It's been a while...
Hello all! Since my Mac seems to have a problem with the blogging tools on MySpace I've been forced back over here!
Basically just need to massively elaborate upon Chris' brief summary of our trip to Sheffield, which was indeed fucking brilliant!
It started - as most of these trips seem to - in the wee hours of the morning, with me waking up at half five. Normally I'd be annoyed at having to be up so early but this was for a good cause so I was in a very good mood from the get go.
Met Chris at the metro and headed to Park Lane to await the arrival of the big blue bus adorned with pictures of a very threatening yellow clad, pink faced chap! Saw a 'bus-spotter' just prior to this... or an anorak as Chris corrected me. Whatever... I just find people who stand taking photos of the fronts of National Express coaches to be a tad peculiar! The journey itself all seems a bit of a blur other than the fact that we made a stop off in Leeds and at a service station at the wonderfully named 'Woolly Edge' =D Which reminds me, that fairly attractive girl left the bus at this point. I know I didn't mention any attractive females but just go with it...
Anyway! Upon arrival at the Meadowhall interchange we realised that the bus station was in fact linked to a MASSIVE indoor shopping centre! Not as large as The Metrocentre obviously but still fairly huge! The aforementioned shopping centre must have had a total of around 8 Millie's Cookies shops and stalls. Sort of like Greggs stores in Newcastle. Chris and I took some time to browse some shops and I believe he ended up with a new hat and some other clothing article or accessory which has slipped my mind! But my God! There was this brilliant store in the centre which sold all manner of portable paintball guns and bb paintball guns! A bb shotgun too for fuck's sake!!! I really wanted one but I figured I wouldn't be able to walk into pubs or the gig venue wielding firearms...
Loads of other cool shops were to be found around the area where the food court was. The food court itself was amazing - no fewer than eight fast food style places ranging from your typical McDonald's and KFCs to the somewhat more impressive 'Oriental Express' and 'Pasty King'! We decided that at some point in the future we need to return for a dedicated day of shopping! We were boring and opted for a KFC this day also, so I'd like to try something a bit different next time. We sat and ate, I perved and then I believe we fucked off back to the bus station to catch a bus into the city! The first bus driver we spoke to was hilarious! Chris does a fairly awesome impression of him and Sheffieldians in general as it happens...
Wandered round an indoor market once we alighted the bus. Just remembered that the other thing Chris got was actually a top from here! I felt somewhat threatened in this place for some odd reason! Left after getting directions from some rather official looking geezer and headed off to locate The Leadmill. Had to stop off at a bus station to take shelter from the rain, since it decided to absolutely lash down! Found the venue after much walking up and down a number of streets and roads and headed off to find some place to eat/drink as well as to find the club for after the gig! Found the club no bother but finding a good pub proved difficult until we spoke to some guy who worked in the local Forbidden Planet! He very nicely gave us directions to the local Wetherspoons establishment and we were on our merry way!
Our time in this lovely watering hole saw the arrival (and departure) of 'The Dream Team' as well as a 'hen party' comprised of around 12 girls who could have only been sixteen at the oldest. Their plan seemed to work though, as not one of then was asked for ID, despite the fact that some woman who was in with her child was asked earlier on... We also spotted some youngsters in a back alley opposite the pub with their 2 litre bottle of Strongbow(?) spinning while drinking! Bloody hilarious! Enjoyed a nice bottle of Kopparberg winter fruits followed by a pint of Smith's alongside a nice bacon and cheese topped burger! As is customary, money was then wasted on the quiz machine before our departure... I hate Noel fucking Edmunds!
Queued outside the venue from around six until the doors opened just after seven. In this time we spoke about 'ras' (the plural of ra), took the piss out of the local accent and criticised a number of things...
The gig itself was fucking amazing - definately one of the best few I've ever been to! The support act was rather entertaining but Chris Carrabba was just unreal! It's pretty much everything I envisioned a Dashboard gig to be like and more! The audience interaction was brilliant, made even better so by the size of the venue. Chris was literally responding to pretty much anything anyone shouted:
Chris - This next song is
Random fan - *Shouts particular song title*
Chris - Well, that's A song... but...
