it's a picture of perfection.
So.
I am now going to write about the day I saw Jack’s Mannequin in a tinytinyy venue, and then some time before, and probably some time after. Apologies in advance for an abundance of unneeded and/or unintersting information and details.
Where to start - ohman, I don’t even know. Our first train left at around twenty past eight on Sunday morning. I don’t even know, that time should not exist on a Sunday, but we made it, and we travelled all the way to the city of the Hamburgers in six hours on four (or was it five?) different trains. Sitting down for so long hurts, standing up for forever waiting for the next delayed train to arrive does, too. There was passport stress when my friend - on the second train - realised she’d forgotten her passport, but her dear of a mother came to bring it to us when we had a change wait of fourty minutes. All was well eventually.
The weather sucked, we stood outside of the station and waited with a broken umbrella.
So, Amersfoort brought passport stress - Osnabrück brought delayed trains.
Osnabrück was kind of cool, actually, there was this really creepy bit of tunnel that looked old and rusted and looked sort of beautiful in that broken sort of way.
When we arrived at Hamburg the sun was shining and we could walk again and it was pretty. We walked in the sunshine and it was good to be able to move again, and the air smelled fresh, but like city and rain and maybe a little bit of sun. All the shops were closed but we entered a church on our way to find the hostel. And then an other one. And.. no, the next one won’t be until the next day. But we like churches (kirchkirch), so. ‘scool. Quiet and pretty.
A pretty girl also gave us two tulips with a whole rambled story beforehand I didn’t get half of. It made me smile and we thanked her in German for whatever she’d just tried to tell us about a women movement.
On the subway (I really fucking love the subway. It’s so fast and easy and cool.. and cheap! ‘makes me happy inside. I know, I don’t think I’m normal either) on our way to find the hostel, my friend asked me whether I’m planning on throwing an ‘I’m leaving!’- party before I leave for hawaii, and the next thing we know there’s this man actually roaring, and he’s way scary and loud and screaming in German, so we got out as fast as we fucking could.
Well, there’s your answer to that question.
The hostel is dencently easy to find, and we ring the bell, to which a dude through the intercom says ‘the door is open,’ and we go ‘..what?’ because it wasn’t. Nothing happened. More bell-ringing had to happen, and more ‘the door is open,’ ‘the door isn’t open!’ ‘is the door open?’ ‘no!’ had to take place before he came up the stairs to open the door.
The guy showed us around and spoke extremely softly and I think he thought we were a little strange, but um. He was too. He wore sandals and socks.
In our roomy we ate chocolate covered raisins until we felt sick and plotted out our way to the venue.
Fast forward, past more subway travelling and blundering around to find the venue and finding it and more Dutch people and English people and finding food and walking and whatever else, to where we get into the venue with a stamp on our hands and part of our tickets ripped off.
As mentioned beforehand the place is tiny - I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone play at a place this small, it’s like a little bar - and it’s great. We wait for about fourty-five minutes and then the lights dowse.
Andrew blunders our with his band it’s Andrew and it’s strange and he’s pretty and beautiful and Andrew and for the first two songs (Crashin’ and Spinning) I feel like I’m going to cry. He makes contact with the audience and that’s where I realise something.
When we were younger we would wait out forever to get first row. I don’t feel like doing that anymore, it’s not important anymore, but I did then realise why I wanted it. Contact. The contact with the audience, (along with the music, of course) is what makes it, well, most enjoyable for me? I don’t know. If I don’t feel like the dudes (or girlies) on stage connect with us, it’s not. It’s sort of empty. Whatever, I can’t explain, but that’s it. And I remembered this interview with Cute Is What We Aim for when one of the guys says that you have to make out with the audience with your eyes, and it’s. That.
So. There’s that.
Andrew is good at that, and one of the other guys is, too, and I felt so much love for these four people on stage. They were great, really amazing. Andrew was so energetic and at the end he got up and I recognised the (slightly camp, I must say. Though that only made me smile harder) set of his shoulders, it’s what I do when I’m reallyreally happy, and I could just feel his happiness pouring out.
God, he made such amazing contact with the audience.
After the first two songs they played 'Holiday From Real' and that made me want to cry for a different reason. That’s when iamiamamachineis there, with me. With us.
