Best. Concert. Ever.
Jan. 15th, 2012 11:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
astra_auroraI'm ba-ack. And over the fucking moon. I went to the Combichrist concert! I met ZooG! I hugged ZooG!
OK, I'll stop fangirling now.
But yeah. The concert was pretty awesome. I'll start at the beginning.
Woke up at 6:30 AM. Headed out at 7 AM to catch the bus at 7:40. Naturally, it didn't turn up until 8:10. Anyway, I had a nice long five-hour drive home. I got bored as hell. Anyway, I finally got back to Central, Grace picked me up and we went back to her place. Then we pretty much did nothing (excepting watching the first episode of Sherlock season 2) until it was time to go. We stopped at Norton Street and I got dinner (Grace got a scone, and I was pretty pissed at her- a scone is not dinner, people, and considering that she thought she'd probably drink a bit, I wasn't impressed- I'm not going to be responsible for towing a pissed friend around USYD campus at 1 in the morning). Anyway, we got to the Manning Bar, and joined a crowd of goths including some dressed in the coolest outfits I've ever seen, and two older women who looked like teachers. I spent most of the waiting time discussing the University's beautiful architecture to Grace, who naturally wasn't interested at all. *sighs and shakes head*
Anyway, we finally got inside, and squealed a bit over the merch table (I love merch!) and the first act, Horrorwood, started playing. They seemed like pretty generic metal/industrial- perfectly OK, just not my thing. Grace and I hung around on the balcony until their set was over, and then we went back inside to watch Shiv-R. They were fucking badass. Pete turned into a demonic monster of industrial badassery before our eyes, and belted out the songs like his life depended on it. Grace was hoping for 'Zeitgeist' and I rather wanted 'Taste' but instead we got the following: 'Incision', 'Blood Spatter', 'Stripped', 'The End Pt 1', 'Parasite', 'Pharmaceutical Grade' and 'God is Art' (not in that order). The best part were 'Parasite' and 'Blood Spatter'- they'd altered the lyrics, and it was epic. After they were done, we hung around for a while, and then it was ZooG's set.
After we watched him set up, he then proceeded to fuck up the weirdest mix of songs ever. The guy's got a music library after my own's heart. The mix included 'Money' by The Flying Lizards, Dizzee Rascal's 'Flex', 'Skinny Little Bitch' and '100%' by Angelspit, and much to my delight, Goldfrapp's 'Lovely 2 C U'- I mean, I never ever expected ZooG of all people to like Goldfrapp- but it was awesome nevertheless. When he was nearly done, he got told he had to do another twenty minutes, so he ended up playing some of the more clubby Angelspit songs like 'Vermin' and 'Deadly'. A bit of the way through, Grace and I went to say hi to Wendy and Pete, who were both happy to see us. I also spotted several of the people who'd been at the album launch, which was pretty awesome.
After that, we ended up sitting in the merch room 'cause my legs were hurting from all the dancing. The last opener was an act called Lab 4- another DJ, but using more darker metal/industrial stuff. Grace headed off to dance and popped back in occasionally, and I spent most of it staring at the ceiling. Finally, it was Combichrist's turn. The floor filled up with all the people who'd been outside waiting for them, I ended up watching for a few minutes... and they bored the hell out of me.
Not really what I was expecting.
I mean, Combichrist have a hell of a rep for being badass rockers. And then they just bored me. OK, when they played songs I liked, that worked. But I was a lot happier sitting by myself in the almost-empty merch room than standing next to Pete Crane, watching Combichrist play while Grace danced her ankles off on the dance floor.
OK, to be fair, the merch room had Wendy Crane and the merch girls. I didn't actually talk to the merch girls, but I did end up talking to Wendy, who is even more of a sweetheart than I thought (when Grace and I went to talk to her after Shiv-R finished playing, her first reaction was to hug us both and say how glad she was that we could make it). It was interesting- see, Grace and I ended up in the merch room after each set, and I spent most of it staring into space thinking about the ceiling. The problem was, while Pete and Wendy and ZooG were all there, they were all talking to other people, and I'm antisocial, shy and polite- so I couldn't have just hung around them waiting for a gap in the conversation. So instead I stared at the ceiling and thought about random shit. Until Combichrist's set.
