Hiho. This weekend was busy busy, and was basically a trip to Manchester for 2 gigs, with a trip/night out in 5th Avenue sandwiched between. What began with a hectic, last minute train ride preceeded an equally mad and last-minute style weekend, but I had a fantastic time! The two gigs I attended couldn't really have been more different. The crowds, the venue, and the type of music varied far more than I anticipated; saying that, I enjoyed both almost equally, but for different reasons! Aside from the weekend's main events, it was great seeing Rob and meeting all his housemates. This year really is an expansion of friendship groups for me, im meeting new people far quicker than I can remember them it seems! Anyhow, reviews below...
Maximo Park - Manchester Apollo - Thursday 8th October
The Apollo isn't my favourite venue, but I was not dissapointed this time. Maximo put on a great show that I'd love to see again, and the venue didn't seem to create an issue at all. The crowd was quite a mature one - average age being 18-30 - and this suited the music and setting perfectly. I found myself about 4 rows from the front, with a great view, but instead of the regular heavy jostling and sweaty crowd I was afforded a little space in which to go mad in: the fans were excited and enthusiastic, but strangely respectful.
To the music then... The concert was opened by Dutch Uncles, a manchester-based group who didn't impress all too much. Their best track was probably "Face In", but the mediocre performance was made somewhat more palatable by the lead singers terrible dancing. They were followed by Hot Club de Paris, who were on the whole much more impressive. The scouse trio were refreshingly original - my favourite track was "Hey! Housebrick", but they had a number of other good songs. They really got the crowd going, and had some good banter with the fans without being annoying - a delicate balance that certainly paid off for them in my eyes.
Enough of that though - to the main event! Maximo Park exploded onto stage with "Books from Boxes" and "Parisian Skies" before drafting in a orchestral quartet (yes, you read correctly!) to accompany them on a number of tracks from their new album. My favourite of these were "Cloud of Mystery" and "Questing, not Coasting", but to be honest it was a tough contest because they were all very impressive. It was largely a very energetic and upbeat gig (exactly what you'd expect from Maximo and Paul Smith) but it was interspersed with some really serious and moving moments; namely their self-professed ballad, "That Beating Heart" and their classic accoustic number, "Acrobat", complete with poetry. It was quite a long set, and nearly everything I wanted to see was in fact played, and they concluded with an encore of "Apply Some Pressure", "Our Velocity" and "The Kids are Sick Again" to end on an exciting high.
All in all, a great gig, allbeit quite different to the usual emokid one's I've attended in the past. I give it a 7/10.
Funeral for a Friend - Manchester Academy (2) - Saturday 10th October
All I can say about this gig was that it really suprised me. It is the sixth (I know!) time I been fortunate to see FFAF, and I thought I had got the measure of their concerts by now, but clearly not. Firstly, Matt (vocalist) managed his normal trick of looking completely different from the last time I'd seen him, or indeed, anytime previously. This time he had long hair and a shaggy beard and looked a bit like a tramp - I suspect some kind of inside joke was going on though, because 3 of the 5 looked exactly the same!
The concert was opened by Save Your Breath, and as is the norm with FFAF they had made a wise selection and picked a very capable Welsh punk/indie rock band. I expect to see SYB hit the charts in the near future! After a long while (not until after half 9!) FFAF finally made an appearence, opening with Roses for the Dead (the third time they have done this, while I have seen them perform live). Regularities seemed to stop there though - instead of playing a mixture of classic fan-favourites, new album hits and old and new singles, the Welsh quintet stated their intention to make this a "core fan" targetted gig. It was a small venue (500 tickets sold only) and the setlist to my surprise had been chosen by fans on the FFAF message boards. They played NONE of their newest album, only 1 song (Into Oblivion) from Tales~ and only 2 from Hours. Instead they played nearly all of Casually Dressed~ and a good portion of Seven Ways~, and basically thrashed out their rawest music. It was a really fast paced, passionate performance and the fans responded in kind, producing a really, really good gig. Of the six times I have seen FFAF, its a toss up for best out of this and their last intimate gig, at Academy 3 last year. I give this a 8/10.
I managed to get a video of "History"; the quality is really poor (although it does pickup somewhat after about a minute), but it's still worth watching I think:
Anyway, that's that. I decided against a review of 5th Avenue because otherwise this blog would just fill up with stories of silly things I do when im hammered; so suffice to say, it was a great night.
