What better reason to drive two hours into the city than to see your hero on stage?
First off, I know two hours doesn’t seem like all that long to you, but trust me, two hours in Chicago traffic can feel like ten. My mom (she has always secretly wanted to see Kate play, plus she paid so I didn’t argue), and two of my friends (Jenna and Sam) accompanied me to the amazing show at Park West. Surprisingly the show started pretty much on time (7:30) with a shy kid who’s hair fell slightly in front of his left eye, Matt Hires. Now, I’m not going to lie, I had never heard of Matt Hires before. He is now however in my top 25 most played list on itunes. After Matt, Angel Taylor played. Again, I’m not gonna lie, I had no idea who she was (I picked up her free demo on my way in). But she, like Matt was amazing. Towards the end of her set she covered the Kings of Leon’s hit “Sex on Fire,” and she had the audience sing the chorus six times, fun stuff. And she closed with ADELE’s “Hometown Glory.”

But now, to the main point of this lengthy blog, Kate Voegele. After watching Mark Tobik, (Kate’s Bassist) uncover a stack of Orange amps, and set up a rubber duck, candles, and incense on top of them, Kate finally appeared on stage. And screams erupted from the crowd. She opened with “99 Times,” a single from her new album, “A Fine Mess,” which is to be released on May 18th. She was as always, unbelievable. She mixed in songs from “Don’t Look Away” with songs from “A Fine Mess.” Don’t Look Away was her debut album which she released with MySpace records. One song she played from “Don’t Look Away,” was a song called “It’s only Life.” That could quite possibly be my favorite song ever. I truly believe that things find you when you need them to find you, and for me it’s almost always a song. And a few years ago I came across “It’s Only Life,” and it helped me through a lot, so that song is near and dear to my heart; and it pretty much made my year when she played it. ANYWAY, Kate was and always is so fantastic, and that night was definitely one to remember. You guys need to get your butt’s over to itunes and download songs from all three artists, because they were all awesome. Also head on over to www.myspace.com/katevoegele AND www.myspace.com/kateontour . The ‘Kate on tour’ one is Kate’s tour MySpace where she posts video blogs, and pretty much anything you could want pertaining to her tour. As well as a bunch of stuff involving the University of Phoenix, where Kate is earning her degree online and UOP is awesome enough to be sponsoring her “Lift Me Up” tour. And if you still don’t have enough Kate, you should tune in to One Tree Hill Monday nights at 9/8 central on the CW to catch Kate playing Mia, an aspiring musician who just so happens to play Kate Voegele’s songs. Seriously, I don’t know how Kate can do all of this, I’m tired and all I did was type this.