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Today me and Michelle went to see Murder in Monochrome at the Metro Club. We initially wanted to go Canary Wharf to take awesome photos but that got cancelled due to the shabby weather. Was going to goto spitalfields too but then the day was a bit too random to goto and all.
We instead planed to meet up at GBK where Michelle will give one of the veggie burgers a go. We turned up slightly late and met up at SoundControl in TCR. I also saw Shnigit, a long time muse messageboarder who was friends with Michelle. Twas the first time Michelle actually met him at SoundControl (usually he wasnt there when Michelle was about and all) and they had quite a nice chat. Hopefully I can get discounts there :p
We managed to find GBK in Soho pretty easily. Was quite a quick journey as well, bumped into ANOTHER nando’s along the way. It seems like every GBK has a Nando’s. Disturbing. Our seats at GBK were pretty shabby since we sat right next to the waiters haha. I tried taking photos of my classic burger but the waiters kept giving me looks haha, especially when I used flash.
Michelle ordered a falafel burger and had no idea what she getting into haha.
She tried biting into it but only managed to bite a bit of the burger haha. Was quite fun afterwards watching Michelle eat the top bun a bit and giving up on the burger hehe. Though these burgers are pretty hefty so I dont blame her for not finishing it off.
Mine was pretty good, had better before but it was still a good burger. After some banter we then headed off to Metro to see the gig.
The first band was… hmm… I’ll talk about Murder in Monochrome haha. Murder in Monochrome were pretty good. I managed to listen to a few tracks on their site before the gig and quite liked them. They were really good live too, the singer (Tom) had a Roland Keytar midi controller (bloody expensive these days) connected to some random synth and multi fx pedal.
I took quite alot of photos, did alot of settings fiddlage (still learning how to master the damn camera) and some of the photos turned out quite good (some quite bad but I’ve deleted them). Almost all of them were in focus (since I was just standing right next to the band haha) but some were bad in terms of what they were doing in the photo hehe.
I’ve submitted my photosets to the band on their myspace page and now they have uploaded it onto their profile page with one of my photos as their default picture. So pretty awesome I must say.
I quite liked using flash since the venue was pretty small and it lacked the lightings you’d get on a larger venue. It was either flash with some colours or just red and black haha. Though quite alot of people enjoyed the non flash photos.
After the gig we lounged about for a wee bit more and then went back home. Hopefully I’ll be able to get photo passes for Howling Bells when they play in Koko, would be awesome.
Michelle invited me to see Placebo and Howling bells the day before. Was quite an impromptu invitation but definitely something I was really interested in. The event was at Wembley Arena so I had to drag myself to that place for the 4th time within a few weeks time period. We were going there mainly to see Howling Bells since Placebo was getting a bit boring. Michelle wanted to check out Nando’s before the gig so we had a quick meal there before we saw the bands.
Nando’s was fun, went back to the same Nando’s I went to at 23rd Muse gig. Arrived at the station slightly late (Michelle had to wait for me for 10 minutes, oops). Ordered our food quickly and got right in there.
Above is the usual meal I get when I’m at Nando’s. Michelle bought a rather bland cous cous haha. She also had some of the chips and quite liked it. We were slightly late for the gig and was getting quite worried we might miss Howling Bells (the whole purpose of the trip and all).
So yeah, after finishing everything off we went straight to Wembley Arena. At the guestlist box office there was a semi large queue. If we had waited in line we would have probably missed the entire Howling Bells act. Michelle decided to be cheeky and ask the guys in front if we could go after them since we’re only here for the support. We were luckily let in front and managed to get our guestlist stuff promptly. Though we did miss a few songs.
Howling Bells was amazing live, I really like her voice, its haunting and glacial at the same time haha. Was slightly sad I didnt get to hear “The Ballad for the Bleeding Hearts” but I did get to hear “Broken Bones” so that was good. We had nice seats, was pretty close to the stage, but on the right hand side. It was slightly annoying how theres alot of gear on the way but we were definitely close enough to see them (and take some ok photos).
The band finished with “Low Happening” and told the crowd they’ll be playing at Koko Camden. Michelle said she could get guestlisted for that one as well so thats another gig booked into the diary (woo!). The next act came on…Archie Bronson Outfit. They had beards. Think I’ll stop there :p
After watching some bearded people play on stage for 20 odd minutes Placebo was then on. We managed to sit somewhere close to stage so I could take nice photos as well as hear the music better. They were alright. I really enjoyed watching them at Astoria, but today was a bit of a let down.
Most of the songs they played were from Meds so I hadn’t a clue what they were playing. It is nice listening to new songs that you havent heard at a gig. The problem with Placebo is that most of their songs actually sound the same. So that was another thing that I didnt like. There were a few songs as well were they just went on forever playing the same chord or chord pattern (like Every You Every Me and Running Up That Hill). I think the band lost it after Without You I’m Nothing haha.
On another note, during Every You Every Me, a guy from our seating block managed to run into the edge of the ledge, jump over that, tip toe on some pole that led straight to the stage and began stave invading. It was the most spectacular minute I had throughout the entire Placebo set haha. The guy was then taken down by about 8 security guards which was funny haha.
Michelle left after Every You Every Me since that was her favourite song, she’s lucky she left, the rest of the gig went downhill haha. Though they did play some oldies.
After the gig I made my way home. Was slightly worried I would be taking the night buses since it was quite late and I was actually quite far away from home. Went on mobile msn for a bit and talked to kev to keep me company. At one point I actually thought my last train had gone, but eventually my tube to Wimbledon arrived (probably last one) and I managed to get back home safely. The whole gig was cool, especially due to the fact that I didnt pay for it haha. Michelle said that I could be her future plus one’s for other gigs she goes to. Yay!
Also dubbed the “Nandos Meetup”. Kev assigned himself as team leader for this meetup since I wasnt about on the muse board on Wednesday so people were slightly confused as to what was going on. Kev did ring me up the night before asking when we should hold the meetup and all. Twas fun how he wanted to team lead it and everything haha. theres more where that came from »
Right, best start writing about these gigs before they slip right past me. Make sure you’ve got time to read it as it’s pretty long of a entry..