Your eyes tell the story of a day you wish you could recall
There was leftover pasta waiting for me when I got back from the Kerrang! tour. I'd made a mountain of it before I went out*, not intentionally but I'm still claiming it as a win. Something about the press of the crowd at the front of a gig always seems to make me hungry. Maybe the constant hits compress the food in my stomach making it feel emptier? This could be an example of good logic coupled with bad science.
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "No, John, that's bad logic too. If you're stomach got hit it would be compressed just as much as the food. You fucking retard." And I've got two things to say to that. First off, it's just a theory man, and not even a serious one at that. Why you gotta be so mean? Second, the stomach is part of the body, its got the regenerative powers its contents lack.
I was going to write about the gig in order of Awesome, but I think chronological order would be better because it's more like a film where things start well, get a little worse, get a lot worse and then through some big hairy deus ex machina with a pair of sexy blonde backup singers, the day is saved.
Circa Survive were already on the stage when we arrived. With a wonderful light show, excellent music and near constant falsetto, Circa Survive are one hell of a good live act. I vaguely recognised a few of the songs and knew the last one, Act Appalled, pretty well. It's a great song and I was pretty damn happy I didn't miss it.
Next up were Fightstar who were, just like last time I saw them, not as fantastic as they could have been. The new album has a bit more screaming on it, it seems, and Charlie Simpson seems to have completely taken over the singing. The dude can sing, I'll grant him that, but I prefer the mix of singers they have on their earlier stuff. And still no Amethyst.
I may not be one of their fans, but Madina Lake certainly put on a good show for the people who were. I may not like their stuff so much, but they were energetic and friendly enough to be likeable despite having the kind of crap over-styled hair and teenage poetry lyrics that give emo a bad rep.
Guys, let me tell you about Coheed and Cambria. Not their gig tonight, but my history with them. Back in autumn 2003 I was a freshman at uni in a relationship that I was beginning to realise was soon to come crashing down around me. Here's some topical (Fightstar) lyrics, just in case this wasn't emo enough: I'm closer to the skies than I'll ever be to her again.
Anyway, I'd been into emo for a couple of years then so when a band with such an awesome name keeps coming up in reference to the bigger emo bands of the day it makes sense to check them out. I downloaded Hearshot Kid Disaster, Devil In New Jersey and Delerium Trigger from what was then their only album, The Second Stage Turbine Blade. They were pretty good. Hearshot Kid Disaster was nice and catchy and I listened to it a lot.
Over the following christmas holidays I broke up with my first girlfriend and did what I always do: I turned to music. I bought Coheed's just-released second album, In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3, and hid in my room cut off from the outside world as much as I could. I remember that New Year's Eve was almost certainly the worst one of my life, though the millennium comes a close second. My friends were all partying together while I was off visitng family. We went to some crap party some friends of my aunt and uncle were holding. The young people there were all younger than me and just lacked anything to make them interesting. I probably spent the party talking geek talk with my brother. I'm glad to say it's the last new years I celebrated with family.
Anyway, point is that whole weekend or whatever it was, the car journeys there and back, lying in bed at night, any time I could get away with it, I'd be listening to Coheed on my CD player. And when I wasn't listening they were still there, looping endlessly in my head. I'm not saying it was healthy and I'm not saying I couldn't have coped without them, but during what was probably one of the lowest points of my life Coheed were there, making everything just a little bit better.
Tonight they fucking blew me away. I don't go into moshpits much anymore. I'm awkward and lazy; I don't fit in them, but with the songs you know so well there's no better place to hear them than the crush at the front; hands in the air, screaming with a passion you thought lost, balance completely off and only still upright because of the press of bodies around you. Drenched in sweat, most of it not yours and the only thing that matters are the words "Man your own jackhammer, man your battle stations!" bursting from the lips of every motherfucker in the room. Tonight was a good night.
*I'm talking like Snowdon or Ben Nevis here, you know, fairly small mountain. This was certainly not the Everest of pasta, probably not even the Matterhorn.
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "No, John, that's bad logic too. If you're stomach got hit it would be compressed just as much as the food. You fucking retard." And I've got two things to say to that. First off, it's just a theory man, and not even a serious one at that. Why you gotta be so mean? Second, the stomach is part of the body, its got the regenerative powers its contents lack.
I was going to write about the gig in order of Awesome, but I think chronological order would be better because it's more like a film where things start well, get a little worse, get a lot worse and then through some big hairy deus ex machina with a pair of sexy blonde backup singers, the day is saved.
Circa Survive were already on the stage when we arrived. With a wonderful light show, excellent music and near constant falsetto, Circa Survive are one hell of a good live act. I vaguely recognised a few of the songs and knew the last one, Act Appalled, pretty well. It's a great song and I was pretty damn happy I didn't miss it.
Next up were Fightstar who were, just like last time I saw them, not as fantastic as they could have been. The new album has a bit more screaming on it, it seems, and Charlie Simpson seems to have completely taken over the singing. The dude can sing, I'll grant him that, but I prefer the mix of singers they have on their earlier stuff. And still no Amethyst.
I may not be one of their fans, but Madina Lake certainly put on a good show for the people who were. I may not like their stuff so much, but they were energetic and friendly enough to be likeable despite having the kind of crap over-styled hair and teenage poetry lyrics that give emo a bad rep.
Guys, let me tell you about Coheed and Cambria. Not their gig tonight, but my history with them. Back in autumn 2003 I was a freshman at uni in a relationship that I was beginning to realise was soon to come crashing down around me. Here's some topical (Fightstar) lyrics, just in case this wasn't emo enough: I'm closer to the skies than I'll ever be to her again.
Anyway, I'd been into emo for a couple of years then so when a band with such an awesome name keeps coming up in reference to the bigger emo bands of the day it makes sense to check them out. I downloaded Hearshot Kid Disaster, Devil In New Jersey and Delerium Trigger from what was then their only album, The Second Stage Turbine Blade. They were pretty good. Hearshot Kid Disaster was nice and catchy and I listened to it a lot.
Over the following christmas holidays I broke up with my first girlfriend and did what I always do: I turned to music. I bought Coheed's just-released second album, In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3, and hid in my room cut off from the outside world as much as I could. I remember that New Year's Eve was almost certainly the worst one of my life, though the millennium comes a close second. My friends were all partying together while I was off visitng family. We went to some crap party some friends of my aunt and uncle were holding. The young people there were all younger than me and just lacked anything to make them interesting. I probably spent the party talking geek talk with my brother. I'm glad to say it's the last new years I celebrated with family.
Anyway, point is that whole weekend or whatever it was, the car journeys there and back, lying in bed at night, any time I could get away with it, I'd be listening to Coheed on my CD player. And when I wasn't listening they were still there, looping endlessly in my head. I'm not saying it was healthy and I'm not saying I couldn't have coped without them, but during what was probably one of the lowest points of my life Coheed were there, making everything just a little bit better.
Tonight they fucking blew me away. I don't go into moshpits much anymore. I'm awkward and lazy; I don't fit in them, but with the songs you know so well there's no better place to hear them than the crush at the front; hands in the air, screaming with a passion you thought lost, balance completely off and only still upright because of the press of bodies around you. Drenched in sweat, most of it not yours and the only thing that matters are the words "Man your own jackhammer, man your battle stations!" bursting from the lips of every motherfucker in the room. Tonight was a good night.
*I'm talking like Snowdon or Ben Nevis here, you know, fairly small mountain. This was certainly not the Everest of pasta, probably not even the Matterhorn.