a pretty legendary Decemberists member. I even got to see Reggie Aqui interview Colin Meloy *swoon*

Kishi Bashi and Tall Tall Trees

A week later Kishi Bashi came to town with a string quartet and Tall Tall Trees (banjo man). I've seen Kishi Bashi many times now, but each time is unique, and this was the first time I'd seen him with more than just him on strings. It was so beautiful, and almost majestic hearing those arrangements - I'm glad he's released a live string quartet album finally! The show was at the Aladdin which I wasn't super excited about because it's seated, but everyone ended up standing anyway. They ended with an acoustic version of Bright Whites and it was gorgeous. I got to meet Tall Tall Trees after the show which was seriously a highlight of the year. I gave him some of the "In Your Pocket" quote things he collects, we talked about JLP, and I gave him about 5 hugs. Life highlight.

OKGo at Crystal Ballroom

March was a heck of a busy month and it was amazing. I saw of Montreal in DC before spending a few days with my mom in San Diego, came home to see OKGo, of Montreal twice with Yip Deceiver opening, and rounded out the month with Kishi Bashi opening for Guster (WHAT). I'd seen OKGo once before, but it was a pretty small show on a small tour before their new album came out last October. It had a few optical illusions and some cool tricks they did, and LOTS of confetti. This time was pretty similar but way bigger and more over the top. They spliced together a video of actors saying "OK" and "go" from movies to open which was cute, Damian came out in the audience right next to use to sing 'Last Leaf', we decided their confetti budget is more than my annual salary, and for the encore they did the 'Million Ways' dance. LEGIT. They're just such a fun, creative, imaginative band, and they find ways to bring that to their live shows. OH and they did a Led Zeppelin cover. So awesome.

Lanc, aka David

of Montreal is my favorite band of all time ever, and I'm lucky enough to get to see them in multiple cities, due to them playing shows in Seattle and having friends gracious enough to host me and go with me in other cities. They also usually do multiple tours a year, so I ended up seeing them 5 times in 2015. Five times!! I saw them in DC, Portland, and Seattle in March. Their shows are crazy, creative, sweaty, therapeutic, dancey FUN. The DC show was fun, they did "We Were Born Mutants Again with Leafling" which had me really close to tears and was gorgeous. I don't think I'd ever heard that song live, and the visuals they did kinda stab you in the heart. It's hard to explain an of Montreal show to someone who hasn't been to one, but they do lots of visuals and dressing up, and Kevin looks better in make up, glitter, and tights than just about anyone. Their Portland show was amazing, and Yip Deceiver opened which was the coolest thing (Dobby and Davey make up Yip Deceiver and they both were in of Montreal for awhile). David actually came out to find me after the show to give me his setlist (with acting notes and all) because I was wearing my JLP Stay Rad shirt. How awesome?! I was getting a drink and I saw him walking out and looked around me like "is no one seeing this?!" and I kinda took a step in his direction and he locked eyes with me and goes "Hey! This is for you!" Amazing. I also got to talk to Dobby after the show. What an amazing night. The next day I drove up to Seattle to see them again. I got picked on by strangers for being a super fan (because I recognized Bennett outside and knew his name...ok). Yip Deceiver was awesome again. They do a killer cover of Jennifer Paige's "Crush" and I got to talk to Davey after the show who remembered me from the E6 tour they did last year/my phone case. While they were setting up the stage for of Montreal, David came over to me and shook my hand and was like hey how are ya? What an awesome guy, seriously.

KB being beautiful

Yip Deceiver (and Clayton)

About a week later was Kishi Bashi again, this time opening for Guster. Hello high school! It was awesome to see that Guster is just as much a laid back jam band as ever. They seem to have so much fun up there and love to laugh. One of the guys messed up on one of the songs, and they were like "Ya know, we messed up, but I don't feel like you're laughing AT us, I feel like we're all in this together" or something of the sort, and it was cute. They had Kishi out for a few songs to play violin parts, and my head exploded a little bit. Somehow I knew every song they played and had the best time singing along like I was 15, and we nabbed the setlist cuz we're cool like that.

