Top Tunes: May

HalfNoise - Mountain

"But half of me is half of you I runaway so you would know. And half of me is half of you I wonder why I let you go"

Aaron West and The Roaring Twenties - You Ain't No Saint

"I grew up and grew dull and you say I wished I hadn't"

We Are The In Crowd - Reflections
"Pinning paper wings on problems hoping that they'll fly away, turn our backs, ignore the truth if they can't support the weight"

La Dispute - a Letter
"I think the thing is that I shut off from everything. From friends and family and my own ambitions. From having fun. I just shut off from everything"

Neck Deep - Crushing Grief (No Remedy)
"I'm sick and tired of all your bullshit when all it is who can scream the loudest"

YOUTUBE PLAYLIST

Take Me Back: La Dispute (17/05/14)

In typical fashion we were late for the doors and missed the first support act Eugene Quell but we turned up just in time for support band O'Brother who came out all clashing drums and powerful vocals that created a mixed reaction in the packed out crowd. There were moments of clarity where the instruments matched Tanner Merritt's angst ridden outbursts but after a while the songs blended into one and the drawn out delivery of every lyric started getting a little too pretentious even for a room full of Jesse Lacey worshippers. There was a touch of Muse about them with the way Merritt projected his vocals whilst the music was more fitting to the headliners. They closed their set and left me wishing i'd checked them out beforehand so I wasn't trying to work out exactly what sound they were going for.

Now it's a week on and i'm still gracing the bruises from the crowd surfing, crowd crushing sweltering hot and very drunk room that Clwb had become. And if you think for a split second i'm complaining then you're entirely wrong. From the moment La Dispute broke into "HUDSONVILLE, MI 1956" the crowd were eagerly trying to keep up with the storytelling genius - what I mean is successfully managing to passionately yell every other word in time.
With a storming set list the crowd got rowdier as the night progressed and the reaction to old and new songs alike were just as excitable instead of being in favour of one or the other like is (unfortunately) common at gigs. After taking several shoes to the head during "Stay Happy There" and "St. Paul..." the set - and Jordan Dreyer who had been bouncing around like a kid that had been injected with caffeine - slowed down for the gorgeous sounding "Woman (In Mirror)." 

With the crowd chilled out Jordan introduced their next song "a Letter" with the line 'this song is for anyone who suffers from a mental illness' and the atmosphere in the room plummeted to a sombre one. The entire room sung along, some joining the band in holding back tears. The frantic crowd returned the second "Andria" kicked in and my brother - who lives under a rock and didn't know Rooms Of The House existed - was shocked at the slightly more upbeat sound to "For Mayor In Splitsville." 

Announcing this was their last song and thanking us for making them feel at home the band launched into "You And I In Unison" and everyone was jumping on top of each other determined to get closer to these musical gods. Somewhere in the ruckus a guy lost his shoe and nearly decapitated me trying to give me a sweaty forehead kiss for finding it - uh, thanks dude. The band disappeared to the non-existent back stage - well the band stayed on stage awkwardly staring while Dreyer sat to the side on his own - and the crowd tried several different chants before settling for screaming "KING PARK" at the top of our lungs. Laughing his way back on stage Dreyer joked how that didn't go quite to plan before the band, of course, closed with "King Park" and the room just about lost it. There was no holding back on anyone's part.

Take Me Back: The Wonder Years (06/05/14)

(Photo from UK tour 2013)

It couldn't have been anymore than a week after their Clwb November date that The Wonder Years announced another UK tour once again heading through my favourite gig city - Cardiff. Snapping up our tickets i've pretty much been counting down the days until the best live band hit our shores.
Halfway through my day at work I got a phone call from my mum telling me my brother was ill, for me to later discover that he was in fact so hungover he could barely stand up. So unimpressed that he was bailing on me I dropped in to his house and made him feel so guilty for being a total bloody idiot that he's paid for our Taking Back Sunday tickets but not guilty enough to change his mind about coming. With all my friends in London I made my dad come with me... mostly so there's someone to hold my phone when it gets crazy. 

By the time we made it to the venue State Champs were just finishing up their set so I found a spot near the front and waited for A Loss For Words. When they took to the stage everyone wandered over from the bar and instantly threw themselves into action as the band opened with "Hold Your Breath." They made it all about the crowd with Matty riling us up and jumping to join us in the pit and even handing us his mic for last song 'Wrightsville Beach." People in the crowd who were unfamiliar with the band even had the chance to join in with the hype when they threw a Jackson 5 cover into their set that had the floor swap moshing for grooving. 

Now, there will never quite be the words to describe a Wonder Years gig. From the instantaneous rush the second they're on stage, to the crowd bellowing the words back so unbelievably loud there is no way anyone hobbles out the venue with fully working vocal chords. There's a sense of unity that i've never felt anywhere else and I don't know whether it's the way we sing those songs for a brief hour and half completely unashamed of admitting lyrics that feel like the darkest parts of ourselves. Or whether it's when you're singing these songs with people you've never met - for the time you're there you all just get it and these strangers feel like old friends. And then there's the absence of the usual bullshit you get at gigs. The people who purposely shove you for the hell of it, the ones who don't help anyone up when they've fallen and the losers who use crowds as an excuse to grope girls. The Wonder Years fans somehow manage to create this perfect crowd where every person is equal whether you're a girl a boy or whatever the hell else. Aliens could show up and I don't think anyone would think anything of it. For me I feel more at home at their gigs than I do anywhere else in the world.

After i've left their gigs I think i've made up this magic and with the venue being that much bigger this time I was slightly anxious it wouldn't be the same but the moment the opening chords of "There,There" struck I knew it would be just as incredible as all the other times. Within thirty seconds it felt like everyone had been standing in torrential rain for hours and after the second song - "Passing Through a Screen Door" - I was a little bit horrified to discover my dad was still in the pit. He'd been awake since 4:30am and still had his glasses on. There's a reason I told him to stand at the back. My high pitched 'dad what the hell are you still doing here' yelp made a lot of people laugh and they helped him get out the pit. Playing the usual favourites it was nice to hear tracks like "A Raindance In Traffic" and "Dynamite Shovel." For the first time i've seen them there's been a 'backstage' for the band to disappear out of for the crowd to demand an encore. When the drums started up everyone drew in a breath, looked at each other and choked out no fucking way all in unison. They were closing with the ultimate set ending "I Just Want To Sell Out My Funeral." It was like reliving the entire gig all over again wrapped up into one song. Except this time, despite it being seemingly impossible, we sung louder.

Take Me Back: 30 Seconds To Mars (14/11/13)

FOR FULL REVIEW CLICK HERE (PAGE 10)

A 30 Seconds To Mars show is always quite the experience with multitudes of visual affects so a show without any technical problems is probably somewhat of a miracle.  Opening with Birth then Night of the Hunter it was during Search And Destroy that the crowd were told to sit down and jump up on three at which point large colourful balloons were blasted into the crowd. Conquistador saw confetti explosions before a fan was brought up on stage to introduce Do or Die sending the floor crazy. Really upping their game on this tour, circus style stunt acts provided hair-raising intervals where one of which had the two stunts men doing flips off of a see-saw.