Getting By, Dreaming Big

This is a blog for me to share my thoughts on my favorite things: books, traveling, food and entertainment!

Entertainment Saturday: Train & Bon Jovi July 25, 2010

Filed under: Concerts,Entertainment Saturday,Music — readerbean @ 7:05 pm
Tags: ,

I may reside in New York City and I may root for the New England Patriots and the Boston Red Sox but I’m a Jersey girl at heart!  I have loved Bon Jovi forever and so when my friend Alison suggested going to see Bon Jovi I was super excited.  Granted this was my 4th time seeing them, but it had been at least 5 years :)   In addition, it was an opportunity for me to get together with two of my favorite Holy Cross girls (Kirsten and Alison) and to see the new Meadowlands Stadium.  Extra bonus:  Train was the opening act.  Their new CD (well, I guess it’s not that new anymore) Save Me, San Francisco is AMAZING!

Kirsten, me and Alison!

I have to say that getting to the new Stadium was super easy!  I met Alison & Kirsten at our seats because they got there early enough to “tail gate”.  I have to say the new Meadowlands Stadium did nothing for me.  From the outside it looks really cool but from the inside it’s just one big gray concrete stadium.  Blah!  At least everything was new and clean. 

Everyone was really there to see Bon Jovi so when Train came on the stadium was pretty empty.  Not that that mattered to me because I was super psyched to see them.  They were every bit as good as I had hoped they’d be and they played a lot of great songs.  I just felt bad that there wasn’t more energy coming from the crowd.  I will say, as this was my 3rd time seeing Train, if you like them and you ever have the opportunity to see them they put on a GREAT show!  (And there version of Ramblin’ Man rocks!)

After Train it was time for the main act.  It is amazing that Bon Jovi is still rockin’ it!  They played all the great oldies you’re there for and a lot of new stuff too.  It was fun to see how some of there newer stuff (ie:  It’s My Life) has become almost as popular as Livin’ on a Prayer!  People went crazy when It’s My Life came on – love it!  I love Bon Jovi and so maybe I’m biased but I can promise you whether you can sing all of their songs or only know 1/3 of them their concerts are a guaranteed good time.  You will lose you voice from singing & screaming, you’ll be dancing and just enjoying yourself all night long.  They put on a great show – it’s definitely worth the splurge.  I would see them again!!!! 

Post in Comments:

Who is your favorite band/musician to see live?

 

Entertainment Saturday: Rock of Ages May 10, 2010

Filed under: Entertainment Saturday,Music,NYC Experiences,Theater — readerbean @ 8:12 pm
Tags: , ,

Every year around Christmas my HC girlfriends and I usually get together for an early morning breakfast (think 8AM) either right before or right after Christmas.  It’s our time, during all the family and holiday madness, to take some time and come together.  Usually we alternate between diners in Long Island or New Jersey.  This year, we went a little crazy, I’m not really sure what happened…or how it came about….but we decided on….

 

Brunch at 44 & X followed by the matinee of ROCK OF AGES!!!!  (That’s me above in the bright green vest – it was a new Christmas present from my sister and her fiance!)  I know this post is a little late in coming (um…like 4+ monhts late….) but Rock of Ages was sooo good that I couldn’t let the opportunity pass by without blogging about it.

First of all on a side foodie note, 44 & X was AMAZING!  We sat at this huge oversized wooden table and enjoyed all sorts of goodies and yummy beverages.  The staff there was incredibly accomodating and so nice!  Then we headed over to the Theater.  I had heard a lot of great things about Rock of Ages, but I didn’t know that much about it.  We got there and right at the door were offered more beverages (my kind of theater).  We had purchased our tickets (or rather Meghan’s aunt waited in line at TKTS for us – Thank you Aunt Debbie!) the day before from TKTS and were able to snag center orchestra row L for like $85.  We settled in and then the show started.

