just what did you do, if you're a dream then come true
Hi! This is a ridiculously long post about my last two days and The All-American Rejects show that we went to last night. With pics! And hopefully a vid, if it works! And lots of ramble!
The AAR funtimes started on Monday night when I went to the airport to pick mintyfiend up. There was a slight snafu in that by the time I got there (and I was later than I’d intended to be) in that when I arrived her plane hadn’t taken off yet. I would >:( at Ryanair but I kinda need it to be awesome on Friday, and also Ryan Ross seems to be a fan. Anyways, I ended up buying Kerrang, which I hadn’t gotten my hands on yet, and reading an interview with Tyson in it. He promised that the band they were bringing with them was awesome. This is important for later.
Anyways, mintyfiend arrived in one piece, we drove back to Glasgow, enjoyed some tacos (om nom nom) and spent a long time past bedtime discussing Nick Wheeler’s precious face etc, etc. The next morning was taken up with some Rock Band (Dead on Arrival kicked our asses and we cursed Pete and Andy and proceeded to be awesome at that Boston song that’s supposedly impossible, so clearly FOB are too awesome for us or something), followed by heading into the city and having a most delicious lunch/early dinner, and then there was queuing. We were about 7 people from the front of the queue, which was awesome, and it was worth the loss of feeling in our toes! redandglenda joined us a couple of hours later, and then lokte appeared close enough to doors that I almost threw my arms around her and sobbed in relief (it wasn’t that close, but I am a natural worrier and I had her ticket).
So then inwards-ly we went, and found ourselves right at the barrier on Nick’s side of the stage! The venue is kinda dinky, and we got a very good view from where we were standing. In the sense of Nick was, like, 3 feet away. Which is always awesome.
The first support group, Oh No Not Stereo, were adorable in a faily, random sort of way. I have a soft spot for boys like that, so I was rather enamoured, despite the fact that the sound was crap on the mic for the first two bands. The lead singer jumped down and ran along and tried to offer redandglenda a kiss, but I think that O_o pretty much covers all of our expressions when he did that. But he had a sticker on his guitar that said ‘…something…whiteknuckle assfuck’ so he kinda had my adoration from that. After their set, they came out the front and handed out stickers and also a couple of CDs and I managed to snag one. I’ve just had a quick listen through and they definitely sound better when you can actually hear the music. And when the guitarist isn’t doing that whole ‘swig of water, spit it unto the air’ thing. The guitarist was pretty amazing though, I thought. Afterwards, once we’d hit the merch table, redandglenda and I went over to them and they were being really sweet and talking to people and happily signed her ticket, and the CD for me. The lead singer dude asked my name and then went “B-E-C-K-A?” and I was all “No! Two C’s!” and he laughed and said “Glad I asked!” and when I got it back off him he’d written my name over where it said Stereo on the cover, so it now says ‘Oh No Not BECCA’ which I think is adorable. Um. Anyways.
The second support, the Upwelling, were described by Tyson Ritter as being ‘like the Police meets the Pixies with a little bit of Springsteen mixed in’. I don’t know if I’ve ever talked about how much I love the Pixies, but his description filled me with about 17 kinds of glee. I was disappointed. I don’t know if they were having a bad night or something, but they did not seem to want to be there. At all. Maybe it was part of their whole stage persona, but it just fell kinda flat. They didn’t get much of a response from the audience, but to be fair, they didn’t give much out to us either. I always feel bad about bands like that (the worst was seeing the Plain White T’s and their bassist grinning down at us because I think I was the only person in our area that knew more than Hey There Delilah, and that was only so I could sing that Hate song at Liz and leave her too many facebook comments about it, and so I had to spend the whole time grinning and nodding along and I did not want to).
Anyways, when they finished and they cleared the stage of pretty much everything, I spent a lot of time trying to read Nick’s setlist (I like to know, okay? So I know when to expect certain songs in case I want to video them, and in this case there was a particular song I wanted to catch). And then the band came out.
