How is it already 2020? Its already a week into the new year, is it too late to post a reflection of the last decade? I don't know, I don't care. I started this in 2019 for that's worth, I just solidly procrastinated and am going to continue anyway. I was a little bit nervous to share this, because its not just about the music. Its about life, and its all real. A good handful of people spoke up on the Facebook page and said yes they would like to hear about life and the music that's impacted me, so here I am. I hope you guys enjoy, and please feel free to share some of the stuff that's impacted you over the last ten years. Or even just year, if you would like. Without further a due, here goes nothing.
Time really flies. I swear it was just 2012, what happened? My mom always said time starts flying as you get older, and as a kid I solidly did not believe her. Thought she was just being dramatic or something. It always drug by when I was little, and I couldn't wait to grow up and be an adult. What the hell did I sign up for? Excuse me, this is not what was advertised at all, and I would like a refund. Thank you. I'm joking, I swear. Except for the time flying thing, that was dead serious. So much has happened in the last decade, and I have to say this one helped define who I am. This was the first decade of my adult life, seeing as I turned eighteen in 2011. Hell, it was probably 2008 or so when I started really getting into rock and metal, which obviously makes a massive difference. I'm sure I don't even have to explain that one, given where you're reading this. A friend of mine, whom I actually met through music, and then ended up bonding over music journalism with inspired this post. Her name is Hali Neal, and she made an article for her music journalism platform, When Music Speaks, reminiscing on her favorite albums of the decade. She sent me a draft of it to look over, so I read a slightly different version than what you will see when you go to her site. Which you should totally do, by clicking here. I asked her if I was allowed to steal her idea, and she said I was, so here we are! I wanted to take the time to reflect, and talk about some of my favorite albums from the past ten years as well. Because honestly, I could instantly think of a couple I wanted to include, and for very personal reasons. Now some of this, I was a little bit uneasy to share publicly, out of fears of being judged but you know what? I think I want to go into 2020 with less fear, and everyone has something in their life that they've been troubled by, so fuck it. Get comfortable, this is going to be a long, reflective road. First though, we have to rewind to just before the decade started. Back to 2009, when I was sixteen, and just truly beginning to shift into loving rock music. I had been looking into some of it for a while, but only a year or two I would say. At the time, I solidly remember my favorite bands were the Jonas Brothers, All Time Low, Three Days Grace, and Bullet For My Valentine, and I started going to a church youth group, not for religious reasons at all, but just to make friends. Sure enough, I did make friends, some of which I am still friends with to this day. Actually met a couple of my best friends there. One actually introduced me to the other, and they both helped fill the mold I had already opened. They both highly encouraged the music, and included me with their other interests, such as some movies and YouTube, which made all the difference. It was actually one of them introducing me to Bryan Stars Interviews that lead me to wanting to do journalism properly in the first place. I actually was already low key dabbling with it at the time, but it was very subtly and I hadn't fully put two and two together at that point. It mostly started in 2010 when I started the Facebook page that is now for Immortal Music. Originally, it was its own stand alone place for me to share my love of music with complete strangers called Music= Life. I actually started it at a time in my life when I felt very alone, and I guess I just needed the outlet, but it obviously turned into a lot more. At the time, I don't even think I really bothered to try to define myself. Looking back it it, I wasn't that different than I am now, except I think I was more of a doormat and was just trying to make something of myself. At that point in my life, I wanted to be a graphic and web designer, and my only real identifiers were a Disney loving, Jonas Brothers obsessed girl. I really don't think there was much else to me, looking back at it. It was actually this time in my life that brings me to the first album I want to talk about, which was Life Starts Now by Three Days Grace. This was the first TDG to come out after I was a fan of them. I had known about them for most of their career, but didn't really get into them until sometime between when One-X came out and this one. At the time this album came out, I was feeling completely hurt by people. I was homeschooled and at that particular time, felt like a complete outcast from my entire group. This album was pretty much brand new at the time, and at some point I realized if you rearranged the track listing, it pretty much walked you through the process of putting people behind you. Or maybe that was just me being emo as shit, I don't really know. Either way, that album is still one of my go to albums when I'm feeling moody, or need to calm down. old Three Days Grace will forever hold a special place in my heart. My favorite songs on the album are, "Life Starts Now", "Break" and "Someone Who Cares." Fast forward a couple years, and honestly life was pretty good. I started properly doing journalism in 2011, and I would say 2012 was the biggest year for me, journalism wise. Ironically, when I think of this time, there actually wasn't a stand out album immediately. I think I was listening to so much good music that it took a moment to really pin point any albums. I have more memories from events and concerts than I do specific albums. I knew I wanted to give an honorable mention somewhere to Shinedown, and honestly I was a bit torn on what album to give a mention to. I love pretty much all of their work, and they've had three wonderful albums this decade. The first of the decade was Amaryllis, which came out in 2012, and does house one of my favorite songs from them. That one is "Unity" and if you haven't heard it, you absolutely should. It embodies the feeling you get during a concert, where you just feel whole and everything's okay. Shinedown has done so much for me this decade, and I wish I could have known when I discovered them just how special they would be to me. I'm jumping around a bit with my timelines here, but it all goes together, so whatever, it still works. I hold them very close to my heart for many reasons, but primarily because if it weren't for them, I solidly believe Immortal Music would not have gotten as far as it has. In 2014, their guitarist Zach Myers did an incredible acoustic show with his best friend Justin Moore. They had absolutely no set list, no time limit, just played whatever they wanted. It was just two friends sharing the love of music, and it was seriously one of the best things I've ever seen. That night, I also interviewed Zach and Justin, and Zach told me he didn't particularly like doing interviews but said yes because he liked how I asked. I also realized the next morning, that was sheer luck. I thought I had emailed his manager, but had never heard back. I asked him in person and he said he thought there was something he forgot to answer to, so go ahead. Yeahhhh I never sent the email. In fact, its still in my drafts to this day, despite being almost six years ago. I never plan on deleting it either, just because I find it slightly hilarious. But then on top of that wonderful experience, the next day I posted a recap of the entire night, and Shinedown actually shared it. That caused me to get about triple the daily views for a few days, and it stayed around until I stopped posting as frequently. If I ever get a chance to personally thank them, I will. They have no idea how much they've helped me, and I know usually its lyrically. They have so many fantastic songs, and they are one I turn to when I need a distraction or comfort, but that's the biggest thing they've done for me. Also, random fun fact. In the commentary video for "Asking For It", I'm positive Zach is talking about me, because he mentioned I question I asked that was uncommon. Nobody can convince me otherwise. Back tracking again, just to 2013 really quick. That was a rather hard year, and I admit, I was nearly completely inactive on the website that year. That year we lost my dog, my childhood home and my great grandma. I don't remember actively turning to much that year, but I do remember listening to Sempiternal from Bring Me The Horizon a good handful, as well as Ungrateful by Escape The Fate. Sempiternal was one I was a little late to, it had been out five or six months before I gave it a shot. The reason being, I didn't like BMTH before that album. Lyrically I liked them, but sound wise, I couldn't stand it. So when I heard some of the hype with Sempiternal and how different it was from anything they had ever done, due to Oli's vocal injuries and rehabilitation from his addiction, I got curious. And oh my god, did that end up getting put on repeat for months. Same thing happened when That's The Spirit came out, three years later. We'll get to that in a bit though. My favorite albums from Sempiternal are, "Go To Hell For Heaven's Sake", "Antivist", and "Can You Feel My Heart?" As for Ungrateful, I just listen to all of ETF's stuff. They've been toward the top of my radar since right around the time Ronnie Radke went to jail and Craig Mabbitt joined. So whenever they have a new album, I tend to listen to it right away. That album is arguably one of their best, and I find myself turning on a lot of the songs often. My absolute favorites are "You're Insane" and "Ungrateful" though. I also had a phase for a while where "Live Fast and Die Beautiful" was my favorite, and while I still like it, I have absolutely no idea why it was my favorite at one point in time. Really can't explain that one to anyone, I just really liked it. Skipping ahead once again to 2016, which if I'm honest, was probably the hardest year of my life. This is also the year I've been slightly afraid to talk about, just due to some sensitive things that happened that year. But they deeply effected me, and are things I think of basically daily, and some music really did help me get through it