When I saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers were playing at Jazz Fest in New Orleans this year, I knew it was my calling to be there. It’s been at least a decade that I’ve been a fan of this band and I still had never caught a show. By now their music has grown into such a special place within me and I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to see the Peppers this year, no matter what it took.

When I get determined about something, you better believe I’m going to do it. And that’s how I ended up fulfilling my dream of seeing my favorite band of all time in spectacular fashion. I recruited my friend Brittany, who’s always down to check out new cities and appreciates 90’s rock as much as I do (probably more actually). I needed someone who would be game for this experience, and she was the perfect partner in crime.

Saturday night we got (maybe a little too) rowdy on the infamous Bourbon Street. The night was filled with incredible broiled oysters, frozen sugary drinks, laughter, newfound friends and ridiculous behavior.  We stumbled upon a killer rock cover band, so there was definitely some head banging too (in hindsight I would have saved all my neck strength for the Peppers but.. when in NOLA, show em how to headbang!). If you follow me on Snapchat, you already know how crazy it got (but let’s try to keep that between us)...

Sunday was the day we had been waiting for. We found a tasty local breakfast shop and got some amazing sausage and cheese bagel sandwiches (you're supposed to get Beignets in New Orleans, but when you’re hungover you want what you want). And besides, we were going to need a lot more than donuts to get us in gear for the show later.

But, we came on a mission, so we sought out the main stage and squirmed our way through the crowd until we found a good spot, right between a herd of awesome Canadian bros (who happened to be Patriots fans - woo!) and some UK gents. There was such a big international crowd there and I was digging it. I praise the Chili Peppers for having a massive worldwide following and I absolutely loved seeing all of the cultures come together in the name of music. 

The show was fantastic. The Peppers walked out one at a time, and the crowd roared louder as each one took their place on the stage. And finally, Anthony Keidis joined his brothers, greeted the ginormous gathering of fans, and Chad started rapping those drums in a familiar beat, crescendoing into “Can’t Stop” for one of the most climatic openers I’ve ever experienced. Banging everything from my head to my toes, jumping up and down, screaming at the top of my lungs. This is what it feels like to be in a sea of Chili Peppers fans. I was in rock n’ roll heaven.

Within the first ten minutes Chad had already dropped into a sick drum solo and broken a few sticks. They weren’t holding anything back (an energy I needed to absorb more than I realized, it was perfect). From there, the Peppers jumped into a slew of hit favorites like Dani California, Scar Tissue (my all time favorite, I cried), Aeroplane, Snow, Under the Bridge, Californication, By the Way, and The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie (not as well known, but it’s from I’m With You and I love it!). They also threw in their awesome cover of Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground which was so special and made me feel like I was lost in the 70’s. It was magnificent. Flea dished out some of his funkiest bass solos and Josh Klinghoffer truly took my breath away with his Scar Tissue solo. Every moment was so great, and I was so glad I finally saw the band that helped shape me into who I am.

The next thing I knew, Brittany and I were on our way back home and still soaking in all of the excellence that happened over the past weekend. New Orleans is a beautiful city full of culture and history and incredibly resilient people. I loved learning everything I could about the city and it’s art and the mindset of the Big Easy. I can’t wait to go back and explore more of it!

Opportunity is everywhere, and lately I’ve been taking as many that come my way. So that’s how I ended up going to Euphoria Music Festival with three random friends on a last ditch effort to catch Bassnectar’s Saturday set. I had my eye on it for months and didn’t think I could make it without taking time off work (adulting is so hard sometimes!). A week before the show, I saw someone post in an Atlanta Bass Heads Facebook group that they were in the same boat as me, and if anyone was down to make the drive. I thought about it and it almost seemed too easy. But this is what family does; we help each other do the crazy things we love (bass chasing at it finest!). So I jumped on board, bought my ticket and let the ‘I can’t believe I’m actually doing this’ feeling sink in. No one knew what to expect.

