My family and I at the Huey Lewis & the News concert!

On August 7, my parents, brother and I visited the Orange County Fair and saw Huey Lewis and the News. They were on tour to promote their new album, Soulsville. They opened with “The Heart of Rock n’ Roll” and then, along with their backup singers, sang some songs from their new album.

Huey and his amazing backup singers.

One thing that bothered me was Huey’s attitude! He seemed annoyed to have to play all of the hits that made them famous and successful, which I didn’t appreciate. I can understand that he might be tired of playing the same songs for twenty years… but come on. Those songs are what made you famous. Be gracious about it.

See the trumpet player at the top left? He was doing that fist pumo the whole night.

Overall, we had a really good time at the concert. They even did an a Capella portion of their songs. The concert was a gift for my Dad for his birthday, and he had a good time, so that’s all that matters!

My brother and I at the Greek.

When we got there an opening band, Fool’s Gold, was performing. I had a celebrity spotting:

Vanessa Hudgens of High School Musical Fame.

Afterwards another opener, Best Coast performed. They were actually pretty decent.

Best Coast

Then Lykke Li took the stage. She was amazing!!

Lykke Li setlist:
Jerome (Wounded Rhymes)
I’m Good, I’m Gone (Youth Novels)
Sadness is a Blessing (Wounded Rhymes)
I Follow Rivers (Wounded Rhymes)
Silent My Song (Wounded Rhymes)
Little Bit (Youth Novels)
Dance Dance Dance (Youth Novels)
Cover: Please Stay (by various, originally the Drifters)
I Know Places (Wounded Rhymes)
Love Out of Lust (Wounded Rhymes)
Rich Kids Blues (Wounded Rhymes)
Breaking it Up (Youth Novels)
Youth Knows no Pain (Wounded Rhymes)
Get Some (Wounded Rhymes)
Encore: Possibility (The Twilight Saga: New Moon OST)
Encore: Unrequited Love (Wounded Rhymes)

My brother and I really enjoyed the show. She is a really great performer. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the night:

Lykke Li show pictures.

I also took video of her performing “Sadness is a Blessing,” which is my favorite song off of her new album:

Lykke Li Performing “Sadness is a Blessing” from Erin Cragg on Vimeo.

Next up is Huey Lewis & the News on August 7!

The concert was on July 24th at the Orange County Fairgrounds. Here is the amphitheater:

Clearly, we had awesome seats.

My new Selena shirt.

Thank god for zoom/monitors!

Click to see bigger.

I didn’t have anything to write the set list down with, but I will try to remember the songs she played (not really in any order):
Love You Like a Love Song
Hit the Lights
The Way I Loved You
Round & Round
A Year Without Rain
Rock God
Off the Chain
Summer’s Not Hot
We Own the Night
Bang Bang Bang
My Dilemma
Tell Me Something I Don’t Know
Naturally
Who Says (Encore)

I think I’m missing a couple. She also did the Super Bass cover seen here:

And OMG GUESS WHO SHOWED UP (as predicted by the lady at the Budweiser stand I talked to on my way back from the bathroom earlier):

JUSTIN BIEBER!!

I heard later that her show wasn’t really her normal set since it is at a fairground, too bad. I thought she sounded great though, and the place was PACKED. Everyone had a really good time, and I’d love to see her again (maybe at a different venue next time!)

