Battle of the Bands

This summer I wanted to be super social and even though I wasn't stoked to stay in Utah all summer long, I was looking forward to all the activities that are supposed to take place. All I heard when I got back last summer was how much fun everyone had when they stayed. Hmmm.... so far this summer the apartment complex I live in hasn't been as happening and social as I was promised it would be. Well, part of that is that I've been slightly anti-social. But, when I try to shake myself out of it, and I go out and do things, I usually have a pretty good time. So, when I found out last Sunday that a guy in our ward was in a band and playing at battle of the bands on Monday, I thought it'd be fun to go with a group of people to support him.

Monday night I went to FHE, but before we got very far I got a text from Nick saying that they were ready to go. Earlier that day I was talking to Zac at the pool and he had mentioned that it'd be fun to go to Mike's concert, and it just so happen that Zac was sitting next to me at FHE so when I got the text I invited him to come on too. We went and got Alysha and met up with Nick, Meghan, Mike, and Valerie. The doors were supposed to open at 8:00pm, so when we showed up at 7:50pm, we figured we'd be okay and not have to wait too long. When the doors didn't open at 8:00, our group started to get a little restless. Valerie was ready to go barge through the door (especially once she realized that the doors weren't locked). And Nick is always ready to make a show out of himself. Luckily Alysha and I were able to keep everyone in check until they finally did open the doors.

Mike's band was the first one up. They were super good. Their band was called "Behind Smoke and Mirrors" and just had the three guys in it. A lead singer (who had an English accent), the drummer (Mike), and a bass guitarist. It was sad though- because they were the first band up, the crowd wasn't super enthused so even though they were good, the best I could do was bob my head and bend my knees a little bit.

Oh gracious! The second band- I don't know what Velor (the club) was thinking when they invited them to participate. The band was good and all, but it was not the typical band. It was regay style-ish. There was a guitarist, a girl who did back-ups, and a guy who was all over everything. The third guy rocked: he played the bongos (technically they have a different name, but I don't now it), had some type of shaky shaky instrument tied to his leg, he pulled out finger cymbals, and wood blocks, and more throughout the different songs. Like I said, the band was good and all, but it was good background music, it's not something you could really get into. Of course there were less people paying attention to this band and people were talking. It wasn't like anyone was being super distracting or anything, but this crazy lady kept walking through the crowd yelling about how we all needed to be quiet and listen to their music. She was annoying and made everyone want to talk even more.

The third band was interesting- they ended up winning :o( They were back to being a rock band, so it was more typical and the crowd was pumped by then so the crowd's reaction to the third band was more enthused. At first I told Zac that it didn't matter what the band sounded like because I was going to enjoy watching the lead singer... but then he opened his mouth. Okay, well, when he first opened his mouth and started singing, I swooned at his voice... but THEN he started making the funniest faces when he sang and I stopped being such a big fan of the band.

It was getting late by the time the third band ended and my ride wanted to head back. We agreed that we would listen to the first song of the last band and then head out. We didn't even make it all the way through the first song. The fourth band was more intense than the others and as soon as the guitarist started doing the hard-core screaming, my car was ready to head out.

There were ups and downs to the concert, but overall, it was a super fun night!