Concert

Just last month on February 14th, a couple of my friends and I went down to the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland to see the Breaking Benjamin - Three Days Grace concert with opening act Flyleaf.

The concert was a surprise to me because for starters it was my birthday, and secondly this was going to be my first ever real concert. I was incredibly skeptical about the whole concert scene. Loud noises, tons of people, and expensive soda wasn’t normally my idea of getting away. Alas, I kept an open mind about it.

Turns out planning a trip to a concert is surprisingly easy, especially if your accompanied by some seasoned concert veterans. The planning consisted of buying the tickets, finding a large enough vehicle through relatives, begging said relatives, buying drinks and food, downloading a map from Google, playing with Google Map Satellites, arguing about the effectiveness of Google Maps, then just relying on personal memories for directions.

Flyleaf took center stage as the opening act for the show. They encouraged excitement from the crowd with their high-energy enthusiasm. Lead singer Lacey, sporting a long gray dress, opened the set with their 2007 hit "Fully Alive". Lacey never fails to keep up the excitement while jumping to the beat of each tune, and swaying her arms up toward the heavens. Bassist Pat Seals and guitarist Sameer Bhattacharya also managed to keep up the hype as they ran up and down the stage, jumping from platform to platform. They played a few hits from their newest album "Memento Mori", which means "Remember You Will Die", relating back to their Christian ideals. Lacey belted out the high pitched whispers in hits from her latest album which include, "Again", "Chasm", and "Beautiful Bride". At one point nearing the end of the show, Lacey complimented the crowd. She described her band as just a bunch of people from Texas who became famous, and that they were no better than anybody else. This stirred booming approval from the crowd as the band concluded their set. They ended with a slow, poetic song called "How he Loves". Despite the band's poor audio quality, they tried to manage a fairly solid sound and performed an awesome show.

Breaking Benjamin took the stage shortly after Flyleaf. The stage set up included a drop down screen in the background. They featured footage from their own videos. They even used cinematic clips from the Xbox game Halo, during which they performed "Blow Me Away". The band did an excellent cover of Aerosmith's "Dream On", during which they paid tribute to musicians who have passed away. Some of these stars included Kurt Cobain, Dimebag Darrell, and of course, Michael Jackson. Frontman Benjamin Burnley took advantage of the screen with his own mobile live cam. He aimed the camera towards the audience and made them scream for t-shirts. The band also surprised the crowd by performing older tunes like "Polyamorous" off the 2002 album Saturate. Ben's talented guitar skills and meaningful lyrics made for a monumental set.

Three Days Grace proved to be the headlining band, opening up their show with one of their latest singles, "Break". They got the crowd wild with their impressive light shows and had excellent timing to the beat of the music with their use of pyrotechnics. Frontman Adam Gontier dressed in his typical white shirt and black vest, entertained the crowd with a Phil Collins cover, "In the Air Tonight". We also got to see a surprising drum solo from the usually shy, Neil Sanderson. The drum set was mounted on a movable turntable so it moved in circles while Sanderson performed. This later proved as the perfect distraction while Adam snuck through the center to perform the Apocalyptica collaboration, "I Don't Care". He sang the tune on an elevated platform conveniently located in the middle of the crowd right in front of the sound booth. The band encouraged the audience to sing with them some of their hit songs like, "I Hate Everything About You" and "Home". Adam addressed the crowd, recalling that this was his third show in Maine and that the band would be nothing without their fans. They concluded the show with “Animal I have Become”.

Even though it was a sold out show, there was a slightly less rambunctious mosh pit than I'm used to witnessing at the Civic Center. Another negative aspect was the audio during Flyleaf where we could barely hear Lacey and her angelic singing. This caused most of the audience to tune out until the brief intermission. We also noticed a significant decrease in the merchandise pricing with Flyleaf than compared to the value pricing of Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin's broad selection of t-shirts, hoodies, and panties. On a lighter note, I found it humorous that the artists specifically requested that all water be sold in cups rather than bottles to avoid being pummeled by the rowdy audience.

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This baby is gunna be an amazing frat boy

I was wondering why no-one applied

HA, so true

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Fat people

I'm MAGIC

`I had one of the coolest teachers in Highschool ever. He loved to play pranks and above all else, let us play pranks on each other.

Little background info on me. I didn't go to an overly large Highschool. I knew the name of everybody in my graduating class, and we were all good humored. Furthermore, because of the size of my class, pretty much everybody had a friend that was a teacher. Odd, I know.

The teacher in question is Mr. Kelleher. A Burger King loving, color blind, video game playing mentor who loved to single out my friend Gilmore for pranks and taunting. All in good humor mind you.

Gilmore

Kelleher

One day my friend Potter (Not Pictured) came to school with a "magic trick". The trick was this: You would come up to him and pick a card out of a deck, you would put the card back into the deck, he would snap his finger and point at one of your pockets telling you to check your pocket. In your excitement you would reach down to see if the card was in your pocket, only to be laughed at hysterically while Potter proclaimed "Ha!, You actually thought I could do it!". Then he would walk away while you stood there embarrassed.

