Top 5 Thursday: Albums

I was going through my albums the other day, realizing that I don't know a lot of people that still buy albums. Most people download everything. I download music too, but I still buy albums once in a while. I don't have a big collection, but I do have some great ones in my opinion. Here are my five favorite albums.

5. So Far So Good - Bryan Adams
In my teen years Bryan Adams was THE artist for me. I have more of his albums and I listened to this album the most.I know every song by heart and I think technically this album is a best of album. My all-time favorite song is also on it, "(Everything I Do) I Do it For You".

4. Ceremonials - Florence and the Machine
You can't put Florence and the Machine in one genre. What is it? All I know is that Florence is super awesome and very good music. It's different from any other band and every song is different as well. This album is great!

3. Sigh No More - Mumford and Sons
Can you imagine that this is only the debut album? It is so amazing, because there is litteraly not one bad song on this album. This record gives me the chills and I mean that in a good way. I'm a very proud owner.

2. Jagged Little Pil - Alanis Morissette
Also an album I listened to a lot in my teenage years. I actually dressed like her for a little while. All her songs made sense and had such a deep meaning, they made my high school days easier. Thanks Alanis!

1. Stanley Climbfall - Lifehouse
After five (almost six) albums, the second one is still their best. It was (and still is) in my CD player a lot and I love every song on this album. OK, my all-time favorite Lifehouse song isn't on this one, but that proves again why this album is so good and all the songs are as well. And why it's my favorite.

They almost made the top 5: No Name Face - Lifehouse, This is My Truth Tell Me Yours - Manic Street Preachers, Ten - Pearl Jam, Black Album - Metallica, One by One - Foo Fighters, Day & Age - The Killers, Flamingo - Brandon Flowers

Top 5 Thursday: Live Concerts

Top 5 Thursday: Live Concerts This top 5 is an idea of my brother. When I started this list, I realized how many great concerts I have already witnessed. Almost all with my brother. Here is a top 5 of my favorite live concerts.

5. Alter Bridge (june 11th 2011)
I saw this band last year on the Pinkpop festival in our country. I had heard of the name, but it didn’t ring a bell. This was definitely a very surprising concert. Right after their performance on this festival, Coldplay would play on the mainstage. Most people left Alter Bridge early to see Coldplay, but me and my brother stayed. And we were so glad we did. What an awesome band and Myles Kennedy is without a doubt one of the best singers ever. He hits every note. What a great discovery!



4. Lifehouse (september 22nd 2010)
Not per definition the best live band, but Lifehouse is my favorite band and it was a special moment to finally see them live. Their hit “Hanging by a Moment” was the only hit in my country. I followed them after that and bought their albums, but they never did concerts in my country. When their fifth album came out, “Halfway Gone” was a hit here and they started touring again. It was one of my favorite days ever.



3. Foo Fighters (june 13th 2011)
I saw them at the Pinkpop festival last year and they where the last band to play on that festival. And what a performance. No talking, just two and a half hours of rock. One minute it started to rain and a rainbow appeared. Dave Grohl actually stopped playing and said how awesome that was. This was a great concert, one I look back to with a lot of pleasure.



2. Metallica (june 15th 2003)
I was very young and this was one of my first bigger concerts. It was also a festival, Fields of Rock, in Nijmegen. Nowadays it’s called Rockin’ Park. Metallica was the headliner that day and my second favorite live performance I saw. My brother is a huge fan and because of him I started listening to their music and came to love it. This concert was so great. I saw them a second time that year and I really hope to see them again some day, because it’s so long ago.



1. Pearl Jam (june 27th 2010)
Also part of a festival and Pearl Jam was the headliner. Without a doubt the best live band I ever saw. Eddie Vedder is vocally so strong and convincing and their lyrics are fantastic. I wish to see them again, because this was the best concert I ever saw.



They almost made the top 5: Bruce Springsteen may 28th 2012, Mumford and Sons may 28th 2012, The Eagles july 18th 2009, Metallica december 6th 2003, Beth Hart march 9th 2012

4 Layouts, finally

I haven't done any scrapbooking for a long time. I just didn't feel like it. Last weekend I finally picked it up again, because my head was filled with good ideas. I just had to start again. So here are the four layouts I made this week.

