When a band plays a gig at thier hometown, there's deffinitely that special feeling about it. However, when that band happens to be as big as Muse, you know it'll be something huge. For two nights (on the 4th and 5th September), Muse played thier first shows in over a year at The Den in Teignmouth, Devon, which also happens to be where the band first met. They're well renound for thier excellent live performances, and this night was no exception.
Muse - A Seaside Rendezvous, The Den, Teignmouth, Devon - 05.09.09
After a long coach journey (which included meeting a lot of great Muse fans) we finally arrived at our destination, in Teignmouth. Walking through the town, and past the coast to the venue it was clear that the town was buzzing with life and energy. Ea fans swarmed the streets, with local residents setting up stalls with Muse related goods, there was a very festival feel to it all. Once at the venue, The Den, (which was pretty much a small park) we were presented with a very victorian-esque stage with a Punch & Judy feel to it. Very tounge-in-cheek Muse...
First up for the evening was Zane Lowe doing a DJ set to warm up the crowd. He was going for a "Resistance feel" with his first set, and blasted out a very eclectic selection of tracks including The Imigrant Song, Anarchy, Push the Button and many more, all mixed in wierd and wonderful ways. He did a decent job of getting the crowd going. Although it all went back a step when the first support The Sea started thier set. They were a pretty decent act and for two of them they did make a lot of noise. However, it just lacked the momentum to be something brilliant. After a 15 minute wait, if that, the next support were up, Hey Molly. Again, they were alright, but thier set seemed to lack variety, thier songs becoming a tad droll and samey. But then supporting a band like Muse, well known for thier fantastic live performances, must make it quite hard to give all the standards needed. Zane Lowe once again DJed whilst the final preperations were made, with more hits mixed in the oddest ways possible. I have to admit, he's not too bad at DJing, he did a decent job.
At 9pm, Muse finally took the stage, opening with thier new single, Uprising, and the build up of this track actually makes it a brilliant opener. "Good evening'" Matt Bellamy said to a crowd of around 10,000 "it's good to be back!" The momentum didn't stop, as Muse revisted some of the best songs from thier back-catalouge, with Hysteria and New Born just as some highlights, as well as a few tracks of thier previous album, Black Holes and Revelations. Being as this was a special gig, Muse performed Cave from thier debut album, Showbiz, for the first time in 8 years. The band had slightly revamped the song, and this newer style gave it a new breath of life, making it feel like a much darker track. Stockholm Syndrome, Plug in Baby and Knights of Cydonia as the encore were a perfect end to the night.
Throughout the night, it was apparent that Bellamy's vocals had improved dramatically as well, with him being able to sing different notes a lot more flawlessly. Of course, not everythnig was flawless, with Bellamy forgetting the (Collateral Damage) (the cover of Chopin's Nocturne No. 2) section of United State of Eurasia. Of course, this was dealt with in a hilarious way, with Bellamy playing a few notes before suddenly stopping and annoncing, "Sorry, I forgot it", before legging it off stage to grab a guitar, so all is forgiven.
With a new Muse album dawning upon us, it obviously meant one thing; new tracks, and a few were debuted for the first time during the weekend. Early on in the setlist, they performed the new title track Resistance. The song starts off with a haunting atmosphere, leading into a piano section, which blends somewhere between Starlight and Sing for Absolution, then builds up to an absolutely stunning chorus, with huge anthemic qualities. It's a strong contender for the best Muse title track ever as far as I'm concerned. Later on was the debut of Undisclosed Desires. This is a strange track; whilst it sounds nothing like Muse what-so-ever, it actually still feels like them. Think R&B meets Depeche Mode, then you'll get what I mean. A very beautiful and atmospheric track. They ended the main setlist with Unnatural Selection. For those of you looking for Origin of symmetry 2.0, this is it. It starts softly, with only organs and Bellamy's vocals, before the rest of the band kicks in and a heavy riff, very much like New Born, bashes through like a freight train out of control. The middle section slows down to a very dark almost jazz-like hybrid before picking up the pace and ending with a very huge, very Rage Against The Machine style riff.
Overall, an excellent gig, though it felt like it was over way too quickly. Though with a new abum on the way, with tracks that sound very promising, and a headlining tour later this year, it looks as if the best is yet to come.
Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Sunday, 23 August 2009
Ayacon 2009 - Reflections
Ah yes, this time last weekend... it was fantastic! I am, of course, on about Ayacon, an anime convention that I attended with my cousin a few friends. For those of you that don't know what it's all about, here's a quick rundown (those of you that do know, skip the next paragraph.)
Ayacon is a celebration of all things anime (the Japanese cartoons), and is held every two years at Warrick University, lasting for three days, from the Friday till the Sunday. Of course, it's expanded it's horizons and also celebrates other elements of Japanese culture, including; video games, music, the fashion, Japanese traditions, etc. There's a number of events and panels relating to all these elements, some being interactive and heavily involving con-goers. Another tradition at these conventions is cosplay (short for 'costume play'), where con-goers basically dress up as characters from anime/video games/etc. It's all good fun!
Anyway, now that you know (or already knew) what Ayacon is all about, onward to my tale...
Thursday 13th August
After a brief coach journey to Coventry, which was delayed by 30 mins, we made it to our hotel; 'The Hylands Hotel'. First tip for you folks still new to conventions; always get to your accommodation they day before the con if you can, it makes things a hell of a lot easier. I have to say, it was a pretty nice hotel too! Very cosy and relaxing, plus for £20 each a night (£40 per room), it felt like a total steal! We ran into a few other con-goers there too and had a few chats with them, a friendly bunch of people!
A few of our friends had opted for staying on-site at the uni itself, so we caught a taxi up there, as it would have been quite a trek. An issue soon became apparent, the taxi fare was £10 each way, which didn't change for the entirety of the weekend, making our stay even more expensive. It was preferable to walking for miles though! Anyway, we met up with our friends and had food at the uni itself, which was a tad bland, plus the menu was quite limited. Plus a certain staff member was a bit dim, and walked past our table with one of our orders numerous times before we had to interveen in order to get the food at all. Afterwards we chilled and partied with out friends at the uni, plus there was more booze! A lot later on, we caught our taxi back to the hotel, talked to the peeps we met earlier on in the day, before getting some well needed sleep.
Friday 14th August
First day of the Convention proper. My cousin and I got up quite early to see if we could hire a car, as he was 22 and had passed his driving test. However, no luck happened with this, as the minimum age to hire was 23 (and they wouldn't even let him off, as it was his birthday on the Sunday!) The journey was still worthwhile though; we found a ton of shops for supplies, and a pub called 'The Tudor Rose.' I highly recommend it, cheap costing but great tasting food, fantastic staff and good service! After a wander, we headed back to the hotel and changed into our cosplays. I decided on dressing up as Leon S. Kennedy from Resident Evil 2, with my cousin as Wesker from RE4. After the others got into thier cosplays, we taxied it to the uni.
We registered, met with friends, and went to the bar (after seeing a totally awesome Ada cosplay, from Resident Evil 4, and getting a pic with her.) That's pretty much where we stayed all day. As far as first days at conventions go, it was really slow and there wasn't much to do. There were plenty of panels on, but none intersted us. It was still fun though, and the games room, which housed around 10 consoles set up with different party/multiplayer games and 2 DDR machines, opened later on. A few of us attempted a Momoi Haruko (a Japanese Pop singer) concert, but didn't last long, with only one of us staying. She wasn't bad, but her singing was too squeaky and cutesy for my liking, I just wasn't in the mood for that kind of thing that night. We went back to out hotel not too long after that.
Saturday 15th August
We took quick shopping trip round Coventry and, after getting some food from a Cafe, we got ready at the hotel and headed to the uni again. Today I was cosplaying Spirit from Soul Eater. Saturday wasn't a slow day, fortunately, and proved to be quite an interesting day. There were some interesting cosplays and people around, plus the dealers room, selling various items of anime merchandise, was open for buisness. A few of us also went to a Yuri Panel. What's Yuri I hear some of you ask? Well, the word 'Yuri' literally translates to 'Lily' and is a genre of anime that focuses on the love between two women (or more.) This can either be in a romatic or... sexual context. Look, I was just interested, alright? :p Plus there were some interesting facts, Q&A's and a funny comedy skit at the end.
After a quick break, we went to the masquarade, basically a catwalk for the awesome cosplayers, which makes for good photo opportunities. I have to say, there were some amazing cosplays, some of the best I've actually ever seen! Even guest Matt Mercer, co-creator of a web series called 'There Will be Brawl' (http://www.therewillbebrawl.com) and video game voice actor, said that most rivaled the ones seen at conventions in America. I also have to say, Matt Mercer is a legend, he was hilarious! Oh, and there were two breaks during the masqurade. During one, Momoi Haruko showed up again and performed a few songs, though I thought she sounded better during this short set. The second break was a performance from a Taiko Drumming group (more info on that here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiko), and they were absolutely amazing!
After getting (some rather bland) food from the uni bar, and having an awesome lengthy discussion about video games with a friend, we headed to the party. This was no normal party though, the upstairs room hosted Japanese Rock music, with downstairs playing Japanese Pop. Naturally, we all opted for the upstairs room, this was deffinitely a highlight off the convention for me! It's not often you get to go clubbing to Japanese music. Unfortunately, the J-Rock ended early, and everything went a tad trancey and Eurobeat. Not that I have anything against all that, I just prefer my J-Rock! Anyways, after a long day, we headed back to the hotel for rest.
Sunday 16th August
The last day of the con, and I opted for a cosplay I'd kept secret; John Freeman (from popular Half-Life parody 'Half-Life: Full-Life Consequences'.) Anyone who actually recognised it liked it a lot, so it went down quite well! Not bad, considering i sorted it all last minute.
First up, a few of us went to a 'Stage Clear' recording. I hadn't heard of this before the convention, but it's a video games based podcast and they had a panel involving the audience. I have to say, it was a brilliant panel, and they're worth checking out. Check them at http://www.stage-clear.co.uk/. This was deffinitely another highlight, with witty, insightful and interesting banter. My cousin went for a Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament not long after this, although he didn't win, but did quite well!
The final panel(s) started later in the evening, which turned out to be the highlight of the entire convention; Sunday Night Live, where con-goers had prepared a few skits, be it musical, or stand up comedy. The Taiko drummers opened the night again, and put on yet another brilliant performance! Skits included a song about poisoning cat girls, singing, including one from our friend Emy, which was absolutely stunning, and many more. There was one that totally stole the show though. Every year, 'That Man' and a group calling themselves 'Team Giblets' put on a skit which is always spine-breakingly funny. This year was no exception, with the unveiling of 'Resident Fantasy: Aries Rising'. Seriously, you can't make this shit up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW5Re7WSKhs, it was fucking awesome!
Anyway, the con was drawing to a close, so we chowed down on some chinese food pretty hastily, and headed to the last part of the end of con party. It didn't go out with a bang like I thought it would though, but it was ok enough. I also discovered a new flavour of Kopparberg I've never seen or heard of before; Elderflower and Lime. I must remember to hunt that down. We crashed at the uni for a bit for more alcohol consumption and partying before parting ways with our friends and saying our goodbyes.
The next day just involved packing and returning home, so it's not worth noting that down.
Overall, the con was pretty good, I had a great time. Although the lack of J-Rock was dissapointing, plus the interesting events were too spread out. Everything seemed to happen on the last day too, although at least it got peeps in the party mood! Next year will be Amecon again in Leicster (Ayacon and Amecon take it in turns), and I'm deffinitely going to that! Roll on next years convention!! ^^
Oh, I'd also like to thank the comitee and Gophers at Ayacon, and my awesome friends for making this such a fun convention. You guys rock!! ^^
Ayacon is a celebration of all things anime (the Japanese cartoons), and is held every two years at Warrick University, lasting for three days, from the Friday till the Sunday. Of course, it's expanded it's horizons and also celebrates other elements of Japanese culture, including; video games, music, the fashion, Japanese traditions, etc. There's a number of events and panels relating to all these elements, some being interactive and heavily involving con-goers. Another tradition at these conventions is cosplay (short for 'costume play'), where con-goers basically dress up as characters from anime/video games/etc. It's all good fun!
