Cobra Starship/The Academy Is concert
A lot of this is totally tl;dr, and is much more for my benefit than anyone else's. I blather on way more about other stuff rather than the actual concert, cause I find it hard to describe things like that apart from "it was rooly good" :)
First off, UNSW are lying liars who lie about where parking is available, don't have signs giving directions, have staff who lie to me, and generally the place sucks a whole lot. But after much fruitless circling (and finding hnix in a similar situation), we eventually found parking (and two spots even), in an awesome spot near the Roundhouse (concert venue).
While I was trying to straighten the car up, I noticed hnix wildly gesticulating at me, and couldn't figure out what the issue was. She had to come over to my car and hiss at me "Gabe fucking Saporta is right there", pointing at a tall purple hoodie-clad figure surrounded by short young women, just across the road. Abandoning my improperly parked car, we hotfooted across...so we could stand back and be awkward. There was security with him when hnix first spotted him, but Gabe was abandoned to the fans (or vice versa) pretty quickly.
After much mocking of ourselves, and commenting on how we stood out due to age and dress code, (and returning to properly park the cars), the horde of far-too-young scene kids had thinned off to the point where we summoned up the courage to say hi and ask for a photo (though I had to shove hnix around so she was standing next to Gabe and not next to me. Then we stood around some more, waiting for him to wander off (we'd heard someone say he was supposed to be at soundcheck, and he did seem about to leave when we'd pounced), as it seemed rude to just walk off as soon as getting a pic. But he kept chatting and signing and posing. And some more. So we just gave up and left.
Going around the building to try and find the bar to meet up with the others, I was like "Isn't that Jack the camera guy from TAI?", and lo, it was. We pass the queue, wasn't too bad at that point. Friends - engenda, sinden, special guest star jocondite from NZ and veronamay (not attending concert, just bringing us jocondite and hanging out) were located, dubious uni bar food was purchased, and we settled down in the mostly-empty beer garden, right near the side gate (which becomes important).
We're chatting away at a million miles an hour, as per usual, when I glance around at the entrance to the beer garden, and think "hey isn't that guy in the hat carrying a guitar case Chiz? Which would make...that...William Beckett..." I flailed and grabbed at hnix next to me (she's the biggest Beckett fan - and engenda was kicking her under the table by this point) and according to veronamay I stuttered a bit before spitting out "turn around!" sinden described the table as a group of meerkats, as we all saw and turned around to watch, which was quite apt. But I think we unnerved them with our staring and dead silence, cause William stared back with a rather worried look on his face. He did wave at hnix, possibly confusing hnix's involuntary spasmy flail when she saw him for her waving at him.
Of course, realising what utter dorks we are, we all burst out laughing while they were only just past us, and totally within earshot.
Once we'd finished eating, we discovered you could spy into the venue through a small gap at the actual bar. We saw a tiny bit of TAI's soundcheck before a venue guy got all huffy and ordered someone else "to get rid of these people", hmmfff.
We had really good timing in joining the queue around 6:30, as it grew rapidly from that point, and we were much closer to the front of the queue than the back by the time doors finally opened around quarter to 8. But waiting in the queue really brought home the demographic difference between us (not so much jocondite) and much of the audience - apparently the group behind us in the queue were in Year 8.
We positioned ourselves a bit right of centre, about 5 people back from the barricade. Gabe was spotted upstairs (the Roundhouse is literally round, and there's a first floor balcony that goes the whole way around, where people were spotted when not on stage themselves), and then William was around too, so Gabe hugged him and they jumped up and down together while hugging, while we flailed some more at the cute. However, I took a photo of Gabe which revealed what fandom has long suspected - HE IS EVIL!
There was an opening act, an Adelaide-based group called City Ride. They were ok, didn't really grab me, but we think the bass player (who was right in front of us) had evil sentient hair and it kinda creeped us out. It was after them, and the amount of shoving and assholery that was already evident, that I realised I totally wasn't over my thing about crowds and not being able to breathe. So I bailed and moved back and to the side a bit, where I was FREE and COULD BREATHE. And mind hnix's backpack, while being a no-friend loser ;) I could also see Gabe wandering around backstage before their set.
