Muse 2nd Law Concert

I. am. SO EXCITED about this post.

Last night, Karoline, Kelsey and I went to Muse's 2nd Law concert in Salt Lake.

Oh my word. Seriously amazing.

I've been a fan of Muse since 9th grade. I specifically remember burning their entire discography for a guy friend because I was just so in love with them I had to share it with someone. Not like I'm pushy or anything... HA.

And they just kept getting better and better and better! They're all so talented. Of course, I'm a lead-singer girl, so I'm totally infatuated with Matt Bellamy. His piano playing, oh my. Kate Hudson is a lucky lady.

So when I went to college and found out my roommates loved them? I was way excited.

Especially when "Madness" came out last fall, and it became our favorite song for dancing in the car and in the apartment and on campus and everywhere else.

When I got back to Utah for school, Karoline picked me up and asked me, "What are you doing on September 19th?"

Her mom bought her tickets to the concert for her birthday!

Shout out to Michele! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

So we made a day of it with our friend Kelsey and rode the train up to the big city!

Dinner at Kneaders, because who really cares about the opening act? Pumpkin spice cupcake, you have stolen my heart.

When we got to the arena, Cage the Elephant was still playing. Their lead singer, man. He was crazy. I didn't know bodies could move that way.

See what I mean? My favorite part was the security guards who just rolled him back onto the stage afterward. Punk kids.

I'm sorry, but they just weren't that good. And they weren't wearing shoes. Nope. 

But MUSE.

Her is an example of my reactions:

From the moment they started, it was so much better than the opening. It was a real show, full of all the theatrics I would have wanted from them. They were so connected with the audience! We're talking not only mosh pit in the crowd on the floor, but everyone was dancing and singing in their seats as if embarrassment didn't even exist! Because it didn't there!

I can't stop gushing about this and I can't praise them any more. They were cool and sounded even better live and wow. 

MADNESS:

Okay, this was perfect. Matt put on these awesome laser sunglasses and they had a coordinated laser show with the lyrics posted above. And he was so cheeky just messing with the camera, as you can see on the smaller screen above. STOP TOYING WITH MY EMOTIONS. just kidding. sort of.

This is when everyone really started getting into the show and singing shouting along with every single song.

Okay, I'll try to stop being so annoying now.

So they played a lot more songs, and then they played an AWESOME butterflies and hurricanes, and then the pyramid they came out of started going down and we were like, "...is it over?! NO. I REFUSE."

But the pyramid went down and they were gone!

So everyone cheered and they came back to do an encore.

They stopped playing and ran off the stage.

But no. That still wasn't enough for all of us.

The stadium got SO LOUD.

And everyone pulled their phones out.

A minute passed and they hadn't come back out.

No one was leaving.

It got louder.

Suspense was killing us.

AND BACK ON THEY RAN.

ah, it was the best. They played starlight and everyone was shouting along.

This was the real encore. They played another set.

And it was so so so incredible.

And that's all, folks!

Now I just want to listen to Muse all day long, but I also don't want to because it will never be the same listening to the recording. Internal dilemma.

But at least I can die happy now.

Well, after I see Paul McCartney.

Pocketful of Poetry Launch

On Wednesday Mindy Gledhill threw her launch concert for her new album, Pocketful of Poetry.

Mindy is a Provo native. I fell in love with her music through church music, and followed her as she started releasing her other albums. 

Provo has an awesome music scene and it's one thing I really actually like about Provo. I mean, Neon Trees, Fictionist, and a little band you might have heard of called Imagine Dragons? They all got their start here. I'm really proud to live in a city with a lot of support for the local music scene.

Mindy is just so adorable. I mean, she walked out on stage wearing a sequin green tutu dress. She's sweet and quirky and her songwriting is simple but relate-able. Her songs are so catchy you will just magically one day start singing along with them and realize you know all the words. She really cares about her work and what she produces, and I for one am thankful for that.

The show was at Velour, which is a beautiful, homey venue. Petite Treats provided cake bites which were DELICIOUS.