all. In the summer of 2016, I broke up with my boyfriend of a year, as well as did my last interview. All in the same day, I might add. That was with Lacey Strum, formerly of Flyleaf, and if I'm honest, events that happened not long after that, kind of overshadowed it. The only thing I remember really from that interview is getting on the bus, her standing up to introduce herself to me, and then me realizing she was shorter than me. Well, and her offering me pickles out of the jar she was eating, to which I said yes because I too love pickles. About a month and a half, two months later, I got into a relationship with someone I now see saw an opportunity and took advantage of my vulnerable situation. I didn't see it at the time, but hindsight is 20/20. Fitting considering the new year, isn't it? I actually smirked at that as I wrote it, but this is where things get serious, so moving on. Not too long after that, I got pregnant. It completely blind-sighted me, mostly because I always thought if that was to happen, I would be happy about it. Scared sure, but I've always loved babies and little kids, I've always said I wanted my own. But something didn't feel right, some gut feeling was practically screaming that this was wrong. I tried to get excited, even bought some baby stuff in hopes that maybe bringing it more to reality would make me more excited. But it didn't. I still tried to tell myself it was fine, it was just new and scary, and I would end up loving them. The father was extremely excited, as he thought he couldn't have kids at all, so he tried to keep my excitement up some. Then one evening, we went to a restaurant, and I got a call from my best friend who lives out of state. By some force of nature, she had also found out she was pregnant, not long after me. She was surprisingly rather excited about the idea, and we both joked that we clearly couldn't do anything on our own. But this call wasn't a good one. She stepped away from celebrating her marriage, and asked if I could talk to her for a second. She sounded really upset, and of course I said yes. And I will never forget what she said. "We're pretty sure I'm having a miscarriage." I instantly started crying, I felt horrible because deep down I knew how I felt, and she had been so happy to be in the same situation. We didn't talk for long, but as soon as I hung up, my boyfriend asked what was wrong. It was then I finally admitted to myself and to him how I really felt. The words that slipped out of my mouth were, "Why is it her and not me?" That started a lot of things. We left the restaurant, and he solidly tried to tell me he would just keep the baby and I wouldn't have to be involved at all. I couldn't do it, I didn't want some child being out in the world knowing their mother didn't want them. There's too many kids in this world already that have to deal with that, and I didn't want that. You guys see where this is going, don't you? I had horrible cramps every single day, and I still solidly think I more than likely would have miscarried anyway, just due to the pains I was having. On November 17, 2016, I had an abortion, and I don't regret it one bit, but I do think about it every single day. He didn't come with, and at the time, that really hurt, but looking back at it, I don't blame him for not wanting to be there. He was just as hurt as I was, just in different ways, and I have no doubt he thinks about it most days too. I was the only woman there that didn't have their significant other there supporting them, instead I had my mom, and the Planned Parenthood staff was incredible. They all were so sweet, open and comforting, and there was one lady in particular I couldn't be more grateful to. When I went back to the room, they told me there was a lady, who's name I unfortunately do not remember at all, that would be in to check on me before the doctor showed up. She came in, asked how I was feeling, and volunteered to sit with me and hold my hand. I solidly do not think I could have gone through with it without her. I had my iPod playing, and I do remember it was a playlist of nothing but Three Days Grace and Shinedown, but I don't remember what songs played in the midst of it, and the whole experience was over in maybe four minutes. I remember the feeling all too well, and I will not describe it for you, but this woman held my hand tight and talked to me about the Lion King Broadway show. I have "Hakuna Matata" tattooed on my arm, she saw that and latched on, just started telling me how beautiful it was live. I saw the mini one they have at Animal Kingdom a few months later, and have seen it two more times since then, and I solidly admit, I've remembered that conversation and I have teared up every time. After it was all over, I was in a lot of pain, and have never actually been fully the same since. I found myself turning to music a lot again, and Disney movies. I had some good friends around that helped a lot too. But this isn't about all that, and I admit, I was terrified to put any of that out there. Hell, a couple of the friends that helped me through that time, probably just heard me admit that was what I did for the first time. I told a lot of people it was a miscarriage, just out of fear of being judged. But it is part of my life, and it shouldn't be such a stigma. People shouldn't be afraid to talk about things that have really affected them. I realized while I was clarifying the years certain albums came out that one I was listening to a ton around this time, came out right in the midst of it all. Lifelines by I Prevail was on repeat for me, along with That's the Spirit through all of this. I also remember listening to "Cry" by The Used a lot, but not the rest of the album a ton. I think that was just out of anger, and trying to fight the tears.Also really liked Melanie Martinez' debut album, which I know was fairly new in 2016. That was a weird one for me to really get into, as I don't particularly like modern pop or female singers much. For some reason I did though, and "Mad Hatter" was a staple song for a very long time. That probably was a bit random to mention here, but it was definitely something I listened to a lot at the time. It didn't really have any emotional depth for me personally, I just liked it. I'm sure those weren't the only things I turned to at the time, but that's primarily all I'm remembering. There's on a few more albums I really want to give mentions to, and they're not as situational. They're just genuinely really good albums. Those are Disease by Beartooth and Trauma by I Prevail. I don't really have a ton of reasons for those, except they're incredible albums. If I'm honest, this is the only Beartooth album I like in full. There's a few other songs here and there I like from their previous albums, but this one hit on a different level for me. I can't really put my finger on it, and I actually am surprised I can still listen to them. I was really hooked on "Afterall" and "Believe" in a time where I was out on my own. Every time I listen to "Afterall" I remember walking to the bus stop to go just about anywhere from my house. It was stuck in my head for a couple months, so every time I would go to leave the house, it would be playing. For a little while, that memory, along with a few others connected to the song stung but it somehow never ruined the song for me. As for the Trauma album, it hit on a whole new level for me, and I got to see them live last year. That was sincerely one of the most therapeutic times of my life ever. It was the first time I had ever gone to a show where I had nothing on me. I didn't even have my phone on me for their performance, I just was standing on the stairs of the pit, screaming my heart out. It unlocked something for me, and I've been completely hooked on "Bow Down" ever since. I already loved it, already loved the whole album, though it was fairly new at the time. This show as back in August, and I thought I wrote about it but I didn't apparently. That whole album is just insanely good to me, like I truly don't think I've felt so attached to an album in years. I can't even pick favorites because I think they're all my favorites. If I really think about it, I think I find myself turning on "Bow Down", "Hurricane" and "Rise Above It" the most. "Bow Down" is honestly the opposite of my personality. Its strong, its powerful, a person like that takes no shit. Its got the kind of energy I would like to have more of. If you know me, I've said for years that "Scars" by Papa Roach is my favorite song, because it defines me. My weakness is that I care too much, so for this to also be one of my favorite songs is weird. I fully admit that, they can't be more different. That was just a weird realization I had while writing this, but for real though, one is about caring too much and being there for someone who is barely doing anything for themselves even, and the other is straight up taking no shit. Though I guess that's not too weird, because in the end of "Scars" even, he still walks away. He stops being everyone's doormat, so I guess in a way, that's where I'm at too. They do kind of go hand in hand. Sometimes you have to care far too much in order to get to the point of doing things for yourself and taking less shit. Don't you love it when you get all deep with yourself when its not even your intent? Well, its 2020 now, and this year, I want to do more of what makes me happy. I want to get back to my love of music, and I want the confidence I feel like I lost over the years. I'm already working on bringing the love of music back, I've been listening to it just for fun again, I'm back hanging out with my musician friends and going to local shows again. I'm practicing my photography and just trying to do more for myself. Its not a new years resolution, it was something I started probably last summer, mentally anyway. Hopefully I have you guys along for the ride, for the fun and the love of music. Thank you so much for being there for the last almost ten years. Please let me know some of the stand out stuff in your life, music included, and here's to another ten years. Thank you so much for your support, I honestly would have deleted this if it weren't for so many of you speaking up with interest.
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Over the years, I've shared a lot. A lot of memories, both good and bad, a lot of events, thoughts and music. Immortal Music has been practically part of my identity since before I turned eighteen, so its really been a massive part of my adult life. A lot has happened, and a lot has changed over the years.