We spent Saturday afternoon checking out some performers and wandering around the festival. From the minute we got there, it just felt different. My friends said it had a total CounterPoint vibe to it, which gave us warm fuzzy feelings since we’re all still sad about its retirement. Everything felt laid back and perfectly happy. Plus it was #KeepAustinBeautiful day, so it was the perfect way to show that so many music fans can come together and have an amazing time while still being responsible and caring for our surroundings.

There was such a collectiveness throughout the festival, especially with how it was managed. The volunteers placed a huge emphasis on safety, which is something I don’t see in many festivals. In between sets there were announcements about looking out for one another and what to do if someone needs help. I have so much respect for that, and I also didn't see or hear about any emergency situations arise. I was impressed by the communication and social media strategies, too (and had so many marketing nerd moments). Seriously, they killed it on every platform from Instagram to Snapchat and everything in between. Management can make or break a festival, and Euphoria exceeded on all levels in pulling off an outstanding event.

I saw as many artists as I could, and the way the festival was set up made it easy to bounce between stages (perfect for my bursts of spontaneity). So many artists I had never heard of before! I’m definitely going to be checking out more music from Skydyed, Dream Child, Medasin, Com Truise and Shiba San (and you should too!). Other sets I saw were Break Science, Lettuce and GRiZ, which was the perfect warmup for the man we came for.

Going into this trip with no solid game plan should have given me more anxiety than it did (I think my mom had enough for the both of us). I didn’t know the guys I was traveling with very well, we didn’t know where we were going to sleep, we didn’t even know we were going until a week before the show! But I took the opportunity anyway, and I regret nothing. I made it one of my 101 in 1001 goals to take an unplanned spur of the moment trip because its way out of my comfort zone, and I’m proud I’m able to cross this one off (and start progress on my goal to visit three new states)! 

This past weekend I joined my Bassnectar family at Euphoria Music Festival in Austin, TX. I had missed out on Okeechobee (honestly more bummed about missing Robert Plant than Nectar), and I was starting to get that oh so familiar itch to go full-on freak mode. My last minute decision to make the trip couldn’t have worked out better. The good vibes started way before we got to Austin, and kept expanding as the weekend went on.

In the week leading up to the festival, I saw a tweet from Bass Network encouraging people to define what Euphoria means to them. I loved reading everyone’s responses, and when I tried to think of my own, the only thing I came up with was “I don’t know.” Really? That’s the best I've got? I put it in the back of my mind and didn’t think about it again until halfway through Bassnectar’s set on Saturday. Something within the music sparked a realization that brought me full circle.

Let me back track a little bit.  Experiencing that show was absolutely surreal. Bassnectar opened his set with Color Storm, a rare gem that hit so heavy and set the perfect mood for everything that was about to wash over us. Plus he mashed it with Now, it was a total beauty banger right off the bat. My crew and I had been guessing at what he might open with and none of us saw that coming (do we ever though?). We were also blessed with Kyrian Bee Bop, the wonkiest, wubbiest, make-you-feel-like-a-noodle kind of song I’ve ever heard. I was on cloud nine for every second, and I could feel everyone right there with me. Major highlights for me were Genesis, Ping Pong (always hits so hard), OG version of Lost in the Crowd, and that magnificent 'What x Into The Sun' mashup.

All of the moments that were the most special came out of the blue. And that’s when it hit me. I knew the answer to what Euphoria means to me all along. Not knowing. My Euphoria is embracing the unknown; detaching, letting things happen as they come, letting my curiosity lead me, and not getting too ahead of myself when it comes to anything in life. It was as if Lorin was reaching into my mind and telling it to slow down and quit overthinking. Gotta love those beautiful moments of clarity during a Bassnectar set, right fam? 

I’ve said it before, but I feel like people let expectation consume them too often. I've been there. Life is so much more beautiful if you let everything take you by surprise. Nothing in the future is guaranteed, and we should appreciate every present moment we have. Humans are creatures of attachment, and when something rattles what we thought was going to be a sure thing it can cause all sorts of stress and internal negative energy. But when we embrace the unknown endless possibilities and focus on the silver linings, uncertainty becomes opportunity. 