Anyway, now that you know (or already knew) what Ayacon is all about, onward to my tale...
Thursday 13th August
After a brief coach journey to Coventry, which was delayed by 30 mins, we made it to our hotel; 'The Hylands Hotel'. First tip for you folks still new to conventions; always get to your accommodation they day before the con if you can, it makes things a hell of a lot easier. I have to say, it was a pretty nice hotel too! Very cosy and relaxing, plus for £20 each a night (£40 per room), it felt like a total steal! We ran into a few other con-goers there too and had a few chats with them, a friendly bunch of people!
A few of our friends had opted for staying on-site at the uni itself, so we caught a taxi up there, as it would have been quite a trek. An issue soon became apparent, the taxi fare was £10 each way, which didn't change for the entirety of the weekend, making our stay even more expensive. It was preferable to walking for miles though! Anyway, we met up with our friends and had food at the uni itself, which was a tad bland, plus the menu was quite limited. Plus a certain staff member was a bit dim, and walked past our table with one of our orders numerous times before we had to interveen in order to get the food at all. Afterwards we chilled and partied with out friends at the uni, plus there was more booze! A lot later on, we caught our taxi back to the hotel, talked to the peeps we met earlier on in the day, before getting some well needed sleep.
Friday 14th August
First day of the Convention proper. My cousin and I got up quite early to see if we could hire a car, as he was 22 and had passed his driving test. However, no luck happened with this, as the minimum age to hire was 23 (and they wouldn't even let him off, as it was his birthday on the Sunday!) The journey was still worthwhile though; we found a ton of shops for supplies, and a pub called 'The Tudor Rose.' I highly recommend it, cheap costing but great tasting food, fantastic staff and good service! After a wander, we headed back to the hotel and changed into our cosplays. I decided on dressing up as Leon S. Kennedy from Resident Evil 2, with my cousin as Wesker from RE4. After the others got into thier cosplays, we taxied it to the uni.
We registered, met with friends, and went to the bar (after seeing a totally awesome Ada cosplay, from Resident Evil 4, and getting a pic with her.) That's pretty much where we stayed all day. As far as first days at conventions go, it was really slow and there wasn't much to do. There were plenty of panels on, but none intersted us. It was still fun though, and the games room, which housed around 10 consoles set up with different party/multiplayer games and 2 DDR machines, opened later on. A few of us attempted a Momoi Haruko (a Japanese Pop singer) concert, but didn't last long, with only one of us staying. She wasn't bad, but her singing was too squeaky and cutesy for my liking, I just wasn't in the mood for that kind of thing that night. We went back to out hotel not too long after that.
Saturday 15th August
We took quick shopping trip round Coventry and, after getting some food from a Cafe, we got ready at the hotel and headed to the uni again. Today I was cosplaying Spirit from Soul Eater. Saturday wasn't a slow day, fortunately, and proved to be quite an interesting day. There were some interesting cosplays and people around, plus the dealers room, selling various items of anime merchandise, was open for buisness. A few of us also went to a Yuri Panel. What's Yuri I hear some of you ask? Well, the word 'Yuri' literally translates to 'Lily' and is a genre of anime that focuses on the love between two women (or more.) This can either be in a romatic or... sexual context. Look, I was just interested, alright? :p Plus there were some interesting facts, Q&A's and a funny comedy skit at the end.
After a quick break, we went to the masquarade, basically a catwalk for the awesome cosplayers, which makes for good photo opportunities. I have to say, there were some amazing cosplays, some of the best I've actually ever seen! Even guest Matt Mercer, co-creator of a web series called 'There Will be Brawl' (http://www.therewillbebrawl.com) and video game voice actor, said that most rivaled the ones seen at conventions in America. I also have to say, Matt Mercer is a legend, he was hilarious! Oh, and there were two breaks during the masqurade. During one, Momoi Haruko showed up again and performed a few songs, though I thought she sounded better during this short set. The second break was a performance from a Taiko Drumming group (more info on that here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiko), and they were absolutely amazing!
After getting (some rather bland) food from the uni bar, and having an awesome lengthy discussion about video games with a friend, we headed to the party. This was no normal party though, the upstairs room hosted Japanese Rock music, with downstairs playing Japanese Pop. Naturally, we all opted for the upstairs room, this was deffinitely a highlight off the convention for me! It's not often you get to go clubbing to Japanese music. Unfortunately, the J-Rock ended early, and everything went a tad trancey and Eurobeat. Not that I have anything against all that, I just prefer my J-Rock! Anyways, after a long day, we headed back to the hotel for rest.
Sunday 16th August
The last day of the con, and I opted for a cosplay I'd kept secret; John Freeman (from popular Half-Life parody 'Half-Life: Full-Life Consequences'.) Anyone who actually recognised it liked it a lot, so it went down quite well! Not bad, considering i sorted it all last minute.
First up, a few of us went to a 'Stage Clear' recording. I hadn't heard of this before the convention, but it's a video games based podcast and they had a panel involving the audience. I have to say, it was a brilliant panel, and they're worth checking out. Check them at http://www.stage-clear.co.uk/. This was deffinitely another highlight, with witty, insightful and interesting banter. My cousin went for a Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament not long after this, although he didn't win, but did quite well!
The final panel(s) started later in the evening, which turned out to be the highlight of the entire convention; Sunday Night Live, where con-goers had prepared a few skits, be it musical, or stand up comedy. The Taiko drummers opened the night again, and put on yet another brilliant performance! Skits included a song about poisoning cat girls, singing, including one from our friend Emy, which was absolutely stunning, and many more. There was one that totally stole the show though. Every year, 'That Man' and a group calling themselves 'Team Giblets' put on a skit which is always spine-breakingly funny. This year was no exception, with the unveiling of 'Resident Fantasy: Aries Rising'. Seriously, you can't make this shit up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW5Re7WSKhs, it was fucking awesome!
Anyway, the con was drawing to a close, so we chowed down on some chinese food pretty hastily, and headed to the last part of the end of con party. It didn't go out with a bang like I thought it would though, but it was ok enough. I also discovered a new flavour of Kopparberg I've never seen or heard of before; Elderflower and Lime. I must remember to hunt that down. We crashed at the uni for a bit for more alcohol consumption and partying before parting ways with our friends and saying our goodbyes.
The next day just involved packing and returning home, so it's not worth noting that down.
Overall, the con was pretty good, I had a great time. Although the lack of J-Rock was dissapointing, plus the interesting events were too spread out. Everything seemed to happen on the last day too, although at least it got peeps in the party mood! Next year will be Amecon again in Leicster (Ayacon and Amecon take it in turns), and I'm deffinitely going to that! Roll on next years convention!! ^^
Oh, I'd also like to thank the comitee and Gophers at Ayacon, and my awesome friends for making this such a fun convention. You guys rock!! ^^
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Happy Birthday!
So last week was a pretty busy week for me. Firstly, there was paintballing with some friends from work, which was awesome, plus I found paintballs don't actually hurt that much. Oh, and our team won! Then we went on a day trip to Thorpe Park on Wednesday, which was a fantastic day out. I'm deffinitely going there again (soon, I hope), especially for Saw the Ride! Finally, last Thursday, I went to Oxford with some close friends to see one of my favourite bands; The Birthday Massacre.
For those of you that don't know, The Birthday Massacre are an industrial synthrock band, based in Toronto Canada. Thier style is a blend of heavy guitars, euphoric melodies, 80's style industrial with electronic/synth backings that have a strange fairy tale feel to them. Infact, saying thier music is like a twisted fairy tale is a perfect way to describe them, with a blend of sweet innocence and darker more sinister music. It's this blend of styles that gives them thier signature sound, a contrast which works in many strange but wonderful ways.
The Birthday Massacre - Oxford Academy. 09.07.2009
We spent the day looking round Oxford and taking photographs, though there wasn't that much to do, so we headed to the venue reasonably early. There was already a small que forming by the time we got there. After a bit of waiting, the doors opened at 7, and we were in. First complaint here was that the venue was too damn cold! Seriously, someone shouldn't have set the air conditioning so high. After 30 mins or so of Shivering (no pun intended), the first support act were up.
Adrenochrome were the first support of the night, and whilst thier style wasn't bad, they weren't that good. For a start, it was rather heavy and too in-your-face, a style that I feel really conflicts with The Birthday Massacre's sound. Whilst I am into this style of music, it's not what I was there for, plus they lacked variety. It felt like they were playing the same song for 30-45 minutes. They weren't terrible by any means, but they just felt too out of place.
Next up, Raggedy Angry. Thier set started off really promising, with them appearing on stage with crazy costumes, and a sound with heavy guitars, atmospheric synths and a dark vocal style. But once things got into full swing, it all went a tad too emo. Some tracks were alright, a crazy style of synthrock, reminding me a lot of Mindless Self Indulgence. It appeared that lead vocalist had took a few pages out of Jimmy Urine's book, with the zany way he was acting on stage. Covers of This is Halloween (from The Nightmare Before Christmas) and Gangster's Paradise were rather poor though.
After two mediocre support acts, things weren't looking good. A short wait later, and The Birthday Massacre burst onto stage, opening the set with Red Stars. As soon as they started playing, all worries were easily put to rest, as they put on a fantastically energetic show. They were clearly putting a lot of effort in to this (which wasn't really suprising, considering it was thier first UK show in two years.) Lead singer 'Chibi' acted in a way I never expected she would, marching onto stage, saying a cute "Hello!" to the audience, before proceeding to headbang and jump around like crazy. She's easily one of the most hyperactive lead singers I've ever seen live (which is not a bad thing!) Considering how dark thier music can be, her cute lively style actually worked extremely well, and added that extra layer of energy to thier performance. The overall sound was excellent too, the synths provided by keyboardist Owen and drum beats from Rhim never actually clashed, like with some synth bands, Bass from o.e wasn't overpowering and added a great rythmn, and guitaring from m.falcore and lead guitarist Rainbow was imaculate. If you'd closed your eyes, you could have sworn you were listening to the album, but expanded upon. Only once, did the music sound a bit off during thier set, and 'Chibi's' crazy antics with Rainbow led to him nearly falling over on stage, although the latter was quite hilarious. A blend of old and new tracks worked well, ending the set with an encore of Blue and Happy Birthday, a perfect ending to the night.
Overall, it was a pretty good, though if it wasn't for the support acts, it would have been perfect. The Birthday Massacre but on a fantastic show, and it was worth it for them alone! For a mere £8 ticket, this gig still felt like a steal.
My friends and I got some food from a chinese next door to the venue afterwards and came out to find the band talking to fans. Naturally, we ceased the opportunity and got some photographs, signatures and had a chat. I'm not meaning to brag here, I'd just like to thank them for being such great people, they really are such a nice group of people! With such a fantastic performance and them actually bothering to meet thier fans, it shows they geniunely care, which is something I really respect. I find these days that some bands don't put in that extra effort, so kudos to The Birthday Massacre!
Setlist (note: this is from another gig, but it's pretty much the same as the set they played in Oxford)
RED STARS
GOODNIGHT
FALLING DOWN
UNFAMILIAR
PLAY DEAD
WEEKEND
SHIVER
TO DIE FOR
LOVERS END
REMEMBER ME
VIOLET
VIDEO KID
LOOKING GLASS
I THINK WE’RE ALONE NOW
WALKING WITH STRANGERS
----------------------------------------
BLUE
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
For those of you that don't know, The Birthday Massacre are an industrial synthrock band, based in Toronto Canada. Thier style is a blend of heavy guitars, euphoric melodies, 80's style industrial with electronic/synth backings that have a strange fairy tale feel to them. Infact, saying thier music is like a twisted fairy tale is a perfect way to describe them, with a blend of sweet innocence and darker more sinister music. It's this blend of styles that gives them thier signature sound, a contrast which works in many strange but wonderful ways.