'American Love' comes after that, and then they play this mix of the first and second album that included (I can’t possibly remember the order) 'Drop Out', 'Bruised', 'The Resolution', 'Hammers and Strings'(ohmygod. "a song that's been with me all the way through the making of 'The Glass Passenger'" or something along those lines), 'The Mixed Tape', 'I’m Ready', 'Kill the Messenger' (oh justthekeys), 'Bloodshot', 'Swim' (!!!♥) and 'Dark Blue'.
I sang along and listened with my heart in my hands and in my eyes and on my tongue and constantly felt like laughing and crying and staring in awe and it was amazing.
There was this group of girls next to my friend (and two Dutch girls, somewhat annoying, too, but to a bearable degree. And some dudes from England), and one of them was. I wanted to puch her in the face. She was standing with her back to the stage basically all the time, shaking her head so her hair flew everywhere (against my friend’s neck, highly annoying) and that was really fucking annoying and everything, but okay. Shit happens. Then she proceeded to make fun of Andrew and I was fuming. (Everone who’s seen him sing live knows the facial expressions he makes, and they are pretty ridiculous, but they are just. There. And not to make fun of, and okay, and they make me smile.) I really had to let that go to just concentrate on what was happening and the happy.
Umumum. In between the songs he tried to throw paper planes to the soundguy (or whoever) and he failed largely, but his face was adorable. In the end he stood on his piano (which wasn’t a real piano - what’s this, Andrew? Not a real piano?! - but a.. sortofkeyboard. Idek man, my knowledge is very limited) and it went better and was also great and I love that dude. He felt like. Someone I know. I really wanted to hug him.
They played.. something, I don’t remember the ‘last’ song, and the German people screamed the German word for ‘encore’, which, wtf? What’s the point of that? It’s not like they’d understand it. Well, they do, but. At least Dutch kiddies yell ‘we want more’ or whatever, which is pretty ridiculous in our accents, but better than using Dutch.
Andrew came back out on his own, talked about how an encore was the biggest load of bullshit in.. rock and roll or something, and then said he was going to play a song close to his heart. We knew what was coming.
He played ‘Caves’ and. yeah. My heart, ouch.
The band came in during the song and it was pretty and. Hmhm. Mostly I stared in awe with my lips closed.
Then they played the next song, and oh my fucking god. I wouldn’t have asked him to play any other song if I was given the choice, it was perfect, but unexpected and strange and. There. They played ‘Me And The Moon’. I sang along and my voice broke and I felt like crumbling and suddenly it was trudyywho was there. Idek.
They ended with ‘La La Lie’ and it was an outburst, Andrew felt overjoyed and looked overjoyed and I smiled and giggled and sang and laughed and danced a little, and jesus, then it was over and.. it was over.
God.
We didn’t wait around to meet him for several reasons, so we got our stuff and headed back to the subway.
Other things: somewhere halfway through there was this thing with a bottle of Jäger, and Andrew put it to his lips, taking a sip, and it was funny and cute and there was cheering. It made me laugh.
The way Andrew sits there and plays is so beautiful. Like he is inside the music. I love that.
The way Andrew flies around and sings is so beautiful. It’s so joyful and fills me up with light. With the way he interacts with the audience, with. Yes. I love that.
Andrew said that at the Berlin show people had commented on the length of the setlist, so they’d throw in some extra songs now. WIN. He also said this was their second show in Europe ever, which.. I can’t imagine. Was it?
Also, the merch fucking sucked. Seriously, what an atrocity. I’d looked at their tshirts before we left, and they have these really pretty tshirts, and I wanted them, yet at the merch stand they only had the fugliest tees.
By the way, there was no support, even though the tickets said ‘plus special guest’, but that was only better and maybe that’s just something those tickets always say? I don’t know. The tickets were ugly. I want my Dutch tickets. [/childishness]
Now, already a lot of things are slipping from my memory, and I loathe every little word that slips away, but there’s nothing I can do about it and I’m just going to shut up now.
In summary!
It was amazing. Andrew is beautiful. The rest of the band is beautiful. I can’t die happy yet because we’ve already got a new mission, but I’m definitely a step closer.