Let me just say it was AMAZING!  They gave us fake lighters that were mini flashlights to light up and sway back and forth during the slow songs.  If you love 80′s music – think Journey, Whitesnake, Poison, Pat Benatar, REO Speedwagon – you will LOVE Rock of Ages.  We were singing the whole play (out loud) it was hands down THE MOST FUN I’ve had on Broadway!  There is a live band playing all of this awesome and fun music and there is a story and characters to boot just to make all the songs come together cohesively.  My favorites were a toss up between “We Built This City” and “Oh Sherry”.  My favorite character, how do I choose, it’s definitely a toss up between Stacee Jaxx and Franz.  I promise you will laugh until you are crying and your sides hurt, your voice will be hoarse afterwards and you will be so energized you might be tempted to buy tickets and see the next showing!

Just putting together this post and looking stuff up, watching videos, and re-listening to music from the musical is making me now want to go see it again.  This is a show not to be missed, get your most fun group of friends together, and “rock out”!

WE MISSED YOU AMERS!!!!!

Post in Comments:

What’s the most fun you’ve had on Broadway?

 

Tuesday Travels II: Annapolis January 20, 2010

Filed under: Music,Presidents,Tuesday Travels,Uncategorized — readerbean @ 6:23 pm
Tags: ,

As I stated yesterday, to make up for my lack of posting last week, I’m doing double posts this week.  I’m hoping I can stay ahead of the game though because I’m heading to Florida Thursday morning where I will not have internet access.  Since I have a couple of posts to write tonight and schedule for later this week I’m going to get right to it.

A couple of months ago Jon, me, his brother Matty and his wife Karen decided to venture down to Annapolis for New Year’s Eve.  Annapolis for New Year’s you say…well we were going to see our favorite band…The Pat McGee Band.  So we booked our hotel rooms for a three night stay and met up at the Baltimore airport on Wednesday, December 30th.  I had never been to Annapolis before so I was super excited to explore a new place.

We checked into our hotel and got situated before  heading out to explore.  We started off with lunch at Ram’s Head Tavern.  This is a huge music venue in Annapolis.  We all had a really good lunch.  Jon enjoyed a beer sampler with his turkey burger and I tried black bean soup for the first time – LOVED IT!  I know, I’m so adventurous – hahaha!  Then we basically walked around Annapolis, saw the State House, grabbed some coffee, saw the waterfront, bought an ornament for our tree, got the lay of the land.

Then we got all dressed up for our night on the town, but before that, we headed out to Sandy Point Park and drove through the “Lights on the Bay” display.  Lights on the Bay is a display of about 60 Christmas lights displays.  You wind your way through the park on a guided “trail”.  Some of the light displays were pretty traditional, but some were pretty cool (moving lights – love it!).  After that we took the “heated” golf cart from our hotel to Osteria 177 our fancy dinner for NYE but a night early so we could really enjoy it.  We had an amazing meal, we lingered over wine, enjoyed our appetizers, entrees and desserts and our waiter was fantastic.  We were seriously the last people to leave the restaurant, everything in Annapolis closes much earlier than NYC.  After dinner we decided to do a “pub crawl” of sorts.

We started out at Treaty or Paris, a bar/restaurant that Grammy Lorraine & Coley recommended to us.  Their bar was awesome; exposed brick, little nooks, old wood tables.  We had a drink there but since we were pretty much the only people in there we decided to move on to Sly Fox.  Sly Fox is located in the Cellar of the historic Reynolds Tavern.  It was a pretty fun place, there were a ton of people out having a good time.  We ran into some PMBer’s and enjoyed a couple of pints and ”Mr. Scarf Guy” was created before we moved on to our last destination Ram’s Head Tavern (again!)  After that we called it a night.

