Jewel-toned Paisley

Thursday night, throngs of country music fans flocked to the O-dome to see Brad Paisley and... Jewel? The same Jewel that sang painfully woeful breakup songs in middle school? Yes, the one and the same. It seems like a slightly odd pairing, but I guess Jewel has tried to position her folksy sound more towards country fans. And of course, what is country music without breakup songs? 

So Emily, Georgia, Cathy and I went. I'm not a huge country fan, but I like Brad Paisley because he is witty and his tunes are catchy. 

I was going to upload a video of Jewel singing one of her hits (You were meant for me), but Blogger seems to not be a fan of folk-pop music. Anyway there were people moving back and forth in front of the camera as a result of all the DRAMA that was happening. There was a group of young people who couldn't find their seats, mainly because there was another group of young people sitting in them. So they confronted them and made them move. Apparently they knew each other though. I love people watching at concerts. It's almost better than the music.

A great part of the concert was Jewel yodeling. Click here to see it on YouTube.

 Oh and the concert was excellent. Brad did not disappoint. It was probably one of the best large-venue concerts I've been to (but I usually avoid large venues). 

Speaking of people watching, Emily makes for good people watching. She loves her pickles. A lot. She steals them off my plate. And then talks to them. 

Tropical Heatwave

I went to Tampa this weekend to visit with my parents and go to Tropical Heatwave. Heatwave is an annual concert put on by WMNF, the local community radio station. It's a chance to find new music that you might not normally be exposed to. Most of the musicians haven't played Tampa before or are up and coming. It wasn't quite as good as last year, but still worth it. We arrived at 5:30pm and got home at 1am. I was extremely proud of my parents. Only minor annoyance at the late night!
It was great people watching if you didn't let the crowd get to you. There was plenty of tie-dye and hippy stink (patchouli), but also a great variety in people. It amazes me how people can appreciate such different genres of music and get along so well. The standout performances of the night included Julie Black, a local blues/torch singer, Blue Vipers of Brooklyn, a traditional jazz and blues band that practices in the the Subway, Rocket 88, a rockabilly group from Orlando with a crazy show, Soul Rebels, a brass band from New Orleans with hip hop influences. There were many many other great musicians, but these stick out.

I never knew me a better time and I guess I never will

Last night I had the opportunity to see Sir Elton John in concert. It was an unexpected treat, mainly because I am poor, but my fellow grad student Anna is the keyboardist's cousin so we got free tickets that were pretty decent.

Anna got sick before the show, so I was scrambling to find someone to go with me. Unfortunately it seems that all my friends suddenly turned studious (that's what exams will do I suppose). I ended up taking Dr. Lori, a former UF professor who now works at Purdue and happened to be visiting this week. She loved it and I was glad that I could share it with her. 

Elton was amazing...I envy his musical abilities. I think I am such a big fan of music because I appreciate what other people can do that I can't. His style of piano playing reminds me of how my dad sits down and just starts playing blues and boogie... I love it!

I thought it was appropriate that he played Crocodile Rock while in the swamp. I especially liked the graphics in the background.