The changes have happened naturally, and if you look through the archived posts, you can very easily see the times where I was more active, and when I was practically a ghost. The ghost times were usually harder times, whether it was life getting in the way or a burn out, they still happened. But I've been missing the warm feelings, and true satisfaction I have always felt while doing this stuff. So I want to bring it back, but I want to bring it back to the roots of Immortal Music. I want to talk, just for fun, and talk about music just for the love of it. I lost sight of that at some point along the way. I grew more concerned about being professional and being taken seriously, so I never wanted to show too much of the fan side. That does exclude the Facebook page, for some reason I've always used that as somewhat of an outlet for myself. I don't know why that was a loophole and never will. If I'm honest though, I'm getting back to that point where I don't care anymore. I already have a basically full time job where I have to be professional to a certain degree, I have to be taken seriously. Immortal Music doesn't feel like that place anymore, and I miss the fun of it. I miss gushing about my favorite bands with complete strangers who share my passion for music too. Hell, I was looking back at some of my early reviews the other day and I straight up did not care at all about what others thought. Seriously, I compared someone to a dying cat because I just didn't like his vocals. Somewhere along the line, I got where I wanted to always be semi postive, even if I didn't like something. Which I don't understand, this whole website is mine. All the opinions are mine, and I know its okay to not like someone's work. I think I got to a point where I knew people were seeing my words, and I didn't want to hurt someone when they put in so much hard work on something. Why though? Just because I said I didn't like something, didn't mean others don't love it. Its okay to speak up, and nobody ever told me otherwise, so I don't get why that changed. With that though, I also kept a lot of memories from shows off the website. In fact, every one of my absolute favorite memories from a show were not ever written about. I always left those moments out of my recaps for each event. Sometimes it was just to shorten an already long post, but sometimes it was because it felt unprofessional or like I was bragging. Yet every person I've ever told those stories to have either laughed their asses off or been fascinated. So why not share those stories? I'm positive others will love them too, if anyone ever sees anything. Algorithms on everything are sort of fucked right now, so frankly I get discouraged ever posting. I feel like I'm talking to myself half the time, which is why I get super excited when anyone interacts. It proves me wrong, and shows me that people are still out there. Thank you to anyone who actually does that for me, you have no idea what that means to me. So, to try to bring that back, I'm going to start sharing some of those memories. I have stories from 2011 all the way up to now basically that I've never told you guys. Some revolve around interviews, others are just small moments that are so vivid to me from festivals or other concerts. Hell, I might even share some stories about Remedy X, the band I managed for several years. Some of you probably didn't even know about them, because while I talked about them, I didn't often associate myself with them on Immortal Music. I wanted to give them their own spotlight, not completely tie my brand to theirs, even though they were really connected. Fun fact; I technically started helping them before I officially started doing Immortal Music. I officially started this website in September 2011, but I met Remedy in November 2010, and I think I started managing them in July 2011, so it was just slightly longer. I have so many stories involving them too, we have a lot of good memories and sometimes I miss managing a band just because of them. Soon I will begin sharing them, all probably in random order. This is simply the announcement post for the first series I've had in a very long time. This series will be called Faded Memories, and that name actually references "Bully" by Shinedown. Absolutely no reason, it just came to me, along with the lyric. So, stay tuned and please share any stories you have as well! I would love to hear your fun adventures through music. Honestly anything involving music tends to make me happy, so anything goes really. As always, thank you so much for reading, for interacting, ect, and keep coming back because I really am hoping to get back into the fun of all of this, and I would love to have you along for the ride. Warning: This post has a handful of spoilers for All Time Low's Its Still Nothing Personal, and the documentary that goes with it. It also shows a slightly less professional version of Immortal Music, as frankly I was enjoying myself and did not feel like hiding any of it, and I wanted to be real with anyone who actually gave a shit. This post took a turn I didn't expect but its nice honestly, and I kind of hope All Time Low sees this just to see that they are inspiring people in ways they didn't even intent. If you have not listened to the album, or watched the documentary and wish to avoid spoilers, I would recommend coming back to this post at another time. I also already did a review of Its Still Nothing Personal just this morning, so please click here to read that as well. I really appreciate your support, and I'm sure All Time Low does as well. Now that the disclaimer is over, we can get into the fun stuff. Carry on with me. I decided to write this right as I was watching the 45 minute documentary, so all the thoughts expressed in this post are quick and genuine. If you haven't watched the documentary, as I said prior, you will get spoilers so, please watch it before continuing on. I don't want to ruin it for anyone. I also want to just take a moment to completely drop the professionalism for a moment, and say how thoroughly impressed I am with this revisit. I have already listened to it all the way through twice this morning, and "Lost in Stereo" has already grown on me. I said in the review that the screams felt random and out of place, but after listening to it a time or two, I love it. There's also aspects that come with this whole journalism thing that make me never want to admit publicly when I geek out about something. It feels like fangirling, and I don't want to be seen as a fangirl. However, I just want to say I absolutely love the vocal style Alex Gaskgarth went with for this entire album, particularly on "Weightless." I borderline gushed about it in the review, but I'm really gushing about it in real life. That vocal style should be kept for all future work, that's all I'm going to say.
See, even there. I can't bring myself to bluntly say what I really want to say, so I turn it into that. Which is stupid, I guess because this whole post is kind of fangirling over All Time Low, so whatever. Plus you can probably piece together what I want to say. Anyway, moving on to the documentary. I now see why the album felt very similar to the live shows, that's because it was recorded live. Still in studio, but it wasn't all pieced together the same, which is really cool. I really think its interesting whenever a band films in studio, you get to see the passionate, the process, just all of it. I can't really explain why that's cool to me, but someone out there understands, I'm sure. That's really interesting too, Alex said "Weightless" came out of a place of writers block, and said that one had just hit differently at the time. That's always been one of my favorite songs, and apparently that's how the band all felt too, so I found that very interesting. I love that they're talking about what inspired each of the songs, I always wonder about that stuff with basically any album from any artist. We can't get this kind of content for every single song for any album ever, but I'm a big lyric person, and a writer myself, so hearing about the writing process is fascinating. Jack also said he's completely adamant about playing "Lost In Stereo" live, as well as "Break Your Little Heart." I'm not surprised, they're both very upbeat, and a lot of fun live, and he's a guitarist so of course he thrives on the energy. Reminds me of the first time I saw them live, though I can't remember for the life of me what they were playing at the time. Jack got the idea to climb onto the speaker, and nearly kicked me in the process. I ended up slammed into the stage because fans flooded the barricade to get to him. He actually saw that and apologized, and I scared Alex because I started to climb up onto the stage to get away from being crushed. Well, that and I had my friend's mom's $1,000 Nikon in my hand and I really didn't want that to get damaged. Alex saw this though and gave me a look like "Please don't." and looked really concerned, so I didn't. Only time that ever happened, I might add. I wish I had a picture of either of their faces when that happened, honestly. I have pictures surrounding that moment, but not that. I actually looked it up out of curiosity and found the entire setlist for that tour, which was the Rockshow At The End of the World tour in 2012, and if this is correct, it was "Shameless." I'm sorry, I guess this post was less about the documentary, and more about me having fun while watching it. I haven't done this in a while, and I kind of have been trying to get back of my love of music again. That's all I even started this website for, was to share my love of music. And sometimes that comes with borderline fangirling, and I think I need to accept that. Not everything has to be fine crafted and perfectly professional, I have to have fun with it too. I shouldn't hide when I'm really excited about a band, a song or an album, and its all in my head that it looks bad. I really don't think it does look bad, more people probably have fun with it. Like shit, there's so many stories you guys have never heard from concerts, because they felt unprofessional. Almost all of my favorite memories from any show I've ever covered actually have never been shared publicly because I was afraid they would be seen as unprofessional in some way. Which is ridiculous, because at the end of the day, what does it matter? So if anyone sees this and actually wants to hear those stories, let me know. Hell, I have a story from the All Time Low show I mentioned there, and conversations with other fans from the second time I saw them as well. The thing is, I rarely actually remember the set lists or the show itself fully. Its always moments unrelated to the show itself that stick with me, but they usually come from a struggle or me being in the right place at the right time, or something like that. Well, this blog post took a turn. I meant it to be a stream of consciousness about the All Time Low documentary only, and it ended up inspiring me to get back to what originally got me to start Immortal Music. Just randomly rambling about music. I hope All Time Low knows they inspire all sorts of things and all sorts of people in many different ways. I'm going to shut up now, but I want to say I'm extremely proud of them and will continue to support them. Go get the new album, go watch the documentary. Please check out my review, and please keep interacting. You have no idea how happy your support makes me. I've felt incredibly discouraged for the past couple years, but Immortal Music is still part of who I am, so whenever I do get interaction, it truly makes my day. Something happened at work last night that I found very amusing, and I thought a lot of you out there would as well, so I wanted to share. It was something very brief, just a quick little conversation between my assistant manager and myself. But in order for it to actually be humorous, not just complete nonsense, I had to give the back story. That made it a bit long winded, so while I did already post it on the Facebook page, I felt like making it a regular blog post here on the website. Hence why you're seeing it here, right? If you did already see this post on the page, I apologize. If you didn't already see this, keep on reading, there's quite a bit of back story with a little joke at the end. I did word things different so those who have already seen this might not get bored, and I am adding some more depth to this. I also am taking the opportunity to give a shout out to my assistant manager, Justin. I did get his permission to do this, and thought I could take the time to give him a shout out for his own endeavors. He has a gaming channel that he is trying to grow, called Endoplasmite and I wanted to do whatever I could to try to support him. Please go give his channel, and Twitch with the exact same name some love. As you might know, I am not a gamer, so I cannot properly explain gaming channels, but I can say he's very dedicated and has a lot of fun. He's been working very hard to get back in the groove of streaming and uploading, and I want to try to celebrate all the hard work he's putting in. I know that is completely unrelated to what I usually talk about here, but we support our friends here, and I think everyone can get behind that. Now that I interrupted myself with basically a brief commercial, I can get into your properly scheduled programming. The two of us work together a lot, and because whoever picks our music clearly likes to torture people, I turn on my iPod a lot at work. If you've been around for a while, or even have just poked around the website some, you probably already have a good guess on what my daily playlist consists of. He, however, listens to a lot of classic rock, and off shoots from the 70's, 80's, even 60's. Bands and artists like Billy Joel, The Beatles, Elton John, ect. So obviously things I listen to, such as I Prevail, A Day To Remember, Shinedown, ect, aren't quite his usual cup of tea. But, due to how often I turn on my iPod at work, he's begun to pick up on artists, and I think he's actually starting to like some of it. Because our differing music tastes though, somehow we have formed a running joke where he will sarcastically name the completely wrong band for whatever is playing. Such as asking if its Disturbed when its Panic! At The Disco. Please picture this with the same tone you read this Spongebob meme; Every now and then though, he will acknowledge when he does know a band to me. I do think silently it happens more often, but he doesn't say anything often to me. Last night though, a My Chemical Romance song came on. Don't ask me what song, for the life of me I do not recall now. Though oddly, I do remember it was on Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. Go figure, right? Memories are weird.
