A Home For The Holidays

How is it that after Halloween things just snowball and then it’s a whole new year? Thanksgiving has always been a favorite American pastime of mine because it’s the one day you can eat too much, drink too much and start the merriment with no judgment. Plus there’s pie.

I’ve always liked Christmas. When I was younger we would spend Christmas with my uncles and cousins and share in a huge gift exchange where my cousins and I would all rip open our toys to instantly make a mess. My parents and I decorated the tree, my dad made a feast and sometimes my sisters would come home. I always remember it being warm in our big old house from my childhood. I always wished for snow on actual Christmas and it never happened, but there were still many amazing Christmas stories created.

We all have good Christmas stories and bad ones. The holidays are crazy times. They are filled with fun, celebration, love, tension, stress, anxiety and then some. One of my greatest Christmas stories from my childhood was when I was about 11 or 12. I had been collecting dolls from American Girls and I had Samantha. This year I asked for her clothing trunk and it was one of the most expensive things that was a part of the collection. I realized that if my parents bought it for me that the box would have the American Girl return address so I started watching the mail for boxes came.

One day one came that was the perfect size and I was so excited. I told my dad I knew that’s what it was and he said, “I don’t know. I don’t think that’s what it is.” Later as I was acting like a know-it-all about the box my dad said, “Oh yeah this is that lamp that your grandma said she was sending for the living room.” My dad reached down to the corner of the box, slit a hole, dug in with his fingers and pulled out a chord with a plug. My heart dropped. On Christmas morning he asked me to help him open that box…and there was Samantha’s trunk! It was an amazing Christmas moment.

Most of my recent Christmas memories worth keeping close to my heart involve my husband.
For as long as I remember in our relationship we’ve ended up spending every Christmas together, even before we started dating. Our first Christmas that we were dating my dad let him spend the night with us and he bought me a jewelry set with my favorite gem, a moonstone. It was earrings, a bracelet, and necklace and ring. Sadly two of those pieces of jewelry were stolen but the memory is still there.

We’ve always loved spending the holidays together. It’s like so long as we are together we are “home,” no matter where we are.

We both come from split up families and when we lived on the West Coast, splitting everything between households was too stressful. Somehow we always did it though. Whether it was his dad or my dad, my sisters or my step-mom’s, my husband and I were together through it all, even before we were married.

The holidays are tough and they always stir up emotions and memories. I feel more sentimental throughout the holiday season than most other times of the year. Sometimes I feel more Grinch-y than in the Christmas spirit but with my man by my side it usually passes.

When my parents split up my dad ended up with all the Christmas ornaments from my childhood. He gave them to me when I moved out. My husband’s ornaments are with his mother so I like to buy him at least one every year. It’s when we pull them out that the memories start flowing and the shapes and figures trigger a lot of specific experiences.

I love Christmas movies, I love the cold, the snow, the smell of the tree and I definitely feel fortunate that I’m not a Grinch at heart. People ask if we are going home for the holidays, and then they ask which place would be home. I grew up in Pennsylvania, and my uncles and cousins are all there. I met my husband in and my entire immediate family lives in Oregon but neither of us feel like we have a specific “house” or space to call home there.

Inevitably our home for each holiday is just “us.” Wherever we can be together, at dad’s, at uncle’s, sister’s, at our apartment, in a hotel room, wherever, so long as we have each other, we are home for the holidays creating more and more amazing memories and positive emotions to carry us through the years. Corny but true!

Next Big Thing 2010

For a decade now, Tampa Bay’s alternative rock station, 97X has brought an amazing array of bands together for an all day concert event. Dubbed the Next Big Thing, this year’s show lived up to its name and its reputation, presenting a stellar list of bands playing over twelve hours of live music at the 1-800-ASK-GARY Amphitheatre.

The local band winners, Set it Off and Not Tonight Josephine, kicked off the morning followed by American Bang who caught most listeners on their way in, warming them up for the long and rocking day ahead. Finger Eleven hit the main stage next with their steady and strong chords and lyrics playing crowd-pleasers like “One Thing,” “Living in a Dream,” and “Paralyzer.” This early in the day the Amphitheatre was looking a bit sparse but with the main acts much later in the day, more would arrive.

I was ready to check out the “underdogs” of the day. As an avid 97X listener I’d been hearing songs from the Sick Puppies, Chevelle, The Dirty Heads, and Cage the Elephant constantly and was ready to see them in action. There was quite the array of musicians and in turn, of fans.
My only complaint was the stage set-up. As this was my first Next Big Thing I was under the impression that it would be a Warped Tour kind of setup where they would just cut that main stage in half so music could be constantly playing. However, much like Bamboozled Road Show, there was a stage just inside the gates to the right which hosted bands like Neon Trees and A Day to Remember and the two stages were far apart.

The day also had these spontaneous acoustic performances of bands throughout the day between the main set times, held in random areas of the Amphitheatre. At first it was great because it felt like a sneak peak of the show to come but when we got later into the day and that band had already played, hearing those songs over again was like listening to 97x for 8 eight hours straight: a bit repetitive and tiring.

The Neon Trees battled some technical difficulties sounding off at first, but bounced back to impress the fans and “Prove that this stage was better than main stage,” as the lead said. They had a girl drummer who presented the crowd with some sweet beats and provided some eye candy for the guys in the crowd. Of course they played their hit “Animal,” which everyone sang along to, but also showed their individuality and signature sounds with “Love and Affection,” and “Your Surrender.”

