Standing With Your Spotlight On Me

This is the gig round-up, because there has been an awesome amount of amazing gigs in my life in the past 10 days.

To start things off, THE USED supporting Evanescence at Wembley Arena on 9th November. I've never been to Wembley Arena before, I don't particularly like big venues, but there's this band obsession I've got and well, the things you do for love. So, Wembley Arena. Fits 12,500, which sounds bigger than the arena looked, but I trust them on this. I went there straight after work, which meant I had plenty time to get there and get myself organized once I was there. What I didn't expect was to bump into Dan and some of his friends. Didn't change my time plan one bit, but made my night a lot more awesome because sharing the experience with others always makes it better. It also meant I had people to make fun of the support-support with and people to help me get to the front who were just as excited about the Used and as indifferent about Evanescence than I was. Unfortunately most people in the audience were there to watch Evanescence and while the Used were awesome and totally rocked it, the audience were dead on their feet. As in, not moving. We tried to get a mosh pit going but failed and got angry looks. But hey, we tried. I watched the first few songs of Evanescence and then decided that I don't like them and left.

I almost managed to meet up with Jay after the gig because he was working around Wembley, but time wasn't on our side and I had to leave before he finished work.

Got home, showered, slept, showered again and made my way to Wood Green and Ally Pally for WARPED TOUR UK. I was early, mainly because TFL lies and had told me it would take 2 hours to get there. It took about 1.15 and I actually got to Alexandra Palace half an hour before the doors opened. There was quite an impressive queue in front of the gate but it was moving, because they were checking bags and tickets already and herding the people to another area, which meant once doors opened we could just walk in. Once inside I dumped my stuff in the cloak room and ventured to the Merch area, which turned out to be an insanely smart move as for most of the rest of the day you had to queue for about an hour to get in there. I acquired a Used t-shirt and checked out the other stuff, then wandered off to check out the rest of the venue. Ally Pally fits about 10,000 people and it was sold out, which meant there were serious crowds going on. The queues everywhere, and the insanely rude and stressed security, were the only downsides (if quite big ones). You couldn't get to parts of the venue at times or had to queue for quite some time to get there, which sucked. The rest of the organization was pretty impressive for what I've seen in the UK so far. You got a running order booklet, the bands actually started on time, they had shuttle busses running to the station after the show. As for the line up, well, that was pretty fucking awesome. And yes, it did feature The Used as special guest secret headliners.

The Used were on in the early evening and the show started at 2pm, which meant I had loads of time to check out other bands. Let us explore:

Band that opened the main stage and did a really fucking awesome job at it:
The Story So Far (they're also masters in the moshing-with-our-backs-to-the audience category)

Band with a name that I'm not entirely sure about:
The IT Boys (still not sure what they were all about)

Band I missed because I got distracted by the skate ramp and food:
AWOLnation

Band with the worst fashion sense:
No, not the Used (for once), but Blood On The Dancefloor (a skeleton morph suit thing on a chubby guy is not a good look, also, what were you thinking with the facepaint? Not impressed by the music, either)

Band I accidentally really liked:
Man Overboard (they were good!) - missed Breathe Carolina because of them...

Band with the most deceptive name:
Architects (seriously, I was expecting fluffy electronica and they almost paralysed me with metal, not impressed - I went to watch skateboarders instead)

Band I only watched because I was getting myself in position for the Used, but who really rocked:
3OH!3 (ridiculous name, ridiculous tunes, but really fucking catchy - I danced)

Band I thought sounded familiar and ended up knowing most of the songs of:
New Found Glory (on the East Stage while I was squeezed in second row of the West Stage)

Band I came there to see and who absolutely fucking smashed it:
THE USED (we need to talk about their fashion sense at some point, really, we do)

I left the main stage(s) behind at this point because it was getting crowded and focussed my attention on the side stage to watch:

Band that had the audience going like a rocket and best stage banter:
Less Than Jake (so much fun)

Band I was excited about which didn't quite live up to it:
Bowling For Soup (they were still good, though)

Most surreal moment of the day:
sitting in the portaloo at the back of the main room while Lost Prophets launched into Last Train Home. The portaloo fucking shook! Almost panicked and probably never peed that fast in my life...

The main stage set up for Warped is great, basically the main stage is split in West and East and while a band is playing on one side, the band on the other side is setting up - which means there are almost no breaks! Awesome idea, wish more festivals would do this. Also, each band (except for the headlining headliners) only gets 30 minutes, which means they all give their best to kill you.

Overall, I really enjoyed Warped and will return next year if the line up is as good as this year. Would be nice if they find a better venue than Ally Pally, though...

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the main event in the smallest venue so far:

THE USED in the Luxor in Koeln. I knew the venue from the time I lived in Cologne, it's absolutely tiny (500 capacity, fuck yeah) and not only did it  mean I would see the Used up close and kinda personal, I also managed to meet up with a lovely friend of mine. The gig was the best so far, the Used seemed to really enjoy the small venue and I got to touch Bert... it's hard to describe the awesomeness, so here's a picture:

Yes, that mic is Jepha's and I was standing right in front of him. He's even cuter up close...

I'm now in the throes of a massive post-gig depression. I NEED MORE THE USED!!!!
(I might get it, there was mention of a headlining tour next year, yay!)

I also got a cold.

Send pretty inky boys to my rescue...