He was working on something not too far away, and then asks, "Is this the same band that does Black Parade?" I told him yes, it was. That was immediately followed with, "...My Chemical Romance, right?" I told him yes again, and said I was very proud of him for that. We both agreed he's learning his stuff, and we all know me with music knowledge. It always makes me happy when someone is learning new things about any music really, especially when its through me. About ten minutes passes, I'm ringing out a sale, and "Welcome To The Black Parade" actually does come on. He was just at the other register, so I said, "Hey, you know this song." He almost immediately, once again in the mocking Spongebob tone says, "Is this Panic! At The Disco?" I laughed and said it was similar, because most of us know the Emo Trinity. For those who don't, that's Panic! At The Disco, Fall Out Boy, and My Chemical Romance. Or at least it was, before MCR self destructed. Too soon? Sorry. We'll carry on. He chuckled and in a totally serious tone responds with, "Just kidding, I know its 30 Seconds To Mars." And just walked away. Maybe that is only truly funny to me, but I completely cracked up. The lady I was ringing up was laughing as well, though I am wondering if that was solely because I was laughing, Then I just wanted to share that with you guys, because maybe I'm not the only one that would find that funny as hell. Maybe its just the little things, I don't know. Hopefully someone other than just me got a laugh out of this, or if nothing else, appreciated that I posted again? I am hoping to get that back on track, but let's face it, I've said that so many times before with no result at all. So no promises, but know you guys are still always on my mind, and I love you. This website will forever have a special place in my heart even if I'm not active on it. Go give Justin some love, once again his name is Endoplasmite on both YouTube and Twitch. Also, feel free to tell me any of your funny music related stories. I'll talk to you guys soon with who knows what kind of content. We will just have to wait and see. So, I saw a picture on Facebook asking 30 songs regarding music. I shared it on the page, one person did try to ask some specific questions, and I tried to answer but my phone spazzed out and deleted all my answers. Someone else had said they would like to see the answers to all the questions, so with those two things combined, I decided just to write it all down and share it here.
Also felt like I would take a moment to thank everyone for their support. I recently made a post celebrating ten years of the page, but I have since come to a realization. I cannot count. Its been 9 years, not ten. But I really liked the post the way it was, so I didn't want to change it. The Facebook page for this website is nine years old, while the website just turned eight yesterday. Since I so recently did the post for the website, I didn't feel like writing a whole other one. It felt like they would be too similar. I still felt like acknowledging it, so thank you so, so, so much for your love and support. You seriously have no idea what it all means to me, especially that some of you lost track and are now resurfacing and being just as supportive as ever. Now enough with the cheesiness, let's get into this. 1. A Song With A Color In The Title- My brain instantly went to 'Purple' by Pop Evil, but when I thought about it further I also thought of Black Cadillac by Shinedown. 2. A Song With a Number in the Title- Song #3 by Stone Sour. Still don't know why they called it that, but its a very good song. And every time I think about it, I remember the video where Corey preformed it with his song. I'll leave that linked here for anyone who wishes to see that. It was so sweet to watch. 3. A Song that reminds you of summer time. What's a song about sweating to death and hell? I'm kidding. Cool For The Summer by Demi Lovato? Probably sounds off genre for me, but fun fact I actually like a decent amount of her work. 4. A Song That Reminds You Of Someone You Would Rather Forget. I don't really want to forget anyone exactly, but 500 Miles by The Proclaimers always reminds me of an ex because he played that one a lot. I do associate him with some pretty intense and dark stuff, so I guess that's sort of fitting. Just saying wanting to forget someone sounds really intense for me. 5. A Song That Needs To Be Played LOUD. God, I could do a whole separate post on this one. Everything Asking Alexandria has ever done always seems to demand to be played loudly, Bow Down or Gasoline by I Prevail, Waking The Demon by Bullet For My Valentine. I could seriously go on forever. 6. A Song That Makes You Want to Dance- None really, as I don't dance. But I guess I could say Lost In Stereo by All Time Low. 7. A Song To Drive To- Pretty Handsome Awkward by The Used. I have so many good memories driving in the car with the band I used to manage, Remedy X as two of the members were really big fans of both The Used and My Chemical Romance. We'd roll all the windows down, and sing terribly at the top of our lungs, and it genuinely is one of my favorite memories with them, even though we did this often. 8. A Song about drugs or alcohol. Is Don't Threaten Me With a Good Time by Panic! At The Disco about drugs or alcohol? I read this question and immediately thought of the line "Champagne, cocaine, gasoline and most things in between. " And the scenario in the song sure makes it sound like he had a wild night, so it seems fitting. If that one doesn't count, I'll go with Gone Forever by Three Days Grace, as that one personified Adam's drug addiction, and I have always found that to be incredible. Since it sounds like its about a person, not drugs. 9. A Song That Makes You Happy- Don't laugh at me, but anything by the Jonas Brothers will make me happy. Well anything old by the Jonas Brothers. I don't hate Happiness Begins, but in my opinion its not their best album. If I have to pick just one song, That's Just The Way We Roll. If I really think about it I can definitely think of more songs by other bands, but that's what came to my mind instantly. 10. A Song That Makes You Sad- I actually don't think I've ever addressed this publicly, though those in my personal life know about it usually. Photograph by Nickelback makes me bawl. Like I can't even hear the first few notes because I will cry. The reason for this is because it already had reminded me of my great grandmother who had Alzheimer, and then the universe really wanted me to hate that song and had it playing on the radio just moments after I was told my great grandpa had died. So, if you're ever trying to make me cry like a baby, that's a sure fire way to do it. 11. A Song That You Never Get Tired Of- This is another one I could easily make a whole separate post on, because frankly there's so many. I Hate Everything About You by Three Days Grace, Tears Don't Fall or Waking The Demon by Bullet For My Valentine, just about anything from Shinedown or I Prevail, Scars by Papa Roach, most things by the Jonas Brothers or All Time Low. I seriously could go on forever. 12. A Song From Your Preteen Years- Fly by Hilary Duff. Or, if you want one from when I was really little, 'Shape of My Heart' by Backstreet Boys. That song came out when I was seven and I loved it! I loved The Backstreet Boys so much as a kid, so they're generally very nostalgic for me. 13. One of your favorites 80's Song- For some reason every song I tried to name was either made in the 90's or 70's. Maybe its because I was writing this just after waking up and not really sleeping much the night before, but I apparently can't think of anything. 14. A Song That You Would Love To Have played At Your Wedding- When You Look Me In The Eyes by The Jonas Brothers. I have said this since the song was new, and it still stands to this day. Its so sweet, and adorable and I love it. 15. A Song That is A Cover by Another Artist- Blank Space by I Prevail, Since U Been Gone by A Day To Remember -that one actually was the instance where I knew going into it that it was a cover. I think prior to that it was usually a surprise, or maybe it was just the first really good cover I had heard. I don't know. Also fun fact, everyone knows 1985 by Bowling For Soup right? Yeah, that's a cover. The original was made by SR-71, only a year later, and their version got popular when the original did not. 16. One of your favorite classical songs- I apologize, I don't think I have one. Obviously I respect classical music, but its never been my cup of tea. 17. A Song That You Would Sing a Duet With- I can't sing really, so I will name songs that are duets instead. Gravity by Papa Roach, the version of Breaking Inside by Shinedown with Lzzy Hale, If It Means a Lot to You by A Day To Remember. 18. A Song From The Year You Were Born- I had to google it and apparently Stone Temple Pilots released their song "Plush" the month I was born, and it made it to number one on the rock charts at some point during the year. Or at least, according to some list I found. 19. A Song That Makes You Think About Life- All I Want by A Day To Remember. 20. A Song That Has Many Meanings To You- I thought of many songs that have a lot of meaning to me, but none that have multiple meanings to me, honestly. Like Scars by Papa Roach means a lot to me, so does Unity by Shinedown, All I Want by A Day To Remember, Drown by Bring Me The Horizon, One X by Three Days Grace. 21. A favorite song with a person's name in it. Diary of Jane -Breaking Benjamin. 22. A Song That Moves You Forward- Face Everything And Rise by Papa Roach. 23. A Song you think everyone should listen to- Oh, there's so many. I'm going to go with Hurricane by I Prevail for now. 24. A Song by A Band you Wish Were still together- I'm Here To Take The Sky by D.R.U.G.S. Wish they would have made more than one album. 25. A Song by An Artist that's no longer alive. You Only Live Once by Suicide Silence. 26. A Song That Makes You Want to Fall In Love- I already listed When You Look Me in The Eyes by the Jonas Brothers, so I'm going to also name I'll Follow You by Shinedown. 27. A Song That Breaks Your Heart- Right now its Every Time You Leave by I Prevail, but that's just because its topical. It'll change again. 28. A Song by An artist with a voice you love- Never Too Late by Three Days Grace. 29. A Song that you remember from your childhood. Lucky by Britney Spears. 30. A Song That Reminds You of Yourself. Scars by Papa Roach. Well, that was fun. I hope you guys enjoyed this and if you do want me to either do more like this, or make actual lists like I mentioned previously, let me know. Also, please answer the questions for yourself! So, I want to get nostalgic and a little (okay very sappy) sappy with you guys for a few minutes, if that's okay. Fair warning, I will probably ramble, but I promise, its worth the read. Today is the ten year anniversary of the Immortal Music Facebook page, and while that might not seem like much to any of you, its a big deal to me. For context, the page came before the website. When I made it, I didn't make it with intention of doing journalism, or anything. I actually made it just days after joining Facebook because I wanted to share my love of music with people.
