the music lives on

i'm late getting around to posting this, but i got back from texas to alabama one day, went to tennessee the next and then the flood happened.

last month i went to texas to visit my family for a few days, collect an ugly lamp to decorate my new apartment with and to get my face rocked off at a monumental concert. now that i'm back (and FINALLY blogging about it) i have to say it was an overall wonderful trip. i got to see my nephews a lot, which is good cause they are real, real cute. i have said hideous lamp here with me awaiting it's journey to tennessee, along with a gold statue of what i can only assume is a prostitute (she's holding tons of money in her low cut dress) and other knick knacks that are so outdated you wouldn't be able to find them anywhere but your grandparents' house that was decorated in the 60's.

and, as expected, the concert was completely amazing. evro, drew and the medicinal pen, tin tin can, the stevedores, the kissing club and 100 monkeys really put on an excellent show. (click the links to watch the entire concert.)

tori and i arrived in gilmer friday afternoon and immediately headed to la finca. after sharing a delicious chicken chimichanga with queso and plenty of chips, hot sauce and green sauce, we went back to my house and decided a (very long) nap would be a good idea. the concert was in the afternoon and we had plans to leave early enough to get a good spot for the show, right up against the stage. we were so excited about the bands and the concert in general we were practically buzzing and that alone could have kept us up all night. but when you throw in the fact that my cousin lindsey, who is one of my most favorite people in the world, ever, was coming over later that night to stay with us, it was obvious that sleeping after she got there was out of the question. i climbed into my bed at my parents' house that i love oh so much and went to sleep for almost five hours.

i woke up right before lindsey got there from longview, only to get in my car and drive back to longview for lindsey's concert ticket that she forgot. we did lay down for a little while eventually, but as soon as a storm passed through verry early saturday morning we left for dallas, stopping only for whataburger.

let me just take a minute and explain to you how big a deal this concert was. this wasn't just any old show, not a regular stop on the tour 100 monkeys has been on lately. this was a spencer bell legacy show. spencer bell was a musician and artist that 3 of the 5 monkeys were friends with when they were younger. on thanksgiving day in 2006 spencer was diagnosed with adrenal cancer (ACC) and passed away 11 days later. he was only 20 years old. adrenal cancer is very rare, making it hard to diagnose and hard to treat. since then spencer's friends and family have been putting on shows to raise money to put his music out and to help fund adrenal cancer research at the university of michigan.

the afternoon began with some words from dr. gary hammer, who heads up the ACC research at UM. his passion was very moving and hearing him speak about what we were all there to support brought about a sense of unity that can't be explained.

to avoid a super long post with lots of videos, i'm only going to talk about one band from the show in this entry and save the other 5 for later.

the band i drove from alabama to see was the stevedores. spencer was a stevedore, along with shawn, ben, jake and adam. they released only one album, tamuawok., while spencer was alive. they have all gone their separate ways now, and the only place to see the stevedores is at one of these legacy shows. before dallas i had actually seen them all play except for adam. ben is the drummer for 100 monkeys, so i've seen him in concert several times. last november in nashville i got to see shawn fernando play with the monkeys (on the trip i fell in love with the city!) and jake miller, aka the kissing club, has been touring with the monkeys and i got to see him in birmingham right before dallas. seeing them separate is a wholly different thing from seeing them perform together as the stevedores.

i've heard people go on and on about how unbelievable the stevedores are live, and now i get to be one of those people! ben johnson is like a different person when he's drumming for them while performing lead vocals. seriously, i have no idea how he does it. shawn fernando's energy as his hands dance back and forth across the keyboard is so crazy you can feel it, and his laugh for 'advice' can make anybody's day. dustin monk (of tin tin can) was absolutely amazing to fill in on bass for adam, who couldn't make it. he is made of so much win for learning their set and never missing a beat. and jake miller. jake miller is so flippin sick on his guitar i have no words.

just like anybody that has seen them, they blew my mind and i could talk about it for hours. trying to blog about music i really love makes me wish i were a better writer (this post has literally taken me several hours to write) so i could really do justice to the artists and their performances that i find so prodigious. i feel like a video can tell you how scrumtrulescent they are better than i can, so here you go. there are a few reasons why i chose this specific video:
1. it's from the concert that lindsey, tori and i were at.
2. legit, i strained my voice yelling after this song and was hoarse for 2 days.
3. shawn fernando laughs crazy during it, which is what spencer did.
4. it's really intense.

if you don't really like to rock out but still want a little taste of scrumtrulescence, skip ahead to 3:25.



-meghan