The Birthday Massacre - Oxford Academy. 09.07.2009
We spent the day looking round Oxford and taking photographs, though there wasn't that much to do, so we headed to the venue reasonably early. There was already a small que forming by the time we got there. After a bit of waiting, the doors opened at 7, and we were in. First complaint here was that the venue was too damn cold! Seriously, someone shouldn't have set the air conditioning so high. After 30 mins or so of Shivering (no pun intended), the first support act were up.
Adrenochrome were the first support of the night, and whilst thier style wasn't bad, they weren't that good. For a start, it was rather heavy and too in-your-face, a style that I feel really conflicts with The Birthday Massacre's sound. Whilst I am into this style of music, it's not what I was there for, plus they lacked variety. It felt like they were playing the same song for 30-45 minutes. They weren't terrible by any means, but they just felt too out of place.
Next up, Raggedy Angry. Thier set started off really promising, with them appearing on stage with crazy costumes, and a sound with heavy guitars, atmospheric synths and a dark vocal style. But once things got into full swing, it all went a tad too emo. Some tracks were alright, a crazy style of synthrock, reminding me a lot of Mindless Self Indulgence. It appeared that lead vocalist had took a few pages out of Jimmy Urine's book, with the zany way he was acting on stage. Covers of This is Halloween (from The Nightmare Before Christmas) and Gangster's Paradise were rather poor though.
After two mediocre support acts, things weren't looking good. A short wait later, and The Birthday Massacre burst onto stage, opening the set with Red Stars. As soon as they started playing, all worries were easily put to rest, as they put on a fantastically energetic show. They were clearly putting a lot of effort in to this (which wasn't really suprising, considering it was thier first UK show in two years.) Lead singer 'Chibi' acted in a way I never expected she would, marching onto stage, saying a cute "Hello!" to the audience, before proceeding to headbang and jump around like crazy. She's easily one of the most hyperactive lead singers I've ever seen live (which is not a bad thing!) Considering how dark thier music can be, her cute lively style actually worked extremely well, and added that extra layer of energy to thier performance. The overall sound was excellent too, the synths provided by keyboardist Owen and drum beats from Rhim never actually clashed, like with some synth bands, Bass from o.e wasn't overpowering and added a great rythmn, and guitaring from m.falcore and lead guitarist Rainbow was imaculate. If you'd closed your eyes, you could have sworn you were listening to the album, but expanded upon. Only once, did the music sound a bit off during thier set, and 'Chibi's' crazy antics with Rainbow led to him nearly falling over on stage, although the latter was quite hilarious. A blend of old and new tracks worked well, ending the set with an encore of Blue and Happy Birthday, a perfect ending to the night.
Overall, it was a pretty good, though if it wasn't for the support acts, it would have been perfect. The Birthday Massacre but on a fantastic show, and it was worth it for them alone! For a mere £8 ticket, this gig still felt like a steal.
My friends and I got some food from a chinese next door to the venue afterwards and came out to find the band talking to fans. Naturally, we ceased the opportunity and got some photographs, signatures and had a chat. I'm not meaning to brag here, I'd just like to thank them for being such great people, they really are such a nice group of people! With such a fantastic performance and them actually bothering to meet thier fans, it shows they geniunely care, which is something I really respect. I find these days that some bands don't put in that extra effort, so kudos to The Birthday Massacre!
Setlist (note: this is from another gig, but it's pretty much the same as the set they played in Oxford)
RED STARS
GOODNIGHT
FALLING DOWN
UNFAMILIAR
PLAY DEAD
WEEKEND
SHIVER
TO DIE FOR
LOVERS END
REMEMBER ME
VIOLET
VIDEO KID
LOOKING GLASS
I THINK WE’RE ALONE NOW
WALKING WITH STRANGERS
----------------------------------------
BLUE
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
An epic tale from Download 09!
Well, I got back from Download Festival yesterday. It was a crazy weekend, but definitely worth it! A word of warning, this is going to be stupidly long, so be ready to get the coffee out. If it does bother you, then the music reviews start from the Friday (natch). Anyway, onward to my adventure...
Download Festival - Donington Park, (10th, 11th &) 12th-14th June 2009
Wednesday 10th June – Day 1
I met with a couple of mates at Birmingham New Street at around 10:45, optimistic and excited about the festival. We got our tickets, and caught the train to Derby, where we caught a shuttle bus to the festival site.
Of course, getting inside the camping site was no easy task. Being as there were literally thousands of other music fans flocking to the festival, the queuing was horrendous. It took us around 30 minutes to finally get through, and my heavy suitcase certainly didn't help matters (I think I'll either pack less alcohol next year, or steal a shopping trolley... probably the latter.) Anyway, we finally made it to a decent site to set up camp. Well, the others made it first, I was too busy struggling with my case, the weakling I am.
Once the tents were set up, we chilled and the first order of business was a nice cool drink of Kopparberg. We needed it after such a hectic start. And then the rain came. It poured it down all day, and we no other choice but to take shelter in our tents. It was still fun though, and we eventually braved the rain and explored The Village (where the shops and food stalls on the festival site were) for a bit. We relaxed in the tents for a bit before attempting to sleep.
Thursday 11th June – Day 2
After an almost sleepless night, due to some folks next to us partying too hard, we got up at the ungodly hour of 7am.
There wasn't really that much to do, so things got a tad boring after a while. The main village and entire camp site were pretty much a mud-bath after such heavy rain, but thankfully the clouds vanished and the sun made it's first appearance. The weather pretty much remained glorious the duration of the weekend. We also decided that we were running low on booze, so your truly went to meet a friend in a Co-Op within Donnington to get some.
Never again will I venture there! The website had said it was a 10-15 minute walk to there. It's more like a 30-45 minute walk!! At this point, the sun was out, so we had to carry them all the way back to the camp site in the blazing heat. We even lost a couple of cans.
After that we just pretty much stayed in the tent until we decided to sleep.
Friday 12th June – Day 3
Finally, time for the bloody music to start! After a quick morning of getting ready, we headed to the arena for the first time, which proved to be a small trek.
We made our way to the front of the crowd, where I also met some friends from work (who we never saw again after this band), and we saw the opening band, Hollywood Undead. They seemed decent-ish at first, until I realised it was a poor excuse for rap-rock. I wasn't too impressed. After a bit of a venture round we caught Staind's set. They put on a pretty decent show, which was a huge improvement over the previous band. The highlight song for me was Outside, which bought the first sing-a-long of the festival. Next up a few of us legged it to the second stage to catch a band we were all waiting for, Dir en grey. They put on an excellent show, this was definitely one of the best bands of the weekend in my eyes (but then, I'm a big fan, so I'm biased.) Although the 30 minutes went by way too fast, and it was over as soon as it began. We were quite far back during the latter half of Killswitch Engage's performance. But I thought they were still rather good, even though it was an anti-climax for me after Dir en grey. Still, tracks like The end of Heartache and (their cover of) Holy Diver went down well. Limp Bizkit were truly in top form as well, it was fantastic to see them back together. They put on a fantastic show too; Break Stuff, My Generation and Rollin' were excellent live. We only caught the end of Lacuna Coil, although to me they didn't seem to be at thier best. It was a good performance, but something seemed a tad off about the sound. It was good to hear Enojy the Silence, Spellbound and Our Truth again though. We then awaited Korn and bloody hell they were good! Hits such as Freak on a Leash, Blind, Thoughtless and Here to Stay were amazing in the festival atmosphere. Plus Johnathan Davis did one of his trademark bagpipe solos. They ended their set with their cover of Another Brick in the Wall, but in my eyes they should have used that as the penultimate song of the setlist, and kept one of their classics till last. A few of our group weren't that interested in Faith No More, so we caught Meshuggah at the Tuborg stage. I didn't really know much about them, but they did a great performance. It was all very technical though, so some of it went over my head, plus it did feel a little repetitive. They're definitely a band I'll check out in the future though. We went to meet the others and managed to catch the end of Faith No More, who actually seemed pretty good. It was over not long after we got there however, so I couldn't really judge how decent they were.
With the first day over, we headed to our tent to rest for what would be a truly epic day.
Saturday 13th June – Day 4
First act of the day, Tim “Ripper” Owens was quite good, far better than the previous day's openers. His style reminded me of Judas Priest, which became apparent when I found out he'd once been in a Judas Priest tribute band. But his style also reminded me of a band I'm very fond of, Crush 40, so I enjoyed his set. Five Finger Death Punch put on a damn great show too, and truly got the crowd going, finally starting off the first moshpits of the day. They really are a band that are worth checking out live. However, DevilDriver increased the carnage even further. To put it in three words, they were brutal. Plus they managed to create the worlds largest moshpit ever, and that's not even a joke, some folks from Guinness World Records were even there to survey the event. Now, I'm not a big fan of moshpits (and you'll never catch me in one), but seeing the one during DevilDriver's set has to be one of the most epic things I've ever seen. Hatebreed were also really good, even though they weren't as mental as DevilDriver. Plus I was quite far back for the start of the set, as I needed water. I skipped DragonForce, as I'm not a very huge fan. A couple of us opted for Static-X instead. They're a band who I've wanted to see live for quite some time, and I'm pleased to say the wait was worth it; they put on a really good set. It was great to hear songs such as Black and White, I'm with Stupid and Push It live for the first time. No idea why they insisted on downing shots on stage though (but the woman who delivered the goods to them was rather attractive.) Again, it did seem to be over way too fast. Oh, and Wayne Static's hairdo was as mad as usual. Being as DragonFarce (a pun a mate and I penned) were still on the main stage, I stopped for The Answer. It actually made a nice change to listen to something not so heavy, and they were a lot of fun to watch. They seemed like a genuinely friendly bunch of Irish folk too! I headed back to the main stage afterwards, and that's where I stayed for the rest of the evening. I did manage to get a decent spot for Pendulum, but unfortunately, I wasn't really that impressed with their show. Don't get me wrong, they were good, and I enjoyed hearing Propane Nightmares, Blood Sugar and many of their other hits live, but something was missing. Plus they felt out of place, being shoved on the main stage between DragonForce and Manson. I don't get why there was a moshpit to this either. They were the biggest disappointment for me. I managed to get quite near the front after this, which was a great spot of luck! Marilyn Manson was up next, and I really enjoyed his show. There's been a ton of complaints about how terrible he was, but I don't get why. Maybe people thought his songs were too slow, perhaps it was what he played or maybe it was his attitude. But I felt it all worked rather well, the mix of old and new was a good blend. I guess his style was lost on some people within a festival atmosphere. Highlights for me were Disposable Teens, The Dope Show and, his encore, The Beautiful People. The last band of the day were the main headliners of the weekend, Spliknot. The term 'Oh. My. God.' springs to mind when I think back to their set, it was absolutely phenomenal! It was a huge non-stop frenzy, with the band blasting out hits such as Wait and Bleed, Before I Forget, Left Behind Duality and People = Shit. It was the perfect set for a Slipknot show, it was completely flawless (the bit where Chris lost his drum and stared at the floor for ages was obviously scripted by the way.) They did not only put on an amazing set, they put on an incredible show. Truly a landmark moment in Download Festival history.
I headed back to the tent to meet the others, and the party started. After Slipknot's set we were all on a huge high, and were finally in the festival mood. Many hilarious and memorable moments ensued, and we met so many great people! We went to bed at around 7 in the morning.