I had a pretty good view for Cobra's set, which was awesome, but I wish it'd been a bit longer. Gabe is crazy, Vicky is cute - hell, they're all cute, though we barely saw tiny Nate. I love their music a bit more than TAI to be honest :) How much damage has Gabe done with insane mic-cord swinging, anyway? *g* Wish I'd got the bit where he tapped on Ryland's neck to make him make noise (but I can't even remember which song that was!)
I take little video clips rather than pictures, since my pictures tend to turn out crap. There's some stuff that might be of general interest (especially in SoaP - Sisky doing the rap!). Video quality = watchable, audio quality ranges from kinda crappy to sort-of-adequate.
+ Send My Love To The Dancefloor - 4.77MB
+ Keep It Simple 1 - 1.94MB
+ Keep It Simple 2 - 2.62MB
Just some fun little clips.
+ Warmer in the Basement - 3.27MB
mostly Gabe's intro, with a bit of song
+ The Ballad Of Big Poppa And Diamond Girl - 3.96MB
+ Hollaback Boy - 6.88MB
+ Bring It (Snakes on a Plane) 1 - 15.90MB
The lighting people were conspiring against me here - despite the darkness, you can still make out Gabe and William having a nice hug while singing together.
+ Bring It (Snakes on a Plane) 2 - 17.27MB
I'd given up filming, happy I'd got some cute stuff and was now free to jump around more, when fucking Sisky appears on stage in a hoodie to do the rap!!! Knowing my fannish duty (or at least that canadiankracka would kill me *g*), I managed to get a bit of it :) Plus more of Gabe and William being cute.
There was a bit of a break before TAI, and engenda found me - she'd bailed on the scrum during CS after an elbow to her throat. We indulged in merch and WATER, then found littlerhymes and proteinscollide (+ someone who's name I forget). We had a bit more straight-on view for TAI, but with more people in our way.
TAI were also awesome. William is 90% leg and climbs and jumps around everywhere, and at the end did the big jump off the riser that I kept thinking he was about to do (so taunting us). They were also all adorable, Sisky looking hot in a singlet. Gabe came out and sang on Classifieds! I was sad at seeing so little of Butcher until he came out during the encore and sang at the front of the stage! And Chiz was wearing a Sydney Swans jersey for the encore - someone was happy to be home *g*.
+ Phrase that Pays - 7.17MB
+ LAX to O'Hare - 7.57MB
+ Black Mamba - 4.10MB
+ Slow Down 1 - 7.11MB
+ Slow Down 2 - 5.16MB
+ Slow Down 3 - 5.33MB
+ Classifieds 1 - 10.54MB
+ Classifieds 2/Bulls in Brooklyn - 22.40MB
Again, I'd done some filming, then fucking Gabe joins them on-stage *and* lighting was dark. They hate me, but this is fun - watch Gabe and Mike at the end of the song. Also has William talking and the beginning of BiB (sorry about the crazy stuff in middle - forgot camera was on *g*).
+ Bulls in Brooklyn - 1.79MB
nice strutting, William
+ Seed - 2.74MB
hot tambourine action
+ We've Got A Big Mess 1 - 15.43MB
+ We've Got A Big Mess 2 - 3.32MB
William stands on an amp and towers over the crowd like a really skinny Colossus.
+ Neighbours - 8.06MB
what a difference some half-decent lighting makes :)
+ Checkmarks - 5.72MB
bendy William
+ Encore: 40 Steps intro - 9.34MB
hey hnix, prime example of insincere-sounding William, re the necklace someone gave him *g*.
+ 40 Steps - 31.14MB
non-album track (they wrote it after Santi was done) - it's just William and Chiz, with Butcher then joining them to sing as well.
+ Almost Here - 5.28MB
Someday, instead of a band telling me that I was the best audience that they'd had this entire tour (as both CS and TAI did), I love someone to say "you know, you guys kind of suck compared to Melbourne" or "actually, you're only an ok audience, you could totally lift your game". It'd make a fun change *g*.