Here’s the part where I lose the ability to form sentences. Because in the past year I’ve been to a lot of shows. More shows than I’ve probably been to in all the previous years combined, because my friends were never gig goers and so I never went. I saw a lot of amazing shows last year, by a lot of amazing bands. Bands I like more, bands that mean more to me. But I don’t think any of them blew me away the way AAR did. It’s like, I expected them to be awesome, but not that much. They rocked, in the proper sense of the word. We overuse ‘rock’ too much, I think, but AAR pretty much embodied it. I’ve never seen a band where every single member had that much energy, that much fun as they did. I loved the interactions all of them shared- it wasn’t just Nick and Tyson having moments, it was all of them.
I can’t remember what songs they played- I tried to make a playlist on my iPod earlier, but I seem to have had a mental block from all the awesome, but it was a mixed bag of songs, old and new. Not many people knew the new stuff, but then again, the album isn’t out yet over here. It was great to sing along- I knew more of the lyrics to the older stuff than I thought I did, although I forgot them every time I made eye contact with one of the boys. I always get all WHAT DO I DO? DO I LOOK AWAY? in those moments, but to be honest, when Tyson was making kissy faces at the audience and made eye contact with me, I couldn’t have looked away if you’d paid me. Most creepy, I know.
Basically, I had the most fantastic time. I got to see an amazing band with amazing people, sang my heart out and got one of Nick’s picks, so all in all, it was a fucking amazing night and worth every stressful moment or worry or possible frostbite of toes. All I wanted to do afterwards was jump in the car and drive down to Manchester, where they are playing right at this moment! I hope they come back this year and actually tour for the album, once it comes out. Because I would love to see them again. And again. And again. They put on such a brilliant show, and I’d happily follow them on tour. And, really, if I’m honest about it, there’s only a handful of bands I think I’d really drop everything for and see for a week straight or whatever, if I could. And AAR are one of them.
Has my slight ‘omg, how are they so amazing’ turned into ‘head over heels love’? Why yes, yes it has. I love it when bands blow me away like that. Putting on a brilliant live show is a talent, I think, that some current bands really lack. Tyson had this whole Jagger-esque swagger going on and is an amazing front man. One of the best front men out there in bandom, I think. Nick was just a little rock god and MY LORD is he bendy! And he has about a zillion guitars that made me flail (I’ve recently become a bit obsessed with guitars) and just watching his hands when he plays! He’s so good! It was fantastic to get to watch that up close. And Chris was a demon on the drums, so freaking amazing. Plus he was half naked, which I think should become official drummer uniform. Hurley, The Butcher and Matt all support it, so I think we need to get Spencer and Bob and Johnson to agree too, yes? And Mike. Oh Mike. I kinda have a crush. He did this adorable dropping to his knees and back up again a lot and just. Ugh. Adorable. And he had some trouble with his strap at some point, I think, and the tech was trying to fix it, and you could see that he was just all ‘No! Let me be free! Don’t cage me, let me loose so I can rock!’ and then he was off, a blur of awesomeness. Uh. Yeah. Slight crush. A wee one. On all of them.
It was all over too quickly- they played 13 songs, but I wanted them to play forever- and we hit the merch stand before making our way outside and back to my place where we talked loudly about all things bandom (safety in numbers, in my flat) and then lokte had to head home and an unnamed person looked like they were going to pass out on the sofa, so it was bedtime and then this morning there were trips to railway stations to say goodbye to mintyfiend, and then to redandglenda and then I went into work and walked around with a silly grin on my face all day. In conclusion- the past two days? MOST AWESOME. What a way to kick off the year with awesome. January always needs something to boost you out of the post-holiday blues, and this was exactly what I needed. Thank you to AAR and to my awesome friends, for such a fantastic time.
So! Photos!
