Does It Feel Like A Trial...

One month from today I am going to a concert.

I know, big whoop.

This concert is going to be super special, though. It's in California, at the Hollywood Bowl. And it's The National.

Depending on the day, they are my favorite band in the world. Their music is deep, dark, haunting, soothing, sad, pensive, moody, courageous, romantic, and inspiring. They are always whatever you want them to be.

The following music video is from the song "Exile Villify", which was written for a video game. The video was created by a fan (either of the game or the band, I'm not sure) and won a contest. I know Ocarina of Time was good, but I have never been this touched by a piece of video game music.

A Little Story About Russell and Me

I already told you about my magnificent night spent at the Other Lives/Rosebuds concert a few days ago.

But I didn't tell you the whole story.

Something weird happened.

During the intermission between the two bands, a man walked into the venue who looked like this...

minus the hat.

Meet Russell, an 82-year old ready to rock it out with a bunch of music aficionados, hipsters, and drunk, dancing skanks.

Weird, you say, Badgers? It was. But we are just getting started.

Walking into the room, Russell singled me out, put his arm around me and remarked, "Here's a cool guy right here!"

Right you are, Russ. I am a cool guy.

Then things got uncomfortable.

Russell decided to tell me all the details of his night (art, dancing, and wine tasting) while he continued to have his arm around me and alternated between rubbing my arm and my flank.

For ten minutes.

Yeah, I didn't feel like there was any romantic/sexual intentions on Russell's behalf. He was pretty sauced and really, really old.

I've never been so happy for a band to start, ever.

Two for Two

Last week I was able to spend two days doing what I do best, go to concerts.

Thursday was the opening night for the 2011 Twilight Concert Series. I must say, it started off with a thud. The opening band, No Age, was so horrendous they will forever be enshrined in my Hall of Fame of Crappy Live Bands. (Hello, A Place to Bury Strangers) Luckily, the headliner Explosions in the Sky saved the day. Their music was perfectly fitting for dusk on a summer evening. After all my friends bailed, I remained at the show alone until they played Your Hand In Mine. Totally worth it. Not the best TwiCon overall, but it certainly had its moment.

The next day I was lucky to attend The Rosebuds and Other Lives at The Urban Lounge. I have been a big fan of Other Lives ever since I saw them at Lollapalooza two years ago. Their self-titled album is one of my go-to albums whenever I need to chill. Seriously, give it a try. Much to my surprise, they didn't play a single song from that album. Every song they played came from the new one, Tamer Animals. Despite my disappointment, the show was great. Their folksy sound filled the venue and reminded me of my experience listening to them for the first time. The Rosebuds (listen to this) were also a delight despite playing to a crowd well below 100. (Other Lives has some family connections that attended the first act and then left) The band highlights a couple who married and wrote their most recent album as they went through a divorce. The best moment of the night came when the band all gathered near the front of the stage to perform an acoustic version of "Nice Fox" (see below) They had what was left of the crowd huddle around the band and lead us in a sing-along. It was perfect. I wish you could have been there.

Dear Amy,

You are a freak.

I'm not trying to say that to be mean. I want to help. You see, for the longest time I thought that was all you really were. Just another freak. But then I started listening to your music. It's awesome. Someday, I want to go see one of your shows and not see the train wreck the people in Belgrade had to witness. I want to see you use your talent to produce more albums. So, why don't you just trying cleaning things up a bit. One step at a time. You can do it. And when you have given up the heroin, cocaine, meth, pills, horse tranquilizers, and whatever else is streaming through your body, I will be there. Cheering loudly and singing along.

Your optimistic fan,

The Paper Badger

Trapped

So last week I was perusing the blog of my favorite Salt Lake-based music writer, Mr. David Burger, when I came across a contest. The contest was for two free tickets to The Temper Trap concert going on tonight. To enter, you needed to write in five words or less why you wanted the tickets. I wrote, "Amazing band. I am poor." And wouldn't you know it, I won the tickets. (In possibly related news, I may have been the only person to enter.) So tonight I'll be rocking out to the Trap. Since you won't be there, enjoy one of their songs on me:

Life Changing New Porn.

