Concerts and Shows

Retreading all those memories about Counterfeit Digits also sparked the many memories that I have about going and attending concerts during those years. For many of those concerts, I was joined by some great people and friends. Pretty much all of them chock full of wonderful moments inspired and accompanied by great music.

I’ve always enjoyed live concerts ever since I attended my first one at the Twin Falls County Fair and Rodeo. My parents had tickets to see Sawyer Brown that evening, and I remember sitting in the fairgrounds waiting for the show to start with my mom and dad and aunt and uncle. It was a cool evening and I couldn’t have been much older than 8, but I was full of anticipation.

Since then I’ve been to a lot of shows. And yes, I am going to list them all here not for bragging rights, but mostly for my own memory.

 

Sawyer Brown (Twin Falls County Fair)

Sawyer Brown, Ricochet (Saw these two in Kentucky at the FFA National Convention!)

U2, No Doubt (First “Rock ‘n Roll” concert. One I’ll never forget)

Brad Paisley x2, Rodney Atkins, Hunter Hayes, Scotty McCreary, Kelly Pickler, The Band Perry, Darius Rucker

Rascal Flatts

The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square x2

Sissel

Muse x3

Cage The Elephant

The Killers x4

The Envy Corps, Louis XIV

Tegan and Sara

The All-American Rejects, The Academy Is

Weezer, Angels & Airwaves

Paramore, fun., Relient K

Shiny Toy Guns, Hellogoodbye

The Black Keys (at Madison Square Garden), The Arctic Monkeys

Ben Folds and the Utah Symphony

Rooney (for only like, $10 or something crazy like that)

Death Cab for Cutie

The Fray, Jack’s Mannequin/Something Corporate, Mutemath

Guster x2 (once with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra)

The Shins, Blind Pilot, The Head & the Heart

Michael Bublé

The Postal Service, Ra Ra Riot

Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood

Matchbox Twenty, Goo Goo Dolls x2

The Pixies

Imagine Dragons (before they blew up)

Neon Trees (before they blew up as well)

Sigur Ros

The Brocks

Countless other lesser-known bands at various Utah venues.

 

Of course I also have to make a list of my dream concerts! You know, the ones that I’d love to see someday, or can’t because they no longer tour. Here they are:

(Want to see!!!)

Billy Joel

Elton John

Radiohead

Foo Fighters

The Strokes

Panic! At the Disco

Jimmy Eat World

Keene

Twenty One Pilots

Hootie & the Blowfish

Alison Krauss & Robert Plant

Kings Of Leon 

Beck

Alt J

White Reaper

Foster The People

Jukebox The Ghost

(Want to see, but can't for various reasons)

Led Zeppelin

Oasis

David Bowie

Queen (with Freddie Mercury)

The White Stripes

The Beatles

Well there you have it. There may be more but I don't remember for sure. Great lists though, and again, many, many fond memories!

Counterfeit Digits, Vol. 4

Probably the biggest bummer that happened to me while we were all playing together happened during one of our later shows at the Velour. We were scheduled to play as the headliner, and we had it planned to be one of our biggest. We wanted to also record the whole concert so we could enjoy it, share it, and maybe use it to promote us. The night came, the opening acts played, we did a sound check. We went back to regroup and pray as was our routine and came out to roaring cheers. It was all set up perfectly. But it didn’t go perfectly. As I started to sing, I could tell that something was off just by the strange looks some people were giving us and me. Turns out, I couldn’t hear myself in the monitor in front of me, really at all. We tried to tell the sound guy, but he was gone from the booth for a good portion of the show, and honestly kind of blew us off. So we just kept playing and everyone seemed to be having a great time. People came up and congratulated us afterwards and said they had a blast. We didn’t think anything else of it.

We got the copy of our video of the performance a day or so later and Matt was the first to watch it. I remember him saying something like “We can’t use it. Any of it”, and I remember thinking “What do you mean?? Why?? It should be really good!” But he was right. I sat down with him and watched it. Between me not being able to hear myself, the crowd, the cheering, and the music, I was off pitch. Like, the entire. concert. I remember it hitting me in the stomach and feeling just awful. What was supposed to be an amazingly bright bombshell turned out to be a dud floating in the water.