I had only in the past year, maybe year and a half or so, gotten into rock music fully. I had heard a handful of things prior to that, but I only hardcore got into rock and metal at either fourteen or fifteen. I literally don't remember, and sometimes I feel like it was younger, sometimes it feels like it was older. I don't know, I don't care, I guess it doesn't matter. All that matters is I got into it, and oh boy did it CHANGE MY LIFE. For the better, of course. Does anyone remember the first time they ever turned to music for comfort? We've all done it, turned on songs to drown out the noise of life, or as some kind of escape. A moment I remember often, though I don't believe I've ever talked about online, is the first time I remember turning to music for that purpose. I realized the other day that the moment I'm thinking of was probably right around ten years ago as well. I do think it was just before I made the page, I actually think it might have lead to me wanting to make the page. See I was homeschooled, and there's groups you can join just to socialize, or do some extra classes, whatever. Ours was a little clique-ish, and sometimes I was included in it, but sometimes I wasn't. I don't remember exactly what happened, but I remember leaving one of our drama classes early one day. Something or someone had made me feel like shit, and I wanted to leave. So I was crying in the car, waiting for my mom to say goodbye or something. I don't remember that detail either. I turned on my iPod and initially turned on the Jonas Brothers, who were my favorite at the time. But it wasn't doing enough for me. I was still upset, I wasn't distracted at all. I was hurt and mad all at once, and just knew I needed to drown it out. At the time, I'm pretty sure I only had 3 rock bands on my iPod. Those were Three Days Grace, Bullet For My Valentine and My Chemical Romance. I knew only a few BFMV songs at the time, and I knew they were louder than anything else I had. So I went straight for "Waking The Demon." I played nothing but those three bands for who knows how long. All I know is I calmed down enough I nearly fell asleep in the car, and I never looked back. From that moment on, I turned to music for comfort, to escape, or just for fun. I don't know exactly when that was, but I am sure it was before the page was made. I randomly decided to make it, and it took a couple years before I really got any followers, so most of the time it was me rambling to myself and maybe twenty people about music. I felt like a low-key DJ though, just sharing music, and some news. I started writing blogs, just to talk some. Eventually, I joined a youth group and made new friends. A couple of them are still among my best friends to this day, and both helped encourage the growth of who I am today. One of them showed me an interview from Bryan Stars, and I decided I wanted to do that. I had already been here and there posting news I saw, or sharing my thoughts on a now defunct blog, so it felt like the right thing to do. I'm finding myself reflecting a lot on how much came out of me just wanting to share my love of music. I've been to 23 shows, most of which I either had a pass for, or just wrote about anyway. I learned I have a love of photography because of this whole thing, I've met my mom's favorite band, I've met part of one of my favorite bands, I've made so many friends, done so many things that most people would never do. Hell, I've saved a couple lives even. Those stories are not mine to tell, but it all came from conversations sparked through the page -for the love of music. Its gotten harder, its gotten less rewarding over the years. I've gotten discouraged and burned out more than once, but none the less, this whole world is part of who I am. I am so grateful to all who have stuck around and supported me. So many people had no idea it was more than just a Facebook page full of music, and that's fine. I'm just glad people were able to share the love of music with me, and that I've been able to make people smile. Thank you for listening to me ramble, and for you all your support over these past 10 years. Here's to so many more adventures, and memories. You know, I've been feeling much more attached to my music lately. Its such a nice feeling, that frankly faded quite a bit for a long time. I didn't think that much of it at the time, but looking back at it, that's really sad. Way back in the day, I used to share countless songs, and talk about music semi aimlessly on the Facebook page. Back then it was called Music= Life, then did get changed to Immortal Music, but that was still back in 2012.
The random love of music has been sparked again. I actually went to a concert (I Prevail) where I didn't even have my phone on me. Going into it that felt foreign, and I thought I would hate that. Not being able to record or take a single picture? Its unheard of for me, but you know what? That ended up being the most therapeutic thing I think I ever could have done for myself. I forgot how absolutely incredible it is to stand on the edge of a massive mosh pit, watching from a safe distance, screaming your heart out to songs while surrounded by 2,000 strangers doing the exact same thing. All that mattered was the music, and its been almost a week, yet I still feel so much better. I honestly don't remember the last time I left a concert feeling RELAXED. That isn't what I wanted to talk about, I actually in a way, wanted to do a little catch up. I'd like anyone who reads this to do the same too. I used to periodically post about the bands and songs I was loving at the moment, and frankly wanted to bring that back. Partly to share, and see what others are listening to, but also to look back on. I was talking about this with a friend of mine the other day, and one of the things I love is that I have eight years of content to look back on through my website. And that includes how much my music tastes have changed. My favorites have evolved so much, and I've had so many small phases with various bands. Some have stuck longer than others. Some I was into heavily for a month, some have lasted ten years. From what I can see, the earliest I mentioned my favorites was actually before Immortal Music as its now known existed. It used to be mostly through Blogger, if you look hard enough, you can still find it. That was before I found a good balance to make it all work on one website. It appears in November 2011 my favorites were Escape The Fate, Mayday Parade, Art Of Dying, All Time Low, and sort of seems like a touch of Black Veil Brides. Though I did at one point still acknowledge that "Scars" from Papa Roach is my favorite song. Course I called it my 'theme song', which I would never say now, but it still reigns true. Now I would say my favorites are fairly different. While I still love all of those bands, none of them are what I would call my favorites now. Though I do still find myself playing a lot of Escape The Fate and All Time Low. All Time Low has recently come back into my rotation actually, I feel like I moved away from them for a while there. For no particular reason, though I admit I didn't care for the Last Young Renegade album that much. So that might not have helped. My favorites today though are I Prevail, Shinedown, Beartooth, Papa Roach, and A Day To Remember. Now I threw Beartooth in there, but it is only really their Diseased album. I am somewhat new to them and so far, I only have select songs from their earlier work I really like. THat's still subject to change, of course. Shinedown, Papa Roach and A Day To Remember are three bands that honestly never leave my favorites list. Even if I'm not actively playing them a lot, they will always hold a special place in my heart. As for I Prevail, they've been in my list also constantly since they released their Lifelines album in 2016. If I'm honest, without getting into it, I Prevail has helped get me through a lot of hard things life has thrown at me, and they continue to do so to this day. I've also been feeling a pull back to some of my old favorites, like Bullet For My Valentine and Three Days Grace. Those were two of the bands that actually lead me into getting into rock music several years ago. I'm talking like 2007. Three Days Grace has always been something I find myself going back to periodically, but Bullet not so much. "Waking the Demon" though will forever be a classic for me, and i will always love it, I swear. As for specific songs, where do I even start? After seeing I Prevail on August 3, I've had "Bow Down" and "Gasoline" stuck heavily in my head. They mix better than you might expect, I might add. I've also been loving, "Afterall" and "Believe" from Beartooth for months, no idea why really, they just speak to me. I've also been slightly attached to "Stronger on Your Own" and "The Light" by Disturbed, just because they're both super uplifting, and powerful. Oh! And I've been playing All Time Low again lately as well, but that's not for any particular reason. I just randomly chose to listen to them again one day last week, and went down a rabbit hole. I'm sure we all know how that goes. I honestly think that about covers it. Please let me know who and what you've been listening to. I'd love to hear what you all are thinking, and I will speak to you soon, hopefully. So I was talking to a friend of mine about concerts earlier, and he had said there's a few he remembers going to, but no details about the shows. I said I couldn't imagine that, considering I'm almost certain I can remember the dates of every show I've ever been to, and at least two of the bands I saw at almost every one.
