Gig Catch-Up

Oh man why do I even bother trying to blog when I forget to post everything? Haha. So a select few photos from gigs since November. Apparently I had good luck and got to the front for all three!


Jimmy Eat World back on November 19th in O2 Academy Bristol was a bit of a last minute one as it sold out the day tickets were released and I only confirmed that I had entry on the day of the show! The girl I bought my ticket from turned out to be really nice, and she even dragged my right to the front and centre so we had the best view possible even though we arrived late!


Skipping forward to 6th December at Cardiff Motorpoint Arena, we have Biffy Clyro.


I was a bit too close to get photos of the whole stage, but got some nice shots anyway! I wish they'd played more old songs, but at least they played Justboy (I think I cried a bit when they started playing it haha).


And lastly, Yellowcard, on December 11th at Bristol O2. Although I don't know their stuff very well, and have seen them twice before, this was my first time seeing them in a smaller venue...I couldn't even see the stage the other times! I'm glad I went along since it was their last tour and therefore the last chance to see them live.

The end of this year has been a busy one for gigs! And travelling too, I guess. Also went to Worcester to visit Sophie earlier this week, but I failed at getting photos so I can't really blog about it...epic fail!

Giant Reading Festival 2014 Post

I suddenly realise that I never got around to writing up Glastonbury, so I'm going to try to write a quick Reading post before I end up never doing that either. I'll do a separate post about Camp Loner probably as I don't want to be too image heavy right now. My full album from the weekend can be found HERE, although my decade old camera is definitely on its last legs by now!


This year was my fourth Reading, and as usual I camped with Camp Loner (the best people ever). I ended up getting the Thursday off work so I could get there as early as possible, and the buses in Reading were much better this year. I hardly had to walk which was a blessing as my trolley broke, and once at the gates I got straight through without having to go through the windy barriers. Result! I even managed to put my tent up without help this time! Then proceeded to get too drunk & was sick outside my tent...

Friday

By some miracle I avoided a hangover, and first act on Friday was Gerard Way. I think a lot of people were disappointed, but it was everything I expected really. Kinda like MCR but not as good, and nobody really knew any songs. Afterwards I dashed off and left my friends as I wanted to catch the end of Hacktivist where I managed to catch some of their best songs, which was lucky. Rou even joined them on stage at one point! I stuck around for the Japanese band Crossfaith who blew my face off, Blood Red Shoes who were awesome and chill, and Deaf Havana who I enjoyed a lot more this time since I know them a bit better now. Then it was time to inch forward for...


Jimmy Eat World! Unfortunately this meant missing Twin Atlantic but I have no regrets as they were brilliant as always with a great setlist, which included Authority Song which is one of the funnest to sing along to (it features in my kitchen playlist when I cook every time haha). The crowd reaction was pretty good too. I had wanted to try to get right to the front but it was too busy to risk getting stuck in the middle! Because next was...


Enter Shikari! Which sucked a lot more than I'd hoped. I'd pretty much only bought my ticket to see them. I got crushed against the barrier at the back of the inner circle, could barely breathe, almost got my arm and ribs broken...no bueno. I had to get pulled out after 2 songs and I was really upset about it! I ended up able to see pretty badly at the side where I still had to dodge circle pits, and they didn't even play Zzzonked =[ not that they didn't sound utterly brilliant, I was just a bit bummed out and was the wrong side of the stage to see Rory C's shenanigans. BLAH.

After all that pain I went to see Warpaint for a much needed chill out session, and if you haven't seen them you really should as they always kill it. And then...


MORE JIMMY EAT WORLD! I had a hunch they would play Futures in full to mark the 10 year anniversary of its release, and I was correct. The set was so nostalgic for me as it was the first album of theirs I ever bought and it takes me back to being 14. Kill is one of my favourite songs still, and hearing it live was a bit of a dream come true, sad as it is. By the end of the show I had managed to get quite near the front too! I was a bit annoyed that so many people were just standing around and not singing along or dancing...like why did you bother to cram yourself into the little Lock Up tent if you aren't even into them?

I caught the end of Paramore's set after leaving the tent (I was right to not trust the rumours about a secret set in the Lock Up) and they put on a good show and seemed to be surprisingly well-received for the amount of hate they get. It started raining a little so I headed to Metronomy for a bit to warm up before Queens of the Stone Age.


While I'm still not convinced that they are headline material, their set definitely benefitted from the insane light show. They were really very good, much better than at Download last year. I was kinda grumpy and tired and cold though, which was a shame. Straight to bed afterwards!