Random vendors and 97x representatives kept the crowd wanting more music and more stuff by launching free key-chains with slingshots, shooting t-shirts and other keepsakes into the crowd throughout the day. Switchfoot hit the main stage in the middle of the day and couldn’t help but open with “Meant to Live,” covered the Beastie Boys, “Sabotage,” which was a decent tribute, and also played “The Sound,” and “Dare You to Move,” rocking the fans through them all.

Overall, by the middle of the day it felt like the Next Big Thing was a kind of a parade of the already overplayed songs on 97x paired with an opportunity to expose the actual talent of the bands, or perhaps it just proved I need to stop listening to Fisher and Boy every morning and change it up from time to time!

A Day to Remember came on loud and proud. The syncopation with the head-banging went from being kind of cool to rather obnoxious after about three song in, but the minor chords and metal-esque ballads accompanied by the strained screeches of the singer made for an energetic, entertaining and together performance.

Paper Tongues hit main stage and kicked off their set with a tuneful guitar solo and brought a wonderful energy as they danced all over that stage; even the drummer stayed standing for half the set. “Higher,” “Ride to California” and “Rich and Poor” won over the audience. Their bubbly set seemingly kept a lot of the fans afloat and refreshed their attention for the better part of the afternoon.

One of the bands I’d been waiting for, Against Me!, took the stage and played an epic set including my all time favorite song, which was quite fitting, “Sink, Florida, Sink,” and raged some “Teenage Anarchist,” and “Don’t Lose Touch.” The lead’s voice was simply amazing, and they heightened the energy levels, provoking some crowd surfing.

The Dirty Heads kept the fans relaxed and were really laid back musically and personally, but impressive live. Their funky nature really came out during “Neighborhood,” “Paint it Black,” a Rolling Stones cover, and for their hit, “Lay Me Down,” which the crowd knew verbatim.

Sick Puppies came on directly after and their girl bass player seriously dominated the stage and wowed the crowd. They just got harder and harder with every song waking up the crowd after the chill set with the Dirty Heads, during hits like “You’re Going Down,” and “Maybe,” especially.
Cage the Elephant followed the Sick Puppies as the sun went down. They played a set of newer songs going from somber to loud and fast then back down again. They had a great time on stage and the lead’s solid and melodic voice moved them from songs to song and genre to genre.

Sometimes sounding more indie than alternative their music was kind of manic expressive going from something comparable to the Shins, to a punk rock montage, to minutes of ambient noise like the Mars Volta, to something reminiscent of the Smashing Pumpkins, but rocked regardless and certainly kept your attention. With “Back Against the Wall,” “Aberdeen” and “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” they left no rest for the crowd either.

Chevelle came on before the last two and most anticipated acts of the evening as, by far, the oldest band of the bunch. They started kind of slow and then hit the crowd with “Jars.” Chevelle has always had a deep, clean, succinct and potent sound. With the sun long gone and the chilly night closing in, their energy alone warmed the crowd during songs like “Letter from a Thief” and “Sleep Apnea.” They played hits from their entire catalog and blew the audience away.

Finally we reached the point where The Black Keys would take the stage. This duo immediately blasted the crowd with a raw, grungy alternative sound that got the whole crowd standing and moving. They were one of the best bands of the day, by far. They commanded the audience’s attention and made playing like that look effortless. The lead molded his voice uniquely to fit the mood and tone of songs like “Your Touch” and “Chop and Change” perfectly. Although their progressions were bluesy they managed to possess a soul sound during songs like “Everlasting Light,” where vocals have an almost feminine sound to woo the crowd even more.

They really revived the evening in many senses. The cold and restless crowd was ready for some excitement and the Black Keys brought it. When they played “Tighten Up” the crowd went nuts and everyone was dancing. Their stage presence was lively and hypnotic. They really felt the music and that feeling radiated throughout the fans. I could have listened to them for hours!

Last, but for most of the Next Big Thing attendees, anything but least, My Chemical Romance took the stage. As soon as Gerard hit the catwalk area I was sure they really just put that there for him. To be honest and possibly annoy a few fans, I never really got into My Chemical Romance, but they put on an epic show last night so any bias I may have had shot right out the window when they opened with “Na Na Na” and the crowd lost all control. They seriously revved up the audience, taking the show to a whole new level/

They were entertaining to say the least. Gerard with his crazy red hair, tight pants and flamboyant over- the-top, punk-rock presence just grabbed the attention of the crowd and had them drooling all over each and every song. His voice carried through the amphitheatre all the way to the interstate and warmed the hearts of every teen girl. The pit must have been 100 degrees when they rocked out “Thank You for the Venom,” “Planetary Go!,” “Give ‘Em Hell Kid,” and “House of Wolves.”

The poetic lyrics, Gerard’s intense gaze and their face melting guitar riffs and drum beats shattered any doubt I’d ever had about My Chemical Romance and certainly made the long and cold day worth it for their hardcore fans. They were in high demand because of their recent new album release. They played the current hit off of that album, “Danger Days, The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys,” “Sing” and the crowd did just that. “Look Alive, Sunshine” was among some of the other ones they featured from that album but they still played the older stuff like “Teenagers.”

Of course after such an amazing performance the crowd begged them for more luring them back onstage for an encore of “Cancer” and “The Kids from Yesterday.” For Tampa Bay’s My Chemical Romance fans they got an early fix of live entertainment straight from the new album and got to revisit some classics with Gerard and company.

Their performance was intoxicating; a perfect end to a great musical day. So 97X’s Next Big Thing 2010 was a complete success but definitely leaves an amazing amount of acts to follow for NBT 2011!