I Come Alive / The Used, O2 Academy, London

I saw The Used last night. It was awesome.

Because I'm a cool kid and also because I don't like waiting outside a venue for the doors to open, I left the house in time to catch the second support act. Or that's what I'd thought. Transport for London totally had other plans. The train arrived as normal, but then proceeded to crawl from station to station because of some signalling problems around the Camden area. Which is pretty impressive seeing that said area is on the other end of the line. Without problems, the journey takes 36 minutes station to station. We'd barely made it to Stockwell in that time, where I left the Northern line to it's misery and jumped on the Vic line, which for once was running and not even experiencing delays. Made it to the venue with enough time left to drop off my coat, pop to the toilet, position myself in the audience and stand around for 15 minutes listening to the venue's idea of appropriate backing music.

I therefore can't really comment on the awfulness or awesomeness of the support acts. I assume they were ok as most people were still inside the venue and not hanging out outside waiting for the noise to finish.

The Used took the stage almost on time (there was a running order for the bands on the website), which was quite a surprise.

But before we take a look at the gig itself, let's have a moment to discuss the band's wardrobe choices. In particular Jepha's. Because, seriously, what was the man thinking? The only possible explanation would be that he didn't have any clean clothes left and had to steal them from an 80's metal band that was staying in the same hotel, although I have the suspicion he was actually serious about his outfit. It kinda matched his pornstar mustache. Still, I would've preferred to not see him in a jeans vest with studded shoulders (gold studs, too), a sleeveless loose fitting black top and light blue jeans. The only redeeming feature were his converse. I like it when men were converse, especially if they team them up with 501's. I probably would've jumped Jepha on stage if he'd done that (and subsequently would've gotten thrown out, but it would've so been worth it), so maybe he'd sensed danger and thought he'd wear something less jumpable. He also seems to have taken out most of his (visible) piercings, which is sad. He still looked hot as hell, though, which goes to prove that nothing can distort real beauty *le sigh* The rest of the band was unobtrusive. Ok, Dan was wearing a bright red headband (him and Jepha read the same magazines, no?), but he's the drummer for god's sake and they're not exactly famous for their fashion sense, which is why they get stashed away behind the drum kit. Bert was all rock singer and ball of cute** in band t-shirt, black shorts and black shoes vans. I approve. Not sure what Quinn was wearing, couldn't see him that well as he was on the other side of the stage and I kept getting distracted by Jepha's hotness and Bert's, errrr, Bert-ness. Which is absolutely fascinating. I'm assuming Quinn was wearing something as I most definitely would've noticed nudity and what he was wearing was fairly inoffensive.

** for considerably crazy and possibly physically dangerous values of cute

Now, the gig. Due to my lateness I started out pretty much at the back of the room. Which would've been annoying if it wasn't for my knack for active queuing. Some people might call it elbowing my way to the front, but I'm more subtle than that. I just fit in small spaces, am squishy and short enough for tall people to not notice me until it's too late and then I'm already in front of them. And I've got years of experience, perfected at numerous New Mode Army gigs, which most of the audience clearly didn't have as they were half my age. A few songs in I was 4 rows from the front, which was alright. I could've taken photos if I could've been arsed to get my phone out, but judging by the amount of cameras I've seen there'll be photos on the web soon, so why get all distracted from the gig if other people do all the work for me.

In terms of setlist, I'm not familiar enough with their albums having mostly fallen in love with the latest one (Vulnerable, it's awesome) to be able recognize the songs and even if I'd known the titles of the songs, my memory is shite, so this is stolen from setlist.fm and may be wrong:

Take It Away

The Bird And The Worm

Listening

Kiss It Goodbye

I Come Alive (I remember this one)

I Caught Fire (yay)

Hospital

The Taste Of Ink

All That I've Got

Buried Myself Alive

Blue And Yellow (yep, that was awesome, too)

Give Me Love

Put Me Out (bounce, bounce, bounce)

The Best Of Me

Paralyzed

an acoustic set of

Surrender (this was intense and insanely good)