Saturday

A whole bunch of us went to catch Pulled Apart By Horses after a nice morning at camp. Turns out I knew them better than I had thought, and while they're a little heavy for me I ought to check them out again some time. I stuck around for a bit of Dry The River since I had missed them at Glastonbury, and then caught a bit of Royal Blood as I'd been told that they were good (which they were). I was really tired at this point, so caught All We Are for a second time at the BBC Introducing stage despite originally intending to go see Lower Than Atlantis (who I got drenched seeing last year iirc). The Hives were a bit of a disappointment after being a highlight of Download, I think they only really worked in the charged environment of a small tent and not on the Main Stage. Don Broco were a bit disappointing too but throught no fault of their own; it was just my poor mood and the fact that I could barely hear them as their sound must have been doofed up. After catching the end of Foster The People Gemma & Panda bumped into me so we all sat half asleep and half singing along to Imagine Dragons before I dashed off for...


We Are Scientists. I liked them aaaages ago after buying their first album on a whim, and had been very bummed out when a bunch of my friends saw them at Give It A Name without me when none of them even really knew who they were. They were definitely worth the wait! The crowd went wild whenever they played an oldie, and it was a full on dance party.

I'd intended to cram myself into the dance tent for the Pendulum DJ set, but it was far too loud. So I walked around the little barrier and sat watching Jake Bugg whilst being able to hear both, which was a bit trippy. I got adopted by a group of people at this point and it was nice to just have people to sit with.


I've never been a huge fan of Artic Monkeys, but trust me when I say they were amazing live. I knew pretty much all of the songs somehow and can definitely see how they were headliners.

Sunday
Somehow Sunday ended up being the most fun day of all. I missed a few bands in the morning as camp was just too fun, and then we all had a laugh at Main Stage most of the day. I'm glad I saw Young Guns after missing them at Download through similar camp-related shenanigans, and we all had a hoot at Papa Roach because how can you not? Sleeping With Sirens sounded good for what they were, but I can't stand the singer's whiny little girl voice. A Day To Remember and You Me At Six were good, and I was too lazy to go to other stages and stuck around for Macklemore & Ryan Lewis instead. Everyone was expecting it to be crap, but it was a crazy amount of drunken fun! I don't think anyone didn't enjoy it, even if it wasn't really many people's usual thing.


Then it was finally Möngöl Hörde time! The most fun set of the whole weekend as I could dance about and wave my glow stick around without getting crushed to death, and they're one of the best live bands I've ever seen anyway. I hope they do more shows in future, even if not for a while.


Then I had time to catch the most of Blink 182. I'd heard from a lot of people that they were rubbish live, but those people were big fat liars. They were playing one of my favourite songs (Down) when I got there, and once again I was surpised to find that I knew pretty much every song. I must have listened to them a lot when I was younger and just forgotten about it! It was a great way to end the weekend. I had to get a huge portion of chips and mushy peas afterwards to refuel!

On Monday the rain came. We all got soaked. But at least it held off until then! And I got a lift back so I didn't have to fight with the crowds at the train station in the rain. Win win!

Now the long wait until next year.

Jimmy Eat World

On Saturday I went to see Jimmy Eat World in Bristol with my boyfriend and best friend from school. This was my fifth time seeing them live somehow (first time indoors), but Katie has seen them more times than me! We were happy to discover that we were among the youngest people there as it seemed to be old-ish fans (I say -ish as very few people sang along to the proper oldies).


The support act were called The Shimmer Band. They were alright, reminded me of Arctic Monkeys and Kasabian.


And then Jimmy Eat World themselves!


They were great as always, really fun to sing along to and dance! Although that said, I think we were the most enthusiastic group.

At the end of the show the guitarist threw his plectrum and it bounced of my boob, but someone else managed to grab it off the floor before I had a chance...RUDE lol.


They didn't play my favourite song (Get It Faster) but I've heard it live a couple times before, and hearing Authority Song and Kill definitely made up for it anyway!


I think we'll probably see them again next tour too! But until then, I guess I can watch their iTunes Festival set =D

Recent merch buys!

I thought I'd share a few recent 'normal' clothing buys that I'm happy with!

I've been really getting back into music again recently, and so I have started buying band tees again with mixed success.

A while back I bought a ton of Frank Turner merch. This was a Wembley set I bought which included...


a tee,


a scarf,


a poster, and a book.


I also bought this badge set.

Annoyingly despite buying the smallest tee size, it's massive and is essentially useless for girls because it's a total man shape. Haven't decided whether to alter it or sell it yet.



These two tees were from ebay and I love them both!




I already own a plethora of Muse tees, but this is my first hoodie (appears to be a Knights of Cydonia one). Sadly it also suffers from chronic hugeness and man shape. It almost comes down to my knees and my hands don't even reach the cuffs...but it's really snug and warm! However, Muse has somewhat fallen out of my favour recently. I just spent £130-ish on two tickets to see them later in the year, but the album teaser was crap and the Olympics song is crap too. Damnit!