...ographers. Haha. Sorry I had to go there. Just for the record, this post is in no way about about porn. It's all about these guys:

The New Pornographers (there name is a reference to when rock and roll music was dubbed "the new pornography" by some crusty square) I was just trying to be funny and use whatever means I could think of to get someone to actually read this. Anyway, moving on...

My friends and I made the trek back to Salt Lake for week 4 of the Twilight Concert Series. We've made it somewhat of a tradition to stop at Wendy's before the show. Emily and Kasie were super excited about their kid's meal toys.

We had a few minutes to kill, so I gave Spencer his own personal concert of our favorite Chuck Berry song.

Here is a pic of the stage at Pioneer Park.

The opening band, The Dodos. They were quite impressive.

My sister Shalane and my cousin Cristy joined us at the show this week. Yay! (You can tell who got the attractive genes in our family. Not me.) They elected to stay in their blanket spot while me and my friends went up closer for the main event. They thought it would give them a better chance of getting hit on.

The girls and I pose in our sweet spot. Spencer was supposed to be in this picture...

...and he was a little sad about not making it in the shot.

More gratuitous shots of ourselves...

I'm trying to show off my New Pornographers shirt here but didn't get the right angle going. Spencer is obviously the more accomplished shirt model.

And here is the band we have all been waiting for...

Notice the guy with the dark, bushy hair with his back facing the audience? That's Dan Bejar, one of the (four) lead singers in New Pornographers. He finally came on stage during the band's second song and went back stage during half the songs only to return with a full cup of beer. If he was onstage and not singing, he spent the entire time doing exactly what he is above, not looking at us.

Neko Case and Carl Newman, two more of the band's singers.

I'm pretty much in love with Neko Case. (mostly for her voice) I told her I loved her about a million times during the show. (Mostly in my head)

I had to take a picture of the guy playing the cello in background because he made a lot of weird faces while he was playing. Unfortunately, I took a picture of him during the one moment he wasn't making a weird face.

Here is Kathyrn Calder, the fourth singer in the band. What a revelation she was.

She even played the accordion!

Now that you've made it to the end of the post, you are probably wondering, was it any good. I say unto you, YES! I've been waiting to see these guys live for years and they lived up to the hype, surpassed the hype, and ran back to the hype and punched it in the face like Ronnie did in season one of Jersey Shore. They played 24 songs, each one full of energy. The talents of each member of this super-group gelled together perfectly giving the audience a euphoric trip into musical ecstasy. This will easily rank among the top 10 concerts I have ever attended. Good porn indeed. :)

Heck Yes I Went To The Justin Bieber Concert!

Many of you know me as a die-hard concert attendee. I've seen everyone from Aerosmith to Passion Pit. Last week alone I saw Ben Folds, Girl Talk, Memory Tapes, and the great Sir Paul McCartney. But none of these concerts has provided such a wide variety of insults and jealousy via my friends then when I attended the Justin Bieber concert last Saturday. I must admit, I went partly because I wanted a fun night with my friends, partly because I wanted to experience what it is like to watch a concert with thousand of screaming teenage girls (really, I did), and partly because I like the kid's music. So here you go. Bieber Fever in pictures!

Bieber Venue (The "new" Maverik Center)

My Bieber companions (Lyndsay, Maddie, and Maddie's bro Stockton)

pre-Bieber meal (Club Costa)

Bieber Swag

Bieber fans (and a Bieber thumbs up!)

a few more Bieber fans (possibly more Bieber thumbs up too)

Bieber Countdown Clock

Bieber Entrance (Loudest. Scream. Ever. I'm. Not. Kidding. Really. It. Hurt.)

