She spoke words that would melt in your hands...
If there has to be a gig which teaches me many life lessons, it would be the NME Awards 2012 Tour! So 4 acts, Azealia Banks opened (female rapper, think along the lines of Nicki Minaj... and if you want to, you should listen to the lyrics of her song '212'), Tribes (like what my friend Jonathan says, sounds like something that would get you through your college days), Metronomy (AWEEE-SOMEEE) and of course, Two Door Cinema Club (fuckyeahhhhh)
First of all, 'moshing' as explained by Wikipedia - "Moshing is a style of dance whose participants push or slam into each other." So... I hope I'm using the term moshing in the right way :/
I thought the Arctic Monkeys gig in London would be the first and probably the last craaaaazy like moshpit crazy gig I'll ever be at in the UK, but I thought wrong because this has topped the Arctic Monkeys one, unbelievable as it is. I say unbelievable because look at the line up, and if you actually did listen to any of the songs, seriously, how exactly is moshing even possible?! Maaaaaybeeee TDCC because you jump and people end up pushing but wtf, people just start pushing for noooo reason. This has been made possible at tonight's gig by people having smoked grass and being under the influence. Which sucks because honestly, it kinda affected the entire concert experience for people who were perfectly sober and preferred to get high on the music, like me.
So lesson #1: if you have an iPhone, a camera is not extremely necessary... so you could do without that. This only applies to gigs where a LOT of jumping/dancing/moshing is involved. I rarely used my camera. And what's worse was that I brought two cameras, my G9 for recording and s90 for photos, which is totally unnecessary. Could have just dealt with G9 only.
Lesson #2: if you stay 10 mins away from the concert venue, do not bring a bag. A hoodie is a must in your concert attire. Perspire all you will in the hoodie if it's warm. But if it's winter, be a man and suffer in the queue wearing only a tee and a hoodie. No need for a bag to store your coats... unless you decide to use coat check, which is unnecessary money spent. For the first time I brought a backpack... wrong move.
Lesson #3: this is a note for myself, wish I could educate the gig-going crowd on this (especially the angmoh girls who have terrible hair, as in worse textured hair everrrr) FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYONE AT THE GIG, TIE UP YOUR FUCKING HAIR. Perspiration is inevitable at a gig where people wish to fucking push when there isn't even a need to, and the last thing I need is for your hair to be in my mouth and/or sticking to my hand. Omggg. I actually gave up my spot (which is rare since I would usually fight for a good spot) because the girl in front of me had her bushy hair in my face :(
And so, that's about all the lessons I can think of now that I've learnt from this gig. Here's the entire concert experience:
Doors opened at 7pm, and the Singaporean and short side of me insisted that we started queueing really early. So 6pm it was! And believe it or not, there was like a queue of about 20 people already. Seriously, if it weren't for the cold, I would have been there much earlier. After an hour wait in the cold approximately 1 fucking degree, got in, got a tee and kinda got to the front, I was in the second row! I must applaud the dude in front of me. He's this relatively big guy, not tall but really chubby but his footing is amaaaaazing. He NEVER moved during the entire concert! He was just at the same position! So more than half the time when I was behind him, I was LITERALLY leaning on him! Really awkward if not for the music I must say. If there was an exchange of gender, it would have been considered sexual harrassment! LOL. Anyway, thank goodness he didn't push me back, cause I would have been in deep shit and trampled on. Oh and these two guys came along, and you know how before the concert starts, everyone tries to find themselves the best spot... and then they stood behind/beside me and one of them said 'Think we should stand here cause this girl *points to me* is ...' and before he could complete his sentence, I turned to him and then he said '...small.' and I said 'I already knew that long time ago, it's alright.' and he said to his friend 'I keep forgetting people have ears...' in a slightly guilty tone. Quite surprised I wasn't offended at all #signsofself-loving hahaha.
Azealia Banks has insane rapping skills. Enough said.
Tribes was alright, have never listened to their songs before :/ But this was when the moshing/pushing started.
Metronomy was amaaaazinggg. Their set lasted only half an hour and I did kinda wish it went on longer. But there was too much pushing by this time that I don't actually think people were paying much attention to Metronomy. But they've got stage presence (Y)
Click to viewSo during this time, I have pretty changed my location and sorta made friends with the girl beside me cause she kept apologizing every time someone pushed. So we started talking. It's quite funny, cause she's kinda big sized and this could be a good/bad thing. Good because she absorbs the impact of the pushing. Bad because if she doesn't absorb the impact and actual falls over, I'm dead. Hahaha. There was this point in time where she, her friend and I, we all raised our hands and somehow we couldn't even put it back down, so her friend actually had her arms resting on me!!! I was like wtf man but she was all apologetic haha, which is quite funny actually. Dance music was played during the interval between Metronomy and TDCC's set. Thank goodness my area weren't too hardcore on dance music, the most they did was bop their heads and moved a little. Smoked crowd went crazy, it was probably like a rave for them. The big girl and I were watching out for each other... until...