It sucked. I felt bad because I knew something was wrong at the time but didn’t do everything I could to fix it. Felt frustrated with the sound tech who blew us off. And I felt sorrowful that I’d let the band down. They all played great, but I just sounded straight terrible. It felt like a big waste of a show and I wished someone would have said something. But they didn’t. And that’s okay. I knew then and now that we have to live with our mistakes, no matter how disappointing they can be. There were factors that were out of my control, but that’s another life lesson; the fact that other people’s choices affect you and there’s not much of anything that you can do about it but keep on keeping on. Keep being you and make the best of it. I didn’t let it get me down too much. We kept practicing, kept playing, kept on kept…ing on, haha.

This experience actually led to something great. Though we’d had a good deal of success, admittedly I had struggled to really find my voice and let it all out. Admittedly at times I had struggled with singing like I wanted to, and I couldn’t figure out what to do about it. Singing classically came really naturally for me, but I did struggle at times to sing in this kind of avenue. As you all know by now, I do enjoy The Killers, and we would play their songs during practice sometimes. The bandmates had heard me try to sing like Brandon Flowers many times before, and one day they all kind of had an intervention of sorts, haha. I particularly remember Matt and Jeremy telling me how when I tried to emulate Brandon Flowers, I had a great sound and tone that I didn’t have even when we played our own songs. They wanted me to do that and have that same sound and tone for our own songs. At first I blew it off saying that I didn’t want to copy someone else’s style. I felt embarrassed that I sounded like Brandon Flowers, and not because I didn’t like the guy or the way he sang. I was really worried about what other people outside the band would think and/or say. But my friends insisted.

We played a song of ours with me singing “like Brandon Flowers”, and the difference was immediate and definite. The tone and the musicality of myself and the song as a whole, took on new life. They all looked at me and said “that’s how you’ve got to do it”. So I did. Now, I am not saying that I alone changed our music for the better. Everyone was doing extraordinarily well musically at this point. But it did bring something to the table that we didn’t have before. We recorded our entire second EP with me singing like that. Between my new voice and everyone’s refined playing styles, this EP was a night and day difference to our previously recorded EP. Our fans loved it and really thought that we had brought it to another level. It was awesome, and we were very proud of the results.

With our new EP in hand, and a solid sound to sell, we decided to shoot for the moon and try for the big time. Matt had a friend who had great connections in the music business that wanted to do a favor for him and see if he could help promote us. While we waited on that, Matt also somehow got in touch with The Killers band manager at that time. Matt sent him our songs and asked if he might be willing to take a listen. And he totally did! Their manager had really good things to say about our music, but unfortunately he had so much on his own plate at the time with The Killers, Imagine Dragons, and other groups that he couldn’t help us. We also found out that Matt’s friend’s connections had all fallen through. So, yeah, that was a disappointment. But we were grateful for what we had. Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be.

Honestly I don’t really know how to end this, kind of like how I think we didn’t really know how to end it. We had a final show at the Velour which was fitting. We had a huge turnout and a great party. I think a lot of people were surprised to see us go for good, including Corey Fox. But Matt and Jeremy were graduating and moving to the west coast. Miranda was soon to follow. It was sad and I do miss it a lot. I miss my friends a lot. We put a lot of hard work into Counterfeit Digits and had some wonderful times with it. I still listen to the songs. No joke one day I had it playing in my car and I legitimately said to myself after listening for a minute, “Wow, who is this again? This is good!!”. Only then did I realize that it was me. It was us. It was good. It was Counterfeit Digits.

Counterfeit Digits, Vol. 3

Performing in front of a crowd was the absolute best. The thrill is indescribable, the joy that I had on stage was euphoric, and being able to sing my heart out and be hoarse by the end of the night for the enjoyment of friends and fans was just ever so satisfying. I had my own little quirks on stage as well. I usually liked to wear some kind of jacket over a t-shirt, or a button-up shirt and tie. I had fun with a jean jacket I bought to wear for shows, and a black one that I no longer have. But my favorite by far (and I still have this one!) is the tan leather sport coat that my own father wore for his engagement photos with my mom. Classic, haha. And still in great condition! I played many shows in that jacket. 