That gave me an idea; to make a list of every show I've ever been to. List the dates, and someone I saw at every show. Which is quite the feat for me, since I've been to 23 of them over the past fifteen years. Now given, a lot of them were festivals, and due to interviews or whatever, I never once caught every single band at any given festival. Its just not possible, especially at things like Warped tour, of which I went to three times. None the less, I thought this would be fun to try to do. Also quick disclaimer, I am in no way bragging by saying any of this. Almost every show I've been to have been something I had a pass for, and was there for working the event. That is the only reason I have been to so many. Well, that and we won a few off the radio several years ago. I'm not going to go into details about every show, as you will be reading for hours if I did that. If anyone wants me to go into more detail, I will be happy to do so, but for now I just added a little tidbit about each show. But yeah, without further ado, let's get into it. Also, feel free to do the same! I would love to hear any of your experiences as well. Or just any memory you have from a concert really, I always love hearing people's stories. ⦁ Hilary Duff, August 4, 2004. I don't remember much of this show, as I was only 11. I have heard Teddy Geiger was her opening act, and I'm sure the was another one. However, I don't remember any of his set. Not even sure we actually saw him perform. ⦁ Jonas Brothers, August 18, 2009. They had three opening acts, Jordin Sparks, some dancing girl's group that i don't think even sang a song, and a small pop band. I don't remember their name either oddly. The pop band was okay, whatever their name was, but clearly didn't make a lasting impression if I can't even remember their name. I looked up the two while writing this, and supporting them was Wonder Girls and Honor Society. I didn't remember that at all. ⦁ Three Days Grace, February 26, 2010. Opening for them was Flyleaf and Breaking Benjamin. We were super impressed with Flyleaf, and were at one point concerned that the guitarist was going to head bang himself right off the stage. Benjamin from Breaking Benjamin also was very sick at the time, and it showed. He could barely get off a stool, but he sounded great. Three Days Grace blew us away, honestly. They were my favorite band at the time, but to this day I would say Adam Gontier is one of the best performers I've ever seen. ⦁ Carnival Of Madness, June 20, 2010. This show was headlined by Shinedown, supported by 10 Years, Sevendust, and Puddle of Mudd. This is the show that hooked me on not only Shinedown live, but being close to the stage. It was my first time being on the floor, and I was so scared. I learned after that show not to be afraid and how incredible it is to be so close to everything. This was also the first time I ever met a band, which was 10 Years. I don't remember much of it, but they're super nice. ⦁ Escape The Fate, January 30, 2011. They were supported by Drive A, Alesana and Get Scared. Only band I don't remember much was Alesana, and I think that's because I chose not to watch them. We spent a lot of time talking to Drive A, which ended up leading to my first ever interview, which came just a couple months later. Also met Max Green, who I am positive was so high he could barely see, but he was very nice. ⦁ Avenged Sevenfold, May 10, 2011. They were supported by Three Days Grace and Bullet For My Valentine. This was an adventure of a show. My mom almost passed out in line from the heat, we met BFMV and I gave myself permanent knee damage by falling off my chair during A7X. Would have broken it actually, except my best friend and the girl behind me caught me as I fell. But we had such a kick ass time none the less. One of my favorite little concert memories comes from this actually. Just full blown screaming along to "I Hate Everything About You" with my best friend. It was something so little, but always makes me happy to look back on. ⦁ Mayday Parade, November 18,2011. They were supported by We Are The In Crowed, There For Tomorrow and You Me at Six. This was my first time ever with a press pass, and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I don't think I saw There For Tomorrow at all really, maybe a song or two. Not sure why. Only ones I really remember were We Are The In Crowd and Mayday Parade, and I don't really remember details about either of their performances. Except I remember Taylor from WATIC was in a boot from falling on her guitarist after they both hopped a fence for some reason, and Alex from Mayday Parade had a massive whole in his pants. Oh! And that Mayday Parade made me cry by playing Miserable At Best and Stay back to back. ⦁ X-Mas Ball, November 23,2011. X-Mas ball was an annual concert held around Christmas every year by the local radio station. That was actually the last one they did, and it was headlined by Avenged Sevenfold, and supported by Black Veil Brides, Asking Alexandria, and Hollywood Undead. Honestly we had fun, but the sound system was not working in anyone's favor, and Danny Worsnop was incredibly drunk at the time. I only really watched BVB and A7X, due to the sound system being awful that night. I just wished BVB would have had a longer set. I spent most of the time in the hallway chilling with two friends. And there we met a Craig Mabbitt lookalike, who was quite flattered we thought he looked like him. ⦁ Adelita's Way, December 1, 2011. This one was headlined by Adelita's Way and supported by Art Of Dying and Emphatic. I don't remember much of anyone's actual performance, aside from ending up on the stage for Emphatic. All I remember was actually before and after the show because this was the day I got my first in person interviews. I interviewed Rick DeJesus from Adelita's Way for two hours while following him around the bar -he told me to that. I actually need to properly tell that story. And spent most of the other time chatting with Cale Gontier of Art of Dying. It was such a unique experience and I've never had another one quite like it. ⦁ Warped tour, July 22, 2012. That date might actually not be accurate, and it was actually a terrible experience. We were there for 3 hours, saw nobody, but might have heard some of We Are The In Crowd, if I remember correctly, and left. The venue was run like shit, all the press stuff was fucked. I was extremely disappointed and actually wrote off Warped tour for several years because of it. ⦁ Uproar Festival 2012, September 13, 2012. I don't even know who all performed that day, and this was my first festival. Give me a second to remember who all I saw, as all of my memories pertained to interviews or something related to the journalism. I saw Mindset Evolution, Soulswitch, Godsmack, Shinedown, Adelita's Way again, Nine Lives, Within Reason, Seether, Candlelight Red, And I know I heard some of POD, Fozzy and Staind. I didn't get to watch their sets though due to interviews. While I cannot tell you much from any of the action concert, I can solidly say this was one of the best fucking days of my life. Its another story I need to sit down and properly tell you eventually. ⦁ All Time Low, November 11, 2012. They were supported by The Downtown Fiction, and Hit The Lights, and this was another adventure of a show. I loved it, but did have my eardrum blown out by something popping in a speaker during Hit The Lights. Also got crushed into the stage due to Jack Barakat climbing onto the speaker, and fangirl's flooding the barricade. But they did put on one hell of a performance, I sincerely loved it. Just their fans are a little intense when packed into a sold out show. ⦁ Shinedown, March 13,2013. This time was Shinedown supported by Three Days Grace, adn POD. This was my third time seeing both Shinedown and Three Days Grace, but first with Matt Walst. Yeah.....best not to get me started on that again. I found Matt to be very disrespectful, and I kind of made it clear to him. I'm not proud of it, but I do sort of get a laugh out of my self for it. But Shinedown once again was absolutely incredible. POD didn't really give a memorable performance, and their bass was so loud it shook the floor and it kind of hurt to stand in front of the speaker. ⦁ Fort Rock 2013, April 14, 2013. This is another one where an experience went wrong, so we didn't get to stay long. I don't even remember who all was playing, but all I got to actually see were Pop Evil, and Hell or Highwater. I don't remember either performance as I was fighting with security for most of that time. They didn't want me to have my camera despite me having a pass, with a magazine that's no longer in existence. Only positive memory I have is seeing my name in print. I was published in Spot Magazine, and it debuted at Fort Rock. ⦁ Spring Fever tour; April 16, 2013. Headlined by Pierce The Veil and All Time Low, supported by Mayday Parade and You Me At Six. We got lost and missed You Me At Six entirely, but we saw everyone else. I honestly LOVED Pierce The Veil live. They had such an incredible energy, and it just made me appreciate them so much more. All Time Low also put on one hell of a performance, though admittedly all I really remember were the sexual comments being thrown between Jack and Alex. ⦁ Zach Myers and Justin Moore Acoustic, April 9, 2014. For context, Zach Myers is the guitarist of Shinedown, and Justin Moore is his best friend and the singer of Ingrahm Hill. Supporting them were Elisium, and a local band Dolt. All were incredible, but the main thing I remember was Zach and Justin's performance. They did the coolest thing I've ever seen. They had no set list for this tour, and no time limit. They played whatever they wanted, for as long as they wanted. It was the coolest thing ever. They played some of their own songs, some covers, they took a couple requests, they talked. It was just two friends playing music for fun, and it was incredible. Hell at one point, Zach came and sat next to me and said to Justin he looked good from down there. It was honestly so sweet, and I cannot say enough good about that night. I also got to interview them, which was a whole other incredible experience. But sincerely, every band should do a small tour like they did, it was magical. ⦁ Uproar 2014, August 31, 2014. I was mostly there for Escape The Fate, whom I had an interview with. I didn't have any sort of a pass, only an interview with them and Sons of Reverly. Sons of Reverly did not make a good impression on me, and I don't remember if they sounded good live. Actually only people I remember watching that day are them, Escape The Fate, and Godsmack. I know I saw other bands, but for the life of me I do not remember anyone else. All I really remember is my interview with Escape The Fate, walking to the stage with Craig Mabbit, and thinking my best friend was going to get his ass beat at one point. He had been checking out some girl, and she came over to him at one point. Come to find out she was a famous WWE wrestler named Paige, and was also there to hang out with Escape The Fate. He freaked the hell out and fanboyed so hard, and that's about all I remember from that day. ⦁ Adelita's Way, September 22, 2014. They were supported by local bands Before The Fire and Dolt, and there was a lot of technical difficulties. It had rained and some equipment got messed up, so honestly everything was off. My mom still to this day swears the speakers messed up her hearing from all the interference, and I could barely hear a word anyone said. It didn't help that Rick was sick, so mix that all together, and it just wasn't the best experience. ⦁ Papa Roach, January 10, 2015. They were supported by Seether, Kyng and Islander, and honestly? There's a lot of great emotional memories attached to this show, but the venue was awful. All they cared about was selling alcohol, they had the lighting all messed up and the sound all wrong. They got better throughout the night, but they didn't even give the smaller bands a chance to sound good, and it was disappointing. However, one of my absolute favorite memories came from this show. One of my mom's favorite bands is Seether, and she hadn't gotten to see them. And Papa Roach is one of my favorite bands, and neither of us had seen them. It was the most incredible thing seeing her with happy tears on her face just singing along to Seether, and she said the same thing with me for Papa Roach. ⦁ Fort Rock 2015, April 26, 2015. This was a proper festival and eventful as all hell. I had interviews