First off, UNSW are lying liars who lie about where parking is available, don't have signs giving directions, have staff who lie to me, and generally the place sucks a whole lot. But after much fruitless circling (and finding hnix in a similar situation), we eventually found parking (and two spots even), in an awesome spot near the Roundhouse (concert venue).
While I was trying to straighten the car up, I noticed hnix wildly gesticulating at me, and couldn't figure out what the issue was. She had to come over to my car and hiss at me "Gabe fucking Saporta is right there", pointing at a tall purple hoodie-clad figure surrounded by short young women, just across the road. Abandoning my improperly parked car, we hotfooted across...so we could stand back and be awkward. There was security with him when hnix first spotted him, but Gabe was abandoned to the fans (or vice versa) pretty quickly.
After much mocking of ourselves, and commenting on how we stood out due to age and dress code, (and returning to properly park the cars), the horde of far-too-young scene kids had thinned off to the point where we summoned up the courage to say hi and ask for a photo (though I had to shove hnix around so she was standing next to Gabe and not next to me. Then we stood around some more, waiting for him to wander off (we'd heard someone say he was supposed to be at soundcheck, and he did seem about to leave when we'd pounced), as it seemed rude to just walk off as soon as getting a pic. But he kept chatting and signing and posing. And some more. So we just gave up and left.
Going around the building to try and find the bar to meet up with the others, I was like "Isn't that Jack the camera guy from TAI?", and lo, it was. We pass the queue, wasn't too bad at that point. Friends - engenda, sinden, special guest star jocondite from NZ and veronamay (not attending concert, just bringing us jocondite and hanging out) were located, dubious uni bar food was purchased, and we settled down in the mostly-empty beer garden, right near the side gate (which becomes important).
We're chatting away at a million miles an hour, as per usual, when I glance around at the entrance to the beer garden, and think "hey isn't that guy in the hat carrying a guitar case Chiz? Which would make...that...William Beckett..." I flailed and grabbed at hnix next to me (she's the biggest Beckett fan - and engenda was kicking her under the table by this point) and according to veronamay I stuttered a bit before spitting out "turn around!" sinden described the table as a group of meerkats, as we all saw and turned around to watch, which was quite apt. But I think we unnerved them with our staring and dead silence, cause William stared back with a rather worried look on his face. He did wave at hnix, possibly confusing hnix's involuntary spasmy flail when she saw him for her waving at him.
Of course, realising what utter dorks we are, we all burst out laughing while they were only just past us, and totally within earshot.
Once we'd finished eating, we discovered you could spy into the venue through a small gap at the actual bar. We saw a tiny bit of TAI's soundcheck before a venue guy got all huffy and ordered someone else "to get rid of these people", hmmfff.
We had really good timing in joining the queue around 6:30, as it grew rapidly from that point, and we were much closer to the front of the queue than the back by the time doors finally opened around quarter to 8. But waiting in the queue really brought home the demographic difference between us (not so much jocondite) and much of the audience - apparently the group behind us in the queue were in Year 8.
We positioned ourselves a bit right of centre, about 5 people back from the barricade. Gabe was spotted upstairs (the Roundhouse is literally round, and there's a first floor balcony that goes the whole way around, where people were spotted when not on stage themselves), and then William was around too, so Gabe hugged him and they jumped up and down together while hugging, while we flailed some more at the cute. However, I took a photo of Gabe which revealed what fandom has long suspected - HE IS EVIL!
There was an opening act, an Adelaide-based group called City Ride. They were ok, didn't really grab me, but we think the bass player (who was right in front of us) had evil sentient hair and it kinda creeped us out. It was after them, and the amount of shoving and assholery that was already evident, that I realised I totally wasn't over my thing about crowds and not being able to breathe. So I bailed and moved back and to the side a bit, where I was FREE and COULD BREATHE. And mind hnix's backpack, while being a no-friend loser ;) I could also see Gabe wandering around backstage before their set.