Pearl Jam at Rockin' Park.

My bunny Oscar in the yard.

My trip to Walibi World, with my friends Irene and Evelien.

The Lifehouse concert.

I hope you liked them and you feel inspired.

Pinkpop Day 3

For us it was the second day, but overall it was the third day of the festival. Everything went very smoothly this time. The first band we saw monday was Scouting for Girls. Didn't really expect much, but they were actually really good. Especially when they played "This Ain't a Lovesong". We saw a little bit of The Plain White T's. They are okay, but they didn't really impress me much. Beatsteaks did a better job. Never heard of them before, but a real good band from Germany. And a very entertaining lead singer. Next stop was The Gaslight Anthem. My brother told me they were very good and I can now agree. Amazing band, great songs. Really good! We saw Volbeat, but after hearing one song, we heard it all. Not very surprising. We left this act earlier to see Band of Horses. I was really looking forward to see them. And I got what I wanted. Great atmosphere and they gave me the chills a couple of times. Especially when they did "Funeral", such a beautiful song. Then we saw 30 Seconds to Mars. I really wanted to see them, but it wasn't what I expected. They started out very well and I love their music, but then it went downhill. Jared Leto is entertaining, but he abused his fame. He let the audience sing big parts of the songs (I payed to hear you sing, not the audience), he asked the people to jump every freaking song or to take three more steps forward (really dangerous, we all got squashed). And the fans.... it was like a Justin Bieber concert, all those screaming girls, come on it's a rock band! We left earlier then we planned. We got a pretty nice spot to watch the Foo Fighters and damn were they awesome. Best perfomance of the festival. And I'm seriously in love with Dave Grohl (okay, not for real but he's awesome). They played for two hours (a half hour longer then planned) and the played non-stop. Songs like "My Hero", "Times Like These", "The Pretender", "Best of You", "Learn to Fly", "Break Out", "Walk" and "Rope". They closed with "Everlong", my favorite song. And drummer Taylor Hawkins sang two songs, one of them being Queen's "Tie Your Mother Down". Those guys really showed us how it should be. AWESOME, thanks guys. Here are some photo's.

Scouting for Girls, a surprisingly fun band to watch.

Beatsteaks with the very energetic lead singer Arnim Teutoburg-Weiß.

The Gaslight Anthem. I'm glad I discovered this band!

Band of Horses

30 Seconds to Mars, a bit of a disappointment.

Last but not least The Foo Fighters. It was hard to make pictures, but like with the Colplay photos you get the idea.

My top five performances of the festival:
# 5. Manic Street Preachers/ Band of Horses (couldn't choose, sorry)
# 4. The Gaslight Anthem
# 3. Alter Bridge
# 2. Lifehouse
# 1. Foo Fighters

Pinkpop Day 1

Yesterday it was the first day of Pinkpop, the biggest music festival in The Netherlands. It's spread out over three days. Getting in was kind of a problem, so nothing ran smoothly. We needed a wrist band and we didn't get one. Ever person send us in a different direction, so it took a while for us to eventually get those wrist bands. The first band we saw were The Manic Street Preachers. Never saw them live before but we (my brother and I) always wanted to. They were awesome. They played 'Motorcycle Emptyness','If You Tolerate This', 'Design for Life' and many more. Next stop was Lifehouse, probably the main reason I wanted to go the first day. Because we had to go from one stage to the other, we mist part of the first song. But still I got to enjoy 'Halfway Gone', 'Broken', 'You and Me', 'Spin', 'First Time', 'Hanging By A Moment' and some other great songs. And I'm really glad they played 'Take Me Away', which is one of my favorite songs and they didn't play that when I saw them in Tilburg. After that, Lifehouse was going to sign. And yes! Jason, Rick, Ben and Bryce all signed my copy of "Smoke & Mirrors". I was super happy and nothing could ruin my day anymore. Not even the stupid wrist bands I didn't get at first. While we were waiting in line for the autographs, we saw Elbow and after that we saw Alter Bridge. The big surprise of the day. Damn they were good. Singer Miles Kennedy never missed a note and they had some great songs. We actually planned on leaving their show earlier, so we had a good view for Coldplay, but we wanted to see the rest of Alter Bridge. Coldplay was the headliner of the first day. They were good, nice show with fireworks and laserbeams. I got the chills when they played 'Fix You', but I kinda missed 'Lovers in Japan' and 'Life in Technicolor II'. All in all we had a great day, even though it didn't start all that well. On sunday we're going to stay home, to re-load. Monday, the last day of Pinkpop, we will go again. Here are some photos.

