Garbage Day IV
I don't usually do concert reports, usually because of time and forgetting but since this happened yesterday (of course it will be past midnight when I finish this but...) (3 days later I'm still writing) and Garbage is very special to me, so here we go!
Garbage Day - (photo album, original blog is tiny)
Garbage Day II - (photos only for now)
Garbage Day III - (photos only for now)
There was a rainbow over the venue as I arrived
I had to work during the day and I was already tired (and sore) before I even got to the venue, the line was really short at this point and I was really close to the front, hooray! I was by myself unfortunately, so no Xerony, no shirenu so I just stood and played with my phone (there was even a Pokemon raid going on but... we failed it hahaha)
https://instagram.com/p/BnWsQgDHrr0
Click on the picture for the tweet this picture came from
Speaking of the venue, the Barras is a legendary venue in my city, I've only been here once before for a Within Temptation gig that I got a free ticket for 😅
It's a ballroom on the top wooden floor so it's loud and the floor has a nice bounce!
During the gig Shirley (Vo) mentioned that Eric (Ba) had been walking in the city and found the nearby path in Barrowland Park that lists many of the bands that have played in the venue, and found the one for Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie, Shirley's first group. When Xerony was here in 2017 we found it too while we were walking nearby... one day I'll finally blog about it 🙃
We were really excited to find it! Garbage wasn't included for some reason...
Even the Within Temptation gig I went to in 2007 is on it.
Shirley then said thank you to everyone for coming to see her perform here for bordering on 40 years!! but seeing as I'm also bordering on 40 years I can see this being entirely possible... 😶
And I looked like this... this shirt is far too big for me now,
Right at the barrier on the left side!
I did get to the front barrier after all!! at the last gig I was on the right side where Duke (Gt/Key) usually plays, so I switched to the left to hang out with Steve (Gt/Key) this time. The opening act was a Scottish female band called Honeyblood and they were only 2 people but LOUD and I really liked them, especially because they were from my hometown (biased)
Click to view
So much sound coming from 2!
After that, it was time for Garbage 🍊🤩🧡
Packed out @TheBarrowlands @garbage 🧡 pic.twitter.com/D3U4g6ieuu
- Absolut Garbage (@ABSOLUTgarbage) September 5, 2018
Awaiting the band
As I was at the front I had no idea so many were behind me (I'm a bald head near the end of the above tweet lol) but I was getting squashed from behind by 2 girls who kept... stroking me 😅 on the back or putting an arm around my waist, I turned my head a few times, but didn't let go of the barrier because I knew exactly what they were trying to do hahaha, it even happened to this poor dude at the last Garbage gig I went to. This girl hugged him and whispered all sort of shit into his ear, then he let her squeeze in and...he was 3 rows back after a few songs looking sad and she was completely ignoring him... not me!! XD So instead they dry humped me and squashed me against the barrier for most of the gig, but more on them later.
Pop review: @garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson brought a star power and warrior intensity that somehow remained inclusive and intimate https://t.co/9urfVzRIft pic.twitter.com/EKzpJvJrVB
- The Times Scotland (@thetimesscot) September 6, 2018
The band came out followed by Shirley who got a ridiculously loud cheer from her (almost) home crowd, my pictures and many others don't do her dress justice but in the light she was glowing and shimmering with blue & green sparkles like some kind of ethereal being during the first song Afterglow✨
It's really a big amazing blur!!! and I didn't take a lot of pictures or videos because I was really enjoying myself, plus I knew from previous experience 90% of them would turn out like crap and I was in front of the photographer pit so I knew theirs would be 500 times better. As I said before I was right in front of Steve so I had lots of interactions with him and made sure to smile at him as much as I could (I have resting bitch face) so he knew I was having fun. And and and (ahhhh) Shirley came over to my side a lot and she looked right at me lots of times and was only a meter or so away from me oh god oh god oh god, her eyes are so pretty, and she's just amazing in general, haha.
via Gfycat
(lol you can see her personal fan blow her hair up when she walks past her mic)
The only real downside was I didn't know a lot of the B-sides, I didn't buy music when I was a teenager in 1998 and the singles I do have now have mostly remixes on them which Shirley talked about in one of her MC's including "one of the people we had asked to do a remix had asked for $750,000 for it so.... hahahaha FUCK that!!" and said how their old record company made them do remixes to get radio play so they did a lot of covers and stuff as B-sides at the time.
via Gfycat
But, of course the singles got the biggest pops of the night and people were going crazy for Push It, Paranoid and Special!! which was my favourite song of theirs from the 90's before I became a fan again and started watching them live in 2012. Now I don't think it is my favourite but I still really like it and it was nice to finally see it live as they had never played it at any of the shows I went to so far.
They also did some cool stuff like this, Wicked Ways mixed with Personal Jesus, you can see my bald head bottom left 😅
But those girls I mentioned earlier had been bumping into me and scratching me with their jewellery all the way through, which I didn't really care about as I knew where I was and I was going to take damage from people jumping but! it started to get really rough during one song (ironically not Push It) and I was getting pushed around a lot, and arms were flying past my head. I was actually fine about this, it's normal and nothing like being in a mosh pit but still, the guy handing out water in the red gif above was the head security guy and he was usually standing right in front of me and he jumped up on the barrier and screamed at them to stop it!!! and Shirley noticed and was like "what's going on over there!?" during the song .. which may have been When I Grow Up now that I think about it 😂
Speaking of interacting with me, at 2:52 of that ^ video when Shirley points with her hand and asks if she would like me better after sleeping together, she's pointing right at me, hahahaha oh my god 😳 I didn't know what to do I just kind of smiled and raised an eyebrow with like a "maybe" face even if I knew the answer was "yeah maybe not, I suck" 😂 I really did NOT expect that to happen.
Fantastic shot of Shirley @garbage at @TheBarrowlands last night by burlesque queen @MissHellsBelle 🧡 pic.twitter.com/ZSy027AZGX
- Absolut Garbage (@ABSOLUTgarbage) September 6, 2018
During the encore they were going to perform The Trick is to Keep Breathing so Shirley did an MC, she talked about having to ask permission from the author of the book via a fax machine, but she also made a great speech about feeling terrible and suicidal and finding happiness where you can and how no matter how bad things are and how low you feel, happiness will always come back to you in waves and you need to hold onto it and enjoy it when it comes to you. Considering how low I've been feeling recently despite having such great times it, really really touched me and I started crying and kept going for the whole song. She did come over during the song and while on one hand I wanted her to know she touched my heart on the other it was really embarrassing and the entire band could see me so I'm not entirely sure if she noticed because she did look at me again.
I just received the book today because of her touching words, I'll read it soon.
Something that really cheered me up as the last long was their cover of David Bowie's Starman, which they later announced would be sold in this years Record Store Day Black Friday so I really hope I can get it, it was a big surprise and it was great to sing along to (I lost my voice long before this point though).
Setlist pic.twitter.com/ZT9IRXTJhC
- Absolut Garbage (@ABSOLUTgarbage) September 5, 2018
It's not in the above tweet, but The World is not Enough was played too mixed together with one of the first couple of songs, maybe Deadwood?? I forget.
https://instagram.com/p/BnarnYdnfII
They all left the stage finally and Steve came over and bowed at me so I bowed back and grinned, Butch(drums) came over too and it was so cool to see the legend this close, I'm so glad I came early!!
So, I had an incredible time and despite the crying felt 100% happy and good and so many great memories came back and I can't wait to see them again, hopefully with friends.