The wonderful friends we meet on the road, the incredible tracks we all dance to together, the random acts of kindness and love. These things aren’t planned, they’re opportunities we all embraced to bring positivity into each others lives. Euphoria was filled with wonderful positivity and surprises, and I’m so inspired by you all because of it. There is something so beautifully simple about being okay with not knowing what’s coming next. For the first time in my life I'm living by this and I've never been happier. I encourage everyone out there to loosen your expectations, find whatever your own Euphoria is, and spread it as far and wide as you can. 

If you’re ever looking for me on a Monday night, theres a pretty good chance I’m at SweetWater Brewery watching some top-notch comedy. Every other week, the brewery is taken over by 1-UP Comedy and a mob of those who love two things; laughing and drinking. There aren’t many things in Atlanta I love more than Beer and Comedy Night. It’s the best cure for anything Monday could have thrown your way, and I make a point to go as often as I can. Especially because by now I've recruited most of my friends, and it’s become our go-to girls night out (never a dull moment, or an empty glass!). April marks five years that the show has been alive, and I had the opportunity to meet with the hosts to learn more about how Beer and Comedy was born and raised.

If you’re new to Beer and Comedy, I’ll let you catch up a little. It's $12 at the door and you get a cool SweetWater pint glass, six of the best beers in Atlanta, an hour of DJ Durrty Martinez throwing down the best mix of music, and two hours of the best local comedy you can find. By now you’re probably thinking ‘Where did this magical thing come from and how have I not heard about it until now!?” To backtrack a little, in 2011, Joe tweeted about how cool it’d be to do a comedy show where there was free beer, and one of the guys at SweetWater tweeted him back and this collision of ‘bro, we should totally do that’ moments happened, and then bam! Beer and Comedy Night became the best byproduct of drunk tweeting there ever was. 

Think back to the first beer and comedy night ever. What was that like?
Joe: It was a little crazy cause we didn’t know what to expect, you know? Neither did the brewery.
How was the crowd?
Joe: It was mostly friends of comics, there were probably about 40-50 people that time. SweetWater doesn’t do any advertising for the show, so we had to build up the crowd ourselves.
Has it always been every other Monday?
Joe: We did spring and summer of 2011, and took off winter because the shows were all outside on the patio up to that point. So we were waiting until it was spring again, and then around December [Jeremy] was like ‘why don’t we just do a show indoors?’
See, there’s that partnership at work. Jeremy, you’ve been there since the beginning too?
Jeremy: Yeah and when you talk about the first few shows, I think that was the big contrast. I was more of the calming voice and Joe was more frantic like ‘how do we pull this all together?” and I think it’s kind of switched now. We noticed right away that every other Monday had a good reset rhythm to it, you know? It gave us enough time for the audience to forget about the show but not  completely. We let a whole week go by before we even start talking about the next one.
Joe: Also, it made it feel like more of a special event, and it made people less inclined to miss it. Like if you miss one, it’s four weeks in between shows.
Yeah, people need to get their fix! That’s what I’m like.
Joe: Yeah, the regulars might miss one or two in a row, but by that third time, we’ll have 'em back. 

When you put together as great of a show as Beer and Comedy Night, it’s only a matter of time until the word gets out. In mid February, the crowds became too large for the downstairs tasting room and were moved upstairs to accommodate. Beer and Comedy has grown beside the Atlanta comedy scene and the brewery as they gained more recognition in recent years. SweetWater completed a three-phase expansion project in 2012, which included the addition of the ever-beautiful Reel Room, meant for hosting special events. It’s wild to look back and seeing how much change can happen in five years. SweetWater has been one of my favorite brands since my parents became super fans when I was in high school, so I love being able to compare the then and now. 