I have to admit, I paid most attention to Nick, which the photos (and the 1 vid I took) will show, but in my defence he was right there. So who can blame me, right? Mike was pretty hard to catch on camera as he is a whirlwind of awesome and it was hard to get pics of Chris too. But! Here are 39 photos (I took a bunch more but I really need to learn to focus better, because there would have been some good shots in there, I think) and (if it loads in time) hopefully a video of Mona Lisa, complete with Tyson’s speech about the world being fucked up and yay change! and about love and hate, and talking about what the song’s about, and then the sweetest moment at the end when he’s looking at Nick, but Nick’s not looking at him, and then Nick looks, but Tyson’s not really looking anymore and I’ve decided that it is because if Nick and Tyson looked at each other during that song, it would be impossible for them to hide how much they love each other. So. That’s why.
I’m just going to put these in roughly the order I took them. Apologies for !!! comments.
For those of you who don’t know, that is Nick Wheeler! He’s maybe my favourite. Maybe. It’s a close call between them all since last night, but he’s kinda precious. He makes these adorable faces when he plays, and he smiles so much. And he’s so talented. I could watch him play forever.
I didn’t mean to take many pics of his ass. It just kinda happened. Oops?
I hate blurry shots, but action ones are kinda wonderful, I think. I didn’t mean to get the photographer in there too.
Tyson Ritter! He’s kind of really beautiful AND really talented.
LOOK AT HIS FACE. PRECIOUS!
Sometimes I can’t believe he’s older than me. I want to squish his face and tell him he’s adorable. But I won’t.
Hands up if you love Nick Wheeler! _o/
Chris Gaylor and Mike Kennerty. I’m sorry I neglected you! I wished you’d come over to our side more, Mike!
17million near identical shots of Tyson? What’re you talking about?
:DDDDDDDDDDDDDD <----- an approximate representation of my face at this point in time.
I DON’T THINK THIS PIC NEEDS A CAPTION DO YOU? OTHER THAN OMGGGG BENDY.
I love it when the band plays back at the drummer. I worry about them being neglected so it’s always wonderful to see. AND NO NOT BECAUSE OF THE VIEW WE GET. STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT. HONEST.
I love this pic. They are rocking out!
How is he so beautiful?
CHRIS! <333 (Plus bonus Nick hips! He’s like the SpencerSmith of AAR)
Lord, how I wish this pic wasn’t so blurry.
Finally! A decent shot of Mike.
Oh Chris. Really. Please be almost naked, always. Or in those easy access dungarees.
I want to keep him in my pocket. He’s just so adorable!
I’m pretty sure that’s not water in that cup. Also, he’s looking at Tyson at this point, while Tyson is charming the audience (and boy, can he charm an audience!).
Like a religious experience, I tells ya.
He pulls the best faces.
See? Little rock god!
So, if you’re wondering ‘hey, is Tyson wearing pink sequinned cons, and NO PANTS’ you’d be correct on both counts.
THAT. BOY. JUST….OH MAN.
When they play to each other, it gives me a happy.
That is one gorgeous guitar. Being played by one gorgeous boy.
How can he look so good in lilac?
Oh Mike. Seriously. Come and live in my pocket.
This is possibly my favourite shot. I kinda love him a lot. A lot a lot.
Look at ‘em go!
Seriously. Ass shots totally accidental.
Oh Tyson. OH TYSON. How so beautiful?
Look at Mike’s hair! Look at them all go!
I love the faces he makes!
I wish I had more shots of him playing his bass. Incidentally, he plays it pretty much just like Pete does, so everyone who claims Pete isn’t actually playing cos he’s ‘playing in the wrong place’ can fuck right off. (Don’t get me wrong, Tyson’s much better, I think, from what I’ve seen, but he plays pretty high up too.)
I know this is terribly blurry but I love how it’s all of them together.
So much glee when he came over to our side of the stage. So much.
Ah, sweaty, sweaty boys.
And then the video! Mona Lisa!
It’s on it’s side at first, while Tyson does a bit of a talk, and then goes back to normal when the song starts. They’d just played Gives You Hell, and so he’s talking about it, and then about Mona Lisa- it’s the prettiest song he’s ever written.