This continued for a little bit actually with more than one random person shouting something and Chris responding. I also loved his bit about baseball - 'It's like cricket!' Haha! The following songs were played from my memory (though there'll be more that I don't know/can't remember):
The Swiss Army Romance
Don't Wait
Stolen
Dusk & Summer
Thick As Thieves
The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most
Vindicated
So Impossible
The Best Deceptions
Remember To Breathe
The Good Fight
Screaming Infidelities
Again I Go Unnoticed
Hands Down
New Song (Called 'Get Me Right' possibly)
Obviously this wasn't the order (though I'm fairly sure the first two are right anyway.) The stand out moments were during the interlude and final chorus of 'The Places...', the new song in general and the mass singalong during 'Hands Down'
Fucking amazing! You really need to experience Dashboard (or just Chris) live to really appreciate the music!
Anyway, after this spectacle we headed over to 'Casbah' which we assumed was Sheffield's answer to Legends - how wrong we were! It started off promisingly enough with a lot of early RHCP music being played but then quickly started to deteriorate into loads of 'The' bands. Arcade Fire were played though, which is always really surprising to hear in a club. Stayed in there from like twenty past ten until just before two. During this time we came to realise that this place was a favourite of 'wrinklies' and thunder-thigh'd people. We also had the pleasure of meeting 'THE MAN.' The guy stumbled out of the toilets singing something about being barmy then put his hand on my cheek as if he were going to kiss me. While I was in the toilet he apparently half fell down the stairs into the wall at the bottom then started talking to Chris! Following this he proceeded to thrust his way up to almost every female in the place! Legend! A girl dubbed 'Dancy Girl' was also present. Remarkably short and very excitable! I well loved her!
Got to the interchange at like quarter past two but thankfully the bus turned up around 15 minutes early! Any more time out in the cold would have killed me! Creepy flute music started playing, seemingly out of nowhere when we first arrived there... proper weird!
Bus journey back was a bit of a blur as I kept falling asleep for ten minute intervals. Stopped at Woolly Edge again and bought an extortionately priced wrap (£3.69!!!) and after another hour or so on the bus we were back in sunny Newcastle! Had to get a taxi home due to it being too early for the metros to be on...
I got home and slept for 12 hours! Possibly the best sleep I've ever fucking had...
End
Basically just need to massively elaborate upon Chris' brief summary of our trip to Sheffield, which was indeed fucking brilliant!
It started - as most of these trips seem to - in the wee hours of the morning, with me waking up at half five. Normally I'd be annoyed at having to be up so early but this was for a good cause so I was in a very good mood from the get go.
Met Chris at the metro and headed to Park Lane to await the arrival of the big blue bus adorned with pictures of a very threatening yellow clad, pink faced chap! Saw a 'bus-spotter' just prior to this... or an anorak as Chris corrected me. Whatever... I just find people who stand taking photos of the fronts of National Express coaches to be a tad peculiar! The journey itself all seems a bit of a blur other than the fact that we made a stop off in Leeds and at a service station at the wonderfully named 'Woolly Edge' =D Which reminds me, that fairly attractive girl left the bus at this point. I know I didn't mention any attractive females but just go with it...
Anyway! Upon arrival at the Meadowhall interchange we realised that the bus station was in fact linked to a MASSIVE indoor shopping centre! Not as large as The Metrocentre obviously but still fairly huge! The aforementioned shopping centre must have had a total of around 8 Millie's Cookies shops and stalls. Sort of like Greggs stores in Newcastle. Chris and I took some time to browse some shops and I believe he ended up with a new hat and some other clothing article or accessory which has slipped my mind! But my God! There was this brilliant store in the centre which sold all manner of portable paintball guns and bb paintball guns! A bb shotgun too for fuck's sake!!! I really wanted one but I figured I wouldn't be able to walk into pubs or the gig venue wielding firearms...
Loads of other cool shops were to be found around the area where the food court was. The food court itself was amazing - no fewer than eight fast food style places ranging from your typical McDonald's and KFCs to the somewhat more impressive 'Oriental Express' and 'Pasty King'! We decided that at some point in the future we need to return for a dedicated day of shopping! We were boring and opted for a KFC this day also, so I'd like to try something a bit different next time. We sat and ate, I perved and then I believe we fucked off back to the bus station to catch a bus into the city! The first bus driver we spoke to was hilarious! Chris does a fairly awesome impression of him and Sheffieldians in general as it happens...
