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Louisville, KY: Senses Fail, Emanuel, A Change of Pace, Blame It On Rio i love the feeling of intimate shows. ya know, the kind where you have to travel to some no-name town to some kid's house and find your way into some dark basement with a keg in one room and bands playing in the other. this show was kinda like that but on a bit of a bigger scale. the very first person we see when we pulled in the parking lot was jonny fucking rio. talking on his damn cell phone. i hadn't seen the kid for eight months. my stomach hurt so bad and we got so nervous all of a sudden. actually renee had more reason to be nervous but i had sympathy pains for her. so we get in and it winds around through this arcade room to steps that go down to the basement. basement shows are the best and always have small crowds, hence they are always the best shows. so we finally get in and before we turn the corner we can hear blame it on rio. the boys from back home. the band whose shows i went to every fucking weekend last summer even though i didn't ever pay attention when they played. and here they were opening for senses goddamn fucking fail, the band whose CDs had plagued my speakers for the past six months. i had never been so proud of those boys until that moment when i saw joshua and lil jonny and andrew up on that stage pouring their hearts out to the crowd. they had improved so much since the last time i had seen them and i really felt like they have a true chance to make it in this business. they had so much energy onstage and jonny did his backflip perfect and the crowd was just stunned. i remember the first time jonny did that backflip. he did it at CBGB's and landed raw on his knees. jonny talked to us after their set and i told him straight up that i was damn proud of them but jonny rock star just blew me off and it wasn't until hours later that we realized why he doesn't like me too much. but that's another story. a change of pace came on next and renee has been rocking to their cd since the day it came out. it's an awesome cd and it rocks hard. we had no idea what they looked like so when they came onstage we were kind of in for a shock when some not-so-visually-appealing, straggly guys came out. i'm just gonna say it right now. they sucked live. they had no energy. the most energy that they gave to the audience was during loose lips sink ships and even then it wasn't outstanding. they didn't bother trying to get the audience into it. it felt like they were playing in some cheap bar in hicksville to ignorant, drunk farmers. the lead singer even screwed up the most amazing line, which we were dying to hear. "scream a little bit louder for me.....baby" without much passion. their set was a major disappointment. i later found out that the singer was sick but i don't think that's any excuse for what i witnessed last night. emanuel finally came next. and they brought the rock. one hell of a show they put on. of course the crowd was right there with them, hanging on every word but what else would you expect at a hometown show? i rocked out hardcore. hey man!, the willing, hotline, make tonight, finished with buy american machines. their songs are so sensual yet they rock hxc at the same time. matt, the lead singer is quite amazing. you could just feel the energy in the room. "turn down the lights, your mouth turns me to rust." "i grab her hips and pull her in closer. i close my eyes and it turns her on." yeah me and renee definitely acted that out and i'm sure everyone around us thought we were lesbians. then we got out of there in search of some cooler air and saw victor with his chica becca and his little brother. becca looked like she was not enjoying herself and victor looked like he was on cloud 9. he should have been rocking out to his fav band instead of entertaining her all night. i think i just puked a little in my mouth. senses fail finished out the evening with an amazing set. i would have to say it was definitely better than taste of chaos. you're cute when you scream, buried a lie, slow dance, bite to break skin, martini kiss, rum is for drinking not for burning, irony of dying on your birthday, angela baker and my obsession with fire, encore 187. we rocked out so hard dude. they are so fucking amazing live. they just all have so much energy. buddy just amazes me. he writes about stuff that he cares about instead of songs about girls that broke his heart. fuck dude he wrote a song about pirates and that wins him a place in my heart forever. derek was climbing all over the amps and speakers. buddy paused in between songs to have a moment of silence but no one could understand what he was saying b/c the guitars were still going off in the background. i think he said something about someone who died that day. at first when he said moment of silence i thought he was going to say something about scott from bleed the dream who died the sunday before after battling leukemia but i don't think that's who he was talking about. it's still a mystery to me. then he went on and rocked the rum. we party like pirates. after they finished their last song, they went offstage into this little hallway and came back like 30 seconds later to do their encore of 187. as soon as they were done we headed straight back to the emanuel merch to get my awesome green shirt but the chick was out of like everything but i did get my awesome hoodie instead. then we decided to go look for chad so i could say hi and give him a hug and finally he came up behind me and i turned around and gave him a hug and then he said hi to renee and then we left. we wanted to go play in downtown louisville but it turns out that the only happening place is a strip bar so we jetted across the river to clarksville and drove around and got lost and then headed to the post-show steak n shake and discussed jonny. he got to where he is today and landed that spot opening for senses fail because me and renee didn't like his band or his taste in music a year ago. quite possibly the best thing that ever happened to the kid. quite possibly the best show of my life. we need a reality tv show. seriously. |
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