McBusted, The O2 Arena, 25/04/2014

From the moment I booked McBusted tickets on November 15th 2013, the 10 year old inside was rediscovered and the excitement to see two of my favourite childhood bands was building. 161 days later I was at The O2 as the 10 year old me, screaming and singing along like it was still 2004.

Before I get carried away talking about how insane the show was, I should probably address the support acts. First up was Young Brando, a five piece from the UK only just finding their feet after forming in 2013. Unfortunately, this shows. Their songs are average, their performance was average, they were all round average. Maybe they're just not built for arena shows just yet but as far as I'm aware they've got a lot of work to do to pull in crowds at small venues, let alone a venue the size of The O2. Swiftly after Young Brando's 15 minute set, Danny Jones' sister, Vicky was up. After not quite making it on BBC's The Voice, she's re-branded herself as VIX and was ready with a short set of covers, each of which had a slightly rock 'n' roll edge. As was showcased on The Voice, she can sing, however her choice of song's made her fall short with the crowd at The O2. Saying that, she was a lot better than Young Brando. The final support act was The Three Dudes. Now when I first heard that this was the name of one of the band's supporting McBusted, I cracked up. I didn't know what to expect, other than maybe three teenage boys who think they're awesome, but are actually shit. I was half right. The Three Dudes are a trio of brothers from Sullivan's Island, USA, the oldest of which are twins at just 13 years old! To my surprise, they put on an awesome show. Full of confidence and determination they played and sang like mini rockstars. I was more than impressed and was rather flattered as youngest brother Sam yelled "You London girls are so hot!" Thanks Sam, but I'm a bit too old for you right now. After a pretty good attempt at covering what I thought was the uncoverable 'Ballroom Blitz', the brothers ran and jumped off stage, making way for McBusted.

I think it's appropriate for me to use the acronym OMFG in this review seeing as the McBusted experience involves an OMFG Zone for those lucky enough to be able to afford standing tickets, OMFG tins for those who can be bothered to cue at merch to get some surprise goodies and OMFG shirts because you know, OMFG is a thing. Anyway, OMFG, McBusted were awesome! I was expecting to leave The O2 satisfied, after all, this is a band that I loved when I was 10 and that was 10 years ago now so my expectations were reasonable. I actually left feeling like it was the best thing I had ever been to in all my life. As Matt Willis said on stage "I'm buzzing my tits off"and that's an accurate description of what it feels like to be at a McBusted gig. Opening with a video of 'how McBusted were formed' Matt and James arrived in a Back To The Future-esque car, immediately followed by Danny, Tom and Dougie who jumped from the floor, and of course Harry appeared at his drum kit. Air Hostess began, the crowd screamed and synchronised dancing occurred on the stage. From that moment alone, my departure from £45 was worthwhile. I couldn't possibly sit here and analyse this show song by song because you'd be bored of reading the words awesome and insane again and again so I'll just say it once: their setlist was a compilation of classics each of which was played insanely and awesomely. What I will say though is three things. One: the interlude videos are hilarious. If you miss them you are a fool. They involve a pisstake of UFO witnesses, a pisstake of Tom's wedding speech and a pisstake of the old school TV clown and girl screen. Two: Matt in a wedding dress with Dougie on his back for the whole of Crashed The Wedding made me smile to the point where my jaw was aching. Three: Three giant boobs above the stage for the closing song Year 3000 just reminded me that I will always be the 10 year old me at heart. With constant energy, joking, running around and dancing like they were 10 years old too, McBusted made sure they had just as much fun as the crowd did.

On leaving The O2 I decided I had three choices. I could go home content that I'd finally seen my childhood heroes. I could go to the McBusted gig the following night for an extortionate price, or I could buy a ticket to see them at Hyde Park with Backstreet Boys. Option three it is. Hurry up loan, I NEED TO CONFIRM MY ATTENDANCE OF MCBUSTED AT HYDE PARK.

Oh, and Dougie Poynter is super gorgeous in the flesh too.

Setlist

Air Hostess

Crash and Burn

Britney
Who's David?
Five Colours In Her Hair

Obviously

Sleeping With The Light On
Star Girl
Nerdy
Room On The Third Floor
Thunderbirds Are Go
I Want You Back (Jackson 5 cover)
Shine A Light

What I Got to School For

Crashed The Wedding
All About You

Year 3000

Reading Festival line up

To be fair, I've given the Reading line up a lot of stick since the first batch of artists were announced. Having been to the festival for the past two years, and prior to that wanting to go every year since I was about 13, I always have high expectations for the line up announcements. I've seen some amazing bands at Reading and I can honestly say that the two weekends I have been there have been some of the best times I've ever had. So this years line up pissed me off.

Firstly, this co-headlining business is a bit of a joke. I don't really know why it's been done. I mean I've heard nothing but good things about Paramore and Queens of the Stone Age but I just don't see how they're going to live up to this hype that has been created. Secondly, and for the most controversial opinion you'll read here, why oh why must Arctic Monkeys headline!? I'm not a fan of Arctic Monkeys. I think they're overrated and I think AM is just a repetitive bore. Of course, I'll always sing-a-long to their classic songs because those were the days when they were genuinely fresh and produced good records (I'm aware I sound like a hypocrite now) but today I feel everyone is all over them and find they're just completely over-hyped. They're like that kid at school who is always winning merits and showing off: they're just annoying and you end up disliking them without really knowing them. No doubt though that they will put on a great live show and critics will be all over them. I, however, will do everything I can to avoid them. The third and final headliner, Blink 182, are the reason I bought my ticket. Having seen Blink 182 before I am so buzzing to see them close Reading this year. The charm that comes from all three of them along with all their classic songs and perfect performance is definitely going to be the highlight of Reading this year.