My Jimmy Eat World tees! I wasn't too sure about ordering them at first as the website had no sizing chart and no contact emails or anything, plus shipping from America (plus customs and Royal Mail handling fee) was expensive. But they're one of my favourite bands, and the lilac tee is so my style anyway! I got the blue one too as it was only a few dollars and the shipping fee was flat anyway. Thankfully they fit me perfectly despite the fact that I had to completely chance it.

As for band merch I want...I still want the Frank Turner zip-up hoodie as I wear my pullover one an awful lot. I would like a Million Dead tee although obviously they're few and far between since the band split it 2005 and so seem to be either crap condition or overpriced. I'd also like a Biffy Clyro tee as they're one of my favourites at the moment!


And I couldn't resist this Avengers tee from Qwertee.

Reading Festival, 2011

(I wrote a lot. Feel free to ignore my writing and just look at the pictures, that's what I often do with blogs!)

I can't believe it's all over!

I'm soooooo glad I went as I was really starting to wuss out before going. Attending a festival for the first time with a bunch of people you don't know is a pretty daunting prospect afterall. But as soon as I arrived, I knew I'd made the right decision!

I arrived on the Wednesday afternoon and found Camp Loner pretty easily. I was half-dead upon arrival as my bags were so ridiculously heavy (had to carry clothes, food, drink, tent, camping chair, sleeping bag, sleeping mat). My tent ended up wonky, but I'm still pretty proud of it! It's the one with the yellow Minnie Mouse on (I added it so I could tell which tent was mine).


I didn't take my camera as the battery is too rubbish, so I just had the camera on the Viewty phone I borrowed from my cousin. It was useless when lights were shining on it so everything came out blurry, so I won't share many band photos. I did have fun which the glitchy panorama function though! And I still managed to add too many photos to this post and ramble too much, sorry!

The weather was very mixed, switching from raining very hard to being warm and sunny. I got so muddy on the first few days and so I was smelly and dirty all weekend!

Had great fun getting to know people and getting a little tipsy on the first two nights, although I spent much of the festival alone as I didn't want to go in the pit and my music taste differed a little. After the music stopped I just went straight to bed despite it being too noisy to sleep...it was just warmer and I had no intention of drinking.

On the Friday, during the second band, my glasses got knocked off. And jumped on. I was lucky to be able to retrieve them as they were instantly smothered in mud. I cleaned them off on the Saturday morning, but they were pretty much unwearable.


And I can't see a damn thing without them. So that kinda put a dampener on the whole weekend as I couldn't see! It was a struggle to even find the toilets, despite the massive signs =[ I could wear them a little when I was at the middle barrier as I couldn't get knocked about too much, so I had to hook the remaining arm in my hair and balance them on my nose, but any sweat or rain and they'd just slide off. Only wore them for a few bands.

On the FRIDAY I saw Architects, The Blackout, New Found Glory, part of Bring Me The Horizon, Rise Against, Deftones, The Offspring, Thirty Seconds To Mars and My Chemical Romance.

The Offspring were SO GOOD! I haven't really listened to them much before but I'll make a point to now.

MCR have definitely improved as a live act since I last saw them (about 6 years ago now, I think), although I didn't enjoy it as much as before. I felt like a fossil really, everyone was singing along and I was just stood there not knowing the words as I haven't heard the new album. Someone behind me said they liked 'old MCR stuff more'...referring to the song 'Teenagers'. Which was off 'Black Parade'. Which is FREAKING NEW. My gen of MCR was '...Bullets...' and 'Three Cheers...'. They played 2 songs off 'Three Cheers...' and nothing off '...Bullets...' D= They were still good though, but yeah I just felt old. It's the band's 10th anniversary this year, and I've been with them for at least 7 of those years which is just kinda scary to me!

On SATURDAY I saw The Joy Formidable, Seasick Steve (missed most of the set, but no great loss as it was pretty boring), Two Door Cinema Club, Madness, Jimmy Eat World, The National, Pulp and The Strokes. I only stayed for The Strokes as I couldn't escape the crowds after Pulp! I wore my glasses for Jimmy Eat World and Pulp as I knew I love both bands.

Jim Adkins still has the same dorky hairstyle he's always had, but the wind blew his fringe to the side for most of the set *me gusta*. They were brilliant as ever (this was my third time seeing them live), and they played a good mix of new and old songs. Still miffed they don't play 'Kill' live as I love that song.


As for Pulp, I swear Jarvis Cocker hasn't aged at all. I have a fondness for the band as the song 'Disco 2000' was on the only 'Now!' album I ever owned...on cassette tape! They put on a really good show too, if you get a chance to see them, do it.


SUNDAY was more hectic as it was the only day I went from stage to stage. I saw We Are The Ocean, Taking Back Sunday (Adam Lazzara is so irritating I wanted to punch him), Frank Turner, Jarred Christmas, Tim Minchin, Panic! At The Disco, Face To Face, Frank Turner and Muse.