Sunday 14th June – Day 5
The final day of music at the event and, because of the partying from earlier, we ended up getting late and I sadly missed Stone Gods. Still, the day would prove to be just as epic as the last...
We were told to catch a band called Suicide Silence, due to their brutality, so we did... and bloody hell they were brutal! Whilst some of the lead singer's vocals weren't that great in my opinion (he screamed some lyrics, and roared others), it was a good overall sounding set. Once they finished, it was time to head to the main stage, but not before heading to the EA hub. It seemed quite good in there, with many games on display, including the upcoming Brütal Legend, which looks fantastic. We didn't stay too long, being as this was a MUSIC festival. Back at the main stage, Black Stone Cherry were on. They put on a great set, and seem like a decent heavy rock band. I didn't really know any of the songs (bar one), but they're another band I saw that are definitely worth checking out. Once thier set finish, it was as if I'd been transported back in time, due to the strong lineup of old-school rock bands. Journey were on next, and they were great. The show was fantastic, and their new vocalist, Arnel Pineda fitted in perfectly. Of course, there was only one way to end their show, with Any Way You Want It. We met with my mate's uncle and his friend after this, who seemed quite cool. I liked Dream Theater too, but started to feel ill (probably due to lack of food plus the heat) so couldn't appreciate them fully. Once that subsided though, it was fantastic. The technical aspects of their music is simply genius. They're really worth looking up on. ZZ Top put on a good set too, it was amazing how loud the trio could actually get, plus they were still in great form musically. Le Grange, Give Me All Your Lovin' and many other classics were a joy to see live. We got quite near the front for Whitesnake and it was great to see them. The only downside of the set was the fact that a solo battle between the two guitarists took far too long, but the rest was quite flawless. David Coverdale's communication with the crowd was pretty good too, with some comical statements. They ended their performance with Here I go Again, leading to another epic sing-a-long. Def Leppard ended the weekend with a huge bang. They put on a flawless show, it was incredible! There was even a tribute to drummer Rick Allen; 23 years ago the band's comeback gig was at the very same venue, after he had lost his arm and re-learned drums. The entire crowd cheered and applauded Allen, who stood up from behind his drums and raised his arm before wiping the tears from his eyes. This was truly the most emotional moment of the entire festival (even I was almost in tears, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.) They played a ton of classics, starting with Rocket and ending the set with Let's Get Rocked. All were performed flawlessly. A truly legendary performance. It was also noted that the official Download website was only streaming two of their songs, and a ton of extra cameras were set up, which leads me to believe that a live DVD of the gig is on the way.
We returned to the tent on another high. However, it was time for us to go, as we wanted to miss out on the rush later on. Plus the mayhem had already started with people setting fire to their tents. Kudos to the security, who put most of the fires out quite quickly though! We packed our stuff, packed up the tents and left at around 2am. After spending hours in the train station we finally headed home. Thus came the end of our adventure
Final thoughts
There may have been some hectic moments, but I don't regret going to Download at all. It was a truly amazing festival. Plus with such a strong line up, and some bands doing their best ever performances there, this event was not only the best Download ever (as many have said), but a music festival that will go down in music history. It's clear why it won best music event in the Metal Hammer awards, less than 24 hours after it finished.
There's one statement I heard that still echoes in my mind though. The words of Chris Robertson, frontman of Black Stone Cherry. And it goes something like this:
“Seeing so many people here at this event is proof that Rock 'n' Roll will never die.”
Amen to that is all I can say.
Download Festival - Donington Park, (10th, 11th &) 12th-14th June 2009
Wednesday 10th June – Day 1
I met with a couple of mates at Birmingham New Street at around 10:45, optimistic and excited about the festival. We got our tickets, and caught the train to Derby, where we caught a shuttle bus to the festival site.
Of course, getting inside the camping site was no easy task. Being as there were literally thousands of other music fans flocking to the festival, the queuing was horrendous. It took us around 30 minutes to finally get through, and my heavy suitcase certainly didn't help matters (I think I'll either pack less alcohol next year, or steal a shopping trolley... probably the latter.) Anyway, we finally made it to a decent site to set up camp. Well, the others made it first, I was too busy struggling with my case, the weakling I am.
Once the tents were set up, we chilled and the first order of business was a nice cool drink of Kopparberg. We needed it after such a hectic start. And then the rain came. It poured it down all day, and we no other choice but to take shelter in our tents. It was still fun though, and we eventually braved the rain and explored The Village (where the shops and food stalls on the festival site were) for a bit. We relaxed in the tents for a bit before attempting to sleep.
Thursday 11th June – Day 2
After an almost sleepless night, due to some folks next to us partying too hard, we got up at the ungodly hour of 7am.
There wasn't really that much to do, so things got a tad boring after a while. The main village and entire camp site were pretty much a mud-bath after such heavy rain, but thankfully the clouds vanished and the sun made it's first appearance. The weather pretty much remained glorious the duration of the weekend. We also decided that we were running low on booze, so your truly went to meet a friend in a Co-Op within Donnington to get some.
Never again will I venture there! The website had said it was a 10-15 minute walk to there. It's more like a 30-45 minute walk!! At this point, the sun was out, so we had to carry them all the way back to the camp site in the blazing heat. We even lost a couple of cans.
After that we just pretty much stayed in the tent until we decided to sleep.
Friday 12th June – Day 3
Finally, time for the bloody music to start! After a quick morning of getting ready, we headed to the arena for the first time, which proved to be a small trek.
We made our way to the front of the crowd, where I also met some friends from work (who we never saw again after this band), and we saw the opening band, Hollywood Undead. They seemed decent-ish at first, until I realised it was a poor excuse for rap-rock. I wasn't too impressed. After a bit of a venture round we caught Staind's set. They put on a pretty decent show, which was a huge improvement over the previous band. The highlight song for me was Outside, which bought the first sing-a-long of the festival. Next up a few of us legged it to the second stage to catch a band we were all waiting for, Dir en grey. They put on an excellent show, this was definitely one of the best bands of the weekend in my eyes (but then, I'm a big fan, so I'm biased.) Although the 30 minutes went by way too fast, and it was over as soon as it began. We were quite far back during the latter half of Killswitch Engage's performance. But I thought they were still rather good, even though it was an anti-climax for me after Dir en grey. Still, tracks like The end of Heartache and (their cover of) Holy Diver went down well. Limp Bizkit were truly in top form as well, it was fantastic to see them back together. They put on a fantastic show too; Break Stuff, My Generation and Rollin' were excellent live. We only caught the end of Lacuna Coil, although to me they didn't seem to be at thier best. It was a good performance, but something seemed a tad off about the sound. It was good to hear Enojy the Silence, Spellbound and Our Truth again though. We then awaited Korn and bloody hell they were good! Hits such as Freak on a Leash, Blind, Thoughtless and Here to Stay were amazing in the festival atmosphere. Plus Johnathan Davis did one of his trademark bagpipe solos. They ended their set with their cover of Another Brick in the Wall, but in my eyes they should have used that as the penultimate song of the setlist, and kept one of their classics till last. A few of our group weren't that interested in Faith No More, so we caught Meshuggah at the Tuborg stage. I didn't really know much about them, but they did a great performance. It was all very technical though, so some of it went over my head, plus it did feel a little repetitive. They're definitely a band I'll check out in the future though. We went to meet the others and managed to catch the end of Faith No More, who actually seemed pretty good. It was over not long after we got there however, so I couldn't really judge how decent they were.
With the first day over, we headed to our tent to rest for what would be a truly epic day.
Saturday 13th June – Day 4
First act of the day, Tim “Ripper” Owens was quite good, far better than the previous day's openers. His style reminded me of Judas Priest, which became apparent when I found out he'd once been in a Judas Priest tribute band. But his style also reminded me of a band I'm very fond of, Crush 40, so I enjoyed his set. Five Finger Death Punch put on a damn great show too, and truly got the crowd going, finally starting off the first moshpits of the day. They really are a band that are worth checking out live. However, DevilDriver increased the carnage even further. To put it in three words, they were brutal. Plus they managed to create the worlds largest moshpit ever, and that's not even a joke, some folks from Guinness World Records were even there to survey the event. Now, I'm not a big fan of moshpits (and you'll never catch me in one), but seeing the one during DevilDriver's set has to be one of the most epic things I've ever seen. Hatebreed were also really good, even though they weren't as mental as DevilDriver. Plus I was quite far back for the start of the set, as I needed water. I skipped DragonForce, as I'm not a very huge fan. A couple of us opted for Static-X instead. They're a band who I've wanted to see live for quite some time, and I'm pleased to say the wait was worth it; they put on a really good set. It was great to hear songs such as Black and White, I'm with Stupid and Push It live for the first time. No idea why they insisted on downing shots on stage though (but the woman who delivered the goods to them was rather attractive.) Again, it did seem to be over way too fast. Oh, and Wayne Static's hairdo was as mad as usual. Being as DragonFarce (a pun a mate and I penned) were still on the main stage, I stopped for The Answer. It actually made a nice change to listen to something not so heavy, and they were a lot of fun to watch. They seemed like a genuinely friendly bunch of Irish folk too! I headed back to the main stage afterwards, and that's where I stayed for the rest of the evening. I did manage to get a decent spot for Pendulum, but unfortunately, I wasn't really that impressed with their show. Don't get me wrong, they were good, and I enjoyed hearing Propane Nightmares, Blood Sugar and many of their other hits live, but something was missing. Plus they felt out of place, being shoved on the main stage between DragonForce and Manson. I don't get why there was a moshpit to this either. They were the biggest disappointment for me. I managed to get quite near the front after this, which was a great spot of luck! Marilyn Manson was up next, and I really enjoyed his show. There's been a ton of complaints about how terrible he was, but I don't get why. Maybe people thought his songs were too slow, perhaps it was what he played or maybe it was his attitude. But I felt it all worked rather well, the mix of old and new was a good blend. I guess his style was lost on some people within a festival atmosphere. Highlights for me were Disposable Teens, The Dope Show and, his encore, The Beautiful People. The last band of the day were the main headliners of the weekend, Spliknot. The term 'Oh. My. God.' springs to mind when I think back to their set, it was absolutely phenomenal! It was a huge non-stop frenzy, with the band blasting out hits such as Wait and Bleed, Before I Forget, Left Behind Duality and People = Shit. It was the perfect set for a Slipknot show, it was completely flawless (the bit where Chris lost his drum and stared at the floor for ages was obviously scripted by the way.) They did not only put on an amazing set, they put on an incredible show. Truly a landmark moment in Download Festival history.
I headed back to the tent to meet the others, and the party started. After Slipknot's set we were all on a huge high, and were finally in the festival mood. Many hilarious and memorable moments ensued, and we met so many great people! We went to bed at around 7 in the morning.
Sunday 14th June – Day 5
The final day of music at the event and, because of the partying from earlier, we ended up getting late and I sadly missed Stone Gods. Still, the day would prove to be just as epic as the last...