Chris
Monday, 12 October 2009
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
Freshers Fortnight
What an amazing two weeks! It's been great seeing my Liverpool friends again, meeting new people, and generally ruining my body with shit food and alcohol. Alas, it cannot last, and work/healthy living/gym etc all have to start again. Anyhow, an overview of the two weeks:
Sunday 20th September: the time for liverpool has finally arrived, and (perhaps for the first time ever?) Adam arrives early to pick me up. Naturally I have packed nothing, so I throw (mostly dirty) clothes and a pillow into a big bag and we go pickup Tom and the journey begins. As we are driving, we start chatting about some horrific holiday moments they had in Zante and the desire to be really drunk finds us all. One phone call to Tim later and it's decided - we are going out. After unloading at Tim's and meeting Adam and Tom again we head to Walkabout, which was unexpectadly big and busy. This was a great night, the highlights being the challenges - ugly man/sexy girl competitions, and then the combination of these to the delight of one fat ugly guy called John in particular. The most memorable thing though was meeting Dave Carney - a barman who had actually just graduated Lancaster and was now working in Liverpool. Despite the fact he was working he started drinking with us, giving us loads of free drinks (we reckon over £70 easy) and generally being funny.
Monday 21st September: I woke up at Tims with a terrible hangover. He went to some lectures, and I met Tom and Adam in town for lunch and a trip to the bank/shops etc. We mooched and killed time until it was drinking time again, and that started with a house party at Tim's, where I met Minas (Swedish) and Sam, who know Tim, and James (Irish) who is Adam/Tom's housemate. We played drinking games, and Tim drank a horrific pan of something which was mostly vodka - the video is on facebook. Then we hit town, and again to Concert Square, only this time in The Office, where drinks were only 90p and the music was great. Home to Tim's again, at about 4am and after some shit food, and Monday was done.
Tuesday 22nd September: This was the day the hangovers stopped. Worryingly, I havn't had one since. Tim had to go see some Norwegian girl he was sleeping with in Lancaster for the night, so Adam picked me up at lunchtime and took me and my kit to his house in Smithdown. After getting some dinner at Asda I washed all my dirty clothes and only then realised they don't have a drying machine. After adopting their house routine (Papers in the afternoon after a late start, then another nap, then pre-drinking during tea-time) I had the shite task of drying jeans and a tshirt with a hair dryer. It took forever, and was still damp after. Anyhow, the night was young and left for town, where we visited a tequila bar (Cava) to play tequila roulette: this is where we buy a group of banana tequilas and one person has to drink a chilli tequila. You don't know who it is until you've all shotted it, but you found out pretty quick! Thankfully it was Adam - his reaction was excellent. Anyway, the plan for the Razz (a shite but good nightclub, similar to the Tasch) was abandoned after realising it was Irish night in Cube, so we went there instead. The club and people were great, and the rest of the night passed in a happy drunken haze before we went back to Adam's and me to my sofa.
Wednesday 23rd September: Wake, papers, nap, food, drink. Then Tim comes round, I meet Adam's final housemate Scott, and the drinking games start. Then its off to Medication, a HUGE night out in the cream warehouses, with amazing music and cheap drinks. Not much I can say other than this was probably the best night out of the two weeks, and we were all wrecked... horrifically so. I still don't know how we got home - because the others can't remember either.
Thursday 24th September: Going home day arrives :(. Me, Adam, Tom and Tim all chill in town, before I meet my Dad about 6 o'clock. We and his girlfriend, Sheena, go for a meal at a really nice Indian restaurant. The food was great, and it was really nice to see my dad again - I really don't just see him like that enough! Sheena was great too, and this was the first time I've met her properly. Anyway, I get the last train home and then bus it to my dads, and I am finally home in my bed again at about midnight.
Friday 25th September: Uneventful, I basically just wash dirty clothes and chill with Aaron and Joe all day. I do not pack enough.
Saturday 26th September: MOVE IN DAY, finally. After a frantic start (because I lack in preparedness) mum drives us to Uni, and I move in. I do not unpack. I meet my flatmates - Danny (Sonko), Eddie, Mike and Greg who I already know from the football team, Jo and Lauran who are second years who know us, and Jade, Mitch, Jo, Charlotte and Corra who are all freshers from the UK, Canada and Germany. By 7, we are all drunk, and we go to the bar and then to the sugarhouse - great night, highlighted by Eddie dancing the way only he can, completely on his own.
Sunday 27th September: I still do not unpack. Freshers week is now underway, and life is hectic. Me and Mike help move some freshers in and become honourary kitchen reps (basically just get a tshirt and free entry to club nights for 20 minutes work, so a good trade off!). Drinking starts again at 6 in the flat, and then it's on to the bar for a "jungle theme" fancy dress night. Since we are idiots, we strip to our boxers, go into the woods, tape lots of branches and folliage to ourselves and then go to the bar dressed as trees... or something. It looks good though!
**bored, so summarising from now on...***
Monday 28th September: Unpack. Football. Shopping. Drinking. Drunk. Tim arrives. Town bar-crawl. Drunker. Dancing. Home.
Tuesday 29th September: As above, replace Town bar-crawl for LoCo.
Wednesday 30th September: Tim goes home. Movie night. Pyjamas. Bed.