I also preferred to use a straight die-cast mic stand with a round base that I bought while on a band excursion to Guitar Center one afternoon. It’s one of my favorite things/mementos from our time playing together, and yes, I still have it as well. I also loved to dance on stage. It was funny, and perhaps awkward at times, but everyone I talked to seemed to love it, haha! Whether they loved it because they thought it was good, or the fact that it just gave them a good laugh (most likely the latter), I didn’t care. The fact that people enjoyed it made me keep doing it. Besides, when you don’t have an instrument in your hand most of the time, you gotta do something, right??? 😊

It has been my experience that many people tend to think that putting together a band and becoming decently good musicians doesn’t take a whole lot of effort. I can tell you that is certainly not the case. Especially if you want to be good at it. One of those summers together we all decided that we wanted to stay in Provo mostly to be able to work on our band. I remember going to work in the morning, maybe going to the pool in the afternoon for fun, and then going to band practice for at least two hours literally every. single. day. Except Sundays. We worked very hard because we really did want to give it our best shot.

And it really did pay off. We had a ton of friends and family who were all very, very supportive of us. I can’t thank them all enough for helping us to do what we did. We really could not have done all the fun things we did as a band without everyone’s support!! We always had a great turn out at shows, people loved our Counterfeit Digits shirts, bought our EP’s off iTunes, and heck, we even had some friends who were a couple whose “song” was one of our songs!! (they did end up marrying each other and it’s still just crazy to me that one of our songs could be a song for someone’s relationship) Never thought that would happen!

Oh yeah! So, we were fortunate enough to make enough money to be able to record two EP’s. They were about five or six songs each, and we found a great studio to help us fulfill our dreams. Dave Zimmerman of Noisebox Studios was so cool, so kind, so friendly, and had the best input and recommendations for recording our songs. I can’t say enough about how awesome he was. I’m pretty sure that was in the early days of him opening his studio in his home, but even then, he was great at what he did! The tracks sounded superb and we were, and still are, so happy with the way that they turned out. And I have to say that singing into a recording mic in a booth was so surreal. I am so thankful for that simple opportunity. It was truly a highlight and one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life.

More to come...!

Counterfeit Digits, Vol. 2

People would always ask us where the name “Counterfeit Digits” came from. Well, one day Matt and another one of our roommates named Scott were doing math homework around our apartment dining room table. They were discussing imaginary numbers and thought that might be a good band name. So they played with it and tried different word and synonyms until they came up with Counterfeit Digits. As that was a long and boring explanation, we usually told people that it was in reference to a girl giving you a fake phone number after you asked for it. Which was also true ha!

Not long after our tryout, we were informed that we made the cut!! Not only that, but we would be in a sense “touring” with the club at various locations around Provo. The venue we were most excited to play at was a scenic little place near main street called Velour Live Music Gallery. The whole group would be playing their respective sets in the hopes that the owner of the Velour, Corey Fox, would like their sound enough and be offered their own spot to play at Velour’s upcoming Battle of the Bands.

It was a lot of fun to play at Velour. It was an afternoon show which was unusual, meant more as a tryout for all of us as much as anything else. Mr. Fox was impressed with our act and gave us an invite to play at his Battle of the Bands show. We were stoked.

We needed to find us a bassist to put up with us and play with. We had a mutual friend named Jeremy who agreed to join us on our crusade. Jeremy came and went a couple times due to other commitments, but we were always glad to have him back. He truly did pull our little group together.

The Velour Battle of the Bands showcase arrived and we were ready to play. I can’t remember if it started here, but we always had the tradition, a sort of “pre-game ritual” as it were, of praying together right before we went on stage. You see, as much fun as we had with all of this, and the glitz and glam that came with it all, we really wanted to be a force for good in the world. No matter where this thing would go or how big we would maybe get, we wanted to be good examples to others, and never take for granted how we got to be where we were. We recognized God’s hand in our lives and were very grateful for the blessing we had to do what we did.

So long story short, we played, we had an amazing turnout of friends, and Corey liked what we brought. He said as long as we keep bringing a good crowd he would be happy to have us play regular shows at his venue. We didn’t win Battle of the Bands, but what we accomplished meant more to us than simply winning. After that we decided to stop playing with the university club. I think Paul was a little disappointed we wouldn’t be staying on, but we did what we thought best at the time. I’ll always be grateful to Paul for giving us our chance to shine.