Man, I just want to go back and see them again right now. Please. I hope they come back again this year sometime!
The AAR funtimes started on Monday night when I went to the airport to pick mintyfiend up. There was a slight snafu in that by the time I got there (and I was later than I’d intended to be) in that when I arrived her plane hadn’t taken off yet. I would >:( at Ryanair but I kinda need it to be awesome on Friday, and also Ryan Ross seems to be a fan. Anyways, I ended up buying Kerrang, which I hadn’t gotten my hands on yet, and reading an interview with Tyson in it. He promised that the band they were bringing with them was awesome. This is important for later.
Anyways, mintyfiend arrived in one piece, we drove back to Glasgow, enjoyed some tacos (om nom nom) and spent a long time past bedtime discussing Nick Wheeler’s precious face etc, etc. The next morning was taken up with some Rock Band (Dead on Arrival kicked our asses and we cursed Pete and Andy and proceeded to be awesome at that Boston song that’s supposedly impossible, so clearly FOB are too awesome for us or something), followed by heading into the city and having a most delicious lunch/early dinner, and then there was queuing. We were about 7 people from the front of the queue, which was awesome, and it was worth the loss of feeling in our toes! redandglenda joined us a couple of hours later, and then lokte appeared close enough to doors that I almost threw my arms around her and sobbed in relief (it wasn’t that close, but I am a natural worrier and I had her ticket).
So then inwards-ly we went, and found ourselves right at the barrier on Nick’s side of the stage! The venue is kinda dinky, and we got a very good view from where we were standing. In the sense of Nick was, like, 3 feet away. Which is always awesome.
The first support group, Oh No Not Stereo, were adorable in a faily, random sort of way. I have a soft spot for boys like that, so I was rather enamoured, despite the fact that the sound was crap on the mic for the first two bands. The lead singer jumped down and ran along and tried to offer redandglenda a kiss, but I think that O_o pretty much covers all of our expressions when he did that. But he had a sticker on his guitar that said ‘…something…whiteknuckle assfuck’ so he kinda had my adoration from that. After their set, they came out the front and handed out stickers and also a couple of CDs and I managed to snag one. I’ve just had a quick listen through and they definitely sound better when you can actually hear the music. And when the guitarist isn’t doing that whole ‘swig of water, spit it unto the air’ thing. The guitarist was pretty amazing though, I thought. Afterwards, once we’d hit the merch table, redandglenda and I went over to them and they were being really sweet and talking to people and happily signed her ticket, and the CD for me. The lead singer dude asked my name and then went “B-E-C-K-A?” and I was all “No! Two C’s!” and he laughed and said “Glad I asked!” and when I got it back off him he’d written my name over where it said Stereo on the cover, so it now says ‘Oh No Not BECCA’ which I think is adorable. Um. Anyways.
The second support, the Upwelling, were described by Tyson Ritter as being ‘like the Police meets the Pixies with a little bit of Springsteen mixed in’. I don’t know if I’ve ever talked about how much I love the Pixies, but his description filled me with about 17 kinds of glee. I was disappointed. I don’t know if they were having a bad night or something, but they did not seem to want to be there. At all. Maybe it was part of their whole stage persona, but it just fell kinda flat. They didn’t get much of a response from the audience, but to be fair, they didn’t give much out to us either. I always feel bad about bands like that (the worst was seeing the Plain White T’s and their bassist grinning down at us because I think I was the only person in our area that knew more than Hey There Delilah, and that was only so I could sing that Hate song at Liz and leave her too many facebook comments about it, and so I had to spend the whole time grinning and nodding along and I did not want to).
Anyways, when they finished and they cleared the stage of pretty much everything, I spent a lot of time trying to read Nick’s setlist (I like to know, okay? So I know when to expect certain songs in case I want to video them, and in this case there was a particular song I wanted to catch). And then the band came out.
