Shihad/Killjoy//the Powerstation/06-08-10
So last night me and Teri got to go see Shihad at the Powerstation, performing all of Killjoy in order. It was pretty grate, you guys, I LOVE MY BAAAAAAAAAND.
It was a bit of a head-trip for me in a couple respects (poor Teri. She had to hear about them. Ad nauseam.) -- firstly, because I hadn't been to the Powerstation in I-think about six years -- it's been closed down, refurbished, and gone through I think two new owners if not more in the intervening years -- and so it's not quite as I remember it inside. It is significantly less skodie (\o/) which is nice, and the bathrooms are very swish now (though - if I have trouble with your doorlocks sober, you should probably worry about how the drunk people will do with them. I AM JUST SAYING.) and there's very nice wall decoration and everything, and the accoustics are still just as good as I remember. Sadly the pillar that bb!Claire used to lean against on the step up from the main pit is gone. Farewell, pillar, you were good to me. :D Also idk if they've fixed up the sound system extra or I am just old, but MAN it was LOUD. (T: "You're not vibrating, they're earthbending!") Like, "praise tawg for my earplugs because otherwise I'd have to go hide" loud.
Mostly it was just weird, because this was the very first place I ever saw Shihad play - back in 2000 (lol n00biest, for a New Zealander. They've been together over 20 years**), and I think I won those tickets, actually. And it's also the venue where we spent half of our time in high school, back when we went to shows every week and were awesome and hardcore.
...side note, I have so lost most of my hardcore. It's kind of sad. We stood just outside of the pit last night, and I thought "man, I used to be IN THAT, and be OKAY with that" and now I am TOTALLY NOT. :( But we could see rly rly well and the band went off and I still got to bounce until I was sore, so in the grand scheme of things it is not terrible. I am just silly.
Also, I am still mentally adjusted to a world in which any show we see involves lining up before doors. LOL NO. We turned up last night an hour after doors, and not only had the support act not even started yet (doors were super early. IDKY they wanted everyone THAT liquored up before they started, but w/e), but there was still rail left. WTAF. And I don't just mean at that venue - although that is how it used to be when we went to a lot more shows - but for Shihad especially. The crowds they pull here now are still filled with people who are hardcore into the band, but there just seem to be fewer of them nowadays. It was terribly disconcerting when we saw them at the Town Hall in 2008 and the place wasn't even half full - they used to sell out every venue they played here. Way to not pay attention, NZ. :/ Also, it was kind of funny to see that the crowd was basically the same as it would've been ten years ago, by which I mean: ALL TEN YEARS OLDER. Heeeee. We had a lot of fun people-watching. T-shirt bingo was high-scoring, and there was also an hilarious amount of bro-on-bro action in the crowd. Oh, drunk Kiwi guys, you are apparently very different to drunk North American guys in that regard.
And here, now I am going to just cut and paste what I wrote about the show when I got home last night:
Hilarious, it took till four songs in to get the first crowd surfer. (This is also not How It Used to Be. Hee. Although had I been in the crowd, I would've been super grateful for the many-fewer-than-normal crowdsurfers, since i fucking hate them with the fire of a thousand suns. ALL OF THE HATE.) The crowd was waaaaay into it, the mosh pit was clearly made up of a lot of really drunk people, because it had no cohesion for a lot of the time (which I suspect was largely contributing to the lack of crowdsurfing - it wasn't thick enough to actually do much half the time), and it was pretty funny to watch.
The third crowd surfer was a dude in a suit and tie. Now I have seen everything.
It took till Bitter for Jon to start bleeding. He held up his hand after the song and was all proud of himself and then all "just like old times!" and then made a joke about how his tech asked if he wanted a bandaid, but he said he'd just drop his pick then, so they'd carry on with the blood.
He also got to the end of- ack, I forget which song - and then bounced back to the mic and announced "I thought my riffing arm was going to fall off!" ♥! ♥ &Jon;
Deb's Nite Out was (lol shocker) probably my favourite, although I have at least heard it a respectable amount of times before. For What You Burn was AWESOME, too, and it's been a long enough break since the last time I heard Screwtop that I appreciated that in the encore, too. Silvercup I know I have heard live before, but I am buggered if I can remember when. Totally looking forward to the General Electric tonight, too, because a) band! and b) always awesome! But also c) I am a bad fan but it was the album I bonded to first and I know it so welllllll and love it, YAY.
He came back on after the encore break, picked up the towel he'd wiped his hand on (slightly scary amount of blood on it) and then wrapped it around himself sarong-style. OH JON. Then his tech picked up the towel between thumb and forefinger and held it out in front of him with this cinematic expression of "ewww" as he carried it off the stage, to much collective lol.