We were told to catch a band called Suicide Silence, due to their brutality, so we did... and bloody hell they were brutal! Whilst some of the lead singer's vocals weren't that great in my opinion (he screamed some lyrics, and roared others), it was a good overall sounding set. Once they finished, it was time to head to the main stage, but not before heading to the EA hub. It seemed quite good in there, with many games on display, including the upcoming Brütal Legend, which looks fantastic. We didn't stay too long, being as this was a MUSIC festival. Back at the main stage, Black Stone Cherry were on. They put on a great set, and seem like a decent heavy rock band. I didn't really know any of the songs (bar one), but they're another band I saw that are definitely worth checking out. Once thier set finish, it was as if I'd been transported back in time, due to the strong lineup of old-school rock bands. Journey were on next, and they were great. The show was fantastic, and their new vocalist, Arnel Pineda fitted in perfectly. Of course, there was only one way to end their show, with Any Way You Want It. We met with my mate's uncle and his friend after this, who seemed quite cool. I liked Dream Theater too, but started to feel ill (probably due to lack of food plus the heat) so couldn't appreciate them fully. Once that subsided though, it was fantastic. The technical aspects of their music is simply genius. They're really worth looking up on. ZZ Top put on a good set too, it was amazing how loud the trio could actually get, plus they were still in great form musically. Le Grange, Give Me All Your Lovin' and many other classics were a joy to see live. We got quite near the front for Whitesnake and it was great to see them. The only downside of the set was the fact that a solo battle between the two guitarists took far too long, but the rest was quite flawless. David Coverdale's communication with the crowd was pretty good too, with some comical statements. They ended their performance with Here I go Again, leading to another epic sing-a-long. Def Leppard ended the weekend with a huge bang. They put on a flawless show, it was incredible! There was even a tribute to drummer Rick Allen; 23 years ago the band's comeback gig was at the very same venue, after he had lost his arm and re-learned drums. The entire crowd cheered and applauded Allen, who stood up from behind his drums and raised his arm before wiping the tears from his eyes. This was truly the most emotional moment of the entire festival (even I was almost in tears, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.) They played a ton of classics, starting with Rocket and ending the set with Let's Get Rocked. All were performed flawlessly. A truly legendary performance. It was also noted that the official Download website was only streaming two of their songs, and a ton of extra cameras were set up, which leads me to believe that a live DVD of the gig is on the way.
We returned to the tent on another high. However, it was time for us to go, as we wanted to miss out on the rush later on. Plus the mayhem had already started with people setting fire to their tents. Kudos to the security, who put most of the fires out quite quickly though! We packed our stuff, packed up the tents and left at around 2am. After spending hours in the train station we finally headed home. Thus came the end of our adventure
Final thoughts
There may have been some hectic moments, but I don't regret going to Download at all. It was a truly amazing festival. Plus with such a strong line up, and some bands doing their best ever performances there, this event was not only the best Download ever (as many have said), but a music festival that will go down in music history. It's clear why it won best music event in the Metal Hammer awards, less than 24 hours after it finished.
There's one statement I heard that still echoes in my mind though. The words of Chris Robertson, frontman of Black Stone Cherry. And it goes something like this:
“Seeing so many people here at this event is proof that Rock 'n' Roll will never die.”
Amen to that is all I can say.
Monday, 8 June 2009
They finally got me...
Things have been a bit quiet recently, so apologies for not updating. However, there is one big thing that's coming; Download Festival.
Naturally, I'll be there (as anyone who knows me personally already realises by now, as I've told them all about 400 times), and I'll be making a huge blog post of what I can remember once I'm back . Of course, I'll probably forget a few details, due to so much going on, booze, etc. Hey, I'm only human after all! Though you can expect it to be a mad tale of what it's like camping with a couple of thousand other people. Oh, and there'll be the music of course, you can't forget about the music.
However, by popular demand, I now have Twitter! So I'll send a few updates to my profile there whilst I'm actually at the event. So set your bookmarks to www.twitter.com/CoolFunkMan folks, and enjoy the ride!
Now, I used to be against Twitter, as I wasn't sure what it was about. Whilst I have a vague idea of it's principles, it doesn't actually seem that bad. Plus I had people nagging at me to join. Don't worry about this blog though ladies and gents, it's not going to be neglected... Not that it was hugely active in the first place. Seriously though, I can't convey an engrossing read in a mere 140 characters, so I'll always be updating here... as long as I have something interesting on my mind, or an interesting event happening.
Until next time folks!
EDIT: I've also added a Twitter widget to the right, so that you can see some updates from here. >>>
Naturally, I'll be there (as anyone who knows me personally already realises by now, as I've told them all about 400 times), and I'll be making a huge blog post of what I can remember once I'm back . Of course, I'll probably forget a few details, due to so much going on, booze, etc. Hey, I'm only human after all! Though you can expect it to be a mad tale of what it's like camping with a couple of thousand other people. Oh, and there'll be the music of course, you can't forget about the music.
However, by popular demand, I now have Twitter! So I'll send a few updates to my profile there whilst I'm actually at the event. So set your bookmarks to www.twitter.com/CoolFunkMan folks, and enjoy the ride!
Now, I used to be against Twitter, as I wasn't sure what it was about. Whilst I have a vague idea of it's principles, it doesn't actually seem that bad. Plus I had people nagging at me to join. Don't worry about this blog though ladies and gents, it's not going to be neglected... Not that it was hugely active in the first place. Seriously though, I can't convey an engrossing read in a mere 140 characters, so I'll always be updating here... as long as I have something interesting on my mind, or an interesting event happening.
Until next time folks!
EDIT: I've also added a Twitter widget to the right, so that you can see some updates from here. >>>
Monday, 1 June 2009
"This shit, this shit, this shit will fuck you up!"
So last Tuesday I had the pleasure of seeing Combichrist live. You wouldn't think that an RnB club would be a suitable venue for a band that classifies themselves as elctro-industrial, but that night, it was the perfect venue for them.
Combichrist - The Robin 2, Bilston. 26.05.2009
First of the many support acts was DeviantUK. Now, I don't mind them, I think they're a good band, but there was nothing very special about thier performance. Maybe it was because they did a better job during the Legion:Gothica event at Eddies from earlier this year. They just don't really feel like the type of band to warm up a crowd, though they still put on a decent show.
Next up, Uberbyte. There was much better crowd interaction this time round, and even some comical moments (the lead singer decided that "Bilston" didn't sound rock enough, so he called us "Cleveland", amongst other locales. But that's something you probably had to be there for.) The transition between male and female vocalists interested me, and they did a fine job, even if there were a few technical issues to begin with. Thier style and attitude went down quite well, a pretty good warm up job then. Oh, and did I mention that they were cosplaying D-Gray Man? Extra brownie points from me for that one!
The final support of the night was Aesthetic Perfection. They had a much heavier style than the other bands, which fitted in with the Combichrist style perfectly. It was an excellent performance from this act. I have to say, this was my favourite of all the supports, but then AP were the last support on, and the atmosphere had been set by then, so maybe that's an unfair judgement.
Finally, the main act, Combichrist, who put on an incredible set, throwing out tracks at a blisteringly amazing pace. It was non-stop action all the way through, they litteraly threw the crowd into a frenzy of raving/dancing/whatever you like to call it. Crowd interaction was spot on. They played tracks from thier latest album, Today We Are All Demons to thier greatest hits so far, with perfect pacing and execution. Highlight tracks of the night were deffinitely Electrohead, Sent to Destroy, I want Your Blood, and, the end of the main set; Shut up and Swallow. Then the encore tracks This Shit Will Fuck You Up (with the lead singer getting the entire crowd chanting the lyrics, which is the origin on this blog title) and What the Fuck is Wrong With You were a perfect climax for the night.
Overall, a fantastic gig, which actually suprised me. I knew Combichrist would put on a decent show, but I never expected it to be this good! The slew of great support acts really helped too, and made it well worth the money (girugämesh could learn a lot from this.) This was deffinitely one of the best gigs of 2009 so far.
Combichrist - The Robin 2, Bilston. 26.05.2009
First of the many support acts was DeviantUK. Now, I don't mind them, I think they're a good band, but there was nothing very special about thier performance. Maybe it was because they did a better job during the Legion:Gothica event at Eddies from earlier this year. They just don't really feel like the type of band to warm up a crowd, though they still put on a decent show.
Next up, Uberbyte. There was much better crowd interaction this time round, and even some comical moments (the lead singer decided that "Bilston" didn't sound rock enough, so he called us "Cleveland", amongst other locales. But that's something you probably had to be there for.) The transition between male and female vocalists interested me, and they did a fine job, even if there were a few technical issues to begin with. Thier style and attitude went down quite well, a pretty good warm up job then. Oh, and did I mention that they were cosplaying D-Gray Man? Extra brownie points from me for that one!
The final support of the night was Aesthetic Perfection. They had a much heavier style than the other bands, which fitted in with the Combichrist style perfectly. It was an excellent performance from this act. I have to say, this was my favourite of all the supports, but then AP were the last support on, and the atmosphere had been set by then, so maybe that's an unfair judgement.
Finally, the main act, Combichrist, who put on an incredible set, throwing out tracks at a blisteringly amazing pace. It was non-stop action all the way through, they litteraly threw the crowd into a frenzy of raving/dancing/whatever you like to call it. Crowd interaction was spot on. They played tracks from thier latest album, Today We Are All Demons to thier greatest hits so far, with perfect pacing and execution. Highlight tracks of the night were deffinitely Electrohead, Sent to Destroy, I want Your Blood, and, the end of the main set; Shut up and Swallow. Then the encore tracks This Shit Will Fuck You Up (with the lead singer getting the entire crowd chanting the lyrics, which is the origin on this blog title) and What the Fuck is Wrong With You were a perfect climax for the night.
Overall, a fantastic gig, which actually suprised me. I knew Combichrist would put on a decent show, but I never expected it to be this good! The slew of great support acts really helped too, and made it well worth the money (girugämesh could learn a lot from this.) This was deffinitely one of the best gigs of 2009 so far.
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
"There's a pileup of lesbians on the motorway!"
I'm really no good at updating this blog am I? I was supposed to update this quite a while back now, but due being so stupidly busy (and having stupidly late nights) the past week or so, I haven't got round to it. So now, here's a rundown of when I went to London... over a week ago. I'll get to the subject of the blog title in a bit.
So yes, on 16th May I buggered off to London with some mates to see a j-rock band called girugämesh. First though, and the most obvious stop for me in London, was a quick trip to Camden Town. Now, if you're into rock or alternative styles, then Camden is the place for you. Peronally, it's my favourite part of London, there's so much to see and buy. My wallet now weeps. Naturally, we made a stop into a shop Called Sai Sai. It sells clothes based on the Visual Kei style, a form of Japanese music, blended with a unique fashion style (that's sort of gothy, and heavy on image.) Needless to say, I spent a ton there. They also have a shop over the road from there, the name of which escapes me now, but check them out if you're into that kind of thing!
After a quick drink, we headed to Cyberdog. It's more heavily based around fashion relating to EBM music, Cyber Goth and raving, butI'd deffinitely recommend a visit purely for the experience. As you walk in, there's two suspended platforms with two dancers dancing in them. An escolator trip downstairs, and it might as well be a nightclub that sells clothes/fashion accessories, seriously! UV lighting is used throughout, giving it a high atmopshere, and there's EBM music blasting out the speakers, with a DJ plahing the tracks. Did I mention there's a few pannels that light up behind them? It's brilliant! The prices were a bit ott though, so we left without purchasing much.
The gig was slowly approaching, so we decided to get some food and have a quick chill out. We found an excellent Chinese Cafe, which I can't remember the name of, which is a shame, as I'd highly recommend it. I had a really nice cocktail that had about three types of alcohol in it, and strawberry. And we all shared a few courses. If you're ever in Camden, it's just past the main market, heading away from the underground station. After paying, we headed to the gig.
girugämesh - Islington Academy, London. 16.05.2009
We made it in good time, a few minutes after we arrived, the band came on. There was no support, or any of that nonsense, so it ws straight to the action! We were quite far back, but it was a smallish venue, so that was fair enough.
It has to be said, they put on an excellent show! The crowd was intense, they were going absolutely mental! The band really kept the crowd going, and the action only slowed down during the slower, more melodic songs. For some reason, they played a few of these slower songs later on, which seemed a tad random, surely mixing the setlist up a bit would have worked better? There were a mix of tracks ranging from thier newer material, to a few older ones. Even if things got a little sluggish, they still had the majority of the crowd under thier control.
However, there was one huge problem, the gig finished way to early. They arrived on stage sometime after 7, and the set ended abnormally early, just before 8.30. They could have easily squeezed in about 4/5 more tracks, and that would have been prerfect. The crew spent a while setting up for the encore too... which ended up being a mere one song. Don't get me wrong, it was still a great show, just at a ticket price of £20, you'd expect a tad more for your money.
