Grand Point North Festival

This past weekend was the first ever Grand Point North music festival. Every year Grace Potter & the Nocturnals play a show during the Lake Champlain Maritime Festival. This year she put together a music festival within that, which had many new and local acts. I chose to go on Saturday since Chamberlin, a Vermont act that I've recently become obsessed with (check out this post for more), was playing. I was also excited to see that Fitz & the Tantrums would be playing that day as I recently fell in love with their song "Moneygrabber."

Long story short: it was an incredible day. We got there a little late after having an early dinner on Church St. and got there in time to see Rubblebucket and then walk around for a bit before Fitz & the Tantrums started. FATT were incredible. I would pay to see them as a headliner any day.

Immediately after FATT Chamberlin was playing on the side stage. We ran over in time to hear most of their set. After being obsessed with their album for a few months it was great to see them again and know all of their songs. They also played one or two new ones, which was awesome.

As soon as Chamberlin ended we ran over to the main stage and waited a few minutes for Grace to start. As usual she was absolutely amazing. My feet and back were killing me from standing all day, but it was totally worth it in the end. I'll definitely be hitting up Grand Point North again next summer.

Check out videos from the day below:

Top 4 Favorite Places in Burlington

I've decided on writing a new string of blog posts about places in Burlington. Based on the Class of 2015 Facebook page there are a lot of people that are insanely pumped for the fall. Many are excited to explore the area around SMC. I figured I'd write about my favorite places to give a preview of the area.

So here they are, my top 4 favorites:

1. The Waterfront

Burlington has a great location. At the bottom of the hill sits Lake Champlain. The waterfront is a great place to go to grab a bite to eat or a creemee (yes, get used to it, you're in VT now...it's a creemee NOT a soft serve) at Burlington Bay Cafe, walk down the side of the lake, or just take a seat on the swinging benches.

2. Church Street
One of the main attractions of Burlington is Church Street Marketplace. It's an entire street closed off to traffic with shops and restaurants. A lot of people will head there just for an afternoon to wander around and get away from SMC for a bit. It's also nice to go out for dinner on the weekends since there are so many delicious restaurants. My favorite is going shopping at the mall and Church Street shops, get dinner at one of my favorite restaurants (blog post to come) and grab ice cream at Ben & Jerry's.

It doesn't look like much on the outside but it's a great
addition to the Burlington area.

3. Higher Ground

SMC XC taking a pic on a beach not far from North Beach.

The big place for music around Burlington is Higher Ground. It's a couple minute drive from SMC and has tons of great shows though out the year. It's a pretty small venue which makes for a nice small show. The tickets are usually pretty cheap. Check out the calendar for upcoming shows.


4. North Beach
As mentioned, Burlington is located next to Lake Champlain. While Vermont might not get to enjoy the ocean like the rest of New England, we still have some sandy beaches on the shores of the lake. One of these is North Beach. I love going with friends during the early fall semester when it's still kind of summery.

So there you have it, the top places around Burlington (other than SMC of course.) Be sure to check back in a week or two for my next post, Top 5 Favorite Places on Church Street!

SMC Spring Concert (W/ Video)

This past Saturday was the SMC spring concert. Every year the Student Association sends out a survey asking students about what artists we would like to have in the spring. This year I was completely psyched when I found out that our concert would be Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.

Cat Popper, GPN

If you've ever read my blog you probably have some idea about just how much I love GPN. I'm actually a little bit obsessed. And by a little bit I mean a lot a bit. This was actually the forth time I've seen them since June, which is absurd, but so awesome. I just love the band's energy, the music is so fun and different from most of what we hear on the radio now, and Grace is literally the coolest person alive. Plus, her voice is incredible. The band is originally from VT and always makes a point of coming back a couple of times a year, which I also think is really cool.


I was also really excited to hear that the opener would be Barefoot Truth. The band has a really unique sound mixing folk, rock, raggae, and jazz using lots of different instruments you wouldn't normally see a band play. I found them on iTunes in high school and really got into their music. They've been at Higher Ground quite a few times since then, but I've always had some reason I couldn't go. As soon as they started their set I knew that it was a huge mistake not to work around some things to go see them. They were energetic and jumping around and overall a lot of fun. Plus, the music was SO GOOD live. Not to mention, two of the members of the band are St. Mike's alumni.

It was good to have really incredible local acts highlighted at SMC. I had an absolutely incredible time at the concert. I plan on seeing Grace again whenever she's back in VT and I'll definitely see Barefoot whenever they make it back to Higher Ground.

Check out the videos from the show! The first is "Broken Road" by Barefoot Truth. The beginning features a didgeridoo. So cool.

The second is GPN's "Low Road," which is one of my favorite songs from the album and my very favorite song to hear live. Grace absolutely belts it, as you'll hear, and trust me, it's even better in person. Insane. *Note: please ignore the bobbing head. The kid in front of me had incredibly fluffy hair and really couldn't decide which way he wanted to sway to. I did my very best.*

The last is the most popular GPN song, "Paris," and was played as the encore of the show.

I'll Never Let You Go

This weekend was a fun one at SMC, the highlight being the Third Eye Blind concert on Friday night. Now my 90's music knowledge is quite extensive, but leans toward the Hanson/Spice Girls/Backstreet Boys genre. (It sounds ridiculous, but honestly tell me that if Wannabe or MmmBop came on you wouldn't still know the words. If you say you wouldn't you're lying through your teeth.) As far as TEB goes I knew the three standards (Semi-Charmed Life, Jumper, and Never Let You Go), but past that I was slightly lost, jumping around like I actually knew the words to the songs I was singing.

My massive amount of fun can't only be attributed to TEB's show. In fact, I probably wouldn't have even gone on my own. It was my group of friends from my "ex-school" that led me to buy tickets. Six of my friends from my old school made the three hour drive up to go to the concert.

I would like to point out the significance of this event for those of you who are nervous about leaving friends at home or even a school you may be transferring from as I did. I'm still close with the friends that I left. I remember when I went off to college for the first time all of my best friends saw me off the night before. We were terrified of what might happen. Would we stay in touch? Would we still be friends if we didn't? Yet every time we're home we get together and it feels like we never left.

It's the same for my ex-school. One of my few reasons for potentially staying was the group of close friends I had acquired. Though they were upset about it the group did not outweigh my reasons to leave. However, while I may have left my old school it does not mean I completely left everything behind. I regularly keep in touch with each of my friends. I still know the gossip and goings on of the group even though I'm not there to be a part of it. When I went back a few weekends ago it was like I had never left. It was strange to be on the campus that I knew well, but was now slightly foreign, but everyone was happy to see me and nothing had really changed. I now have so many great friends from home, my old school, and, of course, St. Mike's.

Leaving doesn't always mean the people you knew there are gone. This weekend is definite evidence of this. I miss my old friends like crazy, but I love the new friends I've found here. I've never regretted transferring and having the two worlds collide made the weekend great.

Now, do us both a favor and consider the title of this post. I'm quite proud. Title of TEB song + mad cheesiness based on the content of the post = Sam attempting to be clever. Please soak it in and enjoy.

Some of the group from my old school on a hike last spring

Me and two lovely ladies of SMC on Saturday

(Sam, Erin, Me)