On My Own

and, the encore

Blood On My Hands (awesome)

Pretty Handsome Awkward (definitely)

A Box Full Of Sharp Objects

I did my best to sing along to the songs I knew, jumped around and generally had a very, very good time. You could see that the band was having fun on stage, Bert is just amazing, and the energy of the crowd was there, although I've been at gigs where the air was almost electric, but it was pretty good going nevertheless. It was one of the roadies birthday the next day, which meant he got a birthday cake (the interesting bits of a naked man, including cock ring, dead classy) and 'happy birthday' sung by the audience.

Got home around midnight, wide awake, which was annoying seeing that I had to get up and go to work the next morning, but what can you do.

Definitely want more of that, and yes, next time The Used come to London, I'll (most likely, subject to availability) be there.

30 Seconds To Vyrt

Last night I watched my first webcast. I vyrted (not sure if that's a word, it might be, if not it's one now).

Due to the fact that I have been fashionably late in my crush on 30 Seconds To Mars, as in, only realizing that they're awesome right after they've finished their mahoosive, Guiness-Book-recorded world tour, I felt I had some catching up to do. They're not touring at all this year, at least that's what they're saying at the moment, but to make up for that and, I guess, to make some more money, they put on a 3 hour live webcast from their base in LA. It turned out that I didn't have any plans for last night, so I bought a ticket (£6, pretty reasonable considering that just going to the movies is £10 nowadays), got my speakers hooked up to my laptop and settled down in front of it at 11pm to get my 30StM fix.

The whole thing got off to a slightly rocky start, more like a massive clusterfuck of lagging sound and refreshing my browser, problems apparently caused by solar flares. The sun was probably just having a jealous fit and was trying to keep me from oogling the prettiest man alive. Anyway, 2 hours and various black screens, pictures of palm trees (see above) and cups of tea later they'd sorted out their issues, maybe told the sun to just fuck off and get over it, and what happened after that was pretty awesome.

There were acoustic songs, Q&A's, people randomly doing shit, Jared messing up and almost burning down the kitchen in an attempt to make vegan pancakes, various bits of footage from upcoming video releases and  new songs. Altogether almost 4 hours, kinda to make up for the problems at the start.

It was interesting to see them in their natural habitat. Tomo and Shannon looked pretty relaxed, Shannon more on the trippy-jetlagged side and Tomo reminding me of a happy little puppy, while Jared was a lot more tense because Vyrt is his baby, his company and he obviously wanted everything perfect. I also assume he's just a tense, OCD, control-freakish son-of-a-bitch anyway, which doesn't make him less adorable. He looked a lot more relaxed and natural in the "afterparty" bit of the broadcast, but I guess he never completely relaxes, ever. It felt a bit awkward a times with him, still lovable, but I just wanted to hug him and tell him it's all fine and he can just let go a little bit more...

So, £6 well spent for a night's entertainment. I've definitely had worse nights costing me more money! Looking forward to their next Vyrting (new word alert), but before that I've got a gig to attend. Yes, a gig! By another band that I've re-discovered via my recent plunge into slash fanfic (oh, the virtues of porn). This time I came to the party just in time for the tour, although the gig was already sold out when I heard about it. Which is somewhat the story of my life, it's not the first time this has happened and won't be the last, I'm the queen of procrastination and just don't like to plan my gigs in advance. Cue a bit of fretting and cursing, then trailing the net looking for people selling tickets. The search let to ebay, which was expected, and I've managed to secure a ticket. Ok, I had to pay £5 above face value, but I think I can just manage that.