We played shows wherever we could in Provo. We played at a freshman orientation in front of 3,000 new students, we played outdoors, BYU’s Battle of the Bands-type show, and various indoor venues. We always came back to Velour though, and that was definitely my personal favorite place to play. It had a rustic, gypsy-like interior with stained glass windows and velvet red curtains as a backdrop. This place was music heaven to me, and it still gives me goosebumps thinking about it. The stage was a little tight for the five of us, but it fit me just right.

As time rolled on, we all collaborated on original songs together. Matt would write the lyrics and melody, and then we would all come to practice to fill in the rest of the parts and share input. We played original songs such as “Handle With Care” (which was actually about a painting heist), “When You Were Here”, “One Last Dance”, “Falling Behind”, “In Your Eyes”, and “Falling Down”. We would also fill in our acts with cover songs from band like Coldplay, Oasis, The Killers, and The Proclaimers. We even played “Waterfalls” by TLC to close out our very last Counterfeit Digits show. Jeremy played guitar and sang lead, Matt played base, and I followed with backup vocals. It was quite amazing. General hilarity and awesomeness ensued.

To be continued...again...

Counterfeit Digits, Vol. 1

Counterfeit Digits!

We played numerous shows, pleased crowds of friends/family and fans alike, had our own T-shirts, two recorded EP’s, about 15 original songs, a couple shots at the big time, and it all began in a tiny college apartment with a friend’s guitar, our two voices, and my cousin playing drum beats on a Little Caesar’s pizza box.

During college at BYU in Provo, UT, I met my good friend Matt. Matt really enjoyed playing the guitar and he was/still is, much better at it than I. I was much more confident in my ability to sing. So, we figured out that between the two of us, we could play and sing a few rock n’ roll songs and woo the lady-folk with a fair amount of success. We did this for a little while and eventually we heard about a sort of music club on campus called Footlights. It was spearheaded by a kind gentleman named Paul as a way to give local musicians a breakthrough into the bustling local music scene.

Matt and I wanted to try out for the club and see if anything would come of it. We had both recently worked on our first original song together while watching an NBA game featuring Dallas Mavericks great Dirk Nowitzki. It had a mellow, almost melancholy tune with verses supplied by Matt, and I came in with a higher arching chorus. We named the song “European Man” and everyone we played it for seemed to really enjoy it.

We knew that we needed to recruit a rhythm section to complete our little ensemble, and maybe even some other instruments/musicians. Luckily, my cousin Tommy had only recently returned home from a church mission to Portugal, and he just so happened to play the drums. Tommy and I had always nonchalantly mused about how cool it would be to start a band someday, but now we had the prospect of it actually becoming a reality!

Our first time playing together, we had nothing but a Little Caesar’s pizza box for Tommy to drum out a beat. Eventually he brought a Djembe which provided a nice smooth rhythm to accompany Matt and I. Matt also had a hometown friend named Miranda who played the piano. We thought that a keyboard would be great to fill in our rough edges, and we sold Miranda on the idea. Though she never did get to sing in our band (😉), she really did round out our sound and bring a whole new dimension that we wouldn’t have had without her.

So, we practiced up and took our mob orchestra up the hill to campus to try out on a sunny summer afternoon. We introduced ourselves and performed in front of Paul and a couple of other students from the club in a large classroom/auditorium. I remember feeling nervous, but we played confidently and felt good about our effort! Afterwards, the four of us went back to the apartment and debated about what the future might hold.

To be continued....!

Mom

Mom’s. They really bring out the best in us.

My Mom has had a HUGE influence on my musical endeavors. Probably more than she even realizes. So, I want to chat about that for a bit and share some of my experiences about my Mom’s impact.

