Concert Review: Ryan Keen, My First Band & Sunrise Avenue in Stuttgart, Germany

Hey everyone, I hope all is well! My semester break started a couple of days ago and I haven't really done anything productive so far, apart from attending my first concert in 2014!!
 Most of my readers aren't from Europe, so I'm even more excited to introduce a fantastic band from Finland: Sunrise Avenue. I bought their first record in 2006 and I haven't lost it, so that was already a promising sign. I have to admit that I didn't listen to their music properly for ages (unless one of their songs was on the radio), but their vocalist was on the last season of The Voice Of Germany and that drew my attention back to the band itself (yeah he's quite cute, that was a reason, too, but shhh). Luckily I have a friend who's also crushing on Samu big times, so we immediately agreed on going when we found out that they played in my city. 

Shortly after we arrived at the venue, a security guard came out and started to hand out bracelets. This was probably the best-organised concert I've been to so far: The venue consisted of three parts: The first part directly in front of the stage, a middle part and the rest. The security guard explained that those with a pink bracelet were entitled to stand in the first part, so you can guess what we did:

Thanks to these bracelets we actually ended up in the third row and I celebrated a little when there was nobody taller than me standing in front of me (just for the record: that rarely happens). However, since my friend is quite tall, there were two girls standing behind her who tried to argue with her ("You're too tall, how dare you standing in the front???") and this is one of the reasons why I prefer concerts where most of the crowd consists of guys. They don't turn into hysterical balls of too much excitement and they certainly don't try to argue with you because you're "too tall." 

I have to admit that I usually don't have the highest expectations when it comes to supporting acts, but this time I was proven so wrong it was fantastic. Ryan Keen, a singer/songwriter from Britain, was up first and it took him only one song to capture the whole crowd. I've never experienced it before that a crowd was so into the first act, but Ryan had this warm aura which totally fascinated me. He could have played for the rest of the evening and I would have enjoyed it a whole lot. 

He reminded me of John Mayer and Ed Sheeran, so if you like any of them, you should give Ryan a listen (you should give him a listen anyway, he's one of the most talented artists I've seen live)!

Up next were My First Band. Again I had no expectations, and again I had a whole lot of fun! My First Band slighty have the sound of The Killers, they just added some more fun to their performance. I'm not a big dancer, but I danced through their whole performance because it was impossible to stand still.  These guys perfectly managed to transfer their joy of playing to the whole crowd.

As much fun as I had with the supporting acts, I was really excited when it was finally time for Sunrise Avenue. I only knew a handful of songs, but in the end it didn't even matter. They played a big part of their current album Unholy Ground what was great because getting new songs to listen to is always a fantastic thing. However, my favourite moments were those when they played the old songs everybody knew, for example I Don't Dance (hell yes we all danced), Hollywood Hills or Fairytale Gone Bad. Fairytale Gone Bad was my favourite moment of the whole show because the crowd basically sang the biggest part of the song alone and I just love seeing the pure joy and happiness in the band members' faces when that happens. 

The whole thing happened on Valentine's Day and I'm not going to lie - I felt absolutely fantastic when I could tell everybody that I finally had plans on that day which didn't include eating ice cream and being mad at couples. And it was just really cute when Samu asked what Happy Valentine's Day means in German and you know the whatsapp emoticon with the hearts as eyes? Yeah, that was me from the moment the show started until a day or so after.
Sunrise Avenue will be back in my area in August and I honestly can't wait to see them again.

Happy Fobruary!!

Yes, it's been exactly one year since Fall Out Boy went off their hiatus and I think we should celebrate! I'm not going to ramble about how fast this year went by or how so many things changed; instead, I'll show you my Top 11 FOB songs (in no particular order because I'm not able to pick my very favourite)! Put on your war paint and let's go!

1. I Don't Care
   This is the soundtrack of my life. Do I need to elaborate on that (just quoting my literary studies teacher here)? Yes? Well, there is probably a handful of things I genuinely care about - things like music, books, tv-shows, my family (you didn't see that one coming, did ya) aaaand cheese. The list of things I genuinely don't care about could probably fill a book, so thank you Fall Out Boy for writing this song.
2. (Coffee's For Closers)
   This one is just really catchy and the phrase "Change will come" forms a very important part of my development as a person. If my 15-year-old self would know me today, it would run away screaming and this tells me that I made some pretty good decisions during the last couple of months.
3. What A Catch, Donnie
   "I got troubled thoughts and a self-esteem to match, what a catch." - What a catch indeed.
4. Dance, DanceJust watch and enjoy this music video because it's simply brilliant. And while you do so, do what they say and dance a little!
5. Sugar, We're Goin' DownDear Fall Out Boy,
   you definitely are more than I bargained for, yes. I'd also love to understand the lyrics of this song, but there are only little fragments I can figure out, the rest is made of jhkrgfrghlreg. That's all actually.
   Love, Carina
6. Thriller"We dedicate this song to anybody who people said could never make it, to the fans that held us down till everybody came around." - thanks for that.
7. The Take Over, The Break's Over"Baby, seasons change but people don't!" - this is one of the phrases that keeps me up at night because I can't stop reflecting it. I mean, people do change, either for better or for worse. Or are these changes we see only a surface and deep down we're actually not able to change? What do you guys think?
8. Thnks fr th mmrsHow genius is it to cut out the vowels of a song title because your management told you to shorten the song titles? That's what Patrick Stump did and this is the ultimate proof for this band being 100% badass. This is also the song that made me fall for them in the first place. 
9. Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy TonightI honestly don't know anybody who listens to FOB and doesn't like this song, so I don't have much to say about it.
10. The PhoenixWhenever I listen to this song I become super excited and feel like I can manage everything I want and yeeah!! and then I walk into the kitchen to make some cereal and realise that I forgot to buy milk and then I'm like oh but hey, at least one of my favourite bands is back, what do I need milk for!?
11. Miss Missing YouThis is by far my favourite song on the new record. I suppose we all know the feeling of missing somebody, but sooner or later it's time to get over the "missing" process and you move on with your life. And then you lie awake at 3am and wonder how it actually felt to miss this person because they became less and less important and thinking about them became less and less of a priority.
    This song also contains one of my favourite lyrics ever: "Sometimes before it gets better, the darkness gets bigger, the person that you'd take a bullet for is behind the trigger." It's actually sad how accurate this is, isn't it?

What are your favourite FOB songs? Leave them in the comments!