Kishi Bashi playing with Guster at the Crystal Ballroom

Deerhoof

Record Store Day was not long after this, and I got the only thing I cared about - the of Montreal live album. Part of it was recorded in Portland, so that made it extra special. It was also the 20th anniversary of The  Dandy Warhols first album, so they played most of that album an in-store down the road from me. It was a small intimate thing and really cool to witness, especially being a "Portlander" myself now. Red Bull Sound Select put on a $3 show at Dante's in early May with Deerhoof, so I went to that. It took me awhile to "get" Deerhoof after I first heard them, but I enjoy them now, so I went. They are loud and nonsensical, but all business. Basically, I want to be Satomi when I grow up. They had some great local openers, too, which is part of the reason they do Sound Select. I almost didn't go, but I'm glad I went.

This is getting way longer than I was anticipating, and I'm mostly just recording this all for myself, so I think I'm going to stop here and break this up into 2 parts. Coming up is more of Montreal, lots of Ben Folds, some Janelle Monae, and much more!

What I Learned From Running

Late last year, I decided I wanted to start running. I've always wanted to like running, but I'm not sure why. I've always thought it was so boring and pointless, I could never run very far without wanting to die, and did I mention it's boring? But I want to like it, and needed some sort of exercise, and really wanted to prove to myself I could do it. It was a good project to start. I feel like running has taught me a lot of surprising things and important lessons. I kept this journey a very private thing, but feel like I want to share it a little bit now. So, in no particular order, here are some realizations I've made since I started running that I feel can be really relevant to other aspects of life.

You can RUN alone, but you don't have to run ALONE. When I decided to start running and that I wanted to do a 5k, I told nobody. I was embarrassed with how much work I would need to do, I was afraid of not succeeding, and kind of wanted to reserve the right to just give up (bad idea, but true). For the most part, I really did kept it to myself, but after a few weeks I just needed someone to talk to about it and share things with. Serious thank you's to Chelsea and Amee for letting me vent, sharing wins/losses, and keeping me accountable. There were a small handful of other people I reached out to for tips and advice along the way - people I knew who had experience and help to offer, and who I was comfortable being open to because I knew they would support me no matter what. I really hate asking for help at anything in general, so I appreciate how willing the people I reached out to were to help me and I need to remember that asking for help is OK. They taught me stretches, helped me get fit for shoes, and were just all around helpful. I hate running when other people are at the gym and I can't run next to somebody outside - I kind of have to run alone. But, I didn't need to experience everything by myself, and for that I'm extremely grateful.

It's easier to keep going than it is to start. What is the saying - it takes 21 days to form a habit? Something like that. Getting started is the hardest part. Once I made going to the gym 3-4 times a week a routine for myself, it became so much easier. Easier to actually physically show up to the gym, not necessarily run! I stopped running after my 5k for a few weeks (ok a month...) and it's been SO hard to get back into it. I think back to the couple months leading up to the 5k and it was just a thing I made myself do. I didn't push it off every day, telling myself "maybe tomorrow..." and that's how it was at the beginning. I found myself going back and reading a blog from Chelsea about motivation more than a few times and kept thinking to myself "Forget motivation. Just do it." You can't wait for it to feel right or the mood to strike you. The first few weeks were rough, but it's so surprising to think back to how determined I was when I was in the swing of things. I even went running on vacation in San Diego!

Running next to the ocean in San Diego

Our minds are SO powerful. I feel like a lot of cliches are based around this sort of phrase, but I've experienced how much your frame of mind and attitude seriously effect outcomes. There were days I went running, and my mind was already in poor state - "Running sucks I hate this I'm tired I don't want to go." I would run anyway, be miserable, not have a good run, then be miserable when I got home because it was a crappy run. I can't always force myself to be positive about running, but I try. Going into it with a good attitude, confidence, and positive thinking changes so much. It was crazy to me to actually see the difference of that - not only did those runs feel better, they were actually EASIER. Every time I had a great run or reached some milestone I set for myself, I went into it with an enthusiastic and positive attitude from the beginning.  I wish I had some trick to keep myself in a positive mindset about running because it really effects so much.