Mindy's opening act was Book on Tapeworm, who I had heard of before but never seen.

I was pleasantly surprised.

Usually I couldn't care less about opening acts, but they were really phenomenal. Check them out.

I can't even begin to tell you how in love I was with this show.

Mindy sounded so good and interacted with us. It wasn't about her, it was about making the audience come away from the show feeling inspired. And it worked.

She mostly played songs from her new album which is a collection of stories and memories. All about growing up. You can find it on her website or stream it on Spotify.

But she also played a lot of fan favorites. Here's a clip of one of mine:

I wanna hold the whole wide world right here in my open hands.

Maybe I'm just a little girl, a little girl with great big plans.

It was a really great show and I feel very blessed to have been able to go.

chalk the block

I'm not totally a hermit!

This weekend the Shops at the Riverwoods hosted "Chalk the Block."

Each store has an artist and they create a piece of art with chalk as their medium.

Some of them were silly, some were meaningful, and some were just worth swooning over. (Helloooooooo, giant Benedict Cumberbatch.)

There was a live band, food carts, and all that jazz. It really is quite a quaint little outdoor mall.

I would have snapped some more pictures, but these married delinquents couldn't stay still enough!

So we just left it up to the photobooth.

And let me tell you, it's hard to fit four people in a photobooth.

If you're ever in Provo, go to Pacific Beach Resort in the Riverwoods. They have a little ice cream parlor that apparently is amazing. Steven was in heaven.

My poor little lactose-free stomach was sad I missed out.

kayaking on puget sound

It's been really nice having Harald visiting. Coming home from school, where I was used to being around people that knew me pretty well, it was a bit of a rough adjustment meeting new people and making new friends that didn't always "get me." Oi that sounds cliche, doesn't it? But it takes awhile to warm up to my sassy, crazy self, okay? And I don't fault anyone for that, but it's a lot easier to be around people you're comfortable with.

Harald is one of those people who, even though both of us have changed, will always be a good friend. It took like an hour for us to get back to our old friendship. I haven't just laughed with someone for an entire day for a long time. And he even put up with me being annoying and freaking out about us tipping the kayak over. I shouldn't have brought my camera with us out on the water... Hindsight, man. 

So it's just been really nice to have him back, although I wish we could live by each other all the time.

We encountered the creepy kayak-renter-man together, played name that classic rock artist, saw a seal, and my personal favorite was watching him try to figure out the gas station on the way home.

Want some good entertainment? Watch a foreigner try to put gas in their car in America.

Blackberry picking

It seems like I've been doing this a lot lately.

Last week I did with Camille, and I have gone twice this week.

It's things like this that make me want to never go back to school again. Where can you find bushes and bushes of berries on campus? NOWHERE.

I mentioned my friend was visiting from Sweden. So on Friday we went with Kirsten to explore Wildwood Park. And I promised them pie, which you will see wednesday!

Today, I tried to go with the 2 year-old...

Prepare yourself for a visual representation of my supervising skills.

Ready?

A blackberry mustache never looked so cute!

This is my formal apology to his parents for ruining his shirt.

Someone has to be the cool aunt, okay?!

rattlesnake ledge

My friend Josh and I have been trying to go hiking all summer, but our schedules never lined up. On Tuesday, we finally got a group together to celebrate my birthday and the visit of our Swedish friend, Harald. 

This beautiful place is called Rattlesnake Ledge. It's up in North Bend, WA. It is MAGNIFICENT. The hike isn't difficult, and it's amazingly beautiful at the top.

Josh and Harald live to terrify me. Boys, man.

When I got home, I realized that I'm a really lucky person. All of these people, except for three, are friends from high school. Who is lucky enough to meet really awesome friends in high school, and still get along with and love all of them? And there are even a few more that weren't able to make it. Seriously, I am one lucky girl. Even though we have all grown and changed and will continue to, all of these people are great, kind, hilarious souls and I am so happy to still have them around.