We started out our 2nd day in Annapolis with a short run (2-2.5 miles).  It was sleeting and a little slippery but we managed to make our way.  After a great breakfast we headed over to the Naval Academy only to find that there were no tours that day.  So we made our way around the Academy and just kind of explored on our own.  Then we headed to the State House to see where George Washington resigned his military commission after the Revolutionary War.  Being the history buff that I am (especially when it comes to our Presidents I just couldn’t miss out on this!)  Then is was time for Karen and I to enjoy manicures back at the hotel spa before our evening out.  We had paraffin wax treatment on our hands and it was divine. 

Then the craziness ensued.  Like I stated before, we were there to see the Pat McGee Band’s New Year’s Even concert.  Our tickets included appetizers and open bar.  We got there at 8PM and started enjoying the atmosphere and some drinks before the concert started.  While we were a little disappointed that the full band wasn’t there (Chardy & Brian we missed you), it was still an incredible show.

So incredibly that we danced the night away until 1AM in the morning, when it was clearly time to hit the sack!  In between sets, the dj was jammin’ some fun tunes to dance too, which I really really enjoyed!  I let it loose on the dance floor for sure!  New Year’s Day was spent mostly lounging, we went for a short short run, had breakfast and then spent most of the day napping, watching football and walking around town one last time.  Not much was open but I did manage to enjoy to ice cream:)

All in all it was a great trip, with great memories, and it was fun to spend it with family! 

Post in Comments:

Have you ever been to Annapolis?

 

Entertainment Saturdays: Sugarland & Keith Urban December 19, 2009

Filed under: Concerts,Entertainment Saturday,Music — readerbean @ 2:53 pm
Tags: , ,

I do so many “entertainment” related activities (ie: movie watching, broadway shows, concerts, television shows) that I decided to add Entertainment Saturdays.  Entertainment Thursdays will focus primarily on movie reviews and television show reviews while Entertainment Saturdays will focus primarily on concerts, music and reviews of Broadway shows or any kind of theatrical/dance performance.  Eventually the titles may evolve into something different but that will be the breakdown.

I’ve been wanting to write this post since October!!!  But was so swamped with movie reviews that I just never got around to it.  I apologize that this is so delayed but hopefully you’ll still enjoy it.  Back in October, my co-worker Rachelle and I went to the Sugarland/Keith Urban Concert.  We are both huge country fans and we both love love love Sugarland.  We listen to them at work often, much to our other co-workers shagrin (sp?)! 

Sugarland Performing

 Sugarland was the opening act!  They were awesome.  Rachelle and I were so excited to finally see them live.  I would say that my favorite song they performed was “Everyday America“.  They broke out into some freestyle action, where they sang a couple of different songs in the middle, before coming back to “Everyday America”.  The other reason that was my favorite song was because that’s where my blog name came from.  I was listening to their cd “Enjoy the Ride” a lot back when I started this blog.  Part of the chorus goes, “Whoa, whoa, everybody’s dreaming big, whoa, whoa, but everybody’s just getting by.”  I love that because I feel like I’m always “dreaming big” (planning vacations, trying to accomplish challenges and goals I set for myself, exploring NYC, trying to make my life bigger than it is, etc) and yet I’m just “getting by” like everyone else (clockin’ a 40 hour work week, doing laundry, doing dishes, working out, living in reality, etc).  So now y’all know the origin of the blog name!  My other favorite song that they performed was “Love” and of course “Stay“.  They played for about an hour and then it was time for Keith Urban. 

Rachelle & I

 Rachelle and I decided to get all decked out country style!  We thought for sure a majority of the people attending would be wearing plaid, cowboy boots & hats, etc.  But no, we were like 2 of 20 people in all of MSG decked out.  Oh well, it made our viewing experience more fun for sure!  I will say this was the most on time prompt concert I have ever been to.  Both the opening act and the main act started right on time, not a minute late.  It was awesome, it elimated a lot of sitting around you tend to do at concerts.

Keith Urban rockin' out!