1. “Baby, I Love Your Way” by Peter Frampton (Frampton Comes Alive!)
2. “Be My Baby” by the Ronettes (single)
3. “Cry Baby Cry” by The Beatles (The Beatles [The White Album])
4. “My Baby” by Britney Spears (Circus)
5. “Babyfather” by Sade (Soldier of Love)
6. “Baby” by Justin Bieber featuring Ludacris (My World 2.0)
7. “Baby Love” by the Supremes (Where Did Our Love Go)
8. “Baby, I Love You” by the Ronettes (Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes featuring Veronica)
9. “Angel Baby (Don’t You Ever Leave Me)” by Stevie Wonder (Down To Earth)
10. “You’re Just a Baby” by Belle & Sebastian (Tigermilk)
11. “Baby I Need Your Loving” by the Four Tops (Baby I Need Your Loving)
12. “Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)” by Christina Aguilera (Christina Aguilera)
13. “American Baby” by Dave Matthews Band (Stand Up)
14. “What Will Baby Be” by Dolly Parton (Slow Dancing with the Moon)
15. “Don’t Worry Baby” by The Beach Boys (Shut Down Volume 2)
16. “Too Busy Thinking About My Baby” by Marvin Gaye (M.P.G.)
17. “Ooh Child” by Five Stairsteps (The Stairsteps)
18. “Always Be My Baby” by Mariah Carey (Daydream)
19. “Born to Be Wild” by Steppenwolf (Steppenwolf)
20. “Kids” by MGMT (Oracular Spectacular)
21. “Kids in America” by Kim Wilde (Kim Wilde)
22. “Born in the USA” by Bruce Springsteen (Born in the USA)
23. “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses (Appetite for Destruction)
24. “Baby Baby” by Amy Grant (Heart in Motion)
25. “Take Good Care of My Baby” by Bobby Vee (single)
26. “Baby” by Devendra Banhart (What Will We Be)
27. “Ooo Baby Baby” by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles (Going to a Go-Go)

The playlist lasted about an hour and a half and everyone liked the idea.

Selena Gomez, Huey Lewis & The News, Band of Horses, Lykke Li, Neko Case, The National, Sharon Van Etten

I’ve been buying tickets like a crazy person for the past two months in preparation for all of the great shows happening this summer! In the past I haven’t cared too much about going to concerts; tickets always seemed too expensive (and I still definitely feel this is the case for the likes of Britney Spears and Lady Gaga). But now that I’ve been listening to more alternative and indie-rock type music, I’ve really enjoyed going to shows to see my favorite bands like Band of Horses. This summer I have so many shows lined up, I can’t wait to see them!

• Jul 24 – Selena Gomez & The Scene at the Orange County Fairgrounds – OK this one is a little embarrassing, but I can’t wait! I love Selena Gomez! I think she’s really cute and I like her songs. I’m not above listening to pop music and she’s one of my favorites. I’m taking a couple of my tween cousins with me and I think they’ll really enjoy it. Her new album comes out Jun 28. Visit her website to see her latest music video for “Who Says.”
• Aug 3 – Lykke Li at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles – I was a fan of Lykke Li’s “Little Bit” EP and she recently released a new album, Wounded Rhymes. I’m loving “Sadness is a Blessing” so far. My brother and I are going to this show together, we saw Band of Horses at the Greek last year, too. Great Venue.
• Aug 7 – Huey Lewis & the News at the Orange County Fairgrounds – Another embarrassing one! But my Dad said he wanted to see Huey Lewis, so I bought him tickets for his birthday. My mom, brother and I are going to go, too. Hey, it’s hip to be square! They had a new album, Soulsville come out last year, so I imagine this tour is to promote that.
• Sep 8 – Band of Horses and Kings of Leon at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine, CA – Apparently Band of Horses is opening for Kings of Leon during their tour this summer, so my brother and I are going to go see them. I couldn’t really care less about KOL, but my brother likes them, so we’ll go together (Are you sensing a trend? I go to basically all my shows with him!). It helps that this show is pretty much in my brother’s backyard, so we won’t have to travel too far. Tickets haven’t gone on sale yet, but I’ll be all over them when they do! I haven’t been to this venue yet, so I’m pretty excited.
• Sep 11 – Neko Case, The National and Sharon Van Etten at the Hollywood Bowl – The show that started them all! This was the first one I bought tickets for. I am pretty much obsessed with Neko Case since I started listening to her Middle Cyclone album about a year or two ago. She hasn’t been touring much lately, so when I saw this come up (I think on her Twitter?) I pounced on it. It helps that my brother likes The National (I think they’re OK) so he agreed to go with me. I started listening to Sharon Van Etten’s albums today so I can get a feel for what she’s about; I’ve never heard of her. I haven’t been to this venue either and it’s very famous, so I can’t wait!

