Since this blog is a bit of a mess (but I like to keep it for sentimental reasons), all new posts will be published on:
MUSIC ELEVEN
which is, of course, the music blog I started as part of a uni module. It’s now transforming into a proper music blog, of course leaning heavily towards live gigs and roadtrips.
Check it out!
Posted in My life in general
A LOT of photos from the past year will be coming up in the next few days.
It’ll be mainly photos since so many of the gigs were so long ago (yeah I know, I can only blame myself) and I’ve probably forgotten half the things that happened or were funny at the time.
But I’ve realised I do miss blogging, and having the blog to look back on after the gigs. I’ll take more care this autumn, because I don’t want to forget the small moments, the weird and the fun things that happen when out to gigs all the time.
Considering I have 42 gigs planned for October – December, there should be a lot going on!
Here we go…
(they’ll get separate posts, or this one would be miles long)
Posted in My life in general, Roadtrip, Tour Diary, Travel
Tagged Gigs, Live, Music, Tour Diary
I let the blog go again last year.
13 shows or more that I never wrote about.
But at least that was more to do with me being busy having the best autumn of my life rather than moping about being uninspired, so that’s something right?
I’ll try and get some pictures from all the gigs up at least, for my own sake if nothing else.
So, 2016 now and as far as this blog goes I’m not giving up yet, gonna give it a shot to get at least two posts up each week (+ one on the school blog as well, which can be found here: MusicEleven). Three posts every week should be doable right? I think so.
As far as New Year resolutions go I’m okay with that one. Got of few others too, mainly listening to more music, read more about music and go to even more gigs! Explore Brighton and find myself an internship.
Got the usual “eat better!”promise to myself, but at least I’m finally feeling inspired (and a bit sick of frozen pizzas to be honest).
Happy New Year!
Posted in My life in general
Splott Market
Last show of the week!
Went to Wales for the first time ever and saw absolutely nothing on the way there. Having had a night of drunk frenchmen screaming in my hostel room I was pretty tired indeed, so I slept from the moment the bus left London until we stopped in Cardiff. Much needed, but I still would’ve liked to enjoy the scenery.
Anywho, once in Cardiff we proceeded to make our way… out of Cardiff? Not quite, but at least out into an industrial part of town where we eventually found a huge. massive. warehouse. Which was apparently where the gig was going to be. After half an hour walking around it we settled down by the fence and weeds. At least there was a Greggs nearby. I do make it sound worse than it was, we had Greggs and we had speakers so could blast The LaFontaines, Arcane Roots and In Dynamics all day, good stuff!
By the time doors were about to open, there were a lot of people! Well, at least compared to Manchester and Birmingham, where people seemed more content to drop in during the two support acts. All went well on doors at least and we made our way to the front. They had cornered off 1/4 of the warehouse for the gig and it was still massive and above all, freezing. First Twin gig I’ve seen in a sweater and jacket!
Support band number one were talented but not my cup of tea and to be honset in the cold and being that tired I just couldn’t focus. Band number two was of course Dive In and we danced our hearts out! Got a nice shoutout from the stage as well haha.
Time for the last Twin Atlantic show (for a whole week) and I was noticeably tired. Not the best venue either in my opinion, cold and unpersonal. Very rockstary gig from McTrusty which is great but not as fun as the more “personal” ones I’d say. Barry saved the day though, su much fun watching him during this gig and he seemed so incredibly happy haha. Loved it.
Looking forward to Leeds on the 24th, hopefully warmer!
Posted in Tour Diary
Tagged Bud Live Project, Budweiser Live Project, Cardiff, Dive In, Gig, Live, Splott Market, Twin Atlantic
[Public service announcement: Since I accidentally deleted this whole post the following is the shorter and more boring version. Well done, me.]
For the show in London I had decided, very unlike me, to go on a coach in the early afternoon. As I wasn’t queueing this seemed sensible. Also meant I got to eat my very first english breakfast with Jessica in Birmingham, which was wonderful. Less wonderful was the fact that Megabus once again fucked up my bus trip.
While I was fine not queueing I had definitely not intended to arrive after doors (it’s a fine line)((hah, line)). By some inventive dinner, aka forgetting all about it, I managed to get there by 7.15pm and joined the frenchies on second row. All good. First band on stage was Echoic and they were good but I was just too excited about finally seeing Arcane Roots again to pay much attention.
Second support was In Dynamics and here I did pay attention because they are most definitely awesome. Only recently started listening but was instantly hooked, exactly my type of music. Here are the current favourites:
Live was as good as I hoped, and I’m very much looking forward to the headline gigs in London and Brighton! Get to go back to The Barfly as well, been way too long now. They’re supporting Arcane Roots on the rest of their UK tour as well so I get to see them one or two more times there as well.