Setist
INTRO
Break Down
ULTIMATE
FREAKS
Angry Juice
ALIVE
CRAZY-FLAG
Dance Rock Night
Shadan
Enishi
Crime -tsumi
Gamble
DEAD WORLD
puzzleishtar
Patchwork
Vermillion
Smash!!
evolution
--------------
shining
Ross Noble - Things. Birmingham Hippodrome 24.05.2009
If you know Ross Noble, then the reason for the blog title is clear, he is completely out of his mind, but in a hilariously good way! This is easily one of his best tours, he had a lot of great material to work with, all executed in Ross Noble perfection; he had evryone in stiches, me included. There's way too many things (no pun intended) to list that he covered, but trust me, it was all fantastic. It was great to hear he now has a daughter (and all the hilarious shenanigans to do with looking after her), so conradulations to him and his wife! Sadly, his house burnt down, but, as he put it, he's now "techincally married to a homeless person", so at least he could joke about it. Fair play to the man. If you're seeing him on tour at any point, you're in for a treat! If not, then just get the Things DVD when it's eventually released. It's worth it, trust me.
So yes, on 16th May I buggered off to London with some mates to see a j-rock band called girugämesh. First though, and the most obvious stop for me in London, was a quick trip to Camden Town. Now, if you're into rock or alternative styles, then Camden is the place for you. Peronally, it's my favourite part of London, there's so much to see and buy. My wallet now weeps. Naturally, we made a stop into a shop Called Sai Sai. It sells clothes based on the Visual Kei style, a form of Japanese music, blended with a unique fashion style (that's sort of gothy, and heavy on image.) Needless to say, I spent a ton there. They also have a shop over the road from there, the name of which escapes me now, but check them out if you're into that kind of thing!
After a quick drink, we headed to Cyberdog. It's more heavily based around fashion relating to EBM music, Cyber Goth and raving, butI'd deffinitely recommend a visit purely for the experience. As you walk in, there's two suspended platforms with two dancers dancing in them. An escolator trip downstairs, and it might as well be a nightclub that sells clothes/fashion accessories, seriously! UV lighting is used throughout, giving it a high atmopshere, and there's EBM music blasting out the speakers, with a DJ plahing the tracks. Did I mention there's a few pannels that light up behind them? It's brilliant! The prices were a bit ott though, so we left without purchasing much.
The gig was slowly approaching, so we decided to get some food and have a quick chill out. We found an excellent Chinese Cafe, which I can't remember the name of, which is a shame, as I'd highly recommend it. I had a really nice cocktail that had about three types of alcohol in it, and strawberry. And we all shared a few courses. If you're ever in Camden, it's just past the main market, heading away from the underground station. After paying, we headed to the gig.
girugämesh - Islington Academy, London. 16.05.2009
We made it in good time, a few minutes after we arrived, the band came on. There was no support, or any of that nonsense, so it ws straight to the action! We were quite far back, but it was a smallish venue, so that was fair enough.
It has to be said, they put on an excellent show! The crowd was intense, they were going absolutely mental! The band really kept the crowd going, and the action only slowed down during the slower, more melodic songs. For some reason, they played a few of these slower songs later on, which seemed a tad random, surely mixing the setlist up a bit would have worked better? There were a mix of tracks ranging from thier newer material, to a few older ones. Even if things got a little sluggish, they still had the majority of the crowd under thier control.
However, there was one huge problem, the gig finished way to early. They arrived on stage sometime after 7, and the set ended abnormally early, just before 8.30. They could have easily squeezed in about 4/5 more tracks, and that would have been prerfect. The crew spent a while setting up for the encore too... which ended up being a mere one song. Don't get me wrong, it was still a great show, just at a ticket price of £20, you'd expect a tad more for your money.
Setist
INTRO
Break Down
ULTIMATE
FREAKS
Angry Juice
ALIVE
CRAZY-FLAG
Dance Rock Night
Shadan
Enishi
Crime -tsumi
Gamble
DEAD WORLD
puzzleishtar
Patchwork
Vermillion
Smash!!
evolution
--------------
shining
Ross Noble - Things. Birmingham Hippodrome 24.05.2009
If you know Ross Noble, then the reason for the blog title is clear, he is completely out of his mind, but in a hilariously good way! This is easily one of his best tours, he had a lot of great material to work with, all executed in Ross Noble perfection; he had evryone in stiches, me included. There's way too many things (no pun intended) to list that he covered, but trust me, it was all fantastic. It was great to hear he now has a daughter (and all the hilarious shenanigans to do with looking after her), so conradulations to him and his wife! Sadly, his house burnt down, but, as he put it, he's now "techincally married to a homeless person", so at least he could joke about it. Fair play to the man. If you're seeing him on tour at any point, you're in for a treat! If not, then just get the Things DVD when it's eventually released. It's worth it, trust me.
Saturday, 9 May 2009
Zombies ate my... Garden?
Time for a very gaming related blog entry methinks...
Before talking about the main topic today, there's a sad issue in the gaming world at the moment; the closure of 3D Realms. They opened in 1987, and developed one of the most iconic characters in video gaming history; Duke Nukem. However, the production of thier last game, Duke Nukem Forever took 13 years, and simply cost them too much. It never saw the light of day. It's truly sad to see an old development studio go down, and a project that's matured for well over a decade go down with them. Of course, the publisher, 2K games still hold the rights to it, so they might pass it on to one of thier other developers to finish off. They're idiots if they don't tbh, Duke is a franchise with a big following. To be fair, 3D Realms should have got thier arses into gear a lot faster, so I guess they had it coming to them! Still sucks to see them go though.
Right, now onto the main topic, a little game I've been playing and couldn't resist purchasing it. the game? Plants Vs. Zombies!
The basic concept is that you have a horde of zombies heading towards your house and you have to stop them by planting flowers and all manner of garden life on your lawn. Some take on offensive roles, whilst others are used for defence. These range from various types of 'Pea Shooters', that (as the name suggests) fire peas out of thier mouths, to the explosive 'Cherry Bomb' and the aptly named 'Wal-Nut' that acts as a barricade. Plants need points in the form of 'sun power' to be planted. In day time levels sun falls from the sky, but there's also sunflowers that generate thier own sun, clicking the 'sun' adds to your points. With that, and all the plants that need placing, this game quickly becomes a real cick-fest.
There's also many zombie types that you'll encounter. As well as normal zombies, there's zombies with traffic cones on thier heads (for extra defence), faster Olympic running zombies that can pole-vault over the first plants they come accross and zombie divers that can swim to your house via your pool later on.
The game boasts 26 types of zombies and 49 plant types. Mixing and matching the correct plants for each round makes this a very tactical challange. Also, with many upgrades available, via cash collected in the levels, there's a lot of insentive to play numerous times to get everything.
Yes, it is as insane as it sounds, developers Pop Cap must have been smoking a certain type of plant whilst developing this. It's the most bizzare game I've had the pleasure of playing for a long time. Although it's obviously a desktop tower defence style game, which there are many of, it's presented with such finesse that it feels fresh. It's colourful, bright and... fun! Yes, you know, fun? Too many games take themselves way to seriously these days, so it's really good to see a game that dares to be silly. Infact, it's silly to the point where it not only crosses the line, but it sprints past it and disappears into the horizon.
My only complaint is that it's a tad easy, but then I'm not even half way through the 50 levels at the moment, so that could change. Plus there's a puzzle mode and mini-games to unlock, which is enough to keep anyone entertained for a while. And the best part? You can get this game for £6.99 via Steam. That price is such a steal for a great game like this.
If you're looking for some silly fun then this is your game. Pop Cap are well known for thier other titles, Peggle and Bejewled, but this game is truly thier crowning moment. This boasts a huge ammount of originality, and is extremely addictive. I'll deffinitely be playing this for months to come!
Steam Demo: http://store.steampowered.com/app/3592/
Buy, Via Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/3590/
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
"And pigs would fly..."
Woah, it's been a week since I last updated this blog! I really need to get my arse into gear. Naturally, there's not better way to return to a blog than with a rant, oh yes! I've arrived to this certain debate pretty late, but I've been trying to ignore it. However, its pissed me off too much now, so here we go folks!
Unless you've been living under a rock, or you've been avoiding the news, you might not know that there's a "crisis" going on at the moment. Then again, you probably have heard about it, because everyone and thier bloody dog's heard about this! I'm, of course, talking about this so-called Swine Flu pandemic. Yes, we've all been told to stay alert, they're going to leaflet bomb us, and if we don't comply we're apparently all going to die. What a load of crap.
To date there's been about, what, 28 confirmed cases in the UK? That's nothing! I'd only start panicing if the figures reach quad digits. Yes, it is bad that this so-called virus is airborne, but there's no need to start repenting and calling it the aporkalypse (sorry) just yet. I agree it could spread, which would be bad news, but see that key word, could? If you've got the bloody flu, of course you're going to stay at home! Normal flu is bad enough anyway and can be just as contagious. The government was right to warn people; but leaflet bombing us, the constant warnings and, naturally, the press being all over it? Bloody hell, chill out people! It's being contained well enough at the moment, we're more likely to choke on peanuts than catch this virus! Oh, and there are people surviving it, so it's not as fatal as it's being made out to be.
Of course, the government don't want it spreading, but it's obvious why they're over-hyping it so much; the credit crunch. The crunch is getting everyone down, so what better way to distract population from it than the possibility of a pandemic? The government have done a pretty shit job the past few years and should have done more to prevent the crunch from even happening, so this is a good way for them to cover thier own arses. Ultimately, when this virus is "contained", the government will get all the glory because they "looked after us." Yeah, right... nice try guys.
I actually like a theory that my friend's Dad came up with; that this is just an outbreak of normal flu, but it's being hyped as something totally new. Think about it, if something new comes around that seems threatening, it's a lot more scary than something that already exists. I take this theory with a pinch of salt, but it's certainly something to think about.
However, I could end up eating my own words in a few weeks/moths/whenever, and it could become a pandemic. Fair enough. At the end of the day, it just feels like bullshit propaganda right now, a scare to keep us in our places and to make us forget about how the government are screw ups. It's certainly mysterious timing, given the state of the world at the moment and it's too obvious to just be a simple coincidence.
Feel free to post your own thoughs in the comments....
Unless you've been living under a rock, or you've been avoiding the news, you might not know that there's a "crisis" going on at the moment. Then again, you probably have heard about it, because everyone and thier bloody dog's heard about this! I'm, of course, talking about this so-called Swine Flu pandemic. Yes, we've all been told to stay alert, they're going to leaflet bomb us, and if we don't comply we're apparently all going to die. What a load of crap.
To date there's been about, what, 28 confirmed cases in the UK? That's nothing! I'd only start panicing if the figures reach quad digits. Yes, it is bad that this so-called virus is airborne, but there's no need to start repenting and calling it the aporkalypse (sorry) just yet. I agree it could spread, which would be bad news, but see that key word, could? If you've got the bloody flu, of course you're going to stay at home! Normal flu is bad enough anyway and can be just as contagious. The government was right to warn people; but leaflet bombing us, the constant warnings and, naturally, the press being all over it? Bloody hell, chill out people! It's being contained well enough at the moment, we're more likely to choke on peanuts than catch this virus! Oh, and there are people surviving it, so it's not as fatal as it's being made out to be.
Of course, the government don't want it spreading, but it's obvious why they're over-hyping it so much; the credit crunch. The crunch is getting everyone down, so what better way to distract population from it than the possibility of a pandemic? The government have done a pretty shit job the past few years and should have done more to prevent the crunch from even happening, so this is a good way for them to cover thier own arses. Ultimately, when this virus is "contained", the government will get all the glory because they "looked after us." Yeah, right... nice try guys.