Jon started talking after the first encore song (which I can't remember the name of right now), and was saying how HE couldn't remember anything but the first verse; "I took a whole Stephen King novel that's this big" gestures an inch or so with fingers "and put it into a four minute metal song. I don't even know how I fit all those words in." <333333
Karl remains the smiliest bass player. Tom remains awesome. Phil remains adorable and quite far away from us. /stageleftkids
**Four of my favourite bands have pretty much been together for twenty years, if not more. My other favourite band is made up of dudes who are barely over twenty. ONE OF THESE THINGS IS NOT LIKE THE OTHERS. Lololol*facepalm*. :D
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It was a bit of a head-trip for me in a couple respects (poor Teri. She had to hear about them. Ad nauseam.) -- firstly, because I hadn't been to the Powerstation in I-think about six years -- it's been closed down, refurbished, and gone through I think two new owners if not more in the intervening years -- and so it's not quite as I remember it inside. It is significantly less skodie (\o/) which is nice, and the bathrooms are very swish now (though - if I have trouble with your doorlocks sober, you should probably worry about how the drunk people will do with them. I AM JUST SAYING.) and there's very nice wall decoration and everything, and the accoustics are still just as good as I remember. Sadly the pillar that bb!Claire used to lean against on the step up from the main pit is gone. Farewell, pillar, you were good to me. :D Also idk if they've fixed up the sound system extra or I am just old, but MAN it was LOUD. (T: "You're not vibrating, they're earthbending!") Like, "praise tawg for my earplugs because otherwise I'd have to go hide" loud.
Mostly it was just weird, because this was the very first place I ever saw Shihad play - back in 2000 (lol n00biest, for a New Zealander. They've been together over 20 years**), and I think I won those tickets, actually. And it's also the venue where we spent half of our time in high school, back when we went to shows every week and were awesome and hardcore.
...side note, I have so lost most of my hardcore. It's kind of sad. We stood just outside of the pit last night, and I thought "man, I used to be IN THAT, and be OKAY with that" and now I am TOTALLY NOT. :( But we could see rly rly well and the band went off and I still got to bounce until I was sore, so in the grand scheme of things it is not terrible. I am just silly.
Also, I am still mentally adjusted to a world in which any show we see involves lining up before doors. LOL NO. We turned up last night an hour after doors, and not only had the support act not even started yet (doors were super early. IDKY they wanted everyone THAT liquored up before they started, but w/e), but there was still rail left. WTAF. And I don't just mean at that venue - although that is how it used to be when we went to a lot more shows - but for Shihad especially. The crowds they pull here now are still filled with people who are hardcore into the band, but there just seem to be fewer of them nowadays. It was terribly disconcerting when we saw them at the Town Hall in 2008 and the place wasn't even half full - they used to sell out every venue they played here. Way to not pay attention, NZ. :/ Also, it was kind of funny to see that the crowd was basically the same as it would've been ten years ago, by which I mean: ALL TEN YEARS OLDER. Heeeee. We had a lot of fun people-watching. T-shirt bingo was high-scoring, and there was also an hilarious amount of bro-on-bro action in the crowd. Oh, drunk Kiwi guys, you are apparently very different to drunk North American guys in that regard.
And here, now I am going to just cut and paste what I wrote about the show when I got home last night:
Hilarious, it took till four songs in to get the first crowd surfer. (This is also not How It Used to Be. Hee. Although had I been in the crowd, I would've been super grateful for the many-fewer-than-normal crowdsurfers, since i fucking hate them with the fire of a thousand suns. ALL OF THE HATE.) The crowd was waaaaay into it, the mosh pit was clearly made up of a lot of really drunk people, because it had no cohesion for a lot of the time (which I suspect was largely contributing to the lack of crowdsurfing - it wasn't thick enough to actually do much half the time), and it was pretty funny to watch.
The third crowd surfer was a dude in a suit and tie. Now I have seen everything.
It took till Bitter for Jon to start bleeding. He held up his hand after the song and was all proud of himself and then all "just like old times!" and then made a joke about how his tech asked if he wanted a bandaid, but he said he'd just drop his pick then, so they'd carry on with the blood.
He also got to the end of- ack, I forget which song - and then bounced back to the mic and announced "I thought my riffing arm was going to fall off!" ♥! ♥ &Jon;
Deb's Nite Out was (lol shocker) probably my favourite, although I have at least heard it a respectable amount of times before. For What You Burn was AWESOME, too, and it's been a long enough break since the last time I heard Screwtop that I appreciated that in the encore, too. Silvercup I know I have heard live before, but I am buggered if I can remember when. Totally looking forward to the General Electric tonight, too, because a) band! and b) always awesome! But also c) I am a bad fan but it was the album I bonded to first and I know it so welllllll and love it, YAY.
He came back on after the encore break, picked up the towel he'd wiped his hand on (slightly scary amount of blood on it) and then wrapped it around himself sarong-style. OH JON. Then his tech picked up the towel between thumb and forefinger and held it out in front of him with this cinematic expression of "ewww" as he carried it off the stage, to much collective lol.
Jon started talking after the first encore song (which I can't remember the name of right now), and was saying how HE couldn't remember anything but the first verse; "I took a whole Stephen King novel that's this big" gestures an inch or so with fingers "and put it into a four minute metal song. I don't even know how I fit all those words in." <333333
Karl remains the smiliest bass player. Tom remains awesome. Phil remains adorable and quite far away from us. /stageleftkids
**Four of my favourite bands have pretty much been together for twenty years, if not more. My other favourite band is made up of dudes who are barely over twenty. ONE OF THESE THINGS IS NOT LIKE THE OTHERS. Lololol*facepalm*. :D
This entry also posted at dreamwidth.
comments/ view comments at dreamwidth.