During one of Potter's demonstrations of said "trick" Gilmore admitted that he wanted to do the trick, but to a victim that hadn't had it done to them. So we all told Gilmore to come back at a later time that day and we'd have someone to play the minor prank on.

Gilmore left excited.

When Gilmore left we all grabbed some random kid and told him what Gilmore was gunna do. We put a random card in his shirt pocket so that when Gilmore goes: "Look in your pocket!" the kid would ACTUALLY have a card in it.

The plan was made, we now had to wait till the end of the day to see the fruits of our planning.

End of the day came. Gilmore came into the classroom, all excited.

The random kid was sitting at a desk playing chess with Potter.

Gilmore walks up to the desk all confident and asks if 'Random Kid' wanted to see a trick.

Random Kid (RK) stood up and and said yes.

Gilmore started the trick off perfectly, having RK pick a car, putting it back in the deck,

but when it came to snapping his fingers like Potter did - Gilmore spazzed and threw all the cards at RK.

All the cards hit RK in the chest and Gilmore just stood there pointing at him waiting for him to actually check his pocket.

RK then reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out some random card.

Gilmore just stood there for a second, awe struck and pale.

After about 10 seconds of us laughing at him, laughter he subconsciously did not hear, Gilmore took off down the hallway screaming "I AM MAGIC!".

To this day we still hound him by screaming 'I AM MAGIC!' when something

unexplainable happens.

God I love the web

What my Girlfriend would look like on South Park

My Girlfriend?

Hilarious

Epic blond

A blonde and a lawyer are seated next to each other on a flight from Los Angeles to New York.

The lawyer asks if she would like to play a fun game. The blonde, tired, just wants to take a nap, so she politely declines and rolls over to the window to catch a few winks. The lawyer
persists and explains that the game is easy and a lot of fun.

He says, "I ask you a question, and if you don't know the answer, you pay me five dollars, and vice versa."

Again, she declines and tries to get some sleep.

The lawyer, now agitated, says, "Okay, if you don't know the answer, you pay me $5, and if I don't know the answer, I will pay you $500."

This catches the blonde's attention and, figuring there will be no end to this torment, agrees to the game.

The lawyer asks the first question: "What's the distance from the earth to the moon?"

The blonde doesn't say a word, reaches into her purse, pulls out a $5.00 bill, and hands it to the lawyer.

"Okay," says the lawyer, "your turn."

She asks, "What goes up a hill with three legs and comes down with four legs?"

The lawyer, puzzled, takes out his laptop computer and searches all his references ... no answer. He taps into the air phone with his modem and searches the Internet and the Library of Congress ... no answer. Frustrated, he sends e-mails to all his friends and coworkers but to no avail.

After an hour, he wakes the blonde and hands her $500.

The blonde thanks him and turns back to get some more sleep.

The lawyer, who is more than a little miffed, stirs the blonde and asks, "Well, what's the answer?"

Without a word, the blonde reaches into her purse, hands the lawyer $5, and goes back to sleep.

Lessons to learn

You may not be her first, her last, or her only. She loved before she may love again. But if she loves you now, what else matters? She's not perfect, you aren't either, and the two of you may never be perfect together but if she can make you laugh, cause you to think twice, and admit to being human and making mistakes, hold onto her and give her the most you can. She may not be thinking about you every second of the day, but she will give you a part of her that she knows you can break her heart. So don't hurt her, don't change her, don't analyze and don't expect more than she can give. Smile when she maked you happy, let her know when she makes you mad, and miss her when she's not there.
-- Wisest words I've ever heard, Bob Marley

I originally read this way back when. This quote has taught me a lot about relationships. If someone ever asked me about relationships, this is what I'd tell them.

I stray from the message sometimes, I'm not a perfect companion, I have my niches. Thats why I have to read this every now and then to put everything in perspective.

If everyone knew this quote, men and women, the drama would end. People wouldn't let petty jealousy get in the way, jealousy of their past, present and future deeds.

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Joke of the day

Three lawyers and three engineers are traveling by train to a conference. At the station, the three lawyers each buy tickets and watch as the three engineers buy only a single ticket. 
"How are three people going to travel on only one ticket?" asks a lawyer.  
"Watch and you'll see," answers an engineer.  They all board the train. The lawyers take their respective seats but all three engineers cram into a restroom and close the door behind them. Shortly after the train has departed, the conductor comes around collecting tickets. He knocks on the restroom door and says, "Ticket, please." The door opens just a crack and a single arm emerges with a ticket in hand. The conductor takes it and moves on.  
The lawyers see this and agree that it is quite a clever idea so, after the conference, they decide to copy the engineers on the return trip and save some money (recognizing the engineers' superior intellect).  
When they get to the station, they buy a single ticket for the return trip. To their astonishment, the engineers don't buy a ticket at all.  
"How are you going to travel without a ticket?" says one perplexed lawyer.  
"Watch and you'll see," answers an engineer.  
When they board the train the three lawyers cram into a restroom and the three engineers cram into another one nearby.  The train departs.  Shortly afterward, one of the engineers leaves his restroom and walks over to the restroom where the lawyers are hiding. He knocks on the door and says, "Ticket, please." 

Dorks at the previous Comic Con

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