I had a pretty good view for Cobra's set, which was awesome, but I wish it'd been a bit longer. Gabe is crazy, Vicky is cute - hell, they're all cute, though we barely saw tiny Nate. I love their music a bit more than TAI to be honest :) How much damage has Gabe done with insane mic-cord swinging, anyway? *g* Wish I'd got the bit where he tapped on Ryland's neck to make him make noise (but I can't even remember which song that was!)
I take little video clips rather than pictures, since my pictures tend to turn out crap. There's some stuff that might be of general interest (especially in SoaP - Sisky doing the rap!). Video quality = watchable, audio quality ranges from kinda crappy to sort-of-adequate.
+ Send My Love To The Dancefloor - 4.77MB
+ Keep It Simple 1 - 1.94MB
+ Keep It Simple 2 - 2.62MB
Just some fun little clips.
+ Warmer in the Basement - 3.27MB
mostly Gabe's intro, with a bit of song
+ The Ballad Of Big Poppa And Diamond Girl - 3.96MB
+ Hollaback Boy - 6.88MB
+ Bring It (Snakes on a Plane) 1 - 15.90MB
The lighting people were conspiring against me here - despite the darkness, you can still make out Gabe and William having a nice hug while singing together.
+ Bring It (Snakes on a Plane) 2 - 17.27MB
I'd given up filming, happy I'd got some cute stuff and was now free to jump around more, when fucking Sisky appears on stage in a hoodie to do the rap!!! Knowing my fannish duty (or at least that canadiankracka would kill me *g*), I managed to get a bit of it :) Plus more of Gabe and William being cute.
There was a bit of a break before TAI, and engenda found me - she'd bailed on the scrum during CS after an elbow to her throat. We indulged in merch and WATER, then found littlerhymes and proteinscollide (+ someone who's name I forget). We had a bit more straight-on view for TAI, but with more people in our way.
TAI were also awesome. William is 90% leg and climbs and jumps around everywhere, and at the end did the big jump off the riser that I kept thinking he was about to do (so taunting us). They were also all adorable, Sisky looking hot in a singlet. Gabe came out and sang on Classifieds! I was sad at seeing so little of Butcher until he came out during the encore and sang at the front of the stage! And Chiz was wearing a Sydney Swans jersey for the encore - someone was happy to be home *g*.
+ Phrase that Pays - 7.17MB
+ LAX to O'Hare - 7.57MB
+ Black Mamba - 4.10MB
+ Slow Down 1 - 7.11MB
+ Slow Down 2 - 5.16MB
+ Slow Down 3 - 5.33MB
+ Classifieds 1 - 10.54MB
+ Classifieds 2/Bulls in Brooklyn - 22.40MB
Again, I'd done some filming, then fucking Gabe joins them on-stage *and* lighting was dark. They hate me, but this is fun - watch Gabe and Mike at the end of the song. Also has William talking and the beginning of BiB (sorry about the crazy stuff in middle - forgot camera was on *g*).
+ Bulls in Brooklyn - 1.79MB
nice strutting, William
+ Seed - 2.74MB
hot tambourine action
+ We've Got A Big Mess 1 - 15.43MB
+ We've Got A Big Mess 2 - 3.32MB
William stands on an amp and towers over the crowd like a really skinny Colossus.
+ Neighbours - 8.06MB
what a difference some half-decent lighting makes :)
+ Checkmarks - 5.72MB
bendy William
+ Encore: 40 Steps intro - 9.34MB
hey hnix, prime example of insincere-sounding William, re the necklace someone gave him *g*.
+ 40 Steps - 31.14MB
non-album track (they wrote it after Santi was done) - it's just William and Chiz, with Butcher then joining them to sing as well.
+ Almost Here - 5.28MB
Someday, instead of a band telling me that I was the best audience that they'd had this entire tour (as both CS and TAI did), I love someone to say "you know, you guys kind of suck compared to Melbourne" or "actually, you're only an ok audience, you could totally lift your game". It'd make a fun change *g*.