Band-O-Rama

So, in case any of you didn't know, I play the mellophone in the marching band here at our school, and I love every second of it.

When I came into high school as a freshman, my mom literally had to force me to join band. I had the typical stereotype in mind for band kids, ya know? Well I was totally wrong. I ended up meeting some of the coolest people at ALHS and I had the time of my life.

Freshman year was the year that totally turned my life around....and I'm totally not saying that my life was bad before or anything, it was great! But, when I joined band unwillingly freshman year, that was the start of my friendship with Katie Mel, Mike, and Evan. And I wouldn't trade anything in the world for their friendship today.

I was extremely shy before I got to highschool. Then when I met Katie, that all changed. She totally helped to get me out of my shell, and it was awesome, because then I ended up talking to all these people I never thought I would.

That's one of my favorite things about band.  You throw all these kids together, and pretty much the only things we have in common is that we love music and can play an instrument, and somehow we all become friends.  If I wasn't in band, I wouldn't have talked to half of the people I do today, and I would have missed out on meeting some really awesome people.

But anyways, enough background information.  So, every year the Avon Lake Marching Shoremen invite around ten other bands to perform with them on a night in September.  This year, we invited the bands from Oberlin, Firelands, Elyria, Edison, Olmsted Falls, Clearview, Eastwood, and Bay Village.

This is called Band-O-Rama, and this year was the 47th annual one.

I love Band-O-Rama because it gives you a chance to see what shows other bands are doing, and it gives you a chance to meet a bunch of other kids from other cities.  It's super fun, and you can listen to another band's music without straining to hear over the sounds of a football game.

This year was pretty good I'd say!  All the bands seemed really good.  Especially Bay Village, because they did a Beatle's Medley ;D

It's always interesting to see show bands perform, because they are always very large and theatrical.  Avon Lake's band is not a show band, we're a contest band because every year we travel to and OMEA contest to get a rating.  Show bands don't go to contest and just play at football games.  So, in turn, they tend to be more laid back and do crazy things.  Last year, Edison had fire extingushers attactched to their drums and the North Ridgeville band had a kid that spun a bass drum on his back.

 I'm kinda glad that our band is a contest band, because even though I think being a show band would be EXTREMELY fun, it does give us a good goal to work towards when we go to contest.

I do wish we did different music though.  My freshman year our contest show was nautical, and included Proud Mary, and excerpt from a song in Pirates of the the Carribean, and Bridge Over Troubled Water.  It was awesome! We had a show that we did sometimes when we didn't know the nautical show well enough to perform it, and that was our Queen show, which was SOO much fun to perform.  It included Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Bohemian Rhapsody, We Will Rock You, and Fat-Bottomed Girls.

Then, my sophomore year we did a Cirque de Solei show, which had really really cool music that was fun to play, but no one really knew what it was, so it was harder for the crowd at the game to get into the music.  This year, our show is called Codes, and again, the music is really awesome, but I'm just afraid no one will be into it because it's not something you hear everyday. 

I definitely think this year we have great potential with our show.  We learned 36 pages of our drill during band camp alone, and we're moving along pretty steadily. We're already two thirds done with learning the entire show.  We just have to learn how to march the third movement completely.  So, hopefully we'll make it to states again this year :]

So, anyways.

GO BAND.

until next time.

Emily.

PAUL McCARTNEY :]

So, I can't really lie. My favorite band of all time is The Beatles. I can't help it. It's just some weird obbsession that I have. Pretty much ask me anything about them, and nine times out of ten I probably would know it.

So, about a month ago, I literally had one of the best days I've had in a long time. I got to see PAUL McCARTNEY in concert, and it was literally the best thing ever.

My friend Paige had called me early on in the summer and told me that she got tickets, and I'm pretty sure I had a heart attack or a nervous breakdown, I'm not really sure. I was so pumped.

So we road tripped down to Cincinnatti to see the concert that was to take place at the Great American Ball Park.  I couldn't believe that I was going to see Paul McCartney of The Beatles, in person. With my own eyes. I was so excited.

So after purchasing some really awesome but EXTREMELY overpriced and not very high quality T-shirts, we took our seats.




 I pretty much went into shock when McCartney came on stage and began the show.  Then, after I got out of that, I actually started to enjoy the music. 

He opened with Hello Goodbye, which he performed extremely well (Well. Duh. He's Paul McCartney.) Then he played Junior's Farm and after that he performed All My Loving. During that song, I had a total fan-girl moment. It's pretty much my third favorite song of all time, so hey, it's understandable.  I tried to videotape that one, but I was jumping around so much that it didn't really work out... Me, Paige, and the three ladies next to us did manage to get yelled at during this song by the stadium security though. All five of us were jumping up and down, clapping, and singing along to the song, and apparently the people behind us didn't appreciate it, because they didn't want to stand up and they complained to security.  We were told that we had to sit down. Which made me kind of mad, because, heck, if I just wanted to sit down and listen to Paul McCartney I could sit on my couch at home and listen to my iPod. For Pete's sake, I was at a CONCERT. But, those people ended up leaving halfway during the concert anyway (I still don't understand why you would do that, but whatever). So after that, we were free to stand up. I thought that was pretty stupid though...but enough of that.

