LIVE MUSIC IS MY HAPPY PLACE
- Gemma Pitchford
- Mar 24, 2017
- 5 min read
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I haven't uploaded a post since the 17th of last month... I suck and I'm very sorry. I wanted to upload something but I wasn't sure what and didn't want to put anything up that was rushed or not well thought out.
Anyway, now that my failure has been acknowledged, on with the latest post!
I am currently writing this on Thursday 23rd of March in my bedroom at 3:54pm whilst eating a chocolate penguin lolly from christmas (it's too cute to eat!) A.K.A a week since one of the best evenings of my life. This time last week, I was stood outside the O2 Academy in Birmingham and now look at me.
So last week I had a rather exciting and happy one on the whole (perfect blog material). Mondays are usually great anyway, just because I don't have to get out of bed until 11am, and then I only have 2 lessons.
Tuesday was my Mum's birthday. Normally I dread family birthdays because they mean that we have to go out for a meal, sit there together and talk to each other without falling out. There is normally a lot of arguing, comments that start some bickering and a lot of "why-do-we-bother"-ing going on, but Tuesday, Tuesday was different... It was as if the stars aligned on that day and somehow, we all had a great time. There was a little bit of a rough start but once we all had a menu and a drink, we had a great chat about what we did during the day and there was a lot of joking going on. For the first time in a long time we all got along and had fun together which was brilliant.
Wednesday wouldn't have been too exciting for most people but to me, it was. I was having an EYE TEST, and I was rather excited to just be able to see properly again. I booked this test early as recently I have noticed my vision getting very blurry so when I heard the words "you need a new prescription," I was very happy. 20:20 vision here I come! What I did forget about however was the stress of having to pick new frames, urgh!
And then comes Thursday; the day I was looking forward to all week, the day that made my whole week seem better that what it realistically was. This was the day that I would get to see 3 of my favorite (I have hundreds of faves) bands live in Birmingham! I was beyond excited.
Unfortunately I still had to go to college that day so from 9am until 1:30pm I was stuck in that orange dump. Once i finished there, me and my friend went down to the train station and cought our train. Next stop: Birmingham New Street.
Once we arrived we stopped off at Subway to grab some food before wandering off to the venue to queue for 4 hours. We had standing tickets so we wanted to get there as early as possible to ensure we had a good view of the stage.
We started queueing at around 3pm and after 20 minutes or so realised we were in the wrong queue. This was no thanks to the staff that walked past and didn't help us. After joining the right line, we queued until around 7pm when the doors opened and we all went inside.
Before this however, something pretty cool happened. While we were waiting, one of the support acts for the show called Waterparks came out and walked past us in the queue. They aren't too big yet in the UK, as they are from Texas, so no one else seemed to notice but I had done my research into the support bands and have quickly grown to love their music! When they walked past I went into a bit of a panic and instead of asking for a picture or just simply saying hi I froze and just watched in awe as they walked up to us, past us and out of sight. Damn you nerves.
When we got inside we just decided to get a spot in the crowd as soon as possible because it was beginning to fill up fast. We were very close to the front despite this though and soon enough, Waterparks came out and started their set. They opened with Royal which is my favorite song of theirs and I fell even more in love with the band. All three of them, Awsten, Otto and Geoff, seem like such lovely people and all have great stage presence. To top it all off, we ended up on Geoff's side and I was very, very happy about that!
I didn't want to say goodbye to Waterparks and their set seemed to be over so quickly. The second support band were SWMRS, a band from Oakland. These 4, Cole, Max, Seb and Joey, were incredible too. Before the show I had listened to their songs and really liked most of them but kind of wasn't too sure on them. After their set I can safely say that they are awesome! They are even better live. Cole is really cool and Joey smashed it on drums. He also looks so much like his dad (Billie Joe Armstrong) that it was quite freaky. I highly recommend you go see SWMRS, especially if you like the proper old-school punk bands.
Then it was time for the main event; All Time Low! I have never seen anything quite like an ATL show before. The lights were unbelievable. Each song had a different colour combination and a different movement pattern to it. It truly was incredible.
The vocals were insane and the jokes were great. Somehow Jack tried to seduce the crowd by slicing them open in the bath?! The famous bra count peaked at 3 to Jack, and 1 to Alex. At one point Jack had one around his head whilst dancing around the stage and Alex too in a fluffy pink tiara. It was definitely a unique show! Where else would you get given a pair of glasses that smell like urine from Alex Gaskarth?
There were a couple of surprises during their performances too (not just the glasses.) An army of inflatable beach balls were released at one point that bounced off faces in the crowd. During the big final song after the encore, Dear Maria, there were giant confetti cannons that showered us all with this magical scene pictured below.
Anyone who hasn't been to a live music event, you are definitely missing out.
Live shows truly are my happy place. I couldn't ask for anything better that seeing an incredible band (or 3) in the flesh belting out some killer tunes to thousands of fans. If only it could last forever...
But you know what they say:
"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."
So don't forget to smile! x
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