08.03.14: You Me At Six.

This day was something that I had been looking forward to in a really long time. Nearly three and a half years to be a bit more exact. I was convinced that they weren't going to play another show in Denmark, because they'd gotten too big. But, as Max said, it's really nice that they play at a smaller venue once in a while.

I arrived at Lille Vega a bit after 9am and spent the entire day in the queue with a bunch of lovely people. We had a lot of fun even though it was a bit cold, especially during the end after it had gotten dark. But it was definitely worth it, it always is! Before the show started I got a picture with Josh, Matt and Max and a little quick chat with Max. They all seemed really nice. I also chatted a bit with their camera man who was running around outside to film and interview people in the queue and also a little awkward chat with Matthew from Deaf Havana.

The concert itself was absolutely brilliant. I almost didn't get pushed, only by some annoying Swedes who thought it was appropriate to grind all over my back, but that was before any of the band went on stage. The energy from the band as well as the crowd was incredible, it was literally one of the best concerts I've been to in a while. Deaf Havana did such a great job, even though they were kind of awkward when they were speaking in between songs, but that was just cute. I've rarely ever seen such a great response to a support band!
You Me At Six were all so full of energy and I think it just rubbed off on the crowd, as well as the crowd's energy rubbed off on them. They seemed almost surprised by how people were singing along to both new and old songs and how we were cheering. Josh kept promising that they'd not go another three and a half years without doing another gig here, and I know bands are supposed to say that, but I'd like to believe him. At one point Josh's voice went nuts when he was talking and he just laughed it off and started doing Batman impressions instead. 

After the show I didn't really want pictures since I'd already gotten that, but I hung out by the bus anyway, I just stayed in the background. But as people slowly started to go home and the people hangning out were more chill, the band stayed to chat to everybody so I decided to talk a bit to Matt and Max, which was so increcibly nice. They were both so chill and down to earth, which I really didn't count on. They weren't just out there to take pictures and sign stuff to make their fans happy, it actually made them happy as well to do that and to casually chat to anyone who wanted to. It was really sweet of them. Max was even freezing his bum off (understandable since he didn't wear a jacket), but he stayed outside anyway becaue he wanted to chat to as many fans as possible.

I have to say that I was positively surprised by how they performed their songs from Cavalier Youth. So much more energy and rawness live than I expected, but it's exactly what I wanted, so I'm really happy. They did perform a few songs from the old albums, but none from Take Off Your Colours, even though it'd been awesome if they'd played If I Were In Your Shoes. They did play Bite My Tongue, though, in which Josh did an amazing job with Oli Syke's part. If you ask me he did a way better job than Oli does.

All in all it was an amazing day and I miss all the great events a lot. I did lose my iPod which has been my life compainion ever since I was like 11 or 12 years old. Yeah, it's been with me for a while and it worked perfectly fine. But it's alright, I can't even be sad about that because the day was so amazing. If I could go back in time I would definitely relive it over and over again.

World's worst photographer, but look how cute he is!

Album reviews.

So this week there's been two new albums out, both from some of my favourite bands. Monday was the release date of You Me At Six's fourth album Cavalier Youth and Tuesday was the release date for Of Mice & Men's third album Restoring Force. I gave both a listen and I thought that I wanted to share my thoughts with you about those albums.

I have to admit that I was in fact disappointed by this album. I've been a fan of You Me At Six for three years and some and they nailed their first two albums so precisely that all my expectations to their future albums skyrocketed. The third album, Sinners Never Sleep was, with the words of one of my friends "Well, you can do that better next time, boys", which describes my feelings about it pretty well. It wasn't as I expected it would be, but it still wasn't bad. So my expectations were still high for this album, but I was even more disappointed than I was with SNS. The different sound isn't what's bothering me, not at all, I'm perfectly aware that bands evolve and develop and grow. What is bothering me about this album is that Josh's vocal is really weak. On the older albums he had this dirty little twist to it where it would almost crack and he'd be a little hoarse, but in a really good way. And on this album it's just not as powerful at it usually is. Also it seems like the other guys aren't doing what I know they can do with their instruments. The guitar isn't being shredded, the drums aren't being smashed and the bass isn't being slapped. It's just so much more.. silent, if that's a word you can use for that. It feels like they haven't poured all their hearts and souls into this album, which ironically is what they say they have done. I seriously hope it will be different live. My favourite song off the album is definitely Win Some, Lose Some because to my ears that song is what they have put the most effort into, the bassline is absolutely incredible and the vocals aren't as weak on the rest of the album.

This album kicks so much ass it almost hurts mine. It's the first time Of Mice & Men has released an album with me as a fan, so I didn't have a lot of expectations, except that I of course hoped it was going to be good. I know about their history with different frontmen and I know that even Austin has been singing clean vocals at some shows because they didn't have a frontman whose job was clean vocals. But since I've only listened to their former albums and never seen any live videos with them (I prefer to experience concerts myself and not watch videos of them) I didn't know how Aaron's voice would sound. And I was only prositively surprised. His voice is amazing and it's in perfect harmony with Austin's. Besides that the lyrics on this album are so heartfelt and the music is really good quality. I can't wait to experience this album live, as well as a few songs from the old ones, sung by Aaron. He fits perfectly in the band and I hope that he'll stay for a while.