He then performed a slew of AWESOME songs, which included Jet, Drive My Car, Sing The Changes, Night Before (which he hasn't performed live in 18 years!), Let Me Roll It, Paperback Writer, Long and Winding Road, 1985, Let 'Em In, and Maybe I'm Amazed (which personally I think is an incredible song).

He then did I've Just Seen A Face, which is a song off The Beatles's album Help! I've Just Seen A Face is one of my favorite songs EVER. My second favorite of all time to be exact :] But that was definitely one of my favorites that he performed, because I love that song. It's catchy and I love the message. He also didn't perform I've Just Seen A Face at any of the other venues on this tour. So I thought that was pretty awesome.

McCartney then followed that with I Will, Blackbird, and Here Today (it's such a sad, emotional song but it's soo good!).

He then performed Dance Tonight, which is one of his newer songs. It was released on his 2007 album "Memory Almost Full". But the song was very well performed and it amazes me that after all these years McCartney can still produce amazing songs.  He's just that awesome.



McCartney then performed Mrs. Vandebilt and Eleanor Rigby, two absolutely amazing songs.  He the made a tribute to his former band mate George Harrison.  He sang one of George's greatest songs ever, Something, while playing the ukelele and having a slide show about Harrison play in the background. It was great!

He followed that with his hit from his time with The Wings, Band on the Run.  He then performed Obla Di Obla Da, which also was one of my favorite songs he performed that night because he got the entire crowd involved and singing along.



Then he performed Back in the USSR, I've Got A Feeling, and A Day in the Life.  He then performed Let it Be, which was really awesome. I think that is honestly one of the best songs ever written, and I couldn't believe I was getting to see it performed live. It was one of the only songs I didn't tape, because I kinda just wanted to soak it up. It was AMAZING.  He then performed Live and Let Die, which is an awesome song, but it was one of my favorites in the show because of the awesome visual effects that were added. They were tons of fireworks shooting out of the top of the stage and flamethrowers spewing flames everywhere on stage. He then followed that up with Hey Jude.  Hey Jude is one of my favorite Beatles songs, as cliched as it is to say that. It was just awesome to know that I saw it performed live by a former Beatle. He also got the whole crowd involved in that one, which was SO MUCH FUN. Everyone knows the ending to that song, so after awhile McCartney just stopped singing all together and let the crowd finish the song. Let me tell you, singing along to Hey Jude with 15,000 people is a pretty good time. 



That was the end of his real, planned show, but of course, he decided to do some encores. He performed Lady Madonna, Day Tripper, and Get Back.  McCartney left the stage for the second time after he was done belting out those songs, and the crowd kept chanting for him to come back. And, thankfully, he did exactly what we asked :] He then came back to perform Yesterday and Helter Skelter. He then officially concluded the show by doing the Abbey Road Medley, which includes the songs Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, and The End.

All in all, I though the concert was ABSOLUTELY AWESOME. McCartney was so involved with the crowd throughout the concert, which just made it really awesome and fun for everyone. I'm pretty sure I linked arms and sang "Na, na, na, na, na, na, na," about 50,000 times in a row with people I didn't know, and will probably never see again, but it was just so awesome.

At the beginning of the show, there were two people in the crowd near the stage that had written two signs. One said, "Paul, sign my wife!" and the other sign said "I'm the wife, sign me!". Before the show ended, McCartney brought them both up on stage and had them introduce themselves to the crowd. Then, he actually signed the lady's shoulder, writing "Let it Be" and then his signature.  She then went to get the signature inked over and made into a tattoo. Words cannot even BEGIN to explain how jealous I am. Hahah my mom told me if Paul McCartney ever signed my shoulder, she would let me get a tattoo of it, and the only reason she said yes is because she said she knows it'll never happen. Well, whatever, I can still dream :]
Click here to see the article about this lady that got the tattoo...it's actually really cool

In general, it was just an amazing concert. I mean how could it not be. It's Paul McCartney. But I LOVED every second of it!

deuces.

Hi, I'm Emily.

"Music can change the world because it can change people."
~Bono

Hey! This will be my first official blog for journalism class. Anyways, just so you know a little bit about me, I'm currently 16 and just started my junior year. If you were looking for me, the places I would most likely be are the high school, as band takes up a lot of my time; at Arby's, my current place of employment; at the beach; in my sunroom trying to teach myself to play guitar; or hanging out with my friends. My favorite food is cheesecake and if I could travel anywhere, I would go to Paris. And that's pretty much it :] My blog will be about music, music news, music history, and just a bunch of other randomness that somehow relates to music. I wanted to write my blog about music, because quite frankly, I just love it. I listen to all types of music. Literally anything.  My favorite artists are The Beatles, Elvis Presely, The Rolling Stones, All Time Low, Billy Joel, Blink-182, Boston, Joan Jett, The Who, Nicki Minaj, The Kinks, Lady GaGa, The Offspring, OK Go, Taylor Swift, and Vampire Weekend. I'm really involved with the band program at our high school, I used to play the flute, but then I switched to playing the french horn for concert band and the mellophone for marching band. I'd like to say I play guitar, but that would be lieing. Haha I'm trying to teach myself though :]  But anyways, I hope you enjoy my blog!