Here’s the part where I lose the ability to form sentences. Because in the past year I’ve been to a lot of shows. More shows than I’ve probably been to in all the previous years combined, because my friends were never gig goers and so I never went. I saw a lot of amazing shows last year, by a lot of amazing bands. Bands I like more, bands that mean more to me. But I don’t think any of them blew me away the way AAR did. It’s like, I expected them to be awesome, but not that much. They rocked, in the proper sense of the word. We overuse ‘rock’ too much, I think, but AAR pretty much embodied it. I’ve never seen a band where every single member had that much energy, that much fun as they did. I loved the interactions all of them shared- it wasn’t just Nick and Tyson having moments, it was all of them.
I can’t remember what songs they played- I tried to make a playlist on my iPod earlier, but I seem to have had a mental block from all the awesome, but it was a mixed bag of songs, old and new. Not many people knew the new stuff, but then again, the album isn’t out yet over here. It was great to sing along- I knew more of the lyrics to the older stuff than I thought I did, although I forgot them every time I made eye contact with one of the boys. I always get all WHAT DO I DO? DO I LOOK AWAY? in those moments, but to be honest, when Tyson was making kissy faces at the audience and made eye contact with me, I couldn’t have looked away if you’d paid me. Most creepy, I know.
Basically, I had the most fantastic time. I got to see an amazing band with amazing people, sang my heart out and got one of Nick’s picks, so all in all, it was a fucking amazing night and worth every stressful moment or worry or possible frostbite of toes. All I wanted to do afterwards was jump in the car and drive down to Manchester, where they are playing right at this moment! I hope they come back this year and actually tour for the album, once it comes out. Because I would love to see them again. And again. And again. They put on such a brilliant show, and I’d happily follow them on tour. And, really, if I’m honest about it, there’s only a handful of bands I think I’d really drop everything for and see for a week straight or whatever, if I could. And AAR are one of them.
Has my slight ‘omg, how are they so amazing’ turned into ‘head over heels love’? Why yes, yes it has. I love it when bands blow me away like that. Putting on a brilliant live show is a talent, I think, that some current bands really lack. Tyson had this whole Jagger-esque swagger going on and is an amazing front man. One of the best front men out there in bandom, I think. Nick was just a little rock god and MY LORD is he bendy! And he has about a zillion guitars that made me flail (I’ve recently become a bit obsessed with guitars) and just watching his hands when he plays! He’s so good! It was fantastic to get to watch that up close. And Chris was a demon on the drums, so freaking amazing. Plus he was half naked, which I think should become official drummer uniform. Hurley, The Butcher and Matt all support it, so I think we need to get Spencer and Bob and Johnson to agree too, yes? And Mike. Oh Mike. I kinda have a crush. He did this adorable dropping to his knees and back up again a lot and just. Ugh. Adorable. And he had some trouble with his strap at some point, I think, and the tech was trying to fix it, and you could see that he was just all ‘No! Let me be free! Don’t cage me, let me loose so I can rock!’ and then he was off, a blur of awesomeness. Uh. Yeah. Slight crush. A wee one. On all of them.
It was all over too quickly- they played 13 songs, but I wanted them to play forever- and we hit the merch stand before making our way outside and back to my place where we talked loudly about all things bandom (safety in numbers, in my flat) and then lokte had to head home and an unnamed person looked like they were going to pass out on the sofa, so it was bedtime and then this morning there were trips to railway stations to say goodbye to mintyfiend, and then to redandglenda and then I went into work and walked around with a silly grin on my face all day. In conclusion- the past two days? MOST AWESOME. What a way to kick off the year with awesome. January always needs something to boost you out of the post-holiday blues, and this was exactly what I needed. Thank you to AAR and to my awesome friends, for such a fantastic time.
So! Photos!