Grace likes Combichrist more than I do- she loves heavy stuff, while I'm more straight rock. Plus, she's a sucker for the dancefloor. So she was out there jumping around, and I went and sat near Wendy and Merch Girl 2 (I never did catch her name) and stared at the ceiling some more. Then ZooG turned up (he'd brought sandwiches for the merch girls, 'cause he rocks like that) and then he and Wendy and the merch girls started talking. I stared into space some more until Wendy decided to talk to me, and I mentioned that I would love to be part of the conversation but I didn't want to interrupt as it seemed like a private conversation, and that I really wanted to meet ZooG. Wendy promptly dragged me over to him and introduced us, and then we had a really fun conversation about anything we could think of (made a bit awkward because Combichrist were so goddamn loud- seriously, were the speakers made of titanium or something? and every second sentence, one of us wouldn't be able to hear the other). I ended up asking him about everything I could think of, including music videos and future tours, and the fact that he's a Goldfrapp fan. Yeah. You could have knocked me down with a feather when 'Lovely 2 C U' started playing in the middle of his set.
(On the video note, I wish they could have released that video for 'Let Them Eat Distortion' he told me about. From the sound of it, it would have been awesome. I didn't quite catch why they couldn't release it- but I did hear something about a giant, specially-made guillotine and the best photoshoot ever.) Eventually, I went to find Grace, couldn't find her (they say needle in a haystack, well, try finding someone in black in the middle of a mosh pit) but I found her on the second try. Eventually, she dived back into the crowd and ZooG and I talked some more until the show ended. Then everyone came out and we all hung around until the staff kicked us out. It was fucking badass.
There's more to my holiday than that, of course, but that was the highlight.
I'm glad to be home. It's good.
OK, I'll stop fangirling now.
But yeah. The concert was pretty awesome. I'll start at the beginning.
Woke up at 6:30 AM. Headed out at 7 AM to catch the bus at 7:40. Naturally, it didn't turn up until 8:10. Anyway, I had a nice long five-hour drive home. I got bored as hell. Anyway, I finally got back to Central, Grace picked me up and we went back to her place. Then we pretty much did nothing (excepting watching the first episode of Sherlock season 2) until it was time to go. We stopped at Norton Street and I got dinner (Grace got a scone, and I was pretty pissed at her- a scone is not dinner, people, and considering that she thought she'd probably drink a bit, I wasn't impressed- I'm not going to be responsible for towing a pissed friend around USYD campus at 1 in the morning). Anyway, we got to the Manning Bar, and joined a crowd of goths including some dressed in the coolest outfits I've ever seen, and two older women who looked like teachers. I spent most of the waiting time discussing the University's beautiful architecture to Grace, who naturally wasn't interested at all. *sighs and shakes head*
Anyway, we finally got inside, and squealed a bit over the merch table (I love merch!) and the first act, Horrorwood, started playing. They seemed like pretty generic metal/industrial- perfectly OK, just not my thing. Grace and I hung around on the balcony until their set was over, and then we went back inside to watch Shiv-R. They were fucking badass. Pete turned into a demonic monster of industrial badassery before our eyes, and belted out the songs like his life depended on it. Grace was hoping for 'Zeitgeist' and I rather wanted 'Taste' but instead we got the following: 'Incision', 'Blood Spatter', 'Stripped', 'The End Pt 1', 'Parasite', 'Pharmaceutical Grade' and 'God is Art' (not in that order). The best part were 'Parasite' and 'Blood Spatter'- they'd altered the lyrics, and it was epic. After they were done, we hung around for a while, and then it was ZooG's set.