Which means, provided that the people who sold me the ticket didn't rip me off (still a possibility), I get to see THE USED play the O2 Islington tomorrow. I'm pretty excited, can't exactly remember when I last went to see a band, but it's been a good while. The Used are also doing a meet&greet today in Kingston, but I'm not entirely sure what I would do there except stand around and stare at them. Never really seen the point in getting anything signed by a band and as much as I'd love to hang out with them, I wouldn't want it to be in a forced situation like a meet&greet where there's loads of fangirls crowding them and no way to connect and talk. I mean, if I would bump into them tonight in town somewhere, accidentally, I would be thrilled and totally up for hanging out (and, let's face it, the bassist is pure hotness, I wouldn't mind taking him home and do very dirty things with him). But those awkward "oh, hi, love your music, you're pretty" convos never worked for me.

I officially declare this my return to rock weekend. Here, have a pretty boy for the journey. \m/

source: last.fm

(ain't he cute? so looking forward to seeing him on stage tomorrow)

Laughter & Tiny Zen Gardens

I went to the Science Museum Lates last night. Haven't been there for a while, it's always fun, but I just don't really remember it's on unless someone reminds me. In this case, it was Babs.

So I trekked over to South Ken after work, got there early enough to queue in the pouring rain for about 15 minutes until they let us in. It wasn't as busy as some other times, probably because of the shitty weather, but still busy enough. The theme this time was "The Mind", which worked quite well with my recent bouts of the crazies, really.

To start off we attended a Laughter Yoga session which was, errrr, really funny. Not sure if it's something I would actually do on a regular basis, I mean, I think I laugh and giggle enough as it is. Doesn't take much to set me off, either. So year, that was fun.

Then we got lost a bit looking for the Speed Dating that my flatmate (who's very much on the hunt for a boyfriend, quite persistently so) insisted on attending. To our relief it was already fully booked, so no need to spend precious fun time talking to strangers. We wandered on to find the Bouncy Castle. Yes, they had a Bouncy Castle!!!! Unfortunately it came with a rather long queue, so I we just grabbed some space hoppers and bounced around on those. Ended up racing my flatmate on them and won, subsequently falling over rather ungracefully (and, I think, on video), but yay! I'm not really doing very well on the acting like a grown-up part...

Oh, and there were Zen Garden DIY kits. Quite small Zen Garden DIY kits, as in, chinese take-away box small. Was a bit disappointed, I like my Zen Gardens a bit bigger, but nevertheless got a kit and tried my luck. They even gave us some stones to put in them, which seemed to make my garden look a bit like boobies in a box. Ok, maybe I was pushing it (what did I say about that failing at being a grown-up?). The next one I did looked much more dignified, honest. Stole some of the pretty stones from some abandoned gardens as well to take home, didn't take the box and the sand, though.

We tried to get into the Silent Disco, but the queue was too long, so we just went upstairs again to the Launchpad to play around and be educated.

It was over way too quick, as always, definitely have to remember to keep checking for the next one.

Vive Le Long Weekend

Got back from spending a long weekend in France with a friend who's visiting from Australia last night. Really late last night, thanks to some shit going on at Gatwick and EasyJet being EasyJet. Subsequently have spent the day in a sleepy haze, well, almost a sleepy haze if it hadn't been for some chemical (all legal) help. Will be attempting an early night, but as most times when the sun goes down I'm actually not that tired anymore. I'm pretty sure I was meant to be a vampire.

So, weekend in France, you say? Mais oui. Which is about all the French I can still remember from back in school, I really should know more but for some reason it just never stuck. We caught a flight to Toulouse on Friday afternoon to spent the weekend at friends of my friend, who own a lovely little house about an hour away from the city. Once we were in town we did a bit of sightseeing, then drove out and got comfy. It was mainly meant to be a relaxed, catching-up kind of weekend, but we still got to see the Pyrenees (including snow), a bit of the village we stayed in (got massively rained on, though), the Space museum and Carcassonne. Lots of wine was drunk, quite a few pain au chocolat were eaten, we played games and had good food. I would've come back relaxed and rested if it hadn't been for the messed up flight home which had us getting back sometime beyond midnight. I'm still somewhat relaxed, but yeah, the whole rested affair kinda went out of the window when I crawled into bed around 2.30am only to get up at 6.50am again. Not fun!