I have to admit, I paid most attention to Nick, which the photos (and the 1 vid I took) will show, but in my defence he was right there. So who can blame me, right? Mike was pretty hard to catch on camera as he is a whirlwind of awesome and it was hard to get pics of Chris too. But! Here are 39 photos (I took a bunch more but I really need to learn to focus better, because there would have been some good shots in there, I think) and (if it loads in time) hopefully a video of Mona Lisa, complete with Tyson’s speech about the world being fucked up and yay change! and about love and hate, and talking about what the song’s about, and then the sweetest moment at the end when he’s looking at Nick, but Nick’s not looking at him, and then Nick looks, but Tyson’s not really looking anymore and I’ve decided that it is because if Nick and Tyson looked at each other during that song, it would be impossible for them to hide how much they love each other. So. That’s why.
I’m just going to put these in roughly the order I took them. Apologies for !!! comments.
For those of you who don’t know, that is Nick Wheeler! He’s maybe my favourite. Maybe. It’s a close call between them all since last night, but he’s kinda precious. He makes these adorable faces when he plays, and he smiles so much. And he’s so talented. I could watch him play forever.
I didn’t mean to take many pics of his ass. It just kinda happened. Oops?
I hate blurry shots, but action ones are kinda wonderful, I think. I didn’t mean to get the photographer in there too.
Tyson Ritter! He’s kind of really beautiful AND really talented.
LOOK AT HIS FACE. PRECIOUS!
Sometimes I can’t believe he’s older than me. I want to squish his face and tell him he’s adorable. But I won’t.
Hands up if you love Nick Wheeler! _o/
Chris Gaylor and Mike Kennerty. I’m sorry I neglected you! I wished you’d come over to our side more, Mike!
17million near identical shots of Tyson? What’re you talking about?
:DDDDDDDDDDDDDD <----- an approximate representation of my face at this point in time.
I DON’T THINK THIS PIC NEEDS A CAPTION DO YOU? OTHER THAN OMGGGG BENDY.
I love it when the band plays back at the drummer. I worry about them being neglected so it’s always wonderful to see. AND NO NOT BECAUSE OF THE VIEW WE GET. STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT. HONEST.
I love this pic. They are rocking out!
How is he so beautiful?
CHRIS! <333 (Plus bonus Nick hips! He’s like the SpencerSmith of AAR)
Lord, how I wish this pic wasn’t so blurry.
Finally! A decent shot of Mike.
Oh Chris. Really. Please be almost naked, always. Or in those easy access dungarees.
I want to keep him in my pocket. He’s just so adorable!
I’m pretty sure that’s not water in that cup. Also, he’s looking at Tyson at this point, while Tyson is charming the audience (and boy, can he charm an audience!).
Like a religious experience, I tells ya.
He pulls the best faces.
See? Little rock god!
So, if you’re wondering ‘hey, is Tyson wearing pink sequinned cons, and NO PANTS’ you’d be correct on both counts.
THAT. BOY. JUST….OH MAN.
When they play to each other, it gives me a happy.
That is one gorgeous guitar. Being played by one gorgeous boy.
How can he look so good in lilac?
Oh Mike. Seriously. Come and live in my pocket.
This is possibly my favourite shot. I kinda love him a lot. A lot a lot.
Look at ‘em go!
Seriously. Ass shots totally accidental.
Oh Tyson. OH TYSON. How so beautiful?
Look at Mike’s hair! Look at them all go!
I love the faces he makes!
I wish I had more shots of him playing his bass. Incidentally, he plays it pretty much just like Pete does, so everyone who claims Pete isn’t actually playing cos he’s ‘playing in the wrong place’ can fuck right off. (Don’t get me wrong, Tyson’s much better, I think, from what I’ve seen, but he plays pretty high up too.)
I know this is terribly blurry but I love how it’s all of them together.
So much glee when he came over to our side of the stage. So much.
Ah, sweaty, sweaty boys.
And then the video! Mona Lisa!
It’s on it’s side at first, while Tyson does a bit of a talk, and then goes back to normal when the song starts. They’d just played Gives You Hell, and so he’s talking about it, and then about Mona Lisa- it’s the prettiest song he’s ever written.
Man, I just want to go back and see them again right now. Please. I hope they come back again this year sometime!