The Manic Street Preachers

Couldn't get closer, but I did see Lifehouse again.

My happy Lifehouse moment, after getting their autographs. The guys were super nice, Jason actually shook my hand and ask me how I was doing. Thank God my idols are nice people!

Alter Bridge, very cool band. Singer Miles Kennedy looked like Kevin Dillon.

And Coldplay, couldn't really make any good pictures. But you get the idea.

New Musical Adventures

I have a lot to look forward too. The 11th, 12th and 13th of June I will visit Pinkpop, the biggest music festival in The Netherlands. I will not go all three days, but there are so many great bands I'm going to see there. Coldplay, Foo Fighters, 30 Seconds to Mars, Manic Street Preachers, Band of Horses, Gaslight Anthem and..... Lifehouse!!! Among others off course. So I'm really looking forward to that. They already sold 50.000 tickets, yesterday, on the first day.
July 6th me and my brother will go and see Brandon Flowers. I'm a big Killers fan but I never saw them live. When we heard that Brandon was coming to The Netherlands, we decided to go to his concert. Because Brandon alone is also great. Really cool, because this is going to be his only concert in our country.
Last, but definitely not least, me and my mother will go to the musical Zorro, november 11th. Totally different from the other musical experiences, but I really like musicals. And I haven't gone for a long time. Last time was May 2010, Mary Poppins.
So there are some great musical adventures waiting for me. And I'm super excited about all of them. As soon as I visited them, you will read about it on my blog.

Favorite Lifehouse Songs

I've been a fan of Lifehouse since "Hanging By a Moment " came out. That was in 2001. Now, 10 years later, they have made five great albums and 60-somewhat songs. In The Netherlands there were only a couple of songs that came out and "Hanging By a Moments" and "Halfway Gone" were the only real hits they had here. Sad, sad, sad... because this country has missed out on a lot of great songs. Lifehouse could've been a big band here. But I've been a fan for all those years, even though my country isn't, and I decided to make a top 20 list of my favorite Lifehouse songs. Here it is:

# 20. Sick Cycle Carousel
# 19. Quasimodo
# 18. Halfway Gone
# 17. The Beginning
# 16. Hanging By a Moment
# 15. First Time
# 14. From Where You Are
# 13. Breathing
# 12. All In
# 11. Undone
# 10. Sky is Falling
# 9. Storm
# 8. Trying
# 7. Take Me Away
# 6. Out of Breath
# 5. You and Me
# 4. Spin
# 3. Everything
# 2. Broken
# 1. Blind

It was actually very hard to make this list and I had to cut some great songs for my top 20. But these are my favorites. I think many people will find my number one kinda strange, but ever since I heard this song for the first time I fell in love with it. When I saw them live, they didn't play it, but that's a reason for me to see them again. If you're a Lifehouse fan, let me know what your favorites are.

Lifehouse, finally!!!

I've been a fan of Lifehouse since day 1. Their first hit, "Hanging By a Moment", came out in 2001 here in The Netherlands. After that, they never had a hit in my country, but I followed them on the internet an bought their CD's (the second one "Stanley Climbfall", is my favorite). This year "Halfway Gone" came out here and now "All In" is a hit in The Netherlands. I never saw them live, but september 22th I finally did. It was AWESOME!! They opened with "All In". They did hits like "Spin", "Broken", "You and Me", "First Time" and "Hanging By a Moment". They played some new songs from "Smoke & Mirrors". They ended with "Everything", which gave me goosebumps. Sadly enough they didn't play "Blind", my favorite Lifehouse song, but it was still a great concert. My brother liked it too, I think he's a fan now. Here are some pictures. Not very good quality, because it was very dark, but I do have a good memory.