Bieber Dance Move

Bieber Close-Up

Bieber Striptease (Just the jacket, folks.)

Bieber acoustic set on a heart-shaped contraption hanging over the audience while wearing something that, from our vantage point, looked exactly like long underwear

Bieber Serenade

Bieber fake climb a fake building

Bieber Backup Dancers

Bieber Matchy Matchy

Bieber Lazers!!!

Bieberfetti!

Bieber Hearing Loss

Paper Badge Approved

The Great Update

OK, first of all, sorry. I love this blog. I love feeding it, nurturing it, and caring for it like the cute little plant that it is. For some reason, April has turned into a month without blogging. I don't like this one bit. Soooooo I think you all deserve an update and some sort of excuse for why Paper Badge has turned into Paper Nothing.

Save the Semester- The #1 use of my time for the past month (those who truly know me might want to sit down for this one) has been doing homework. I'm serious. Stop laughing. After falling behind in every class due to my vacations, concerts, laziness, etc. I implemented the Save the Semester program. STS is basically just a unique way for me to say that I am studying. The 2nd best part about STS is that I have been attending class, turning in assignments, and I should pass my classes! The best part about STS is that I had a T-shirt made to promote it.

The Week of Concerts- My original plan was this: Eight days, Five concerts, Three venues, Multiple sets of friends, lots of driving, great memories, and a heck of a good time. Great plan. Didn't quite get there. When all was said and done, I attended three concerts in eight days. Muse @ the E Center on my birthday. Miike Snow at the Urban Lounge on Friday and back to the Lounge three days later for The Big Pink. All the shows were awesome and well worth the time and money.

NBA Playoffs- It's really hard to sit down and blog when there are so many good games on. Go Jazz!

Intramural Ultimate Frisbee- Six years after Cap'n Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters went down in a blaze of glory in USU Men's Intramural Ultimate, I returned to intramural sports. The Disc Jockeys, as we called ourselves, finished off the Co-ed tournament with a 3-2 record. The two losses were really bad, but overall I would consider it a success.

Stake Conference Talk- For about a week, STS stood for Save The Stake as I was assigned to speak in the Saturday evening session of my stake conference. I spoke alongside my stake presidency, two recent converts to the church, Elder Condie from the Seventy and his wife. I was a little out of place and pretty intimidated. I thought I sucked but everyone told me I did well. (Lying? Maybe.) I also was able to cross off Be Made Fun Of By A General Authority off my list of Things I Never Wanted To Happen.

That's it! Do you forgive me???????

Random Thoughts

First of all, I would like to apologize for my last post. I put all of those pictures on there with the intentions of adding some cute descriptions and stories, but it never materialized. I could add them now, but I think I will just leave things as is. It will teach me a lesson to never publish an unfinished post. I won't let that happen again (probably)...That post was intended to be part of a larger series called "Week of Concerts" as I was planning on attended three different concerts last week. Sadly, Week of Concerts turned into Week of Concert when Elton John and Billy Joel got sick and Dear and the Headlights cancelled. The one concert I did attend was amazing...My plans on graduating in May might be pushed back a few months as I am diligently laboring to fail my rhetoric class. It will probably now be a summer graduation, but who really knows at this point? Anything can happen...One of my worst feelings is when I show up to work at 7 a.m. and turn on ESPN to find The Sports Reporters is on. This show single handedly makes one of the most naturally exciting things (sports) boring. It is the equivilant of being a kid and hoping to watch Simpsons only to find that the President has taken over every channel. Heart breaking...Speaking of sports, watching Real Salt Lake win the championship last night on penalty kicks was pure joy. I've never seen them play before yet I was still jumping up and down yelling like I was their biggest fan. It has to rank as one of my best sports memories in the non-Jazz/Utes/49ers category. Congrats to them...Thanksgiving is next week. Best holiday out there in my book. Love it.

Tuesday Night