I actually like a theory that my friend's Dad came up with; that this is just an outbreak of normal flu, but it's being hyped as something totally new. Think about it, if something new comes around that seems threatening, it's a lot more scary than something that already exists. I take this theory with a pinch of salt, but it's certainly something to think about.
However, I could end up eating my own words in a few weeks/moths/whenever, and it could become a pandemic. Fair enough. At the end of the day, it just feels like bullshit propaganda right now, a scare to keep us in our places and to make us forget about how the government are screw ups. It's certainly mysterious timing, given the state of the world at the moment and it's too obvious to just be a simple coincidence.
Feel free to post your own thoughs in the comments....
Monday, 27 April 2009
A weekend with Goths (caution, long post)
Well, I got back from Whitby yesterday afternoon, and it was an awesome few days! I would have posted a blog entry sooner, but I felt too knackered to do it. Anyways, onwards to my tale...
Whitby Gothic Weekend, April 2009
Wednesday was pretty normal, I had the day off work, so I got ready, packed and headed out to my mate D's. We chilled and I slept over.
The next day was the journey, which was a painful 9 hours. We caught the coach from Birmingham at 8.40, and stopped at Leeds early afternoon. I have to say, Leeds seemed like a good place, the market is fairly interesting too, it seems to sell loads of random stuff. One stall even had a cheap Wii rip-off for sale, which I found hilarious.
We then had to catch a bus at 2.15. There appeared to be a number of Goths waiting for the bus at the same time. We sat at the back of the bus with them, and by the end of a long journey (that ended in Whitby at 5.37), we were all laughing and joking around like old friends. We passed through the never ending moors, through the village where the show Hearbeat was filmed (incidentally, whilst filming was going on) and, for reasons I'm not going into, I rather hilariously got dubbed "Sheep Boy" by the lot of them.
Whitby is such a nice village, it's quaint and feels very peaceful, just like most seaside villages though to be honest. Still, it's a nice change to be somewhere by the sea, being as I live pretty much in the centre of the country. After getting lost, D and I made it to the cottage we were staying at. Again, that was a nice place, and for around £80 each it felt like a bargain to have an entire cottage for 6 people. We were staying with some members of the band RazorBladeKisses, and a few of thier friends and they're such an awesome bunch of people (if you're reading this, you rock!)
After getting a quick bit of food with D, we all headed out pubbing, ran ito a few of the others from the bus and chilled. The pub, The Little Angel Inn, seemed nice but was unfortunately rather packed, so we had to retreat to the outside area. We met more peeps, including other RBK members and, once the pub stopped serving booze, we went somewhere else. Resolution was where we ended up, which also hand a dancing area (bonus!) After much partying, we called it a day.
Friday was the first day of the Gothic Weekend proper. Naturally, I was up late , around 12.30 in the afternoon, oops. We all had cooked breakfast, got ready and dashed out. The gothic market was pretty good, but it was bloody expensive! If I had tons of cash, I would have deffinitely bought a lot more stuff. Instead, I just bought black nail varnish.
We headed to another market, which sold more elaborate, second hand stuff. I thought it was a lot more interesting, plus it was cheaper! I also saw an amazing punk-esque/biker jacket for sale, which I was desperate for.
at around 9, the bands started. We were a tad late, so only saw the end of Zeitgeist Zero's set. From what we saw, they were rather good, with a rock style, and almost metal-eqsue heavyness with electronica thrown into the mix. So, next up were The Last Dance. Again, another excellent performance. They had a more 80's darkwave feel to them, so it was deffinitely my kind of thing! The last band on was Abney Park, a very Steampunk themed band. The Steampunk style being quite noticeable throughout the weekend, to the point where it became a running joke. They were superb though, and went down quite well. Though at times, I found their musical style not very Steampunk (but then, what the hell is Steampunk supposed to sound like?! Afterwards, there was more partying and then sleep at a stupidly late time.
Saturday, we were up at 11.30, and it was more market browsing again. I managed to get that jacket too, for £20, bargain! After more chilling, RazorBladeKisses had thier soundcheck, the stall was set up and they were up at 9. RazorBladekisses were absolutely incredible. They put on an actual full blown out performance, and had a variety of styles within their music. Seeing them live was a highlight of the weekend for me. Afterwards, The House of Usher were on, and they seemed okay, but a bit dull after RBK's performance. I was too busy hanging out with the band and at the stall though. I saw some of Diary of Dreams set too, and they were great, with a very dark style to thier music. After that, it was a final night of partying mayhem, before heading back to the cottage pretty late. D and I stayed up, and after some goodbyes we had to catch the coach at the ungodly hour of 6.55 in the morning.
Overall, Whitby was an amazing experience, if you're into the Gothic culture, I'd highly recommend going. It made a nice change to see Goths being the majority for a change. Oh, and for anyone who sees Goths as depressing and boring, those thoughts can stop right now. There were so many laughs, I spent most the weekend laughing. I'd also like to thank everyone I met and stayed with during Whitby, you all truly made my weekend! I'm really looknig forward to doing all this again in October for Halloween!
Whitby Gothic Weekend, April 2009
Wednesday was pretty normal, I had the day off work, so I got ready, packed and headed out to my mate D's. We chilled and I slept over.
The next day was the journey, which was a painful 9 hours. We caught the coach from Birmingham at 8.40, and stopped at Leeds early afternoon. I have to say, Leeds seemed like a good place, the market is fairly interesting too, it seems to sell loads of random stuff. One stall even had a cheap Wii rip-off for sale, which I found hilarious.
We then had to catch a bus at 2.15. There appeared to be a number of Goths waiting for the bus at the same time. We sat at the back of the bus with them, and by the end of a long journey (that ended in Whitby at 5.37), we were all laughing and joking around like old friends. We passed through the never ending moors, through the village where the show Hearbeat was filmed (incidentally, whilst filming was going on) and, for reasons I'm not going into, I rather hilariously got dubbed "Sheep Boy" by the lot of them.
Whitby is such a nice village, it's quaint and feels very peaceful, just like most seaside villages though to be honest. Still, it's a nice change to be somewhere by the sea, being as I live pretty much in the centre of the country. After getting lost, D and I made it to the cottage we were staying at. Again, that was a nice place, and for around £80 each it felt like a bargain to have an entire cottage for 6 people. We were staying with some members of the band RazorBladeKisses, and a few of thier friends and they're such an awesome bunch of people (if you're reading this, you rock!)
After getting a quick bit of food with D, we all headed out pubbing, ran ito a few of the others from the bus and chilled. The pub, The Little Angel Inn, seemed nice but was unfortunately rather packed, so we had to retreat to the outside area. We met more peeps, including other RBK members and, once the pub stopped serving booze, we went somewhere else. Resolution was where we ended up, which also hand a dancing area (bonus!) After much partying, we called it a day.
Friday was the first day of the Gothic Weekend proper. Naturally, I was up late , around 12.30 in the afternoon, oops. We all had cooked breakfast, got ready and dashed out. The gothic market was pretty good, but it was bloody expensive! If I had tons of cash, I would have deffinitely bought a lot more stuff. Instead, I just bought black nail varnish.
We headed to another market, which sold more elaborate, second hand stuff. I thought it was a lot more interesting, plus it was cheaper! I also saw an amazing punk-esque/biker jacket for sale, which I was desperate for.
at around 9, the bands started. We were a tad late, so only saw the end of Zeitgeist Zero's set. From what we saw, they were rather good, with a rock style, and almost metal-eqsue heavyness with electronica thrown into the mix. So, next up were The Last Dance. Again, another excellent performance. They had a more 80's darkwave feel to them, so it was deffinitely my kind of thing! The last band on was Abney Park, a very Steampunk themed band. The Steampunk style being quite noticeable throughout the weekend, to the point where it became a running joke. They were superb though, and went down quite well. Though at times, I found their musical style not very Steampunk (but then, what the hell is Steampunk supposed to sound like?! Afterwards, there was more partying and then sleep at a stupidly late time.
Saturday, we were up at 11.30, and it was more market browsing again. I managed to get that jacket too, for £20, bargain! After more chilling, RazorBladeKisses had thier soundcheck, the stall was set up and they were up at 9. RazorBladekisses were absolutely incredible. They put on an actual full blown out performance, and had a variety of styles within their music. Seeing them live was a highlight of the weekend for me. Afterwards, The House of Usher were on, and they seemed okay, but a bit dull after RBK's performance. I was too busy hanging out with the band and at the stall though. I saw some of Diary of Dreams set too, and they were great, with a very dark style to thier music. After that, it was a final night of partying mayhem, before heading back to the cottage pretty late. D and I stayed up, and after some goodbyes we had to catch the coach at the ungodly hour of 6.55 in the morning.
Overall, Whitby was an amazing experience, if you're into the Gothic culture, I'd highly recommend going. It made a nice change to see Goths being the majority for a change. Oh, and for anyone who sees Goths as depressing and boring, those thoughts can stop right now. There were so many laughs, I spent most the weekend laughing. I'd also like to thank everyone I met and stayed with during Whitby, you all truly made my weekend! I'm really looknig forward to doing all this again in October for Halloween!
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Time to go (Bananaz)
Well, I'm off to Whitby Gothic Weekend this weekend, which is a gothic music festival for those of you that don't know. However, I'm heading out today, so I won't be updating this blog for the next few days. I'll have a lowdown on how it was when I return, though I don't know when, as I have to catch the coach back at some stupidly early time on the Sunday morning, so I'l probably be in a zombiefied state.
On a completely different topic, Ceri Levy has released a documentary called 'Bananaz' on the world-famous animated band, the Gorillaz. However, unlike past Gorillaz projects, this is a real-life behind the scenes look at the band in action, so it unleashes them in a whole new perspective. I've been fascinated by the entire Gorillaz concept for years, so I find it interesting to finally see how it all came together, and the (often hilarious) relationship between Jamie Hewlett met Damon Albarn. Oh, and the music is awesome too! It's not a short-lived documentary either, covering the bands' progress from 2000 till 2006, with a 91 minuite run-time. It's a must-watch for any hardcore Gorillaz fan. It's certainly more than enough to tide anyone over till the next Gorillaz album.
The official website can be found at http://www.bananazfilm.com/, and a link to the free streaming version can be found there too.
Enojy your weekends people!
On a completely different topic, Ceri Levy has released a documentary called 'Bananaz' on the world-famous animated band, the Gorillaz. However, unlike past Gorillaz projects, this is a real-life behind the scenes look at the band in action, so it unleashes them in a whole new perspective. I've been fascinated by the entire Gorillaz concept for years, so I find it interesting to finally see how it all came together, and the (often hilarious) relationship between Jamie Hewlett met Damon Albarn. Oh, and the music is awesome too! It's not a short-lived documentary either, covering the bands' progress from 2000 till 2006, with a 91 minuite run-time. It's a must-watch for any hardcore Gorillaz fan. It's certainly more than enough to tide anyone over till the next Gorillaz album.
The official website can be found at http://www.bananazfilm.com/, and a link to the free streaming version can be found there too.
Enojy your weekends people!
Sunday, 19 April 2009
So, who wants to get drunk off air?
I was browsing through the pages of Nerd Love, when I came across this article they linked from the Metro. For those of you too lazy to read up on it, here's the lowdown;
Apparently, it's a bar (aptly called 'Alcoholic Architecture Bar') that doesn't serve drinks, but instead uses a system that shoots out vapourised Gin and Tonic into the air. It's said that 40 mins in the bar will get you tipsy. The bar is open 17th-25th April, on Ganton Street, in the Newburgh Quarter of Central London. Tickets for entry are £5. Oh, and you have to wear a special suit (which is provided), so that you don't leave smelling like a brewry.