TDCC came on, and then it was all about fending for yourself. LOL. Everyone was there to catch TDCC. Obviously once they came on, people pushed like craaaazy and I ended up standing in front of two hardcore fans/guys. Once again, good and bad thing to be standing in front of hardcore fans. Good because you get the full experience of the gig. Bad because they CAN and WILL sing to every bit of the song, including the riffs hahaha. But they were nice guys. When Cigarettes in the Theatre played (first song of the set), holy crap, they started singing soooo loudly and rather out of tune that I told myself, no way I'll be standing in front of them for the entire gig. No need for me to think about how to get away because I was pushed away anyway by the smoked crowd. But one of the hardcore fans was nice enough to like make sure I was alright cause he was beside me the whole time I was pushed away haha.
So if I could, I would have drawn out the whole journey of where I started and where I ended up. Basically, it got to the point where I was right at the border of the smoked crowd. And honestly, before I even got there, I thought the people pushing were just pure assholes, but I realised otherwise because it was soooo obvious they were high. This dude was dancing with his eyes closed and guys behind him were avoiding him. You could tell when you looked at them. So I was just realllly scared of being caught in the middle of that crowd, but then again, got pushed again. Yeahhh, long story short, I got pushed a lot of times, LOL. Totally lost Jonathan during the gig, but somehow ended up beside each other in the end. He helped me to the front, but it was the spot where the girl with bushy hair was at... so that was quite funny. There were times I almostttt fell and thought I was gonna die in a stampede (quite sure I would have if I really did fall). But I gotta be fair, the sober crowd were all pretty nice, being apologetic most of the time and didn't exactly push unless they were pushed.
Enough of the pushing bit. Dancing to TDCC, best time everrr!!! Their songs are the best to dance and sing to! Kinda wish I could have seen more of Alex. Love his haircut! And Kevin... came on with crutches, DEDICATION TO THE ART DUDE (Y) !!! They sounded amazing, duhhh. They played almost the entire Tourist History album and a few new songs. Love how they mentioned that they can't wait to get back into the studio and get back here to Manchester (Y) #sweettalk And they played with lights during their gig! Like I've said before, lights really play a huuuuge role to a gig. Think about all the amazing gigs you've been to, if you have one where there wasn't a play with lights, then that gig probably shouldn't be on that list. Quite sure you wouldn't be able to think of one anyway. So here's one of the best songs:
Stayed back, didn't get a setlist... I honestly would have been able to get one if I had longer hands. They need to stop giving it to people who can reach out further, ugh. Bouncers at this particular venue ALWAYS don't wanna give out stuff but the roadie was really nice (and good looking may I add) and he threw me Kevin's pick, fuck yeah. Would have been much better if it had the logo/name on it, but beggars can't be choosy. Oh and then... they were playing songs and it was so funny how people were still dancing. Love the energy of people here!
And then there were all these NME posters on the partially wet floor! These posters were all up at the entrance and there were a few Arctic Monkeys ones which I went crazy over... but all of them were taken. Until I saw some on the ground, ran to it, and rushed with another girl. And it was funny cause she held it open and when I saw a face, I got excited because it was Alex Turner (or at least I saw/thought it was), might possibly have squealed, and took one. And she looked at me somewhat strangely and smiled. Must really have thought 'Crazy Asian'. Rolled up the poster and left to get a drink. It was not till my mind settled down and we were in a brightly lit place aka Sainsbury, when I unrolled the poster to take a look at it. And guess what... I saw 5 people on the poster. FUCKING FIVE PEOPLE. And I was like waaaaaaait a minute, there are only 4 members in Arctic Monkeys. And then I was like 'THIS ISN'T ARCTIC MONKEYS!!!!' and then Jonathan looked at it and we have stared at it for 10 secs before realising it was Tribes! :( Sooooooooo bummed. Would have been epic if I came back, and only realised AFTER I put it up on the wall. Oh wellz, it's up on my wall anyway. Why does the friggin lead have to have hair like Alex Turner's?! I feel sooo extremely cheated.
Anyway, about £20 for this gig, that being $40, which is sooo cheap! (Y) Probably one of the most worthwhile concerts and best fun (minus the moshing) You see... the experience of the gig really depends on where you stand. I could have easily opted out of the front moshing crowd at the beginning and stand behind but I chose not to, so I can't complain about the pushing. Unbelievable as it sounds, I didn't actually HATE the pushing. I just think it's unnecessary but it was quite fun (WHAT HAS GOTTEN INTO ME?!) I probably wouldn't have enjoyed the concert all that much if I was standing far behind. Honestly can't think of a concert where I've stood in the second half of the venue. Anyway, so glad I went for this or at least have caught TDCC live now! Best work out in Manchester. Would definitely lose A LOT of weight if I went to a gig like this everrryday!
And may I add, the more gigs I go to, the more I can't help but feel like I'm making a mistake by being in law school :/ Haha, but no worries, won't be dropping out unless there's a need to/there isn't a choice hahaha. And plus, these concerts are the only way I can be close to my first love, the only way I can reignite my first love hahaha.