At a fairly young age I remember going to piano lessons. We would drive the dusty, dirt backroads of Idaho to and from my piano teacher’s house once a week. I had a great teacher, and I remember liking piano for the most part, especially when I got to be a little more advanced. I participated in a competition of sorts where you had to memorize two full pieces of music, I believe it was, and then play them in front of a judge completely by memory. If you were able to do this, you received a gold star. This was held once a year and if you got 3 gold stars in three years, you were really, really good and received some kind of special recognition. I got a gold star my very first year and was so excited! I really wanted to do my best and get the other two stars in the following couple years. I did not get to do that however as we moved not too long after. We also couldn’t find a great teacher after we moved, and so I ended up not continuing on with piano. Years later in college, I did try to pick it up again! But it’s been quite some time now since I’ve played. Nevertheless, I am grateful to my Mom for the hours I spent learning how to read music, getting to know some music theory, and learning to play an instrument. It gave me a great musical foundation that I have used throughout my life more times than I can count!

Mom has always had a penchant for musicals. We lived almost as far from Broadway as one could, but she was always playing cassettes, and then CD’s of “The Phantom of the Opera”, or “Les Misérables”, or “Fiddler On The Roof”. In fact, I have fond memories of listening to “Phantom” and “Les Mis” as we drove back and forth on those same dusty Idaho backroads. We watched almost every musical on VHS as well. Everything from “State Fair” to “My Fair Lady, “South Pacific” to “Oklahoma!”, and “The King and I” to “The Sound of Music”. My personal favorite was “The Pirates of Penzance”. “Meet Me in St. Louis” and “Paint Your Wagon” are also great! (Though, whoever thought it was a good idea to have Clint Eastwood sing…out loud…at all, probably got fired from their job.) I’m thankful that she schooled me in the classics from a young age.

She has a rather eclectic taste in music herself, and I believe this to be why I like so many different genres of music. She loves the choir and gospel sounds of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (now known as The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square), as well as Alan Jackson’s Gospel album, and many other older hymns and gospel songs. And she also listens to more modern popular music, as well as classic rock stations. She introduced me to the easing sounds of Alison Krauss, and then went and bought the AC/DC soundtrack album from the movie “Iron Man 2”! We were practically raised on Queen. My Mom’s the best, haha. Johnny Cash and country are also types of music she enjoys. She always seems to find the good in people and things no matter who they are, what it looks like, or how things sound. I’m very appreciative of that.

Speaking of choir and gospel music, I can’t forget sitting next to her in church basically every Sunday of my life and listening to her sing hymns during our services. I always thought that she had the prettiest Alto voice, and it amazed me how she could find the Alto part in pretty much every song that I heard her sing. She probably doesn’t know that I listened intently to her all those years, and that I attribute my ability to somehow easily find and create harmonies to songs because of constantly tuning my own ear to hers. I am so glad of that.

I can recall how happy she was when I joined choir, and then when I got lead part in the school production of “Lil’ Abner”. And how funny and awesome she thought it was when I sang “Celebration” at the year end spectacular in a giant afro wig and brown bell-bottomed cotton pants.

I’m glad she was there to see me on multiple occasions play and sing with Counterfeit Digits in sometimes dark and somewhat dingy music hangouts in downtown Provo, UT. (Btw, Dad has been there through all of this too, but this is primarily a Mother’s Day post. We can talk about him later. 😉)

Mom has always been so supportive on so many levels of my musical pursuits, and I will be forever in her debt because of it. Because of her, I can honestly say that I am the person that I’ve always wanted to be.

My Mom. She really has brought out the best in me. Love you Mom.

The Killers - Part Deux

Where was I…? Oh yes! The Killers!! 😉 

My favorite album is…I have no idea, hahaha. If I would have to pick though, I think I would play Sam’s Town on repeat all day long. It’s just a great album to listen to from start to finish. “Sam’s Town” (the title track) sucks you in from the beginning, and the bookends “Enterlude” and “Exitlude” pull together a great musical and lyrical endeavor that really is an experience to enjoy.

They have great Christmas songs. Yes. Christmas Songs. They come out with one almost every single year. My favorites are “A Great Big Sled”, “Don’t Shoot Me Santa”, and “The Cowboy’s Christmas Ball”. You should listen to them all. For Science.

Top 10 favorite The Killers songs? (Really in no particular order)

1. Smile Like You Mean It
2. Read My Mind
3. All These Things That I’ve Done
4. Mr. Brightside
5. Glamorous Indie Rock And Roll
6. Under The Gun
7. Sam’s Town
8. Everything Will Be Alright
9. A Dustland Fairytale
10. The Ballad of Michael Valentine

Here are some of the reasons why I love these songs:

As I mentioned before, “All These Things That I’ve Done” is a go-to performance song for me. It’s a great song in and of itself, and most people have heard it at one time or another. Plus, it’s an absolute blast to sing/perform when you have a full band behind you. Gets my “soul” moving every time.