So, the show grew so much that you guys had to move it upstairs to the Reel Room.
Joe: Yeah, when we started the show, that whole area didn't exist. They started building that like a month after our first show. And then within a year of doing shows here it was all operational.
Jeremy: And that was really good timing for us because we had already gotten a feel for the show. SweetWater started promoting a lot with the new brewery, which drew attention to it.
Of all the three spaces you’ve done the show in, which one is your favorite?
Joe: I think I actually like the downstairs tasting room area the best, because it’s more intimate.  I used to love the outdoor shows but then I got so used to being indoors that it got weird for me. The feedback and the sound just isn’t the same. Like when you’re up there, the sound of the crowd goes in different directions instead of toward the stage.
So how did DJ Durrty Martinez come in to play? Has he always been with the show?
Joe: No, he came in at the two year anniversary show. Actually, we had been borrowing a sound system from someone different every show. And I’ve known Durrty for years, and one day he was just like 'you know, dude, I’m a DJ, I have sound.’
The show has blown up in the past three or four months, what are y’all doing differently?
Joe: One thing is we’re advertising less. We used to do ads on Facebook or pass out flyers on tour days and now we don’t do any of that. You know what I think it is? It’s word of mouth. More people keep hearing about it, more are showing up and they bring friends and they,
And they get hooked!
Joe: Yeah, and in the beginning there was less of a selection of comics in Atlanta. It adds to the character of the show that we pick new comics every time and only use the best comics in town.
How many different comics have you had on the show over five years?
Joe: Probably, at least 200-300 I would say.

The next Beer and Comedy Night is on April 11, and it’s sure to be the biggest show yet. I’ve been hyping up the five year anniversary show for weeks now, so Monday can’t come soon enough! Hitting a milestone anniversary is a major reason to celebrate, and I can’t wait to see what Joe and Jeremy have in store for the crowd.

Okay, so tell about the anniversary show, do you have any surprises?
Joe: We’re gonna make it like the best show possible. We have to confirm, so I don’t want to drop any  names, but we’ve got some pretty heavy hitters lined up. 
Jeremy: We’re definitely trying to pull the best of the best, absolutely. Doc Pop will be here doing the popcorn which has clearly been a big hit if you can tell by all the popcorn on the floor at the end of the show. It keeps getting bigger every time and we’ll have a few surprises, that’s for sure. 

Beer and Comedy Night has stolen my heart as the best comedy show the city has to offer, and I can’t recommend it more highly. If you’re local to Atlanta, you need to go see this show. Everything about it, from the energy to the delicious beer and the outstanding production value has made me a total comedy nerd. Since I frequent the shows so much (and I’m their self-declared biggest fan), I’ve gotten to know Joe and Jeremy and can tell you for a fact that these two are an unstoppable team. I’ve become a huge supporter of them as hosts and as people, and to see their partnership work on and off stage is pretty awesome. I had a blast interviewing them, and to throw a little extra flavor in, I pop quizzed the guys with a lightening round of random questions. Cheers!

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This will be the fourth year I’ve gone to the festival (I took last year off to go to Cleveland!), and while theres no doubt the festival has grown over the past couple years, it feels to me that it’s more like it’s grown into itself. If you haven’t been convinced enough to buy a ticket yet, flip through my list of 5 reasons not to miss this year’s 420 Fest and then see how you feel.

If you haven’t tried SweetWater’s newest seasonal brew, you’re sure to see plenty of it flowing at the festival. The Hop Hash Session is a lighter ale designed for all-day drinking but brings the flavor you’re looking for. Not to mention, all of the regulars will be on tap. Just ask my mom, there’s nothing better than an ice cold SweetWater IPA on draught. ​

The 420 Fest started out 12 years ago as an environmental celebration, and the emphasis on taking care of the planet has only grown since. It’s the perfect opportunity to give back to your community and the planet, and the good vibes will be spreading all weekend so you definitely should get up and go be a part of it! Read more about how the 420 Fest is keeping it’s thumb green.

This year’s lineup for the Lyrics and Laughter tent is on fire. I mean really, though, what’s a 420 fest without some laughter? Make sure you stop by the stage (especially Friday night!) and you might catch my favorite Atlanta comedian Joe Pettis from Beer and Comedy Night.

Seriously, this lineup has some of the greatest variety I’ve seen in a while. I’m mainly looking forward to seeing the Disco Biscuits. Ever since I went to Camp Bisco, I’ve been hooked on their electric, jam band, funktastic disco-y sound. Definitely go check them out if you can because it’s not often they come around. Not to mention, the Disco Stage lineup is stacked with some of my favorites (Minnesota, Son of Kick, Paper Diamond, just to name a few). Take advantage people!