The Market had the awesome oppurtunity to play at this year’s X96 Nightmare Before Xmas show at The Great Saltair. It was an incredible night to share the stage with The Brobecks, Anberlin and Hoobastank.
Here is the entire set we played:
The whole night was so much fun. So many of our friends and family came and enjoyed it with us. Something interesting to note is that Anberlin borrowed all of our heads and cabs to play their set on. I guess that makes our amps somewhat famous now, right? Hopefully we’ll get to play at Saltair again. Woohoo!!
This has been a very different holiday season for me. I arrived home on Christmas Eve to enjoy our family party with all of my relatives. We had dinner, played games and sang Christmas songs; the usual activities for our holiday celebrations. My oldest sister was not able to join us because she started feeling sick as the party began.
On Christmas day most of us were feeling weak and so we got off to a slow start, opening our presents around 4pm. After the opening of presents we watched a movie together and my mom was the next victim on the sick list.
The next morning I woke up with a horrible stomach ache and realized that I had caught the nasty bug as well. We made a few calls to our extended family and sure enough most of them were sick too.
The culprit of this plague was my nephew. Being a baby we passed him around throughout the night on Christmas Eve and one by one we each received the gift that would keep on giving for days to come, a stomach virus. My stomach still hurts and it’s looking like I will not be able to participate in the highly anticipated ski trip with my sister tomorrow.
Despite being sick it’s been a very loving holiday season. I’ve enjoyed the time spent with my family and am grateful for the many holiday memories that we will always share.
Last Tuesday I went to see Rise Against at Saltair. Other bands playing that night were The Gaslight Anthem, Thrice and Alkaline Trio. Despite reminding myself multiple times not to, I forgot my camera in the car which resulted in a halfway decent attempt at taking pictures with my phone.
We got there in time to hear a couple Gaslight songs and I was not a fan. Their music was okay at best. After them was Thrice. I haven’t seen them for at least four or five years. They played a good set. My favorite was their cover of Helter Skelter. Third was Alkaline Trio. I saw them a few years ago and loved them live. This time around they didn’t rock out too much and the sound levels were all over the place. I still enjoyed them but was a little let down.
To finish the night Rise Against headlined. Last year they put on a great show and this year was the same. They played for almost an hour and a half highlighting mainly their new CD, Appeal to Reason. Again the sound levels were way off but by the end of their set the sound guy finally figured it out.
I loved the encore when they played their new acoustic, Hero Of War, along with their well-known, Swing Life Away. Rise against is a very good example of how a band should put on a show. They have incredible energy, they move around and get into the music, they are very dynamic and know how to entertain the crowd. I very much appreciated that they didn’t try to shove their own agenda down our throats as many bands do. They simply made reference to how nice it will be to have a new president and that was it. Thank you.
I really wish Saltair would get its act together and stop putting on shows with such craptastic sound. It seems like every other show I see there is the same with muted and mediocre levels. And sadly Saltair is bigger thus resulting in bigger bands and more expensive tickets. I’d rather see a show at the smaller Avalon or In the Venue any day.
Last week we had to put one of our miniature dachshunds, Gabbi, to sleep. Her body was full of tumors that had taken over her organs to the point she couldn’t breathe. We were planning on taking her in Friday to put her down, but the cancer took its toll and started shutting her body down Thursday night. We made an emergency visit to the vet late that night to end her pain.
Gabbi was a part of our family for over six years. She brought a new life and unconditional love to us that was only enhanced with the arrival of her best friend, Gabe. I’m going to miss her.
This past Thursday my good friend Josiah had a birthday. For it he decided to throw a Rock Band 2 party to rock in another year of his life. His one request for us was that we dress up as rockstars. What a rocking party it was.
