i can't find enough love in my heart, let alone in my bones.
Ugh, I can't believe I'm talking about the Kills already and I never got around to posting about Kate Nash and like, the third-greatest night of my life. That will happen! But first.
So I also never talked here about seeing the Arctic Monkeys at the end of September in Chicago. It was 100% the worst night I've ever had barring deaths in the family because my car got towed and I had to work at 7AM the next morning IN WISCONSIN WHERE I LIVE and blah blah blah. I was kind of traumatized, right?
Which means I almost backed out of going to this gig about seventy-six times, not just out of fear for my poor baby car but because I'd be going solo again and I wasn't sure I was ready for all the loneliness.
But... Alison Mosshart. As one girl said at some point yesterday, "I would literally kill for her."
Okay, I'm not sure my love goes quite that far because as it turns out I couldn't even deal with standing out in the cold after the gig to try to meet her, but IT WAS A LONG DAY ALL RIGHT.
I got to Chicago around 1:30 yesterday afternoon, parked, and spent a while wandering around. I always have this theory that if I get myself super familiar with the area then maybe I won't get buckets of crazy lost, but this rarely works. I got coffee and then went to check on my car (shut up okay I am forever paranoid), then headed up to the Vic. For AT LEAST an hour I was one of only two people there and we kind of kept our distance. Then a third girl came over and she kind of bridged the gap because she knew the other girl from the last show, so we all kind of started talking for a bit until the first girl's friend showed up. The second girl, who will be Blondie from now on because we all suck and didn't get names, kind of became my buddy for the first few hours of jesusfuckcold. We stood in front of the Vic trying to look in on soundcheck, made a bagel run, ran to Walgreens for more socks for our poor feet. There was snow on the ground and it was MAYBE 12 degrees outside.
And then we met the nicest guy in the ENTIRE WORLD. Around 4 or so, the guy who was doing the Kills merch table opened up the door for the now five of us and said, "Okay. Here's the deal. You guys can come in while the Kills are doing soundcheck but you have to stay on this mat. Then you have to go out again after soundcheck, okay?" We all agreed to be quiet and behave and stay on the mat in front of the entrance, and it was amazing. I'm tiny so I couldn't really see much from that far away, but I could hear Alison and that was more than enough. She sounded incredible. It was pretty much the confirmation I needed that standing out in the cold for so long was going to be worth it.
At 5 we all got sent back out into the cold, at which point I proceeded to want to die again. I have never, ever been that cold. I honestly can't believe I still have all my toes. Around 6, Blondie's friend finally showed up so I kind of went back to being by myself and it kiiind of blew, but whatever. Let's skip over my continuing lack of friends and move on to the gig, okay?
The opening band was called U.S. Girls and they were pretty terrible. There were maybe six of them and they all looked like they were a bunch of teachers who had met in Good Will to form a rag tag band. I mean I actually think that should be a movie. A bunch of teachers go on strike and decide to form a band! Starring Tina Fey and Jason Schwartzman. The singer was kind of pretty and blonde and from... Somewhere with an accent, I'm honestly not sure. She kept playing with a tape player in the middle of singing and it was distracting. There was a pretty hilarious moment when one of her guitarists said something about a chord and she asked the audience, "Does anyone have a quarter? Oh, chord. Oh, nevermind."
U.S. Girls asked to play one more song, which was a Bruce Springsteen song (what, YOU START WITH THE BOSS, DUMMIES), but it was a no-go. The Kills came on exactly on time, and then I proceeded to lose my mind.
I WAS BASICALLY FIRST IN LINE SO I WAS STOOD RIGHT IN FRONT OF JAMIE. This is the recommendation I have for anyone who goes to see the Kills, okay. Stand in front of Jamie. Why?
A-Y). Jamie is a seriously beautiful human being. Like woah. I've noticed it before but like. His charisma is so much more palpable up close like that. I was just in pieces every time I looked up at him and when he actually looked at me, ugh. I can't. He is such a beast as a guitarist and he pulls these little Elvis sneers and it's the greatest.
Z). No matter where you stand Alison will end up over there eventually, so YOU MIGHT AS WELL GET TO SEE JAMIE'S FACE, TOO, CAUSE HE'S NOT MUCH OF A MOVER. Let's just say it, I'm slightly in love with him now.