I am now going to write about the day I saw Jack’s Mannequin in a tinytinyy venue, and then some time before, and probably some time after. Apologies in advance for an abundance of unneeded and/or unintersting information and details.
Where to start - ohman, I don’t even know. Our first train left at around twenty past eight on Sunday morning. I don’t even know, that time should not exist on a Sunday, but we made it, and we travelled all the way to the city of the Hamburgers in six hours on four (or was it five?) different trains. Sitting down for so long hurts, standing up for forever waiting for the next delayed train to arrive does, too. There was passport stress when my friend - on the second train - realised she’d forgotten her passport, but her dear of a mother came to bring it to us when we had a change wait of fourty minutes. All was well eventually.
The weather sucked, we stood outside of the station and waited with a broken umbrella.
So, Amersfoort brought passport stress - Osnabrück brought delayed trains.
Osnabrück was kind of cool, actually, there was this really creepy bit of tunnel that looked old and rusted and looked sort of beautiful in that broken sort of way.
When we arrived at Hamburg the sun was shining and we could walk again and it was pretty. We walked in the sunshine and it was good to be able to move again, and the air smelled fresh, but like city and rain and maybe a little bit of sun. All the shops were closed but we entered a church on our way to find the hostel. And then an other one. And.. no, the next one won’t be until the next day. But we like churches (kirchkirch), so. ‘scool. Quiet and pretty.
A pretty girl also gave us two tulips with a whole rambled story beforehand I didn’t get half of. It made me smile and we thanked her in German for whatever she’d just tried to tell us about a women movement.
On the subway (I really fucking love the subway. It’s so fast and easy and cool.. and cheap! ‘makes me happy inside. I know, I don’t think I’m normal either) on our way to find the hostel, my friend asked me whether I’m planning on throwing an ‘I’m leaving!’- party before I leave for hawaii, and the next thing we know there’s this man actually roaring, and he’s way scary and loud and screaming in German, so we got out as fast as we fucking could.
Well, there’s your answer to that question.
The hostel is dencently easy to find, and we ring the bell, to which a dude through the intercom says ‘the door is open,’ and we go ‘..what?’ because it wasn’t. Nothing happened. More bell-ringing had to happen, and more ‘the door is open,’ ‘the door isn’t open!’ ‘is the door open?’ ‘no!’ had to take place before he came up the stairs to open the door.
The guy showed us around and spoke extremely softly and I think he thought we were a little strange, but um. He was too. He wore sandals and socks.
In our roomy we ate chocolate covered raisins until we felt sick and plotted out our way to the venue.
Fast forward, past more subway travelling and blundering around to find the venue and finding it and more Dutch people and English people and finding food and walking and whatever else, to where we get into the venue with a stamp on our hands and part of our tickets ripped off.
As mentioned beforehand the place is tiny - I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone play at a place this small, it’s like a little bar - and it’s great. We wait for about fourty-five minutes and then the lights dowse.
Andrew blunders our with his band it’s Andrew and it’s strange and he’s pretty and beautiful and Andrew and for the first two songs (Crashin’ and Spinning) I feel like I’m going to cry. He makes contact with the audience and that’s where I realise something.
When we were younger we would wait out forever to get first row. I don’t feel like doing that anymore, it’s not important anymore, but I did then realise why I wanted it. Contact. The contact with the audience, (along with the music, of course) is what makes it, well, most enjoyable for me? I don’t know. If I don’t feel like the dudes (or girlies) on stage connect with us, it’s not. It’s sort of empty. Whatever, I can’t explain, but that’s it. And I remembered this interview with Cute Is What We Aim for when one of the guys says that you have to make out with the audience with your eyes, and it’s. That.
So. There’s that.
Andrew is good at that, and one of the other guys is, too, and I felt so much love for these four people on stage. They were great, really amazing. Andrew was so energetic and at the end he got up and I recognised the (slightly camp, I must say. Though that only made me smile harder) set of his shoulders, it’s what I do when I’m reallyreally happy, and I could just feel his happiness pouring out.
God, he made such amazing contact with the audience.
After the first two songs they played 'Holiday From Real' and that made me want to cry for a different reason. That’s when iamiamamachineis there, with me. With us.
