Progress Update

Hey readers! Last week was busy for me and this week is shaping up to be an interesting one as well! Hold on tight for this post folks, it's going to be a bit of a novel.

Last Thursday, I had my first assignment for The Syndicate. I had to help promote a contest that Linkin Park was running at their concert at Darien Lake Performing Arts Center. To do this, a friend and I got there about an hour and a half before the gates opened and started handing out flyers advertising the contest to concert-goers. We started with tailgaters, then moved to people in line, and then after getting our tickets (which were free thanks to a spot on the Linkin Park guest list), we finished up inside the venue. It was incredibly hard for me at first, being a natural introvert. I don't particularly like walking up to random people, but after the first few groups, it was a little better. Having a friend with me helped as well. Once we were finished handing out the flyers we were free to enjoy the show! We watched the opening band, AFI, who were pretty cool. They didn't have a ton of chemistry on stage, but they sounded awesome. Then, my boss texted me, saying he was at the show and wanted to meet up! We had never met before (my interview was on the phone), so I was pretty nervous, but it all went smoothly and we went back to our seats. The next band, 30 Seconds to Mars, was set to take the stage, and I hadn't realized it was one of my friend's favorite bands. I also liked a lot of their music so needless to say we both loved their performance. They sounded great and went all out, balloons and confetti both spilling out over the audience during their set. Finally, Linkin Park came on, and sounded just as awesome as I imagined they'd be. All in all, it was a very successful and fun night. Not a bad way to start out my time with the Syndicate.

Next up was the much awaited Blessthefall show. I've been promoting it for the past month, as I've talked about in previous posts, so it's been something I've looked forward to and it did not disappoint. I was on Blessthefall's guest list, and for my venue assignment, I had to collect newsletter signups in exchange for a sticker from Fearless Records. It was so much easier at this show than Thursday's show despite being alone this time, and I found that people were much more willing to interact with me. I met up with the merch coordinator for Blessthefall and talked to him for a few minutes, and then enjoyed the show! Capture the Crown was first up, and I was definitely impressed by them. The lead singer interacted with the crowd more than any other artist I've seen and it was incredibly entertaining to watch. The next band, I Killed The Prom Queen was great as well, but having never heard of them before, I hung toward the back for that one. Then came Blessthefall. I was so incredibly excited to see them and I loved every single second of their set. I'll be making up a full post with pictures and videos specifically about the Blessthefall set tomorrow. Chiodos was supposed to be the other headliner but they were forced to pull out of the tour because of a medical emergency. This was my first time promoting at a show for Fearless and I couldn't be happier with the way things went. I'm wrapping up my report this week and I'm hoping there will be another show coming through soon.

As for other things going on, if all goes well, I should be interviewing local band Soviet Dolls tomorrow evening during their rehearsal. They're one of my favorite local bands so I'm very excited to sit down with them. If it happens tomorrow, I should have it typed up and posted by the end of the week! Also, as another thing to add on to my already decent workload, I was just offered a music blogger position at Open Our Eyes, a site that focuses on the positive influence music has in our lives. I'm incredibly grateful to be a part of their team, and I start this upcoming month, so look for more on that later!

Also, I'm going to try to post quite a bit this week, because college starts back up for me next week, so I'll have a little less time to dedicate to just this!

xx