I love, love, love the chorus to “Mr. Brightside”. It’s always been my favorite part of that song. There is so much energy behind it. It is a thrill to see it performed live as well. The entire crowd gets behind Mr. Flowers, and the place just rocks. Plus, who doesn’t want to be “Mr. Brightside”?? “Destiny is calling me!” “Open up my eager eyes.”

“Everything Will Be Alright” has helped me through many a hard time. It’s a nice, slower tune as far as their songs go, but more than that, it’s been a reminder to me that everything will actually be alright. No matter what comes, things will turn out to be what they will be, AND it will be alright. “And that is an encouraging thought.” – Gandalf the Grey. To be frank, The Killers’ songs as a whole are something that I can turn to in some of my worst personal struggles, and for some reason almost instantly feel better. They’ve helped me in times of depression, anxiety, death of loved ones, heartache, failure, and doubt. They just engage my soul again and I will be ever grateful for that.

“Glamorous Indie Rock And Roll”, “Under The Gun”, “Sam’s Town”, and “The Ballad of Michael Valentine” are just great jingles to rock out to in your living room or in the car with all the windows down. They are melodic in the best possible way, and an absolute thrill to sing at the top of your lungs if you get the chance.

“A Dustland Fairytale”. A beautiful, energizing ballad with a climactic end that holds a lot of emotions for me personally. When it was released with Day & Age I immediately fell in love with it. At around the same time I was also in one of the most challenging romantic relationships of my life. So it reminds me of that time and what I was going through, personally. As a result, this song is bittersweet for me. Like I said, I absolutely love the song, but it does bring up feelings and memories that are sometimes hard to think about, you know? It’s funny how a simple song, melody, or lyric can do that. But I’m thankful that they do.

“Read My Mind”. Just, wow. All around topnotch number. Can’t say enough good things about this song. It has tenderness, raw…ness, bravado, and enough emotion to overflow the cup of pursuit three times over. I sang this as a cover during one of our Counterfeit Digits shows in Provo, UT, and it has been one of the absolute highlights of my time as a singer. If I can figure out how to do it, I want to trim the video I have and post it for you all. I also love the music video for this song. The band filmed it in Japan and it’s so quirky and at times, weird. But, it’s sooooo good haha! I love it. And I love this song.

Bonus song: “Just Another Girl”

“Just Another Girl” always reminds me of my wife. She and I dated off and on for about a year before we got engaged and then married. And when I say “off and on”, what I really mean is that I broke up with her twice during that year. (And yes, yes. I know. I was a complete idiot for doing that. Twice.) But that second time we were basically done. Each of us tried to date other people, and obviously that did work out. I remember thinking about her. And about this song. This is the chorus to that song:

“All of my friends say I should move on
She's just another girl, don't let her stick it to your heart so hard
And all of my friends say it wasn't meant to be
And it's a great big world, she's just another girl”

Literally my friends were saying this to me about my now wife. That I needed to move on. That I’d find someone new. And I remember one day listening to this song and the lyrical rebuttal:

“Then why can't I sleep at night
And why don't the moon look right
The sounds up, the TV's on
And it's a great big world”

And I thought to myself, “No. I can’t get her off my mind, and there’s a reason for that. She’s not just another girl.” And as they say, the rest is history.

So there you have it. The many, many reasons why I love The Killers. There is more believe it or not, but I don’t want to bore you all, and I want to write about different stuff too.

I’ve taken the liberty of making a playlist of my all-time favorite The Killers songs on my Spotify account for everyone to enjoy! It’s titled “the BEST Killer songs, or at least the ones I love”. I’ll add it to the link list on the right-hand side of the blog. Have a look, take a listen and let me know which are your favorites. Or, if you don’t like The Killers, let me know why. I’d love to hear! Who is your favorite band??

P.S. The Killers are also releasing a new album soon titled Imploding the Mirage. I'm stoked!!