'American Love' comes after that, and then they play this mix of the first and second album that included (I can’t possibly remember the order) 'Drop Out', 'Bruised', 'The Resolution', 'Hammers and Strings'(ohmygod. "a song that's been with me all the way through the making of 'The Glass Passenger'" or something along those lines), 'The Mixed Tape', 'I’m Ready', 'Kill the Messenger' (oh justthekeys), 'Bloodshot', 'Swim' (!!!♥) and 'Dark Blue'.
I sang along and listened with my heart in my hands and in my eyes and on my tongue and constantly felt like laughing and crying and staring in awe and it was amazing.
There was this group of girls next to my friend (and two Dutch girls, somewhat annoying, too, but to a bearable degree. And some dudes from England), and one of them was. I wanted to puch her in the face. She was standing with her back to the stage basically all the time, shaking her head so her hair flew everywhere (against my friend’s neck, highly annoying) and that was really fucking annoying and everything, but okay. Shit happens. Then she proceeded to make fun of Andrew and I was fuming. (Everone who’s seen him sing live knows the facial expressions he makes, and they are pretty ridiculous, but they are just. There. And not to make fun of, and okay, and they make me smile.) I really had to let that go to just concentrate on what was happening and the happy.
Umumum. In between the songs he tried to throw paper planes to the soundguy (or whoever) and he failed largely, but his face was adorable. In the end he stood on his piano (which wasn’t a real piano - what’s this, Andrew? Not a real piano?! - but a.. sortofkeyboard. Idek man, my knowledge is very limited) and it went better and was also great and I love that dude. He felt like. Someone I know. I really wanted to hug him.
They played.. something, I don’t remember the ‘last’ song, and the German people screamed the German word for ‘encore’, which, wtf? What’s the point of that? It’s not like they’d understand it. Well, they do, but. At least Dutch kiddies yell ‘we want more’ or whatever, which is pretty ridiculous in our accents, but better than using Dutch.
Andrew came back out on his own, talked about how an encore was the biggest load of bullshit in.. rock and roll or something, and then said he was going to play a song close to his heart. We knew what was coming.
He played ‘Caves’ and. yeah. My heart, ouch.
The band came in during the song and it was pretty and. Hmhm. Mostly I stared in awe with my lips closed.
Then they played the next song, and oh my fucking god. I wouldn’t have asked him to play any other song if I was given the choice, it was perfect, but unexpected and strange and. There. They played ‘Me And The Moon’. I sang along and my voice broke and I felt like crumbling and suddenly it was trudyywho was there. Idek.
They ended with ‘La La Lie’ and it was an outburst, Andrew felt overjoyed and looked overjoyed and I smiled and giggled and sang and laughed and danced a little, and jesus, then it was over and.. it was over.
God.
We didn’t wait around to meet him for several reasons, so we got our stuff and headed back to the subway.
Other things: somewhere halfway through there was this thing with a bottle of Jäger, and Andrew put it to his lips, taking a sip, and it was funny and cute and there was cheering. It made me laugh.
The way Andrew sits there and plays is so beautiful. Like he is inside the music. I love that.
The way Andrew flies around and sings is so beautiful. It’s so joyful and fills me up with light. With the way he interacts with the audience, with. Yes. I love that.
Andrew said that at the Berlin show people had commented on the length of the setlist, so they’d throw in some extra songs now. WIN. He also said this was their second show in Europe ever, which.. I can’t imagine. Was it?
Also, the merch fucking sucked. Seriously, what an atrocity. I’d looked at their tshirts before we left, and they have these really pretty tshirts, and I wanted them, yet at the merch stand they only had the fugliest tees.
By the way, there was no support, even though the tickets said ‘plus special guest’, but that was only better and maybe that’s just something those tickets always say? I don’t know. The tickets were ugly. I want my Dutch tickets. [/childishness]
Now, already a lot of things are slipping from my memory, and I loathe every little word that slips away, but there’s nothing I can do about it and I’m just going to shut up now.
In summary!
It was amazing. Andrew is beautiful. The rest of the band is beautiful. I can’t die happy yet because we’ve already got a new mission, but I’m definitely a step closer.