I was a bit, but only a bit, surprised that the French grasp on vegetarianism is just as loose as the American one. I usually relax my dietary requirements when travelling, partly because I don't want to cause too much hassle and partly because I don't want to starve. The rules abroad usually are no meat, but fish is ok, and no milk/yoghurt/cream because that makes me ill, but cheese is acceptable. Eggs are tolerated as is questionable animal content in sauces and soups. I'm vegetarian (more or less strict) because it makes me feel better, the no-animal-cruelty aspect is a welcome bonus (and tends to cause quite a bit of smugness occasionally), but it's not the main reason.

Despite of that it's still surprisingly hard to find non-meat stuff that's not green salad or heavy on the dairy on the average menu. For some reason the fact that I don't want to substitute the lack of animal protein with dairy is a bit of a mystery to a lot of people. My friend's friends were lovely, we had yummy veggie stir-fries, but eating in restaurants was difficult, especially if you're hungry and want a main dish. And don't even try to find anything edible at Toulouse airport. In fact, you're lucky if you find anything to eat there if you arrive after 8pm...

But yeah, I didn't starve, my stomach didn't get too upset about the amount of cheese on everything and I hope I didn't stress people out too much.

Got a few nice things lined up for the rest of the week, too. There's a birthday dinner with Babs tomorrow, who always insists on taking me out for dinner when it's her birthday (it's a German thing). I'll probably try to hit the Bikram on Thursday as I haven't been for a while (since last Monday, to be precise), there's the going-away party for my Australian friend on Friday, a possible clothes-swap on Saturday (I'm assuming we're bringing the clothes in bags, not swap the ones we're actually wearing, but you never know with my friends) and a catch-up session with a friend that I haven't seen for bloody ages on Sunday.

I'll better get into a severely sociable mood and some sleep fast, otherwise the next few days will be a tad difficult.

Good Sushi & Bad Comedy

It was my flatmate's birthday on Tuesday which she decided to celebrate with Sushi and a comedy night in town, so I was being a good flatmate and tagged along. I should probably add at this point that while I absolutely love Japanese food, I'm not a particularly big fan of comedy in general and stand-up in particular. Consequently, my plan for the evening was to show up for the sushi and then come up with some lame excuse and fuck off before the comedy starts. Unfortunately I didn't quite work out that way. I actually rocked up in time for the food, which was nice (baked aubergine, edamame and pumpkin korroke) but the whole making an exit afterwards so didn't float, mainly because the comedy club was just opposite the restaurant and I got lured in by "oh, just stay for a bit" and "come on, it's my birthday". So I trudged along and basically regretted it almost immediately when we got greeted by our comedian for the night at the door. Yes, he was in charge of the guest list as well, which so didn't bode well for the rest of the (free, by the way) night. He did a bit of quizzing and charming, then let us go down the stairs into the dingy basement club. We secured seats, got drinks and waited for the show to begin.

Our comedian (forgot his name, not important coz you wouldn't want to see him anyway) finally took to the stage, greeted everyone and then started chatting to the guys front row. And then to the rest of the audience. It took me maybe 15 minutes to realise that this was his act. He went on about the people in the front row being German and American, made some lame joke or other, for the whole of his first set. In the break he mingled in the audience, clearly trying to find out where everybody else was from so he could incorporate that into his, well, whatever it was, it wasn't comedy. I was so ready to just run out but flatmate and her friends wouldn't let me. So I stayed for the second part of the drama, where I got mentioned ("you don't look like you're having as much fun as the other Germans" - no shit, Sherlock, how did you get that impression) just like all the Saffa's, Welsh and people from the Carphone Warehouse (a work night out, apparently). Not funny, really not funny.

Suffice to say that when the time came for our, errr, comedian to pass around a jug for donations (free night, right?) I just grabbed my shit and tried to get out. I felt guilty for not giving him money for a split second, but I really didn't want to encourage him to make this his day job, I owe the world that much.

And the moral of this entry is: If someone tries to lure you into a free comedy gig on a weeknight in a dingy basement club, be afraid, be very afraid. And run.