with several bands set up, and there were sets on and off all day I was looking forward to. Give me a minute to remember who all I actually saw that day. Lola Black, We Are Harlot, Breaking Benjamin, Papa Roach, Godsmack, and Slipknot. Oh, also listened to The Pretty Reckless, and from afar Motionless In White. They actually drowned out my Starset interview. That day was a blur, I can't even begin to explain it all. Though I did manage to get stuck on the barricade, then amuse security because he watched me struggle to get over it for five minutes. I couldn't get to the entrance of the press area, and I knew I was allowed up there so I said fuck it and was going to just climb over the barricade. However, I got my leg up on it and got stuck because of the sunburn on the back of the leg. Had to have a guy help me over and he was not comfortable with that because he thought he would get in trouble. I finally get over and a security guard asked if I was struggling. ⦁ Warped tour 2015, July 3, 2015. This was an incredible day! This was actually the day that changed my opinion at Warped tour. I actually was there with a band! For those who don't know, I managed a band Remedy X for about six years, and all of 2014 I had been trying to get them on Warped tour. It didn't work for 2014, but the link still worked. So I reactivated it and they got on! We were literally like the first band up all day, so hardly anyone actually saw us, but it was still such a proud moment! We also then got to watch Escape The Fate, As It Is, Pierce The Veil, Black Veil Brides, Blessthefall, and heard Icon For Hire, Asking Alexandria, Knuckle Puck and Set It Off. We had such an incredible day, and I got the worst sunburn of my life but it was so worth it. ⦁ Hollywood Undead; November 14, 2015. Only opening act they had was Evacuate The City, and this was an unexpected show. I had originallly had a pass for an opening band that I now don't remember the name of. They last minute dropped off, leaving me with no pass. I am not a Hollywood Undead fan, but my boyfriend at the time was a fan, and we were almost there anyway, so we were still going. I ended up being so impressed and not going to lie, freaked out a little because every member of Hollywood Undead ended up with an Immortal Music bracelet. That had never happened before, and it warmed my heart. We also made a new friend that night in the line, and come to find out met Hollywood Undead and nobody had a clue til they took their masks off on the stage. Apparently they don't usually do that, but they did for our show. ⦁ Fort Rock 2016, April 30 & May 1. This was a blurry and incredible couple of days. I don't believe I had any interviews, but I still certainly tried. Let me see if I can remember who all I saw over those two days. Saint Asonia, Sevendust, Pop Evil, Five Finger Death Punch, Megadeth, A Day To Remember, Asking Alexandria, Bring Me The Horizon, Bullet For My Valentine, Sixx.AM, 3 Doors Down, Shinedown, and Disturbed. I probably forgot someone, and that's just who all I took pictures of. I more than likely watched someone else that day that I have completely forgotten about. That was a blur of two days, and was so insane I claimed I would never do a two day festival ever again. Then proceeded to do it again the following year. All I know for sure is it was actually incredible, and oh god do Bring Me The Horizon take their God damn mosh pits seriously. ⦁ Fort Rock 2017, April 30, 2017. This was one of my more disappointing events. I wasn't that thrilled with the lineup that year, but still had a pass none the less. I also only got to cover four bands, those being In This Moment, Alter Bridge, Seether and Of Mice And Men. I know I also watched Three Days Grace and Papa Roach, and listened to Chevelle and part of Def Leppard's set. During Seether however, a security guard hosed down two crowd surfers, sprayed my camera and ruined it. My camera refused to take any more pictures after that, and I discovered this while trying to cover Papa Roach. I proceeded to spend the rest of the night running all over trying to talk to the head of security who the next morning basically told me to fuck off. He said it in better words, but still. It was easily my worst festival experience ever. We returned to the festival the next day just to watch I Prevail, and left. I must say, this festival is what helped killed my passion for the journalism. It was already disappearing at this point, but that ruined all of it. ⦁ Warped Tour 2018, August 5, 2018. This was the absolute FINAL Warped tour, and I decided we had to go to the last one. Despite this being at the venue I had previously had massive issues with, we actually had a pretty good time. I went with my boyfriend at the time, and best friend, and we only went for a few bands. All of which we did get to see. Those bands were Mayday Parade, Motionless in White, As It Is and Simple Plan. Honestly, don't have a ton to say about this one. We had a lot of fun, met Ronnie from As It Is and Brooks from Mayday Parade, sweated a lot. I will say As It Is' performance sparked something for me I hadn't felt in a long time -the actual love and excitement for live music. You all know what I'm talking about, its a special feeling. This was the first festival I had ever been to without a pass, so it was a whole new thing for me. ⦁ Shinedown & Papa Roach, Febuary 20,2019. So I ended up going last minute to this, as my parents had the tickets and decided not to go. I had a lot of mixed feelings about this show, and it probably didn't help that I wasn't in the best space at the time. I didn't feel good, and had a massive headache the entire time. On top of that though, we were at the far back of the floor, to the point I couldn't see anything. I felt extremely disconnected from the whole thing, and it was disappointing for me. I will say though, I was happy to see Shinedown for the fifth time, they still never disappoint. Papa Roach oddly didn't hold my attention much, partly because of the newer music. I am not that into the new album, and it was brand new at that point, so I also didn't know much of it either. So that didn't help. It was a bunch of things stacked on top of each other, and it was nobody else's fault really. Life got in the way, I guess. So that's every show I have ever been to! That's 26 shows since 2004, with most of them being in the last nine years. Tomorrow actually, I am going to my 27th show, which is I Prevail, supported by Justin Stone and Issues. I had no idea who Justin Stone was, aside from him being featured in I Prevail's "Rise Above This", and while he doesn't seem to be my cup of tea, I am looking forward to seeing what he can do. I also have seen Issues two times, but both times were partial. I honestly can't say I've paid much attention to them either time, and I don't even think I mentioned them? I saw them at one of the Fort Rock's, totally forget what year, and Warped tour 2018. But yeah, I honestly cannot wait for tomorrow's show. I haven't been this excited for a concert in so long. I plan on vlogging it the best I can so stay tuned to the YouTube channel, and who knows I might even write about it. I'm running out of things to say now, so please feel free to tell me all about any shows you've ever been to. Or even just shows you want to go to, or even are going to. Anything goes. I just really did this because I wanted to see if I could remember them all, and while I did cheat and check my own Facebook a few times, I did it. That being said, I didn't realize until I had them all listed like this that its 26 shows. I solidly thought it was 23, and I have no idea what shows I was forgetting to count. Honestly, this was nice and I hope this was interesting to anyone aside from me. If not, oh well, I guess. It was nice to write like this again. The 24th, and final Vans Warped tour came to an end on Sunday, August 5 in West Palm Beach, Florida. I decided to go to it with my boyfriend and my best friend, and I've been going back and forth on writing about it ever since. I don't know, I've kind of lost my taste for writing some, and I did do a vlog. Not a very good vlog, but I did vlog none the less. So I was questioning if it was even worth it to write, but I keep getting the slight nagging feeling to do it. So clearly that means I must, even though its four days later and I am beginning to feel like its irrelevant at this point. I'm going to try to ignore that feeling, and press on. Also, if you've been here a while and have read any of my other concert ramblings, you will know they're a bit all over the place. Events and times may be told out of order, its all just as I remember them.
So, we chose to go to the West Palm Beach date, which actually is notorious for being awful. Not due to the sound or the sales, or even the crowds. But behind the scenes is awful, and from what I heard from a friend of mine who was behind the scenes with a press pass, that had not changed. However, this was my first festival ever without a pass, and my first show in several years without a pass. It was such a foreign concept to me to not have a pass, to the point that I still started to walk to the media tent when we arrived for my tickets. That's usually where I got them, so it was basically muscle memory. But because our tickets were not there, we actually went to the box office and that took all of two minutes. There was no line, and it was quick and easy. Cost me $108 for two tickets, but whatever, it was worth it. Security was a breeze, which is something I'm not actually overly used to at shows. As press, I don't even go through security most of the time, but usually have at least one or two stop me to start to tell me I couldn't bring my bag in. That never lasts, as soon as they realize I'm press they leave me alone. But they were a total breeze, didn't even mind that I was actually carrying stuff for a friend that was with me so I had double the things. We get inside and Mayday Parade is already on stage. They were on the Journey's Left Foot stage and both of the Journeys Stages were set up in the amphitheater at our venue. My best friend and I really needed to pee, because we did have a two and a half hour drive over to the venue, so we made a beeline straight for the bathrooms while my boyfriend went and sat down in the amphitheater. I know this sounds like a completely random detail that is irrelevant but the reason I wanted to include it was because not only was it an actual bathroom, not a port-a-potty, but because I could hear the music perfectly. It was like I wasn't missing a thing, because I could hear it word for word, every instrument just fine. It was just a little muffled due to the concrete walls. Like for real, I was sitting there singing along to "Jersey" while doing my thing. It was just something I haven't experienced at a lot of shows. Usually if you have to go to the bathroom, you're either using a disgusting port-a-potty or are missing your entire show because you set off to find a real one. Plus, there was no line, which is extremely rare. Then again, it was only a few minutes after noon and the doors had only been open for one hour, so maybe that's why it was so empty. Anyway, I just wanted to quick acknowledge that because that was a venue note that I greatly appreciated. By the way, I might pin point a handful of things regarding this venue, which was the Coral Sky Amphitheater just because I actually have been to Warped tour at this venue before. My very first Warped tour in 2012 was held there and we had such a horrible experience there that frankly, I was slightly unhappy to go back. I only chose to because I really wanted to say I went to the absolute final Warped tour since it was in Florida. This ended up being a very good experience, but you're going to hear more about that as we continue this conversation. Now that I put that little tidbit out there, I can get back to what I was saying. So we watched Mayday Parade from afar unfortunately. The pit stayed consistently full through every performance from what I saw, which was completely to be expected. We had to sit on the upper part of the amphitheater, so frankly Mayday Parade looked a bit like specs on the stage. But they still sounded great! It was my 3rd time seeing them, second at an outdoor venue. I will say nothing about their performance stood out to me, except for Derek's bright pink shorts. Those stood out greatly to me, but I do think that might be because they were so far away and I'm used to being extremely close to the