After we watched him set up, he then proceeded to fuck up the weirdest mix of songs ever. The guy's got a music library after my own's heart. The mix included 'Money' by The Flying Lizards, Dizzee Rascal's 'Flex', 'Skinny Little Bitch' and '100%' by Angelspit, and much to my delight, Goldfrapp's 'Lovely 2 C U'- I mean, I never ever expected ZooG of all people to like Goldfrapp- but it was awesome nevertheless. When he was nearly done, he got told he had to do another twenty minutes, so he ended up playing some of the more clubby Angelspit songs like 'Vermin' and 'Deadly'. A bit of the way through, Grace and I went to say hi to Wendy and Pete, who were both happy to see us. I also spotted several of the people who'd been at the album launch, which was pretty awesome.
After that, we ended up sitting in the merch room 'cause my legs were hurting from all the dancing. The last opener was an act called Lab 4- another DJ, but using more darker metal/industrial stuff. Grace headed off to dance and popped back in occasionally, and I spent most of it staring at the ceiling. Finally, it was Combichrist's turn. The floor filled up with all the people who'd been outside waiting for them, I ended up watching for a few minutes... and they bored the hell out of me.
Not really what I was expecting.
I mean, Combichrist have a hell of a rep for being badass rockers. And then they just bored me. OK, when they played songs I liked, that worked. But I was a lot happier sitting by myself in the almost-empty merch room than standing next to Pete Crane, watching Combichrist play while Grace danced her ankles off on the dance floor.
OK, to be fair, the merch room had Wendy Crane and the merch girls. I didn't actually talk to the merch girls, but I did end up talking to Wendy, who is even more of a sweetheart than I thought (when Grace and I went to talk to her after Shiv-R finished playing, her first reaction was to hug us both and say how glad she was that we could make it). It was interesting- see, Grace and I ended up in the merch room after each set, and I spent most of it staring into space thinking about the ceiling. The problem was, while Pete and Wendy and ZooG were all there, they were all talking to other people, and I'm antisocial, shy and polite- so I couldn't have just hung around them waiting for a gap in the conversation. So instead I stared at the ceiling and thought about random shit. Until Combichrist's set.
Grace likes Combichrist more than I do- she loves heavy stuff, while I'm more straight rock. Plus, she's a sucker for the dancefloor. So she was out there jumping around, and I went and sat near Wendy and Merch Girl 2 (I never did catch her name) and stared at the ceiling some more. Then ZooG turned up (he'd brought sandwiches for the merch girls, 'cause he rocks like that) and then he and Wendy and the merch girls started talking. I stared into space some more until Wendy decided to talk to me, and I mentioned that I would love to be part of the conversation but I didn't want to interrupt as it seemed like a private conversation, and that I really wanted to meet ZooG. Wendy promptly dragged me over to him and introduced us, and then we had a really fun conversation about anything we could think of (made a bit awkward because Combichrist were so goddamn loud- seriously, were the speakers made of titanium or something? and every second sentence, one of us wouldn't be able to hear the other). I ended up asking him about everything I could think of, including music videos and future tours, and the fact that he's a Goldfrapp fan. Yeah. You could have knocked me down with a feather when 'Lovely 2 C U' started playing in the middle of his set.
(On the video note, I wish they could have released that video for 'Let Them Eat Distortion' he told me about. From the sound of it, it would have been awesome. I didn't quite catch why they couldn't release it- but I did hear something about a giant, specially-made guillotine and the best photoshoot ever.) Eventually, I went to find Grace, couldn't find her (they say needle in a haystack, well, try finding someone in black in the middle of a mosh pit) but I found her on the second try. Eventually, she dived back into the crowd and ZooG and I talked some more until the show ended. Then everyone came out and we all hung around until the staff kicked us out. It was fucking badass.
There's more to my holiday than that, of course, but that was the highlight.
I'm glad to be home. It's good.
