The Mission District, Jukebox the Ghost, and Nightmare of You
Yesterday I was in Birmingham to see The Mission District play a show. I first saw them on the Simple Plan tour last November, and loved them so much that when I saw they were coming back, I had to go and see them.
Got to the venue just before 5pm and stumbled across 3 girls who were also there to see The Mission District (Nightmare of You were headlining but we had no idea who they were).
The Mission District came out and said hello and we spoke for a little while before they went to soundcheck, the girls went to move their car, and I queued. Met two adorable young girls (who were also just there for The Mission District) and we spent half an hour dodging water bombs which were being thrown off the roof.
The girls came back to the queue with the bad news that their car had been stolen! After the police were called, CCTV footage was investigated, and the car was found… one level higher up than it was when they first parked in the carpark. Someone stole a car, and then put it back!
We eventually made it into the venue and onto the barrier (easily done because there was a total of about 15 people in the queue when the door opened!) ready for The Mission District to come on stage.
They played a great set (the picture above is of Antoine - The Mission District’s bassist) and much fun was had. I highly recommend them as a band if you’re looking for an adorable 5-piece from Montréal that isn’t Simple Plan.
After their set I went to the merch stand and got talking to one of the three guys there. We started talking about Nightmare of You and how I’d never heard of them and how I hoped they would be good. I asked the guys on merch what they thought of Nightmare of You, and the guy pointed at his fellow merch-stand-operators and introduced them as the bassist and drummer from the band. Turns out the guy I was talking to was the lead guitarist. That slip-up cost me a t-shirt…
The second opening act was a 3-piece called Jukebox the Ghost. I’d never heard of them before them on stage, but I was more than pleasantly surprised. Piano, guitar, and drums. A mix between Queen, the Hoosiers, Monty Python, and Feist. Absolutely amazing. I recommend their song “Victoria” as a starting point.
After that was Nightmare of You. I kind of felt like I had to stay for a little while, just to give them a chance. I stayed for about 4 songs and that was plenty enough for me. The lead singer has no stage presence, and as a band they seemed rather… bland. Very friendly people, but not overly entertaining as performing musicians.
Highlights of the night (apart from, of course, seeing The Mission District again as well as discovering Jukebox the Ghost) were meeting new people and exchanging contact details. There was one girl there interviewing The Mission District and she was absolutely terrified about it. I managed to calm her down (as well as dare her to ask them what colour a smurf goes when you strangle it. She did ask them this, which was most impressive) and we talked quite a lot in between band performances.
It’s not every day you go to a show, get to be on the barrier without being crushed, get waterbombed in the queue, discuss smurfs with strangers, make new friends, and are still home in time for bed before 11pm.
I spend too much time with Lilian
Lilian is a fairly good friend of mine. I was just down visiting her the other weekend, come to think of it. The point of this entry, is that we’ve been spending too much time together. After looking for her colour visualisation charts, I’m now thinking about how to redesign my site to follow a strict grid layout, and use colours other than pink and yellow.
I’m sure it’ll be fine once I get it all done, but until then I am going to be nuts! Lil, I blame you for this!
Zac Efron on the Graham Norton Show
Yesterday I found a good use for my final “vacation” days off work, and I went down to London to hook up with some Simple Plan fan-friends Julie and Lauren, and a few other people that I hadn’t met before (but turned out to be really nice!).
After a slightly “eventful” train journey down to the capital (partly ruined by the fact I left my ipod in my Mum’s car, and partly delayed due to a fatality), I managed to buy some stationery, and then find Julie at Waterloo.
It was a short walk to the South Bank Studios where we accidentally ended up in line for the Paul O’Grady Show. Fortunately, though, we made our own queue for the Graham Norton show. The man who came out to wristband us all “accidentally” put us in the priority queue, so we got to go in first! (Well, I was #4, obviously, behind Julie, Lauren, and person-I’d-never-met-before-but-was-still-friendly).
I’d never been to a TV show before, so for me one of the most interesting parts was seeing all the things that you don’t see on TV, such as the warm up comic, the cameras, and all the extra footage, that sort of thing.
If you saw the Graham Norton Show tonight (BBC2, 10pm - probably up on iPlayer at some point), he mentioned that a large portion of the audience was young and female. Yes, I was in that demographic. I wasn’t quite screaming my lungs out at Zac, but, you know… the clapping was enthusiastic, for sure.
Zac was amazing on the show; he was a great sport and went along with kissing a stranger and being molested by David Walliams (who was a lot funnier than I expected). Parts they didn’t show on the TV (which is a shame) include the Pet Shop Boys talking about one of their stalkers, Zac being tested on his general knowledge about Zac Efron, and a member of the audience proposing to his girlfriend.
After the show, I ended up catching the tube in the wrong direction and went to somewhere called “Lambeth North”. Where that is, I still have no idea, but I got on the right train and came all the way back, making it back up to the east midlands just in time for bed!
But now I must disappear, because I am spending the weekend causing chaos fun times in Telford with Jem.