Whoever's reading this, if anyone is reading this, please do yourself a favor and see the Kills if you ever get a chance. Their chemistry on stage is unlike anything I've ever seen, and this is coming from someone who has watched a LOT of Kasabian videos in addition to seeing them live. It's like watching a fucking tennis match; your head goes back and forth because you don't want to miss those looks they give each other, the way Alison just crouches down on stage and watches Jamie with a big dopey grin on her face while he's playing a guitar solo. I also highly fucking recommend being front row, because right from the start Alison started doing her lioness prowl around the stage, and then she got so close to us I almost lost my fingers multiple times. I mean a less steady person would've just fallen over onto us. It was nuts and I loved every second of it. There was also an ADORABLE moment when Alison got a little rough with her mic stand. She kicked the bottom of it and it flew up and nearly hit her right in the face but she stopped it just in time. And god, the way that woman dances is like nothing else. I feel like she's not even human because how can you possibly even move your body like that? Jesus christ.
It felt like a really short gig, but I think they played for a solid hour and 15 at least. They played "Fried My Little Brains," "Future Starts Slow," "No Wow," "Tape Song," "The Heart Is a Beating Drum," "Kissy Kissy," "U.R.A. Fever," "DNA," "Last Day of Magic," "Black Balloon," "Baby Says," "The Last Goodbye," "Monkey 23" and "Pots and Pans." For the encore they did one other song that I cannot remember and it's driving me crazy trying to think of what it was, but I know they ended with "Sour Cherry." As far as I can tell, the encore was the first time all night shit got really crazy. True story, I can't hear "Sour Cherry" without getting all nuts and dancing around my room, so apparently the same goes for everyone else at that gig. Because no gig is complete without injury, I got kicked in the head by some crowd surfing guy right near the end of the first encore song.
Before I lost all my gig buddies, I had planned to try to wait outside the bus to meet Alison and Jamie. But after waiting in line FOREVER to get a t-shirt (I got this one and wow, I now want to cry for spending more on that than they say on the website NOT COOL GUYS) I just felt really lonely and exhausted and I was noooot up for standing out in the cold for one more second. It ended up being a good decision because I'm pretty sure I'm getting sick and the drive back to Milwaukee was exhausting enough without having stood outside an extra hour or two.
And now I'm left again with no gigs coming up. Ugh, ugh, what am I going to do?
So I also never talked here about seeing the Arctic Monkeys at the end of September in Chicago. It was 100% the worst night I've ever had barring deaths in the family because my car got towed and I had to work at 7AM the next morning IN WISCONSIN WHERE I LIVE and blah blah blah. I was kind of traumatized, right?
Which means I almost backed out of going to this gig about seventy-six times, not just out of fear for my poor baby car but because I'd be going solo again and I wasn't sure I was ready for all the loneliness.
But... Alison Mosshart. As one girl said at some point yesterday, "I would literally kill for her."
Okay, I'm not sure my love goes quite that far because as it turns out I couldn't even deal with standing out in the cold after the gig to try to meet her, but IT WAS A LONG DAY ALL RIGHT.
I got to Chicago around 1:30 yesterday afternoon, parked, and spent a while wandering around. I always have this theory that if I get myself super familiar with the area then maybe I won't get buckets of crazy lost, but this rarely works. I got coffee and then went to check on my car (shut up okay I am forever paranoid), then headed up to the Vic. For AT LEAST an hour I was one of only two people there and we kind of kept our distance. Then a third girl came over and she kind of bridged the gap because she knew the other girl from the last show, so we all kind of started talking for a bit until the first girl's friend showed up. The second girl, who will be Blondie from now on because we all suck and didn't get names, kind of became my buddy for the first few hours of jesusfuckcold. We stood in front of the Vic trying to look in on soundcheck, made a bagel run, ran to Walgreens for more socks for our poor feet. There was snow on the ground and it was MAYBE 12 degrees outside.
And then we met the nicest guy in the ENTIRE WORLD. Around 4 or so, the guy who was doing the Kills merch table opened up the door for the now five of us and said, "Okay. Here's the deal. You guys can come in while the Kills are doing soundcheck but you have to stay on this mat. Then you have to go out again after soundcheck, okay?" We all agreed to be quiet and behave and stay on the mat in front of the entrance, and it was amazing. I'm tiny so I couldn't really see much from that far away, but I could hear Alison and that was more than enough. She sounded incredible. It was pretty much the confirmation I needed that standing out in the cold for so long was going to be worth it.