Rachelle and I weren’t sure what to expect from Keith Urban.  Don’t get me wrong, we both love his music and listen to it a lot, but we don’t have all of his cds so we were uncertain if he was going to play stuff we knew, and if we were going to like him as much as we were planning on liking Sugarland.  Boy were we blown out of the water by his performance.  He played a lot of old stuff as well as new stuff, he came out into the crowd a bunch of times, he was just AMAZING!  I would say that Keith Urban is pretty rock ‘n’ roll, some of his guitar riffs were crazy.  We practically lost our voice singing and screaming to his songs!  I would say my favorite song was “Days Go By“, I LOVE that song!  (seriously.)  This concert made me realize just how many great songs he has, “Better Half”, “I Told You So”, “Sweet Thing”, “Stupid Boy”, “Hit the Ground Runnin’”, the list goes on and on and on.

Overall, this was a GREAT concert and I would certainly see both these acts again live!  So glad they came to little ‘ol NYC!

Post in Comments:

Who’s your favorite country band/duo/group/singer?  Do I have to pick a fave???  Sugarland, Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum, Little Big Town…I guess those would be my Top 4.

 

Pat McGee Band…Again! October 2, 2007

Filed under: Music,My Favorite Things — readerbean @ 1:15 pm

Can you tell they’re one of my favorite things!!! Jon and I headed up to Boston this weekend to see the Pat McGee Band play at the Paradise on Commonwealth Avenue. The Paradise is definitely one of our favorite venues of all time – we’ve seen some great concerts there over the years. The energy is always amazing and it’s so small you just feel like you’re part of the show.

We met up with Jon’s brother and his fiance and friend at T’s Pub for a drink beforehand and ran into a few Holy Cross friends. Pat McGee Band concerts are usually also HC reunions – don’t ask me why. We headed over in time to catch Josh Kelly’s show, as he was on before PMB. At the Paradise we ran into even more Holy Cross peeps! I once again enjoyed Josh Kelly’s show – he’s kind of funky & jazzy but has a great energy and a great voice when he’s not messing around. He has this really funny song Scrumptious which is such fun live!!!

PMB came on around 11PM and I’m tell you they rocked the house! They played until 1 in the morning and we were all hoarse and tired from all the energy we exuded dancing and singing at the top of our lungs. It was one of their best concerts in a while and the crowd was sooo into it – and really high energy! You could tell PMB were having fun! I’m so glad we drove up to Boston to see it. I can’t wait for them to come play around here again:)

If you want to check them out go to www.patmcgeeband.com. They have 4 of their cd’s online that you can listen to. The only cd not on there is the new one, which is currently my favorite!

 

My Favorite Things: Pat McGee Band September 21, 2007

Filed under: Music,My Favorite Things — readerbean @ 2:30 pm

Back to my favorite things! Thursday Jon and I went to see the Pat McGee Band play at the Bowery Ballroom. We hadn’t seen them in over 2 years. This is definitely our favorite band. Jon’s friend introduced him to them Freshman year in college and then he introduced me to them Sophmore year and I’m embarrassed to say how many times we’ve seen them in concert. My dad is under the distinct impression that we must be personal friends with them by now (I hate to burst your bubble dad, but they have no idea who we are and I can say with confidence I know people who see them way more than we do!)

The Bowery Ballroom is a pretty cool venue. The stage area is on the 2nd floor so you can sit on the first floor on plush couches and enjoy a drink or two before you go up to the concert. This was definitely a good thing as we got there at 8PM and they didn’t go on stage until 10:30PM! Josh Kelly is co-headlining with them (you may know him as Katherine Heigl’s fiance!) and we went up and watched most of his concert and I have to say that it was really fun. Pat McGee was of course awesome – they sounded great and their harmonies were amazing! Unfortunately for them the crowd was lame-o!

We’re heading up to Boston this weekend to see them perform again at the Paradise Club on Commonwealth Avenue this Saturday! Woot! Hopefully the crowd will be a little more into the show – they always put on a good show at the Paradise.

If you want to check out some of their music click here and then press play – most of their CDs are on their website for you to listen to, unfortunately for you their latest and greatest is not….:( Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!!!