I’m really excited! I’m trying not to look at any other shows to go to (definitely not thinking about seeing Bob Dylan or The Weepies at the Troubador at all) since I’ve spent enough so far but… never say never!

But this performance at the AMA’s last night is possibly the greatest thing ever:

Later this month I’m going to see The Frames at the Avalon Ballroom in LA. I haven’t heard much of their music, but my sister is a fan of theirs and asked me to go to the show with her, so I am. I heard they’re very good live, so I’m excited. A couple of weeks ago The Weepies were playing at the Coach House, unfortunately I was too busy to go see them, I was so disappointed

What shows have you been to?

In the mean time, enjoy one of my guilty music pleasures:Willow Smith, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s daughter, singing her song “Whip My Hair:”

I dug in immediately, looking for CDs from my favorite artists that were hard to find at the places I usually buy CDs, like Target and Best Buy. I ended up finding several CDs from artists like The Magnetic Fields, Leonard Cohen, Meiko, Priscilla Ahn, Eric Hutchinson, and many, many more. I don’t know if you noticed, but it’s pretty hard to find a CD in stores if it was released more than 6-12 months ago, or it’s not on the Billboard charts. I know what you’re thinking, why not buy online? I do buy online; that’s why I already had Meiko’s album before I saw it at Amoeba. But sometimes the added taxes and shipping costs increase the cost of the CD above what I’m willing to pay. And Amoeba has a LOT of used CDs, which lowers the cost even more. I ended up walking away with The Magnetic Field’s The Wayard Bus/Distant Plastic Trees, Leonard Cohen’s Various Positions, and a tribute to Leonard Cohen, I’m Your Fan, which includes performances by The Pixies, REM, and Nick Cave, to name a few. I also got a couple of Miyazaki DVD’s I’ve been meaning to pick up, but haven’t because for some reason, they cost quite a bit more than regular DVDs. Anyway, they were Whisper of the Heart, which I rented on NetFlix recently and loved, and The Cat Returns, which I downloaded and watched quite a while ago.

My sister got a few CDs, the Hits of Erasure, ABBA Gold, and the Sex and the City Soundtrack. She joked as we were driving home, listening to her CDs, that she was turning my car into a gay club, haha.

After Amoeba, we waited outside for the rest of the party to be done shopping and I noticed that we could see the Church of Scientology’s location on Hollywood Blvd from a distance. It kinda creeped me out. It creeped me out even further when one of the guys in the party mentioned that the Scientology created CCHR headquarters, or Citizen’s Commission on Human Rights, was down the street just a little ways and they wanted to visit it out of morbid curiosity because inside there is a “museum” on psychiatry. We were all curious, so we decided to check it out. Turns out the museum is called “Psychiatry: An Industry of Death” and the “museum” was every bit as creepy as it sounds. It felt like I was walking into the Museum of Tolerance, a Holocaust museum, also in Los Angeles. It had all these exhibits showing the history of psychiatry, including of course shock treatment and lobotomy. CCHR blames the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust on psychiatry. It also had an exhibit with pictures of different celebrities and little descriptions underneath the pictures blaming psychiatry for their deaths. There was also a section that showed statistics on psychiatrists; supposedly more psychiatrists than physicians commit suicide, get divorces, etc. They also showed a big wall with pictures of psychiatrists behind bars for being convicted of various crimes, ranging from a hit-and-run fatality to rape and sexual assault of patients. And of course, there was a room blaming psychiatry for the Columbine school shootings and various other school shootings. All in all, it was quite disturbing and I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Chris and his friends were irritated and angry about the museum, quick to point out the flaws of logic in the exhibits, but Teresa and I just wanted to leave.

Afterward we walked to Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles off of Gower and Sunset. It was so good! I was suspicious about the pairing of fried Chicken and waffles, but my suspicions were put to rest after that visit, haha.

Anyway, that was my Sunday and even with the scary Scientology excursion, it was really fun. I wish I had my camera.