At 5 we all got sent back out into the cold, at which point I proceeded to want to die again. I have never, ever been that cold. I honestly can't believe I still have all my toes. Around 6, Blondie's friend finally showed up so I kind of went back to being by myself and it kiiind of blew, but whatever. Let's skip over my continuing lack of friends and move on to the gig, okay?
The opening band was called U.S. Girls and they were pretty terrible. There were maybe six of them and they all looked like they were a bunch of teachers who had met in Good Will to form a rag tag band. I mean I actually think that should be a movie. A bunch of teachers go on strike and decide to form a band! Starring Tina Fey and Jason Schwartzman. The singer was kind of pretty and blonde and from... Somewhere with an accent, I'm honestly not sure. She kept playing with a tape player in the middle of singing and it was distracting. There was a pretty hilarious moment when one of her guitarists said something about a chord and she asked the audience, "Does anyone have a quarter? Oh, chord. Oh, nevermind."
U.S. Girls asked to play one more song, which was a Bruce Springsteen song (what, YOU START WITH THE BOSS, DUMMIES), but it was a no-go. The Kills came on exactly on time, and then I proceeded to lose my mind.
I WAS BASICALLY FIRST IN LINE SO I WAS STOOD RIGHT IN FRONT OF JAMIE. This is the recommendation I have for anyone who goes to see the Kills, okay. Stand in front of Jamie. Why?
A-Y). Jamie is a seriously beautiful human being. Like woah. I've noticed it before but like. His charisma is so much more palpable up close like that. I was just in pieces every time I looked up at him and when he actually looked at me, ugh. I can't. He is such a beast as a guitarist and he pulls these little Elvis sneers and it's the greatest.
Z). No matter where you stand Alison will end up over there eventually, so YOU MIGHT AS WELL GET TO SEE JAMIE'S FACE, TOO, CAUSE HE'S NOT MUCH OF A MOVER. Let's just say it, I'm slightly in love with him now.
Whoever's reading this, if anyone is reading this, please do yourself a favor and see the Kills if you ever get a chance. Their chemistry on stage is unlike anything I've ever seen, and this is coming from someone who has watched a LOT of Kasabian videos in addition to seeing them live. It's like watching a fucking tennis match; your head goes back and forth because you don't want to miss those looks they give each other, the way Alison just crouches down on stage and watches Jamie with a big dopey grin on her face while he's playing a guitar solo. I also highly fucking recommend being front row, because right from the start Alison started doing her lioness prowl around the stage, and then she got so close to us I almost lost my fingers multiple times. I mean a less steady person would've just fallen over onto us. It was nuts and I loved every second of it. There was also an ADORABLE moment when Alison got a little rough with her mic stand. She kicked the bottom of it and it flew up and nearly hit her right in the face but she stopped it just in time. And god, the way that woman dances is like nothing else. I feel like she's not even human because how can you possibly even move your body like that? Jesus christ.
It felt like a really short gig, but I think they played for a solid hour and 15 at least. They played "Fried My Little Brains," "Future Starts Slow," "No Wow," "Tape Song," "The Heart Is a Beating Drum," "Kissy Kissy," "U.R.A. Fever," "DNA," "Last Day of Magic," "Black Balloon," "Baby Says," "The Last Goodbye," "Monkey 23" and "Pots and Pans." For the encore they did one other song that I cannot remember and it's driving me crazy trying to think of what it was, but I know they ended with "Sour Cherry." As far as I can tell, the encore was the first time all night shit got really crazy. True story, I can't hear "Sour Cherry" without getting all nuts and dancing around my room, so apparently the same goes for everyone else at that gig. Because no gig is complete without injury, I got kicked in the head by some crowd surfing guy right near the end of the first encore song.
Before I lost all my gig buddies, I had planned to try to wait outside the bus to meet Alison and Jamie. But after waiting in line FOREVER to get a t-shirt (I got this one and wow, I now want to cry for spending more on that than they say on the website NOT COOL GUYS) I just felt really lonely and exhausted and I was noooot up for standing out in the cold for one more second. It ended up being a good decision because I'm pretty sure I'm getting sick and the drive back to Milwaukee was exhausting enough without having stood outside an extra hour or two.
And now I'm left again with no gigs coming up. Ugh, ugh, what am I going to do?