Concert: Mumford and Sons

Last night my husband and I went to see the Mumford & Sons in concert at The Fillmore in Denver. It was freaking amazing. Ah-MAZING! Matthew and the Atlas and Nathaniel Rateliff opened for them and they were great as well! I will be stalking them today and picking up some of their EPs :). All these bands are categorized as folk or bluegrass but some of their songs I think could fall under rock. 

I'm a lover of music in general... I listen to pretty much everything except maybe some hardcore heavy metal and rap... and I love LOVE Mumford & Sons. It's been years since a band has made me feel this way. Seeing them live was just incredible. There is something riveting and catching about their voices in harmony with all the different instruments. Let's see they have guitars (acoustic and electric), banjos, cello, violin, piano (keyboard and acoustic upright), drums, piano accordion, and probably more that I'm forgetting. The band members all play multiple instruments and it was fun seeing them rotate through them. 

Here are some pictures... sorry for the quality, they were taken with my iPhone.

The show was fantastic. This was a high energy clap/stomp/sing along show. They played a lot of new songs, one that was written 2 or 3 days ago! Usually that bothers me as I want to hear the songs I know, but I don't think anyone in the audience minded, the new songs are awesome. During the encore they did an all acoustic version of Sister (a new song). For it to work in the venue the audience had to be quiet. It was silent except for their voices and acoustic instruments (until toward the end when people couldn't help themselves). Even though they played 3-5 new songs they played all their well known ones - Little Lion Man, Thistle and Weeds, Awake My Soul (I about died), The Cave, and more!

We paid more than double the price for our tickets... and they were worth every penny! Never mind that we stood in line in the sun for over an hour before the doors opened. Never mind that we claimed spots about 10-15 feet from the stage and didn't move the rest of the night, so we didn't eat dinner and were thirsty (but thankfully that meant we didn't have to go to the bathroom!). I was NOT moving. 

My hands were red and hurt from clapping, my feet sore from stomping, my voice hoarse, and I didn't want it to end! I can't wait to see them live again!

Their final song was The Cave, here's the video for you :).

An addition to our family...

No, not that kind of addition, I'm not preggers! 

We are finally getting a piano! For those that know us... you know that ever since we've moved into our house a year and a half ago, we've called our formal living room the "piano room". Our friends/family give us a weird look when they don't see a piano, and we have to tell them to use their imaginations :). John and I both grew up playing the piano, and are excited to re-learn since neither of us have played in a long time (over a decade, yikes that makes me feel OLD). I took 8 years of lessons which I mostly hated, I liked playing for myself and what I wanted to play vs. what I was instructed to learn.  Though I had all those lessons, I never felt like a good player. I've never been able to just sit down and play by reading the music without having to struggle to learn it... I've always been jealous of my aunt who can play whatever sheet music you put in front of her!

We have been searching for pianos on craigslist, ebay, and at local piano sellers seriously for the past month. We went back and forth on what our budget should be, and what kind of piano we should get - upright or baby grand. Though we found many potential pianos at reasonable prices on craigslist and ebay, we eventually decided we wanted to buy new. Not a very "green" decision I know, but we are extremely picky when it comes to major purchases. Ha, who am I kidding, we're picky about everything (and I like to say John is even more picky than I am)! We wanted a piano with great tone, manufactured with quality materials, and one that would play great for many years. Also, since we are limited budget wise, the idea of it being under warranty, and being able to "trade up" appealed to us.

We decided on the Kawai K-3 Professional Upright in the Mahogany Satin finish.

If you're interested, you can listen here:


So excited! It should arrive early next week!

My Workout Playlist

Holy crow! Where has this month gone? I can't believe it's been so long since I posted. I need to post an update... I'll just have to catch up for the whole month :). For now, I'm just curious to know what you listen to while running or working out. I haven't run in a while. My excuses? My ankle. The icy paths. Whatever. I have been putting our Free Motion Elliptical to use though! I thought I'd share my playlist in hope you'd share yours with me. This is my new and improved list. I had to say goodbye (temporarily) to SexyBack, Lose Yourself, Pink, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, and my others standbys... I needed to shake things up. So here it is:

I've really liked this list on shuffle even though it still has some of my old playlist songs. Mumford & Sons and Muse are new additions. Every time Uprising comes on it makes me grin and I want to clap-clap with every other beat... What gets you going? I'm still looking for new songs to add.

Wednesday Randomness

• Mumford & Sons. I love them. They are from the UK. They are my new favorite band. I had no idea who they were until John and I were sitting in the car last week and heard a song on the radio we both really liked. John had me shazam it, and that's how we learned about the song Little Lion Man, that led me to discover Mumford & Sons. Seriously, I liked it so much, I bought the song from iTunes while riding in the car (I wasn't driving!). Here's the video for Little Lion Man... Warning: this isn't the "clean version" there are swear words.
  

• I am loving the fall weather! I noticed today that I can open the blinds during the day and the house doesn't spike to a bagillion degrees. I love how much natural light our house gets, but it gets roasting in here in the summer with all the windows. It's nice the rest of the year though, and helps keeps the house warm in the winter - so I won't complain.
• Did you know that one in fourteen people in the world have a facebook account? It's true peeps. Isn't that crazy? 1 in 14 peeps, in the WORLD. 
• I think it'd be awesome to work in a think tank for Apple, Google, or facebook. I don't want to write code, I just want to think cool stuff up and help implement the ideas.