Am I better than I was yesterday? I have this bad habit of comparing myself to other people, in all aspects of life. It's something I kind of do unconsciously, and running pointed that out to me, and how seriously detrimental that can be. It had been a few months of mostly treadmill running, and I looked in the mirror and saw how SLOW I was running. I didn't have any illusions of being a speed demon, but I was like "I FEEL LIKE I'M RUNNING SO MUCH FASTER THAN IT LOOKS LIKE WTF IS THIS SERIOUS?!" I was so discouraged, especially running next to some seeming track athlete at the gym. Negative thoughts started creeping in - "this is it? You've been running for months and this is it? You're hardly even running... look at this girl right here. She's running 7 minute miles and you're barely not walking." It took me awhile to get out of that line of thinking and what did it was thinking back to where I was 3 months ago compared to where I was that day. Was I better than I was when I started? Am I still getting better? It was hard to see, but there's no way I could have run what I did that day on my first day of this. I had progressed so far for myself. Sure I wasn't anywhere close to Speedy McSpeedster next to me, but I didn't need to compare myself to her. Why would I? I needed to recognize all the hard work I had done and all the progress I had made myself - that's all that matters. I had to stop judging myself and just give myself some credit for what I'd accomplished. I know maybe that doesn't seem like a big thing, but it was a huge thing for me to understand and recognize, and to change my way of thinking. I also tend to get discouraged easily. I had to recognize bad days happen. Days where I just don't do as well as I'd hoped or know I can. And that's ok! That doesn't mean I'm a failure and need to quit. It means I had a bad day and can do better tomorrow.

Pet Peeve: "You finished it!" Running the 5k sucked. I had just got back from San Diego and came down with a terrible cold (cussing airplanes). I actually very seriously considered going to the doctor (big deal for me), and wasn't sure I was going to run the race. On the day of the race, I was hacking up a lung and just felt kind of all over miserable. I set out my "Medication Plan" the night before if I decided to run - Delsym, Ibuprofen, Sudafed, Nasacort, Allegra, cough drops, anything to hopefully keep my head and lungs from exploding. It was pretty miserable, I did horrible, but "I finished it." People say that and I'm like... yeah but what other option did I have? I'm not going to just, ya know, stop in the middle of the field and stay there... even if I walked literally the whole thing, I still would have "finished it" so it's really not any kind of accomplishment. I appreciate the sentiment, but it just kind of doesn't make sense. That being said, I AM proud of myself for accomplishing what I did and sticking to my goal, and am actually almost looking forward to another 5k and for it to be more successful.

Ok so the flask was just a matching birthday present...

I need a goal. I need to work toward something. After I signed up for the 5k, I found myself taking things much more seriously. There was so much less procrastination because I had an end game. It gave running a reason because I wanted the 5k to be successful. I also had mini-goals/milestones I set for myself along the way. Accomplishing those felt SO rewarding, and remembering that feeling kept me going and creating new goals for myself because I wanted to reach them and experience that feeling again. And again, I had to keep myself from comparing my goals to other people, and letting myself be excited when I accomplished things I set for myself that were significant for me. Being able to share those accomplishments with my "support crew" and letting them be excited for me helped, too :)

Runner's high is REAL. Seriously real. After my second or third run, I just had this wave of loving EVERYBODY and immediately texted Chelsea and asked if she'd run a 5k with me sometime (fully aware it was the endorphins making me do that). I've felt that way a handful of times after running - happy, energetic, and motivated. And they've always come after having a good attitude and pushing myself.

All in all, it was a really fantastic experience and is something I hope to continue and keep in my life. I mean, I even have 2 pairs of running shoes now!