Sideways

It's actually been 3 months until I last posted. Wow. And it's not even that I don't have anything to report, I just keep getting distracted by... errr... stuff. Loads of stuff. Interesting stuff. Most of it in my head and on the interwebs, but quite a bit also in real life.

So, where to start. Yes, my hormones are still a bit out of whack. Slightly more than a bit out, really. Or maybe they're just gone back to normal, I remember feeling like this when I last went off the pill, so I guess that's my normal setting and whatever I was like/feeling before was the chemically subdued version. No, I'm not depressed. Far from it, actually. It's more that I've gone sideways, in very interesting ways. Off kilter, occasionally, but never in a bad way, although it's been quite a ride sometimes. Can't believe that artificial hormones actually made me less crazy. Well, the crazies are back and there's no way I'm going back to what it was before, I feel better and more alive. But yeah, there's been some things happening that probably wouldn't have if I'd stayed on the pill.

No need to look worried now. I'm not.

It started with me developing a sudden very active interest in pretty actors. That interest was always there in the background, I like pretty boys, I just got a bit more behind the thought than I've done in quite a few years. As mentioned in the last post, I internet-stalked Jared Leto pretty thoroughly, bordering on obsessive, although I'd never admit that in front of a jury.

This lead to me downloading and watching most of his movies (he hasn't made that many) and checking out his band 30 Seconds To Mars. They're good. Really good. Not all of it, but most of it. Kinda bummed I just missed their pretty mahoosive tour and didn't discover them like 5 years ago when they played tiny venues instead of arenas, but yeah, can't change that now. Listening to their music reminded me how much I love punk rock, which has now made it's way back on to my playlist. Heck, the fact that I've got a playlist again is pretty much due to my recent discovery of 30STM. I'm rather grateful for that.

Anyway, so I've googled Jared Leto loads, to get an idea of what he's like and what he's been up to. And yeah, pretty pictures there too, that man is shirtless like always. And he's got a penchant for wearing skirts. I like men in skirts. He's a sneaky bastard when it comes to his private life, not much to get out of interviews but can't really blame him for that. He does look cute while talking, though, and wow, that man's got a hell of a dirty mouth. According to certain websites he is kinky as fuck and hung like a horse (hey, not complaining about that thought at all), but that may be all lies. It's the internet, after all. And then, well, then I found the slash communities. I'm not proud of that and in my defense would like to state that I was shocked and appalled for a good few seconds, but fuck, some of the shit out there is awesome. I possibly spent every free minute in the last month or so reading smut. Good smut. Inspiring smut. Kinky smut (the best kind of smut). Did I mention smut? I like saying smut. Rolls of the tongue very smoothly.

Oh, now you really look worried. Honestly, I'm fine.
Are you googling Jared Leto now to see what I'm talking about?

My mind has descended into the gutter and is now totally refusing to come out because it likes it down there. I've got slash fics on my kindle (what better place to read porn than on the tube?) and even contemplated started writing some slash fiction of my own. Watch this space.
Actually, don't watch this space, I won't be posting slash here, but I can let you know where to find it if you ask nicely.

To even things out a bit and quieten down the voices in my head (not the bad kind of voices, mine usually don't tell me to kill people, they just talk on top of each other a lot and occasionally play music very loud), I've started going to Bikram Yoga again. Twice a week because anything more means I've got no private life. Can't believe how much I missed stretching and working out in an insanely hot and humid room. It makes my body break less and getting more flexible is never a bad thing. And yeah, my mind is calm for at least 60 of the 90 minutes, which is a plus.

I'm still working on letting the inner rock chick out, seem to be getting distracted by raves too much. There was an awesome one last weekend that I've only just recovered from (it was a pretty epic afterparty, too). But it's not forgotten.

There's some more stuff going on behind the scenes that's a bit too raw and/or top secret to talk about right now.

But yeah, I'm still alive and the men with the straight-jackets haven't got me (yet).

All's good.