Wandered round an indoor market once we alighted the bus. Just remembered that the other thing Chris got was actually a top from here! I felt somewhat threatened in this place for some odd reason! Left after getting directions from some rather official looking geezer and headed off to locate The Leadmill. Had to stop off at a bus station to take shelter from the rain, since it decided to absolutely lash down! Found the venue after much walking up and down a number of streets and roads and headed off to find some place to eat/drink as well as to find the club for after the gig! Found the club no bother but finding a good pub proved difficult until we spoke to some guy who worked in the local Forbidden Planet! He very nicely gave us directions to the local Wetherspoons establishment and we were on our merry way!
Our time in this lovely watering hole saw the arrival (and departure) of 'The Dream Team' as well as a 'hen party' comprised of around 12 girls who could have only been sixteen at the oldest. Their plan seemed to work though, as not one of then was asked for ID, despite the fact that some woman who was in with her child was asked earlier on... We also spotted some youngsters in a back alley opposite the pub with their 2 litre bottle of Strongbow(?) spinning while drinking! Bloody hilarious! Enjoyed a nice bottle of Kopparberg winter fruits followed by a pint of Smith's alongside a nice bacon and cheese topped burger! As is customary, money was then wasted on the quiz machine before our departure... I hate Noel fucking Edmunds!
Queued outside the venue from around six until the doors opened just after seven. In this time we spoke about 'ras' (the plural of ra), took the piss out of the local accent and criticised a number of things...
The gig itself was fucking amazing - definately one of the best few I've ever been to! The support act was rather entertaining but Chris Carrabba was just unreal! It's pretty much everything I envisioned a Dashboard gig to be like and more! The audience interaction was brilliant, made even better so by the size of the venue. Chris was literally responding to pretty much anything anyone shouted:
Chris - This next song is
Random fan - *Shouts particular song title*
Chris - Well, that's A song... but...
This continued for a little bit actually with more than one random person shouting something and Chris responding. I also loved his bit about baseball - 'It's like cricket!' Haha! The following songs were played from my memory (though there'll be more that I don't know/can't remember):
The Swiss Army Romance
Don't Wait
Stolen
Dusk & Summer
Thick As Thieves
The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most
Vindicated
So Impossible
The Best Deceptions
Remember To Breathe
The Good Fight
Screaming Infidelities
Again I Go Unnoticed
Hands Down
New Song (Called 'Get Me Right' possibly)
Obviously this wasn't the order (though I'm fairly sure the first two are right anyway.) The stand out moments were during the interlude and final chorus of 'The Places...', the new song in general and the mass singalong during 'Hands Down'
Fucking amazing! You really need to experience Dashboard (or just Chris) live to really appreciate the music!
Anyway, after this spectacle we headed over to 'Casbah' which we assumed was Sheffield's answer to Legends - how wrong we were! It started off promisingly enough with a lot of early RHCP music being played but then quickly started to deteriorate into loads of 'The' bands. Arcade Fire were played though, which is always really surprising to hear in a club. Stayed in there from like twenty past ten until just before two. During this time we came to realise that this place was a favourite of 'wrinklies' and thunder-thigh'd people. We also had the pleasure of meeting 'THE MAN.' The guy stumbled out of the toilets singing something about being barmy then put his hand on my cheek as if he were going to kiss me. While I was in the toilet he apparently half fell down the stairs into the wall at the bottom then started talking to Chris! Following this he proceeded to thrust his way up to almost every female in the place! Legend! A girl dubbed 'Dancy Girl' was also present. Remarkably short and very excitable! I well loved her!
Got to the interchange at like quarter past two but thankfully the bus turned up around 15 minutes early! Any more time out in the cold would have killed me! Creepy flute music started playing, seemingly out of nowhere when we first arrived there... proper weird!
Bus journey back was a bit of a blur as I kept falling asleep for ten minute intervals. Stopped at Woolly Edge again and bought an extortionately priced wrap (£3.69!!!) and after another hour or so on the bus we were back in sunny Newcastle! Had to get a taxi home due to it being too early for the metros to be on...
I got home and slept for 12 hours! Possibly the best sleep I've ever fucking had...
End