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The Night Marchers // Grove at Anaheim

Opening Band // The Night Marchers

John Reis has great stage pressence guy is a ball of energy! Which is more then I can say for his other 2 guitarist. The bassist Tommy Kitsos and Guitarist Gar Wood were horrible! Kitsos has no soul at all! Gar Wood, I don’t know what to say about this guy. I think he is a leech. He added nothing to the band, he played exactly what John Reis played. So my question is why is he needed? He added nothing to the band.

I think the John and his drummer Jason Kourkounis need to go find a Bassist and lead guitarist that in the words of Eddie Van halen, HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY. These guys while fun to watch will go no where till they find guys that can make the band better. I would have loved watching John and Jason jam out.

They aren’t Duke Spirit or Plain White Tees bad but they lack the pieces to be a headline band until they ditch the slugs. Make the call John and be the Bad guy and you are destined for something more.

Opening Band Rating:

VENUE // Grove at Anaheim

Postives

I like that it’s location pretty easy to deal, plus lots of local hotels because Disneyland is so Close. I like the lounge area, it was pretty comfortable and well designed. Had fabric from floor to ceiling very cool. Staff was friendly, bouncers weren’t arrogant douche bags.

Negatives

I am not a big fan of General Admission standing because everyone acts like Douche Bags, especially in Orange County. Not sure what it is about SOME Orange County people that bug me but people here were very Self-Absorbed, arrogant and inconsiderate. I didn’t like that they wouldn’t let me go out and put the 3 t-shirts I bought in the car. So I was forced to care them around all night. Doesn’t really encourage people to buy stuff from the bands.

After the Open Band was finished people began to rudely push their way through the crowd to get a better view. At one point two fat chicks pushed their way in front of the guy next to me, who ended up being obnoxious. At one point he knocked into me, we really lucky it only happened once. I wasn’t in the mood to be in a mosh pit at a modest mouse concert with a bunch of yuppy spoiled OC kids. There was another guy with this goofy emo hair that would jump up and down like he was at a Avril Lavigne concert… later he ended up shoving his way through the crowd knocking everyone around and stomping on Lauren toes. He was lucky I didn’t find out about that till much later.

Needless to say… these inconsiderate, self-absorbed, pretentious, quiksilver wearing, soul-less [did I get everything? Think so] Really took away from people’s concert experience. Sorry, Someone had to say it…

Concerts in Orange County are never as good as LA. Venue Rating:

Yelp Reviews from Trip

Anaheim Marriott Rating:

Jamba Juice Rating:

ESPN Zone Rating:

Grove of Anaheim Rating:

In N Out Rating:

Carrows Rating:

“The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.” –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Jaycee Lee Dugard is the girl that snatched by the deranged sexual predator in 1991 and held captive. I have stressed over and over again to Lauren and any lady I care that right now is time to be extra vigilant. Mothers be extra cautious of your children, ladies quit making excuses for guys! You need to require MUCH MORE FROM THEM! While much of that rant doesn’t pertain to Jaycee’s situation. I can’t help but have mixed feelings about this situation. I am sure the family is happy to be reunited with their daughter…

My soul is in such agony over this! I will share something that has shaped who I am today, and that is my mother coming from the most terrible of circumstances. Sexual, Emotional, Physical abuse! Not to go in to too much detail as my mother has only shared pieces of her past, it would be difficult to find a worst case of child abuse in America, on a scale of 1 to 10, I would guess she ranks between a 7 and 8. Most ladies under these circumstances usually become street walkers, drug addicts and prostitutes. They do their very best to ensure their life FEELS good and ends as soon as possible. My mother had the courage to stand in the face of these great circumstances and make the absolute best of them! And She did! I have such respect for her! I feel as though her story is part of my story, which gives me a sense of great responsibility to make my world and the world around me to be a better place.

Read More >>

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” –Albert Einstein

It’s Friday and I am Finishing up my first week of the New Fall Semester.  Getting use to this schedule, I think I may dig this schedule.  Less gas and less running around town.  Most of Tuesday was spent messing around because the only class that didn’t get out early was Algebra.  My Graphic Design classes seem to be easy, but I am really going to push the limits to make sure I get the most out of the opportunity.

Geography

I enjoy this teacher she is very quirky and easy to follow, something I need from a science teacher!  I love science, I just suck at it.  I don’t hate Scientist though, just ask Lauren.

Computer Illustration

Love Jenkins.  His digital imaging class did wonders for my photoshop skills!  Now I am taking him again in this class and hoping that he does that same with my illustrator.  I look forward to this class!

Intro to Digital Media

This is our departments catch-all 101 class.  It is going to be pretty mind numbing at times like Graphic Design 1 was, but I think I can push the envelope.  We are starting off with a photography project, I am thinking about creating some very pretty HDR images.

Algebra

Maybe I am being naive but I think I am going to better in this class.  We actually started back further then my last class!  The Teacher is very easy to understand!  One thing that sucked was another goofy student knocked my book when we walked by and spilt my coffee all over the place!

Rabbit is the 8th album from the Alt Rock Group Collective Soul. It has been exciting watching Collective Soul promote the Album and Tour through Twitter. I wrote a few weeks back about the very cool contest they have been having called Paying it Forward.  It is refreshing to see a band that interacts so much on a personal level with their fans!  WAY TO GO GUYS!

In my opinion Collective Soul is a highly underated band.  Ed Roland’s singing is always excellent, but collective soul is not just another average rock band with a unique singer.  Their music is beaming with, well Soul!  Rabbit is no exception, this album has great flow and rhythm.  I got the feeling from their Twitter posts that they were pretty proud of this album and knew they poured every thing they had into it, which shows!  Rabbit hit stores yesterday and I would recommend picking it up!

Collective Soul is coming to Los Angeles in a couple weeks going to do my best to make it out, I have never had the chance to see them live. I have my suspicions that they are one of those bands that can’t be fully captured in the studio.

Overall Album Rating:   Grade = A

Related Links

Read Artist That Rock Blog >>
Read About Paying Forward Contest >>
Follow Collective Soul On Twitter >>

I have always been a big ska fan, that goes back to my conservative Republican Days when I would rock the O.C. Supertones.  Still in my opinion one of the best Ska band I have ever heard.

These guys remind me a little of them at times.  If you aren’t familiar with Ska, it is a genre that was precursor to reggae, that later was influenced by punk and morphed into what you will hear on this album.  So think Punk with brass horns!  Roll The Dice is a very fun album.

If you like Ska or would like to hear something new, I would pick up this album

Overall Album Rating:   Grade = B-