Didn't stop me having a cracker of a weekend.
Friday night saw me go see Fall Out Boy play at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, who were supported by Hey Monday and the All-American Rejects. You see, I managed to win a double pass to meet them online, including access to an exclusive 'money can't buy' session with the FOB boys before the actual concert, involving a question and answer session. However, the kind folk I won the tickets from sent me two lots of tickets. Hooray for me.
The pre-concert session was good - it felt pretty personal and made the guys seem 'human'. As you could probably imagine, the small crowd was made up mostly of teenage girls asking the kind of questions that they do.
Anyway following that, the concert started. With the tickets being in the front general standing section - the mosh pit - I wasn't allowed to have my crutches with me. I could only just shuffle along, but I decided to go without crutches and just hop on one leg in the mosh pit rather than take up the offer from BEC management for a seat.
It was a good (yet exhausting) night - Hey Monday did a fantastic job first up (and isn't that Cassadee Hope a sight to behold with a voice to suit), and AAR followed that up with an entertaining show of their own, playing a lot of the older stuff that I know. I must say though, I swear their lead singer has gotten a lot more eccentric than I remembered him being.
Not to be outdone, the act of the night was of course Fall Out Boy. Admittedly it wasn't very different to what they did at their last show in the country (some time lateish 2007 from memory), but still very enjoyable and threw in a few songs from their new album without simply flogging it for the whole gig (a pet hate of mine) - there was an even distribution of old stuff, new stuff and everything in between. Highlight had to be the point where most of the lights went off, and the many little LEDs on the guitars being switched on - it looked unreal (my description really doesn't do it any justice...). The gig finished the exact same way as last time - with the song 'Saturday' and crowd fave Pete Wentz taking the mike and climbing into the crowd - except that this time he didn't throw his shirt into the crowd afterwards. So that was a bit predictable, but still good fun. Worth every cent...
I followed that up the next day with the Soundwave festival at the RNA Showgrounds in Brisbane. Without going on too much, I saw the following bands play:
- Goldfinger (I got there later than I wanted)
- Jack's Mannequin
- Forever the Sickest Kids
- Underoath
- Anberlin
- The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
- Dillinger Escape Plan
- Funeral For A Friend
- Bloodhound Gang
- Billy Talent
- New Found Glory
- Alkaline Trio
Negatives from the day: Less Than Jake had flight issues and didn't make it in time to play. Jack's Mannequin (who I had seen before when they supported Fall Out Boy in '07) had issues setting up and there was a ridiculous delay (about 40 minutes maybe?) and didn't start until the time they were scheduled to finish. Shame I didn't know this would happen - Finch were playing at the same time so I had to make a choice, turns out I could've seen both. Also, the setup at Stage 5 where JM played was shocking, it was as if they had a spare stage and nowhere to put it, so just chucked it anywhere.
Positives: I met some of my heroes - Andrew McMahon from Jack's Mannequin, Mike Herrera from MxPx and the boys from New Found Glory. Got to shake hands with them all, say hi and have a quick chat as they signed some of my stuff. Great guys, all of them. Had a decent chat with Mike Herrera (he was the least rushed of the lot) and even bought a record off him, from his very hands into mine (an actual record, not a CD... shame I don't have a record player). Absolute legend.
My pick of the gigs were:
Dillinger Escape Plan, who put on an intense show (lead singer climbing around, guitarist breaking guitar and hurling it into the crowd);
Bloodhound Gang with their ridiculous humour, show that included random acts like juggling, and displays of local knowledge with a Woodridge joke thrown in; and
Billy Talent, who seemed to perfect their setup and just sounded terrific.
Having said that, they were all great. There wasn't really a single bad gig, though I must admit that I preferred seeing Underoath late last year at the Tivoli.
Sunday was spent resting. It was quite the awesome weekend. Unfortunately my right foot was quite swollen, and my left foot was incredibly sore from standing on it so much.