Thursday 1st October: More detail on this one because it was a bit different. After waking up and getting a quick breakfast, football trials were looming at 2pm. I was very apprehensive - my bad feet (still not fixed... week 17 of 25 on a horrific waiting list at the moment...) had meant I have hardly played at all for a year, and my fitness wasn't great. Nonetheless, I looked a lot less scared than all the freshers, and I knew a lot of people already, so that gave me a boost. Introductions were made and speeches were delivered, and after much ado we went to the fields. After some light warm-up fitness we split into 8 teams for 6-a-side matches that the captains would watch to judge both potential and ability of the new guys. In our first game I was with 2 of my flatmates (Eddie and Sonko) and 3 freshers. I had a great game, setting up a few goals and not making any mistakes, and we won 14-3. In the second game I played mediocre - admittadly I don't have the fitness yet, and by this game I was already knackered. I made a few mistakes, but also had a few good runs, so in balance it went okay. After the games we played some muff, which I did good in, so all in all a good first runout for me I thought. A quick shower, and then the excitement is building for LIVERPOOL again! I catch a coach with Matt and Dom and their freshers. These guys all seem nice, especially Sophie, Sarah and Gemma, who come in later. We get to the Krazyhouse and meet Tim, and quickly convince the freshers I just mentioned + Dom to come somewhere better. We leave and go to Walkabout (No Dave Carney on bar sadly) where we pose as Liverpool med-students and manage to sneak into VIP. After walkabout we go to MoDo for cheap cocktails and dancing, and then its time for the freshers to go back. We take them to the coach with Dom, then me and Tim hit a few more bars and meet some people before heading back to his.
Friday 2nd October: Me and Tim pick up Minas and drive to Lancaster, for the final freshers night, a campus bar-crawl. Again we drink with Dom and Matt's freshers, then start the bar-crawl. A bit of drama between me and Pete (last years housemate/friend) unfolds, for which I'd later get a diciplinary hearing with the Dean for, but again, that's another story. After the bar-crawl we go to Sugar, and have a great night, before going to an after-party at Dom's house, drinking a bottle of Wine each, and passing out on her sofas.
So.... that's all for freshers fortnight. I had a great time though, and the thought that this is my last one is really depressing. Best close the blog down now though, I have some of that work I was talking about before to do... 30 pages to read and make notes on before my seminar tomorrow: eek!
Chris
Sunday 20th September: the time for liverpool has finally arrived, and (perhaps for the first time ever?) Adam arrives early to pick me up. Naturally I have packed nothing, so I throw (mostly dirty) clothes and a pillow into a big bag and we go pickup Tom and the journey begins. As we are driving, we start chatting about some horrific holiday moments they had in Zante and the desire to be really drunk finds us all. One phone call to Tim later and it's decided - we are going out. After unloading at Tim's and meeting Adam and Tom again we head to Walkabout, which was unexpectadly big and busy. This was a great night, the highlights being the challenges - ugly man/sexy girl competitions, and then the combination of these to the delight of one fat ugly guy called John in particular. The most memorable thing though was meeting Dave Carney - a barman who had actually just graduated Lancaster and was now working in Liverpool. Despite the fact he was working he started drinking with us, giving us loads of free drinks (we reckon over £70 easy) and generally being funny.
Monday 21st September: I woke up at Tims with a terrible hangover. He went to some lectures, and I met Tom and Adam in town for lunch and a trip to the bank/shops etc. We mooched and killed time until it was drinking time again, and that started with a house party at Tim's, where I met Minas (Swedish) and Sam, who know Tim, and James (Irish) who is Adam/Tom's housemate. We played drinking games, and Tim drank a horrific pan of something which was mostly vodka - the video is on facebook. Then we hit town, and again to Concert Square, only this time in The Office, where drinks were only 90p and the music was great. Home to Tim's again, at about 4am and after some shit food, and Monday was done.
Tuesday 22nd September: This was the day the hangovers stopped. Worryingly, I havn't had one since. Tim had to go see some Norwegian girl he was sleeping with in Lancaster for the night, so Adam picked me up at lunchtime and took me and my kit to his house in Smithdown. After getting some dinner at Asda I washed all my dirty clothes and only then realised they don't have a drying machine. After adopting their house routine (Papers in the afternoon after a late start, then another nap, then pre-drinking during tea-time) I had the shite task of drying jeans and a tshirt with a hair dryer. It took forever, and was still damp after. Anyhow, the night was young and left for town, where we visited a tequila bar (Cava) to play tequila roulette: this is where we buy a group of banana tequilas and one person has to drink a chilli tequila. You don't know who it is until you've all shotted it, but you found out pretty quick! Thankfully it was Adam - his reaction was excellent. Anyway, the plan for the Razz (a shite but good nightclub, similar to the Tasch) was abandoned after realising it was Irish night in Cube, so we went there instead. The club and people were great, and the rest of the night passed in a happy drunken haze before we went back to Adam's and me to my sofa.
