Keane Concert

First and foremost, this has to be a HUGE shout out to my little brother Ben. Thank you thank you thank you one billion times for hooking your sister up! This was an amazing last minute thing to get to do and it's all because of you! You are the best!

So let me give you the back story: Keane. Aragon Ballroom. Opening acts are Mat Kearney and The Helio Sequence. Hello, amazing? Not only is Keane one of my favorite bands of ALL TIME (next only to U2) but the other acts are faves of mine as well. Usually the opening acts blow. So that's awesome thing number one. Awesome thing number two is that it's at the Aragon. Can you say old stomping grounds? We lived two red line stops from the Aragon when we lived in the city and saw some seriously amazing shows there back in the day. If you ever have the opportunity to see a show there, just do it. It's such a cool venue. It's a beautiful old ballroom with spanish design and wood floors - the ceiling is painted like the night sky! Awesome thing number three is that these tickets were FREE. Right??? Best date ever!! My brother saw that this girl posted she had two extra free tix on a website and got them for us! Yay!

I got so mad when Keane first started getting played on the radio. I guess for as much as I love music, I am selfish in the fact that I don't want to share it with others! I mean I do because I blog about it all the time, but you know what I mean. Radio kills songs. They get so overplayed! And I was a little worried Keane might not be as good live as they are recorded. Not true! They were even better live!

So here are a few faves from the two opening acts which were amazing....

First is The Helio Sequence. I cannot pin these guys down for crap. Sometimes they sound super 80s and sometimes this guy sounds all Bob Dylan. Either way they are soooooo great. We missed most of their songs, but here are a couple of my personal faves...

'The Captive Mind'


'Repeater'


'Can't Say No'


Mat Keaney - such an amazing artist. This guy can write! He has a brand new album coming out next week 'City of Black and White.' Get it! Here are two songs from the new album...

'Lifeline' - such beautiful lyrics - played on the show 'Army Wives' already


'Closer to Love'


Here are a couple of older Mat songs I happen to love.....

'Breathe In Breathe Out'


'All I Need'


'Nothing Left to Lose'


And Keane. What a great live show they put on! The keyboard player stole the show several times. They have this old piano that goes everywhere with them which he played, but they had several other set ups as well. They played a perfect mix of songs from each of their three albums. I couldn't stand still!!! Here are a few stand outs from the night for me...

'Everybody's Changing' - this is my all time fave of theirs. Live in CA, but you get the idea of what we got to see last night!!


'Spiraling'


'Perfect Symmetry'


'Somewhere Only We Know' - someone is singing awful!!!!!


THEN since the show got done pretty early, we went out with my brother and his friend to a little bar called The Empty Bottle (on the west side of the city) to see a very cool local band called 'Hey Champ.' My brother is friends with the keyboard player Pete. They are super talented! Here is a little bit of what they're all about.... You can catch them at Lolla this year!!!

'Cold Dust Girl'


So it was an awesome night for music! We got to see four amazing bands and had loads of fun. My playlist is rocking all of my faves from the whole night, so take a listen and enjoy!!!