stage. I feel like I felt a little disconnected from the music that way, which sounds entirely stupid now that I put it out there. I don't know, maybe its not stupid. You can't feel the base, or see the facial expressions, you're not really interacted with when you're far back, ect. I still enjoyed them though, and it was nice to see them with my best friend and boyfriend. It was their first time seeing Mayday Parade and they were extremely happy to be seeing them at all. Like most Warped tour performances, it was short. They only played like five songs and I'm suddenly forgetting all of them. I know they ended on one off of their new album Sunnyland, which I haven't gotten a chance to listen to much yet. I'm sorry, everything was such a blur, this is actually why I'm supposed to vlog a lot more than I actually did. As soon as Mayday Parade said their good byes and started to depart the stage, we got up and started working our way to the Mutant Lightning Stage, which is where Motionless In White was playing. Now I'm actually not a fan of Motionless In White, but they're one of my best friend's favorites and my boyfriend loves them as well. Nobody else was on at that time that I really wanted to see, so I went with them just to take pictures. That being said, and I may get some hate for this, for some reason Motionless In White gives me such a headache. I really can't pin point why that is, because lyrically I like them, as people I like them. I don't dislike the sound of their music, but for some reason without fail, I get a headache from Motionless In White almost every time. Live was no different, and by the way, this was not my first time seeing them. I saw them when they were basically brand new with Escape The Fate in January 2011. If I remember correctly, they gave me a headache back then too. I wanted to give them a second chance, so I did. I will say I enjoyed watching Chris Motionless on stage. Sadly he was the only one I really could see because of the angle we were at, I really only got glimpses here and there of anyone else. I tried to get some pictures, but that didn't quite work out. I was actually extremely disappointed with the lack of pictures I managed to get. I didn't account for the fact that I usually I get a ton of pictures just in the press area, and then I usually don't focus on the photography because its damn near impossible from the middle of the crowd. I was extremely worried about my camera getting crushed, or wet, plus it felt like it was overheating at one point. I don't think it really was, but its black, and it was easily 95 outside so it grew very hot to the touch. So between all that, I honestly only got pictures of Motionless In White and As It Is. And As It Is wasn't even by me, that was by my boyfriend, Jesus. He has a natural talent for photography and is 6'3 so he can actually see over the heads of everyone else. I wanted pictures during As It is, so I just handed the camera off to him, and I am so glad I did. Which is actually the perfect lead in to the absolute highlight of my day, which As It Is' performance. This was my second time seeing them, with the first being on Warped Tour 2015. I honestly love them, and have since they started. I actually initially found them back in the days when Patty Walters did YouTube and a lot of covers. His covers lead me to an early version of "Can't Save Myself", I believe it was, and they've come so far since then. Their third full length album comes out tomorrow, and actually just before their performance, someone was selling advanced signed copies. So we got one for $15 and I already did a review. Please click here to read it, I am so excited about it and love it so much. I'm proud of them. Also wanted to point out that they had a signer! They had a girl on the left side of the stage signing as someone talked before hand, and during every song. And she was having a blast, you could tell! I was having fun watching her and I don't even understand ASL. That was something I thought was incredibly awesome, plus they had someone on the stage speaking about mental health. I completely forget who he was, but I think I got most of his speech on camera, so that's cool. There was also a moment that hit me right in the 'feels' as the internet would say. You know that feeling you get in your chest when a band you really enjoy is on stage and in that moment nothing else matters? Its been a very long time since I've felt that when a band first comes out on stage. Like I said before, this was my first show without a pass in a very long time. So usually, when a band starts their hype music and starts walking out on stage, I'm focused. I'm snapping pictures and trying not to bump into other photographers. This was different, and it feels a little silly to say this, but I found myself tearing up a little bit like as soon as they started. This wasn't because of them really, but it was because they gave me that feeling again that music is supposed to give you. I feel like I got a little desensitized to that from working so hard for so many years on the journalism. I didn't always enjoy music and shows the same. I still got those moments but they weren't overwhelmingly joyful, and they were never right off the bat like that. I really appreciated that feeling and had to acknowledge it. I absolutely loved their performance, they were such high energy, and have grown so much since the first time I saw them. The first time was great too, but I could see not only how excited they were to be on Warped tour but how much fun they all were having. Also got such a laugh out of Patty Walter's because when he took a moment to introduce the band, he said, "We are My Chemical Romance, welcome to the 2005 Warped tour." I honestly bust out laughing at that because my first comment upon seeing the promo shots for the Great Depression album was, "Hey MCR is back." Totally jokingly, I might add. He also gave a whole speech about how he doesn't enjoy the "typical front man bullshit." Of telling fans what to do, and asked if everyone was having the best day of their lives. Of course he was answered with screams, rather than actual words, but Patty had more to say anyway. He said something along the lines of, "Its okay if you're not. You can have the second best day of your life, or whatever day you feel like having." That's when he lead into the speech about the front man bullshit, and said he doesn't want to tell people what to do. "So anything I tell you to do is merely a suggestion." So that something different that definitely stood out. But honestly I just had a ton of fun during their set, even helped a crowd surfer up. Kind of felt bad because the only way I was able to help was pushing up on her backside when someone started to drop her, but there was nothing else I could do. For some reason people kept picking up crowd surfers right next to me, so I did get kicked three times and was on the edge of a mosh pit at one point as well. I actually have that part on camera. The song that stood out the most to me was "Dial Tones" because wow, the energy on that song! Patty was highly encouraging people to get as loud as possible, and just go for it. He actually said something about us owing it to ourselves to not only be the best Florida date but the best date of the entire tour. Which of course got people going insane, but obviously that's a matter of opinion so I'm sure other bands had better crowds at different dates. There were people actually screaming the lyrics at the top of their lungs, and it looked like the entire band was actually laughing with just pure excitement over the energy. It was an extremely cool thing and is one of those moments I wish I could go back to. I forgot to mention this too, on the way to the As It Is tent, we actually met Brooks Betts from Mayday Parade, and bought a signed copy of Sunnyland, their newest album, and got mostly escorted to their merch tent by him and their friend. I have most of that on camera, but I wanted to throw that out there because I completely forgot to mention it. A review of Sunnyland will be coming soon as well, so please stay tuned for that. So after As It Is was finished, as much as I wanted them to stay on, it was time for Simple Plan. They were on the Journey's Right foot, so we headed back to the amphitheater and had a hell of a time finding a spot to sit. Finally found one, even further back than we were for Mayday Parade, and I couldn't see anything. We only stayed for three songs, which were "Jump", "I'd Do Anything" and "Welcome To My Life." Which let me tell you, "Welcome To My Life" live is awesome! I couldn't see anything except people's butts, but hearing thousands of voices singing such a classic song was just incredible. I don't really have words but that too is in the vlog. Because we couldn't see though, we decided to try to go to the As It Is signing, because why not? After some searching, we did finally find it but there was such a long line, so we kind of just said never mind. We then debated if there was anyone else we absolutely wanted to see, and there wasn't really. Everyone else were all ones that we didn't mind seeing but weren't dying to watch, and it was already going on three o'clock. So we decided to wander the merch tents and slowly work our way out from there. Its actually the first time I've ever left a show early and felt content. We all felt that way, and it was honestly a great experience. I don't really know what else to say there except I also got some merch, all of which has been posted on the Facebook page. I honestly think that covers it. So I want to ask, did you go to any of the dates on the last Warped tour? And if you did, what date did you go to and what were the highlights for you? You heard everything from me, and if you want to watch the vlog for it please do. You can watch that by clicking here, or check out my outfit ideas video which could easily work for any event by clicking here. You can also read my review of As It Is' The Great Depression by clicking here, and you can get that wherever music is sold starting tomorrow. The Sunnyland review is coming soon, and I'm now officially out of things to say. So thanks for reading, and hopefully I will be able to get back into doing this more often sometime soon. Hey all! My name is Alexis and I am a new writer for Immortal Music! How about we get into a little background information on myself?
I currently am 19, although I will be 20 later this year. I am going into my third year at my hometowns local university! I am a Family & Consumer Sciences major and English minor in the Secondary Program at my university. I come from a split home and have battled with depression and anxiety, and I still do almost every day. Despite that, I still enjoy being around friends and even going out to nightclubs on occasion with my friends! One of my favorite TV shows is Supernatural, which I recently had the pleasure of attending one of their conventions earlier this month! Since I was a kid, I’ve always been surrounded by rock music, primarily by my dad. Whenever we would go out to run an errand or something we would listen to Nirvana or Pearl Jam, some of the more classic rock bands. However, my mother is really into country music, which I am not much of a fan. But I digress. I primarily listen to a majority of the rock/alternative genre, but I do listen to some pop and even the occasional rap genre. Some of my favorite bands are Nothing More and Set It Off, and lately have been really into As It Is. However, when I’m really pissed off, I have been known to blast Suicide Silence, or if I want to tone it down a notch I’ll play Of Mice & Men or Motionless In White. I have been to multiple concerts, including Black Veil Brides, Nothing More, Panic! At The Disco, and later this month I’ll be seeing Set It Off and Fall out Boy in October. So that’s me! Hopefully I’ll be around for a while to get to know some of you guys, but until then I give you my best wishes! -Alexis Martin! Note from Ariel: Please be sure to give her a very warm welcome, and stay tuned because we are both getting to work on a bunch of great content for all of your out there! Also, if you're reading this and feel as though you're interested and want more information on possibly coming to write for Immortal Music, please click here. Submissions are still completely welcomed, though we are not onboarding anyone else at this time. |
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January 2022
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