Then, well, it was time for Arcane Roots. I last saw them in 2011 when they were on tour with 22, a Norwegian band and the reason I went to 5 dates of that tour. Luckily AR turned out to be utterly amazing and so I did the exact same thing that I did with Twin Atlantic. Which was to not see them for four years. (I really need to stop doing that.) But now it was finally, finally time and oh man, they’re even better now! So much energy, so much feeling and the best and craziest crowd ever! You know it’s great when the ceiling is sweating as well. I was only going to see them in Birmingham apart from London but after this show I might just have to do York as well. And… possibly Paris. Ooops?
Well you know, four years is a lot of time to make up for, no time like the present eh?
Here’s one of their newer singles that I just can’t stop listening to:
Also, special shoutout to Jack (drums, In Dynamics & Arcane Roots) for playing a double set like it was nothing, great job!
Posted in Tour Diary
Tagged Arcane Roots, Camden, Dingwalls, Echoic, Gig, In Dynamics, Live, London
Q Club
BIRMINGHAM I LOVE YOU – Twin Atlantic probably, me certainly.
You just can’t beat the combination of Twin and Birmingham. It’s something extra special, a different feeling in the air. And it’s so, so fucking awesome.
Got into Birmingham with Laureen and Marine just a bit past 12 and while wandering around the station I see a tweet mentioning Twin playing a small set at the library. Ten minutes to go at that time, so this happened:
Goddamn, but it was stressful. Got there in time though and tumbled out of the taxi and off to the Budweiser tour bus. Sam and Ross played Brothers & Sisters/Hold On/Oceans/Heart & Soul to all of us maybe 15 people and it was sweet. Happy about Oceans as they’re not playing it on the main set and nice to hear it acoustic.
Off to the venue where we spent the day eating pizza (again, oops) and… Here I continue writing a day later because of, well you guessed it, Megabus fucking up again last night.
Eating pizza and listening to music and it was all good. In we went at 7pm and the first artist tonight had a loop pedal so of course I was instantly in love. Nice mix of singer/songwriter and beatboxing.
Second band was of course Dive In and by this point there may have been alcohol involved and Laureen and I decided we were their biggest fans ever. That said, the sound was also much better than the day before, good stuff.
And then, well, Twin Atlantic in Birmingham. All the love, all the smiles all the dancing and headbanging. Crowd was superb, band was superb everything was superb. You simply can’t beat it (okay Perth, but that was it’s own thing).
Same setlist as the night before just with more energy and more… electricity.
Always a good review when you need to spontaneously hug someone after the show!
[Disclaimer: I have no idea what happened here because next up was obviously CARDIFF and the last date of the Twin Atlantic Budweiser Live Project]
Next up is Leeds (where, it turns out, I haven’t been. That was Liverpool back in 2011 with 22 and Arcane Roots apparently haha, good memory!), and I can’t wait! Celebrating my birthday 3 days in a row, feat. Nothing But Thieves, Twin Atlantic and all the best people!
Headed back to the hostel after having ANOTHER pizza, and I showed off Charlie The Unicorn/Llamas With Hats/Marshmallow People to Danielle and Jessica who had never seen them before. Apparently they’re weird if you’ve never seen them before haha. Rolled into bed in the middle of the night to try and be alive for London the morning after (worked out okay actually).
Posted in Tour Diary
Tagged Birmingham, Budweiser Live Project, Dive In, Ed Geater, Live, Tour, Twin Atlantic
Old Granada Studios
What a day. Started off as we know, with a 2-hour delay (thanks Megabus!) and I ended up in the queue at 3pm rather than 1pm as planned. Ah, the stress. No worries though, met up with everyone and had pretty good (but very short) time in line. Doors at 7pm, VERY calm and collected people, not a single runner.
Venue turned out to be tiny and a little strange. Old film studio but it worked quite well. Can only complain about the sound, not sure if it was the venue, the speakers, being middle front row or just a combination of all of them. It was okay when Twin were on but for the both support bands it was not at all good.
Speaking of support bands… The first band sounded good but looked like the thing they wanted least in the world was to be in front of an audience. I think all in all they looked at the crowd for 0.01 seconds. Which doesn’t make for a great liveband. Second support was much better at playing live but had terrible, terrible sound. Very low and incredibly flat. Sounded pretty nice though, very 80’s. Not so sure about having two support slots on this thing though (but maybe that’s just because I didn’t really enjoy them). Would’ve been nice if Twins set had been 6 songs longer.
Twin came on and finally the sound was okay. Surprised by the set, not a single ballad (unless you count Brothers and Sisters). Short and sweet, and a little weird. They seemed to have loads of fun on stage, struck me a bit like more of a rehearsal than a “proper” gig. Which is fine by me, I had loads of fun too, burst out laughing rather than sang along a few times. And of course, headbanging! Always the headbanging.