So many clashes on this day which was sad, had to miss Flogging Molly for Muse and only caught the last few seconds of Elbow (who are epic live) because I went to see Frank Turner's second set instead.

It was well worth it to see Frank twice though, as his music is my absolute favourite right now and his performance was just incredible! And he's a tad gorgeous *bit of a bonus*. I got so overemotional when he started playing 'I Am Disappeared' as it is my favourite song ever. Both sets were very different experiences, the first being on Main Stage where I was far away and surrounded by thousands of people and the second in the Lock Up tent where I was really close and squished in the pit.




Muse was the reason I went in the first place, and they didn't disappoint (although I couldn't wear my glasses as the woman next to me was too bionic - she elbowed me in the eye ffs - so I couldn't see at all). Hearing Origin Of Symmetry in full was a unique opportunity and 'Space Dementia' is one of my favourite Muse songs so I loved singing along to it! Kinda got second-hand stoned during their set too so I may have danced like a total weirdo ¬_¬ but it was fun! I just have total resentment for everyone who has decent eye sight. I even had a relatively clear view, which is surpising as most people were around a foot taller than me (seriously I have no idea where all these tall people came from or why they usually feel the need to stand in front of me...even with my hands stretched straight up I couldn't reach over people's heads).



See what I mean about the lights messing with the camera? xP

Now for some glitchy panoramic photos! A beautiful rainbow over the Main Stage, and my Camp Loner brethren.





I had a great time, though I was glad to get back to wash and rest and eat and drink tea! I also now have 15 cans I salvaged from the wreck that was the abandoned Camp Loner, although my arms almost fell off carrying them and the rest of my stuff back! I will pack much less next time, and I really hope I can go again. If the line-up is good next year then I'll definitely go again and camp with the loners again.

Foo Fighters, 3rd July 2011

You may not have noticed, but I was actually away from over the weekend and only returned yesterday (I scheduled posts...sneaky mwahahaha).

On Sunday I went to the Milton Keynes Bowl to see the Foo Fighters! It was a very long day out, but luckily the weather was warm. We stupidly left the suncream in the car so we were glad that the sun only came out for a little while. I still got pretty burnt though D=

I didn't take my camera as I didn't want to risk it being confiscated (although everyone else got let in with theirs...why do they print these things on the tickets if they don't mean it?). I got a few blurry photos with my iPhone though.



The view I had! The guy stood up in the photo was really cute, and he looked like Matt Bellamy *drool* but I couldn't stalk a better picture unfortunately. Plus he didn't take his sunglasses off the whole time, even when it got dark...but I go mad for reflective sunglasses baha.

I thought the waiting would be boring, but it was fine as I was quite happy to sit in the warm people-watching. I probably should have gone to find Katie who was also there, but I was worried about getting lost. The journey to the portaloos was rather treacherous, I felt like the shortest person in the world. The only bad thing about the day was my hayfever, which made my whole head burn whenever I breathed. And turns out the reason it was bad all day was because of the idiots in front who chain-smoked through the whole day! Eventually it stopped as my nostrils switched (lol) but I had to turn away during the performance when they lit up to avoid it coming back =/ If only I hadn't had that pain, I could have gone into the crowds and danced and had much more fun, but it was too painful. If I was the kind of person to faint or get nose bleeds I surely would have from the heat in my head, but alas. I just suffered in silence haha.

The first band were okay although I don't have a clue who they were xP The DJ dude between the acts was dire. He wasn't even DJing, just changing CDs and he only played one good song the whole time. The second act was Jimmy Eat World, who I actually saw last time I was at that venue (for Green Day). Neither of my parents recognised any of their songs which frustrated me as at least 4 of the songs they played got radio play when they were released, and we had Futures on in the car for at least 2 weeks when we went to the Cotswolds. Okay, that was 5 years ago, but I generally recognise songs after one hearing so after 2 or 3 hearings I'd never forget them D=

Then there was Biffy Clyro, which was the only reason mum agreed to come (even though she moaned all day about it being outdoors and stuff which is annoying as Rob really likes the Foos and would have enjoyed it much more!). They were good too, although I thought they were better when I saw them last. I want a 'mon the biff' tee, they're so cool!



And then Foo Fighters! I'm not a big fan, but I'll definitely borrow some of their CDs now as they were really good. I also knew most of the songs which was great =D Though we left before the encore to beat the rush out of the car park which was sad, but we did have a 2 hour journey back to the hospice so it was a wise decision.

Now I'm really wanting to go to another outdoor venue. I'm now even more desperate to go to Reading festival. Was tempted to just grab a ticket and go, but I'd be too vulnerable if by myself and no one else seems to be going. So frustrating! I want to see Muse and Frank Turner D=