I'm sure this concept would go down a storm at nightclubs. Maybe there could be different flavoured rooms, or something? Maybe clubs could even have thier own special branded suits, that could be bought as merchandise. Although I'd expect the time limits within them to be quite short. Oh, and let's hope no one tries to sneakily smoke a cigarette whilst in there. :p
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
Two for the price of one!
Bloody hell, I'm actually keeping my word and updating something for a change. The end is surely nigh. :P *Ahem* Yes, moving on...
Being as I've been to two gigs within the past week, I figured I'd review them both in one blog post. What a great way to celebrate the start of my blogging, eh? The first gig I present to you is The Prodigy...
The Prodigy - Birmingham NIA 09.04.2009
My mate and I only had seating tickets for this gig, being as it sold out phenominally fast, but I have to admit, it was still a fantastic view! A DJ, who's name unfortunately wasn't mentioned, did a pretty good job of mashing up tracks between acts, and certianly kept everyone entertained. Drum and bass mixes, 80's music and even a (quite bizzare) remix of Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the name" were just part of the mix. I also notcied the mixture of different cultures (if that's the right word) hanging around. Rockers, Trendys, Goths, etc were all there, getting along and not fighting for a change. The experience was quite surreal, but great.
First up, for support, was Dizzee Rascal. Now, I don't usually like the majority of rap/hip hop music because most of it involves the "bling bling", "hoes", "gonna shoot ya down" gangster rubbish. However, I was pleasantly suprised. There was none of that to be found in this set, it was actually quite vibarant, fun and, dare I say, enjoyable. Mr Rascal opened with his version of the Ting Ting's "That's Not My Name", which deffinitely improved a bland song, as well as being far greater than anything the talentless Ting Tings could ever do. He also pumped out hit tracks such as "Fix up Look Sharpe", "Flex", "Dance Wiv me", all with a thundering catchy bassline, as well as previewing new material from his upcoming album. The new tracks "Road Rage" and "Dirty Cash"sound fantastic, and certaunly flow well alongside Rascal's other songs. He got the crowd going with a shouting match (see which side could shout the loudest), and even freestyled, proving his talent to the masses. His set ended with his new single "Bonkers", which I'm sure will take the charts by storm once it's released. The bar was deffinitely raised quite high.
After an agonising wait, it was time for The Prodigy's set to start. Now, we all know The Prodigy have been going for a long while, so some might worry that they've simply lost thier edge. Those of you who think that can safely put those thoughts to rest, because The Prodigy absolutely dominated! Starting with "World's on fire" from thier latest album, Invaders Must die, The Prodigy rolled out hit after hit effortlessly inlcuding, "Breathe", "Firestarter" "Poison" and "Voodoo People", to name a few! These fit in prefectly with tracks from the new album, such as "Omen" and "Run With the Wolves", proving that bands can still keep thier old sound, whilst still pushing themselves forward to new heights. Keith Flint and MC Maxim Reality's vocals complimented the set prefectly, and sent the crowd on a mental raving rampage, urging thier "warriors to dance" throughout the set. The Encore was prefect, starting with "Invaders Must Die" and ending on "Out of Space". By the end of the gig, there wasn't a single person seating or not singing along. The atmosphere was simply astounding, and the raving intense. The Prodigy then left the stage for a final time, leaving nothing but the ruins of where the NIA once stood. There could have been a few more tracks played, and the set could have been a little longer (it only lasted around 1 hour 20mins), but that feels like nitpicking in what was a legendary night.
Setlist
Worlds on Fire
Their law
Breathe
Breathe (dub step)
No Good (Start the Dance)
Omen
Poison
Warriors Dance
Firestarter
Run with the Wolves
Voodoo People
Comanche
- - -
Omen Reprise
Invaders Must Die
Diesel Power
Smack My Bitch Up
Take Me to the Hospital
Out of Space
Deathstars - Birmingham Academy 2 14.04.2009
This'll be a much shorter review (promise!) I must say, I had high expectations for this gig. Even though I don't know Deathstars that well, I'm still a big fan of Industrial music. However, it was slightly dissapointing.
To start with, they couldn't have picked a worse type of support act if they tried. The two supporting bands, The Defiled and Marionette, simply did nothing for me. Appart from causing the scene/emo kids, who were blatnantly there just to see those two bands, creating a mosh pit. Big mistake. Especially at a more goth gig. My friends and I ended up having to evacuate to a safer place, further from the stage. We didn't hang around too long for these emo metal-wannabe bands, and just decided to stay outside in the enterance hall till Deathstars came on. We managed to run into some old friends though, which was cool.
Two shit support acts later, and Deathstars finally came on to the title track off thier new album "Night Electric Night". And, yes, they did certianly make up for the tripe that was on earlier. They got the crowd headbanging and throwing thier fists into the air, it was deffinitely a lot of fun, and the atmosphere changed dramatically for the better. They blasted out newer songs like "Death Dies Hard" and "Mark of the Gun" alongside classics such as "Trinity Fields", "Tounges" and "Cyanide". Lead singer Andreas "Whiplasher Bernadotte" Bergh kept the crowd going with chatter on thier time in the country, or as they called it "small island", which led to song intros. The band also pumped up the crowd with the usual hand clapping, getting the crowd to sing along, etc. They performed well, and set a dark, yet fantastic tone, but it felt like there was something missing. Again, (and this'll probably come up a lot, as my opinion on gig lengths quite is baised) the set was a tad short. They deffintely should have played more tracks off thier first album Synthetic Generation too. However, thier performance was still great, and I'd still recommend them live. They just need to add a few more classics to get to the stage of excellence.
Being as I've been to two gigs within the past week, I figured I'd review them both in one blog post. What a great way to celebrate the start of my blogging, eh? The first gig I present to you is The Prodigy...
The Prodigy - Birmingham NIA 09.04.2009
My mate and I only had seating tickets for this gig, being as it sold out phenominally fast, but I have to admit, it was still a fantastic view! A DJ, who's name unfortunately wasn't mentioned, did a pretty good job of mashing up tracks between acts, and certianly kept everyone entertained. Drum and bass mixes, 80's music and even a (quite bizzare) remix of Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the name" were just part of the mix. I also notcied the mixture of different cultures (if that's the right word) hanging around. Rockers, Trendys, Goths, etc were all there, getting along and not fighting for a change. The experience was quite surreal, but great.
First up, for support, was Dizzee Rascal. Now, I don't usually like the majority of rap/hip hop music because most of it involves the "bling bling", "hoes", "gonna shoot ya down" gangster rubbish. However, I was pleasantly suprised. There was none of that to be found in this set, it was actually quite vibarant, fun and, dare I say, enjoyable. Mr Rascal opened with his version of the Ting Ting's "That's Not My Name", which deffinitely improved a bland song, as well as being far greater than anything the talentless Ting Tings could ever do. He also pumped out hit tracks such as "Fix up Look Sharpe", "Flex", "Dance Wiv me", all with a thundering catchy bassline, as well as previewing new material from his upcoming album. The new tracks "Road Rage" and "Dirty Cash"sound fantastic, and certaunly flow well alongside Rascal's other songs. He got the crowd going with a shouting match (see which side could shout the loudest), and even freestyled, proving his talent to the masses. His set ended with his new single "Bonkers", which I'm sure will take the charts by storm once it's released. The bar was deffinitely raised quite high.
After an agonising wait, it was time for The Prodigy's set to start. Now, we all know The Prodigy have been going for a long while, so some might worry that they've simply lost thier edge. Those of you who think that can safely put those thoughts to rest, because The Prodigy absolutely dominated! Starting with "World's on fire" from thier latest album, Invaders Must die, The Prodigy rolled out hit after hit effortlessly inlcuding, "Breathe", "Firestarter" "Poison" and "Voodoo People", to name a few! These fit in prefectly with tracks from the new album, such as "Omen" and "Run With the Wolves", proving that bands can still keep thier old sound, whilst still pushing themselves forward to new heights. Keith Flint and MC Maxim Reality's vocals complimented the set prefectly, and sent the crowd on a mental raving rampage, urging thier "warriors to dance" throughout the set. The Encore was prefect, starting with "Invaders Must Die" and ending on "Out of Space". By the end of the gig, there wasn't a single person seating or not singing along. The atmosphere was simply astounding, and the raving intense. The Prodigy then left the stage for a final time, leaving nothing but the ruins of where the NIA once stood. There could have been a few more tracks played, and the set could have been a little longer (it only lasted around 1 hour 20mins), but that feels like nitpicking in what was a legendary night.
Setlist
Worlds on Fire
Their law
Breathe
Breathe (dub step)
No Good (Start the Dance)
Omen
Poison
Warriors Dance
Firestarter
Run with the Wolves
Voodoo People
Comanche
- - -
Omen Reprise
Invaders Must Die
Diesel Power
Smack My Bitch Up
Take Me to the Hospital
Out of Space
Deathstars - Birmingham Academy 2 14.04.2009
This'll be a much shorter review (promise!) I must say, I had high expectations for this gig. Even though I don't know Deathstars that well, I'm still a big fan of Industrial music. However, it was slightly dissapointing.
To start with, they couldn't have picked a worse type of support act if they tried. The two supporting bands, The Defiled and Marionette, simply did nothing for me. Appart from causing the scene/emo kids, who were blatnantly there just to see those two bands, creating a mosh pit. Big mistake. Especially at a more goth gig. My friends and I ended up having to evacuate to a safer place, further from the stage. We didn't hang around too long for these emo metal-wannabe bands, and just decided to stay outside in the enterance hall till Deathstars came on. We managed to run into some old friends though, which was cool.
Two shit support acts later, and Deathstars finally came on to the title track off thier new album "Night Electric Night". And, yes, they did certianly make up for the tripe that was on earlier. They got the crowd headbanging and throwing thier fists into the air, it was deffinitely a lot of fun, and the atmosphere changed dramatically for the better. They blasted out newer songs like "Death Dies Hard" and "Mark of the Gun" alongside classics such as "Trinity Fields", "Tounges" and "Cyanide". Lead singer Andreas "Whiplasher Bernadotte" Bergh kept the crowd going with chatter on thier time in the country, or as they called it "small island", which led to song intros. The band also pumped up the crowd with the usual hand clapping, getting the crowd to sing along, etc. They performed well, and set a dark, yet fantastic tone, but it felt like there was something missing. Again, (and this'll probably come up a lot, as my opinion on gig lengths quite is baised) the set was a tad short. They deffintely should have played more tracks off thier first album Synthetic Generation too. However, thier performance was still great, and I'd still recommend them live. They just need to add a few more classics to get to the stage of excellence.
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Let's get this party started!
So yeah, this is my first attempt in the world of blogging. I did have a Live Journal account once, but I'm not counting that attempt, plus I lost my password to it a while back somehow, so it's currently stuck somewhere in limbo.
Anyhow, moving on, it's introduction time methinks. I'm Iain, pleased to meet you, I decided upon calling this blog "The Epitome of Epic", being as epic is a word I tend to use a lot during conversation, plus the phrase makes me sound slightly intelligent (even though I sort of stole the phrase from a game.) :P You can expect features such as gig reviews, opinions on random crap no one cares about and ramblings on my everyday life to appear in this blog. Well, whenever I get round to updating it anyway.
Well, I guess that's all for now, I'll be sure to update this somtime soon.
Until next time folks! ^^
Anyhow, moving on, it's introduction time methinks. I'm Iain, pleased to meet you, I decided upon calling this blog "The Epitome of Epic", being as epic is a word I tend to use a lot during conversation, plus the phrase makes me sound slightly intelligent (even though I sort of stole the phrase from a game.) :P You can expect features such as gig reviews, opinions on random crap no one cares about and ramblings on my everyday life to appear in this blog. Well, whenever I get round to updating it anyway.
Well, I guess that's all for now, I'll be sure to update this somtime soon.
Until next time folks! ^^
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