After the gig it was time for the usual shittalking, one of the best parts of any gig. Gave up on waiting to say hi to any band members though and went for pizza instead (good decision). Then bed! Rudely woken up by a flock of Canada geese the next morning, holy shit they’re loud! Noce walk through Manchester to the bus station where I was actually happy the bus was 30min late, as that meant I could get tea.
Now I’m queuing in Birmingham after enjoying a tiny acoustic set in front of the library. But that’s a story for tomorrow’s post!
Have pictures! (I can resize!)
Posted in Tour Diary
Tagged Budweiser Live Project, DICE.fm, Gig, Live, Manchester, Old Granada Studios, Twin Atlantic
Today is the first day of a VERY good live music week. Twin Atlantic on the Budweiser Live Project today, tomorrow (Birmingham) and Friday (Cardiff), with a break in the middle to see Arcane Roots in London on Thursday (where the fantastic In Dynamics will be supporting)!
Currently on a Megabus, two hours late and quite carsick. Still have to find a way to resize pictures properly but in lieu of photos I’ll try to be posting regularly from my phone during the days and evenings, won’t that be fun? “In the queue.” “Cold.” “Still in the queue.” 😉
Not sure yet if I’ll do separate posts for everything or do one each day and just edit it. We’ll see. Hopefully be getting pictures up starting tomorrow as well.
Here we fucking go.
Posted in Tour Diary
Tagged Arcane Roots, Budweiser, Budweiser Live Project, DICE, DICE.fm, In Dynamics, Live, Manchester, Music, Twin Atlantic
As I was moving to the UK anyway, I decided to make a “tiny detour” on my way to Brighton. Via Perth in Scotland no less. This may have added an 11hour coach ride to London, instead of just flying there but as a certain Scottish band were playing I deemed it all worth it. (Turned out to be an incredibly good decision too.)
Came to Perth at around…12? And of course went directly to the concert hall because queueing. Joined Laureen and Marine outside the doors and, well, went on waiting. And had too much coffee and too little proper food, as you do.
Thanks to Danielle being amazing I also had a hotel room for the night, so got to leave all my stuff there and dip my face in some makeup so I’d look reasonably alive. Back to the queue which was fine until the opened the outer doors at 6pm. I mean, it was great to able to go inside to the inner doors, but my blood pressure still can’t handle the last 30minutes before doors at a gig.
We made it in okay after all though, barrier between Barry and Sam.
First out of the support were Model Aeroplanes and they sounded good for two songs and then they sounded the same for the rest of the songs. Good music but not very exciting and not the most fun to watch on stage (yet, anyway). The crowd didn’t react very well, everyone seemed to just be waiting.
And as Fatherson entered the stage it became obvious what the crowd was waiting for. I’d only listened to them on Spotify before, and much as with Nothing But Thieves they didn’t catch my attention. Also much as with Nothing But Thieves I was quite blown away by the live version. The crowd absolutely loved it, completely wild and wonderful. Great gig in all, can’t wait to see them again!
And then it was Twin Atlantic time! I wasn’t sure what to expect since the last time I saw them was at Reading Festival, which of course was massive. Compared to that, Perth Concert Hall felt a lot like it was gonna be a living room gig. Strangely, as Concert Halls usually don’t feel that intimate. Turned out to be exactly that kind of gig though, sweaty, intimate and a 110% amazing from the first song onwards. Edit Me is such a good first song. As a gig, it was possibly the best I’ve ever seen with them.
Then came Oceans and I knew from the start that that might be a hard one for me since I was quite emotional about the whole moving away from home bit. And while I managed to keep that suppressed (and still do) quite well, I knew that if I was gonna break it would be during Oceans. And so it was. Generally I never cry during gigs, but hey, I couldn’t help it. Sam apparently noticed and made it a hundred times worse by maintaining eye contact for the whole damn song (or so it felt like). I mean, I’m trying to push my tears back in here, you’re not helping. Was also accused of making him cry on stage after the show, so I suppose I can put that on my CV now.
Whining aside, it was quite special to share that “my heart is feeling bigger than this whole room” connection with someone who’s actually on the stage. Live music man. Life.
I recovered and proceeded to headbang the rest of the show away which is what I usually do. And with that, I’ve not much more to say, except “it was amazing” about every song. Looking forward to the Budweiser gigs, and trying to figure out which ones I should go to considering uni.
Also, Leeds, which will definitely be the best way to celebrate a 26th birthday ever. Nothing But Thieves and Twin Atlantic on the same weekend, what are the odds? Can’t wait!
Posted in Tour Diary
Tagged Brighton, Fatherson, Gig, Live, Move, Nothing But Thieves, Perth, Perth Concert Hall, Twin Atlantic
Lightzone Music 