I got online to explore a bit more about Moose Blood and actually found an amazing site listing all the concerts in the area during a specific time period. Officially the most dangerous website... So many people come to London!! When I was perusing through it on Wednesday, I found that one of my middle school favorites, a band called "The Maine" was playing the next night... My internal Jiminy Cricket was saying "you aren't actually considering going right, Elyse? Especially with 9 am lecture on Friday." Buuuut then my license plate on my good ol’ yellow submarine back home (gosh I miss that car) was calling to me... "LV2DAY" "Live today, Elyse. You're here. They’re here. Go." Needless to say, my car ran over little Jiminy. I bought my concert ticket and booked my train.
Yesterday, I had lecture till 4. Pulled a 1975 (which was 10 days ago… two concerts in two consecutive weeks… nice.) and booked it down to the train station after to make it on the 4:25 train to London, just in time ;)
Unlike The 1975 London adventure, I got to pick my ticket up right at the venue. No Ally Pally this time either. Instead it was a place named the "Electric Ballroom". It is literally right next to where you got off the underground so that was very convenient, no trekking up a giant hill. Also, got there earlier so the queue wasn’t very long at all. Now, if you remember back to the last concert, Ellie was my saving-grace-sidekick who joined me so I didn’t have to go by myself. This time, I couldn’t convince anyone to come with me because it was rather last minute and okay I guess a pretty crazy adventure. To be honest, I hesitated myself too especially because they are a band from Arizona and I’m kind of in England. I should be going to see English people while I’m here! But I mean, been there done that ;P Plus, I used to listen to these guys all the time and I thought it’d be cool to see them live. As if that wasn’t enough of a push already, their opening band “Lydia” has the same main singer as a band called “The Cinema” aka one of my recent top bands. I have literally been waking up to them, running to them, showering to them, etc for the past couple months. Heck, I even titled my first blog after one of their songs (“My Blood is Full of Airplanes” cuz I was flying to them too:P ). I’ll admit Dad, now this is one of my bands whose songs literally all sound the same. But this guy’s voice though… it’s just so captivating… And I had the chance to hear it live?? And my final confirmation for going... THE KILLERS PLAYED HERE. Nuff said (:
Okay sorry back to the story, you already know I went so I don’t know why I’m doing all this foreshadowing… Let’s see where were we… the fact I wasn’t going with anyone. So, this being the connected age that it is, I posted on my GlobaLinks Facebook group for everyone studying abroad in London and the surrounding area asking if anyone was going. Sure enough, someone was!! I creeped on her profile, and, seeing a picture of her with Derek Sanders (main singer of Mayday Parade, my favorite band after The Killers) I knew we would get along just fine. I tend to drag these stories on I think so long story short, I never connected with her buuuut I befriended the girls in front of me in line and had a ton of fun with them. Also while in line, I met someone with a "To Write Love on Her Arms" sweatshirt!! I coincidently was also rocking my TWLOHA apparel so we took a picture together (:
Now on to the actual concert! The first guy, Nick Santino from Massachusetts was good! I’d never heard of him but this one girl was seriously freaking out and I think she cheered louder than the whole entire venue. Lydia was absolutely amazing. It was a little weird to hear Leighton Antelman’s voice not singing The Cinema songs but I really like the sound of Lydia too and they all had so much energy it was great. Leighton was kind of awkward and adorable at the same time ha he was awesome. What was fun too was that it was Justin's, one of the guitarist, birthday so we all sang to him before he sang to us (: Then The Maine event (baha get it?!). To be completely honest… They are getting old! Or I am…or we both are haha it’s funny because in my head they are still the little punk teenagers with the long side-swooped hair. I was kind of bummed too because they didn’t really play any of their old stuff, and the few old songs that they did it was almost like they were annoyed to sing them. I mean I guess they have been singing them for a while but some of the good ones you can sing over and over and they never get old! Don’t get me wrong, it was still way cool to see them. At the end, John (the MAINE singer ha okay I already made that joke not funny anymore), gave this big talk about living in the moment and doing what you love because our days are numbered. Then Nick Santino and Lydia came back out and they all did a final song together about doing just that. The concert overall was a good one and I was happy I decided to go. It got done unexpectedly early so my new friends and I went out and got food afterwards and then they made sure I got on my train home okay. Bob Marley had it right “Don’t worry about a thing, cuz every little thing is gonna be alright.” I’ve really been blessed with how everything has worked out this trip.
I’ll just briefly tell you about my day today seeing as how it fits in well with all this music talk. Kotryna and I went into town today and I just want to say… I love this town. Today the town was being beautifully laced with some indigenous sound waves of an amazing hippy band playing in the main square. They were incredible. Think vegan Lumineers with dreds and incense. Very attractive bluegrass/folky sound. They call themselves Rudy Warman & The Heavy Weather. I bought one of their CDs complete with album art that they hand make with a wood stamp press and everything. I conveniently had a sharpie with me so I had them sign it while I told them they should come visit Montana. If they didn’t have the British accent, they would totally pass as Missoula locals. I told them they can stay at my family’s bed and breakfast and play at the Red Ants Pants music festival.
Alright, I should stop so I can get some sleep. Gotta be up by 5:30 to begin my weekend adventure. It’s gonna be a good one, stay tuned ;)
Keep Calm and Listen to Live Music.
Cheers!
E