Wednesday 23rd September: Wake, papers, nap, food, drink. Then Tim comes round, I meet Adam's final housemate Scott, and the drinking games start. Then its off to Medication, a HUGE night out in the cream warehouses, with amazing music and cheap drinks. Not much I can say other than this was probably the best night out of the two weeks, and we were all wrecked... horrifically so. I still don't know how we got home - because the others can't remember either.
Thursday 24th September: Going home day arrives :(. Me, Adam, Tom and Tim all chill in town, before I meet my Dad about 6 o'clock. We and his girlfriend, Sheena, go for a meal at a really nice Indian restaurant. The food was great, and it was really nice to see my dad again - I really don't just see him like that enough! Sheena was great too, and this was the first time I've met her properly. Anyway, I get the last train home and then bus it to my dads, and I am finally home in my bed again at about midnight.
Friday 25th September: Uneventful, I basically just wash dirty clothes and chill with Aaron and Joe all day. I do not pack enough.
Saturday 26th September: MOVE IN DAY, finally. After a frantic start (because I lack in preparedness) mum drives us to Uni, and I move in. I do not unpack. I meet my flatmates - Danny (Sonko), Eddie, Mike and Greg who I already know from the football team, Jo and Lauran who are second years who know us, and Jade, Mitch, Jo, Charlotte and Corra who are all freshers from the UK, Canada and Germany. By 7, we are all drunk, and we go to the bar and then to the sugarhouse - great night, highlighted by Eddie dancing the way only he can, completely on his own.
Sunday 27th September: I still do not unpack. Freshers week is now underway, and life is hectic. Me and Mike help move some freshers in and become honourary kitchen reps (basically just get a tshirt and free entry to club nights for 20 minutes work, so a good trade off!). Drinking starts again at 6 in the flat, and then it's on to the bar for a "jungle theme" fancy dress night. Since we are idiots, we strip to our boxers, go into the woods, tape lots of branches and folliage to ourselves and then go to the bar dressed as trees... or something. It looks good though!
**bored, so summarising from now on...***
Monday 28th September: Unpack. Football. Shopping. Drinking. Drunk. Tim arrives. Town bar-crawl. Drunker. Dancing. Home.
Tuesday 29th September: As above, replace Town bar-crawl for LoCo.
Wednesday 30th September: Tim goes home. Movie night. Pyjamas. Bed.
Thursday 1st October: More detail on this one because it was a bit different. After waking up and getting a quick breakfast, football trials were looming at 2pm. I was very apprehensive - my bad feet (still not fixed... week 17 of 25 on a horrific waiting list at the moment...) had meant I have hardly played at all for a year, and my fitness wasn't great. Nonetheless, I looked a lot less scared than all the freshers, and I knew a lot of people already, so that gave me a boost. Introductions were made and speeches were delivered, and after much ado we went to the fields. After some light warm-up fitness we split into 8 teams for 6-a-side matches that the captains would watch to judge both potential and ability of the new guys. In our first game I was with 2 of my flatmates (Eddie and Sonko) and 3 freshers. I had a great game, setting up a few goals and not making any mistakes, and we won 14-3. In the second game I played mediocre - admittadly I don't have the fitness yet, and by this game I was already knackered. I made a few mistakes, but also had a few good runs, so in balance it went okay. After the games we played some muff, which I did good in, so all in all a good first runout for me I thought. A quick shower, and then the excitement is building for LIVERPOOL again! I catch a coach with Matt and Dom and their freshers. These guys all seem nice, especially Sophie, Sarah and Gemma, who come in later. We get to the Krazyhouse and meet Tim, and quickly convince the freshers I just mentioned + Dom to come somewhere better. We leave and go to Walkabout (No Dave Carney on bar sadly) where we pose as Liverpool med-students and manage to sneak into VIP. After walkabout we go to MoDo for cheap cocktails and dancing, and then its time for the freshers to go back. We take them to the coach with Dom, then me and Tim hit a few more bars and meet some people before heading back to his.
Friday 2nd October: Me and Tim pick up Minas and drive to Lancaster, for the final freshers night, a campus bar-crawl. Again we drink with Dom and Matt's freshers, then start the bar-crawl. A bit of drama between me and Pete (last years housemate/friend) unfolds, for which I'd later get a diciplinary hearing with the Dean for, but again, that's another story. After the bar-crawl we go to Sugar, and have a great night, before going to an after-party at Dom's house, drinking a bottle of Wine each, and passing out on her sofas.
So.... that's all for freshers fortnight. I had a great time though, and the thought that this is my last one is really depressing. Best close the blog down now though, I have some of that work I was talking about before to do... 30 pages to read and make notes on before my seminar tomorrow: eek!
Chris
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