So other than the headliners, what else is there to discuss? Well let's begin with Saturday. Oh Saturday. What a shame for main stage. I can just see it now, all the 15 year old kids who act like they live and breathe music when actually they've just come to Reading because it's the cool place to go to get hammered and take some MDMA with they're friends and "mosh" to that one Jake Bugg tune they know. Main stage is just an endless drone of 'indie' bands that will probably all play in the same way and have the same message throughout. Other than Gnarwolves and Pulled Apart By Horses, who I'm glad are getting a big break for once, I think I'll be steering clear of main stage. My Saturday will be a mix of NME and The Pit. I have so much excitement about seeing Die Antwoord, they are such an odd choice for the festival at all, let alone being that high up on the NME stage but they will be so good to watch. I'm also super excited to see Architects live, followed by Of Mice & Men again. The fact that they're my alternative to Arctic Monkeys made my day today.

Monday is another day where I'm not particularly sure what to do with myself. It will most definitely be the day I wonder around and discover new music but I have to say that I am so happy Enter Shikari are back especially for this. Bias opinion as Enter Shikari are my favourite band, and I've seen them live about 5 times now, but these are a band you do not want to miss. They are passionate, loud, and unmissable. Just amazing. Ahhhh, so excited! I am also mega buzzing for Sunday Main stage. Like seriously, The Story So Far, Papa Roach, A Day To Remember and You Me At Six, leading up to Blink 182, it's going to be so good. And to be fair, despite my dislike for Macklemore and Ryan and Lewis, they will get the crowd going. Other bands to note for the weekend who I would recommend you don't miss are Hacktivist, Basement, Neck Deep, Don Broco and letlive. Especially letlive. as they are a band that you will find no comparison for and will have the time of your life watching.

I'll stop banging on now before I get carried away talking about everyone I want to see (and that's quite a lot of people). What I will say is right now, I cannot wait for Reading to come around. The latest announcement has completely changed my mind on what I thought was a bleak outlook for the festival. Unlike other years, my excitement is not really for the big Main stage names but instead for the plethora of more obscure artists who will be found in the tents of the festival. Hurry up August, I need to be at Reading now.

Of Mice & Men, Koko London, 18/04/2014

Because it's so fresh in my head still, I'm gonna have a bit of an out-pour about seeing Of Mice & Men the other night.

Shit.

They were incredible.

Me and my brother Max decided to head down early in the day so that we could try and secure a barrier spot but by the time we arrived our hopes weren't too great. Queuing behind about 40 people, we ended up behind some railings right opposite the bands tour bus. Result. This meant that throughout our 5 hour long wait we got to see a few of the band, the band's support, Issues and Beartooth, and friends of the band, While She Sleeps chill and tease the crowd with brief hellos and high fives. It was pretty cool and helped past the time until doors finally opened at 6.

Now Koko is a maze. Having never been there before I was not expecting to walk into a dark, but glorious theater where you're not sure what leads to where. Me and Max quickly saw that barrier was definitely not an option so found our way up some stairs and managed to secure ourselves some of the best views in the house. Two tiers up we were opposite the center of the stage and able to see everything we could have wanted to. Not long after finding our view, first support band Beartooth came on. I won't dwell on the support bands for too long, not for any particular reason other than I don't have enough to say about them. Beartooth were good. I don't really know them but the crowd responded greatly to the band who knew how to put on a show. Beartooth were shortly followed by Issues who are  unique band. They mix screamo with singing with alternative-metal with electro? I don't know but once again they got the crowd involved and everyone seemed to love them.

Finally Of Mice & Men came on and they were truly better than I ever thought they were going to be. Austin, as expected was the focus of my attention. I couldn't help it. Not only is he a beautiful man but his presence on the stage is hard not to follow. Throughout every word he sang he had a massive smile on his face as he heard the crowd sing back the songs that him and the rest of the band play so passionately. You could tell how moved he was by the experience. His smile kept me smiling and it just reminded me of all the lovely things I've ever read about him. He is such an inspiration in this industry and finally seeing him perform live proved to me why. Of course, all the band were spectacular, Aaron's voice is just as soothing live as it is digitally and Alan and Phil played their riffs beautifully too. But Valentino is something to talk about. Max, being a drummer himself, was telling me how Valentino is one of few drummers to play using two bass drums and how it's really difficult to do. You wouldn't know because Valentino was on point. He is amazing at what he does and I honestly think without him the show wouldn't have been the same. The show was over pretty quickly. They only played for about an hour in total but it was such a perfect set it didn't even matter. Opening with Public Service Announcement (a personal favourite) and closing with The Depths had such great impact. They encored to play You're Not Alone which left the crowd on a massive high; it's such an anthem that it's been stuck in my head ever since. It was just perfect.

Unfortunately, I only had my phone on me which takes poor quality photos and videos but I have to include some of what I got because it was too good a gig not to! If you've never heard of Of Mice & Men but like bands that of the alternative-metal type genre, or if you have and are debating whether to see them or not, go see them live! You will not regret it, it is such an experience and they are just perfect. Forget Arctic Monkeys at Reading Festival, these boys are headlining at the same time. It's not even a question of who I'll be seeing, Of Mice & Men it will be.

Public Service Announcement LIVE

Setlist

Public Service Announcement

O.G. Loko

Let Live

Feels Like Forever

Bones Exposed

Would You Still Be There

Still YDG'n

Another You

Second & Sebring

Glass Hearts

The Depths

You're Not Alone

The Other Side Reviews

As promised, here are a few links to some of my earlier reviews.

Architects - Broken Cross

http://www.theothersidereviews.com/2014/03/04/architects-broken-cross-2014/

letlive. - The Blackest Beautiful

http://www.theothersidereviews.com/2013/07/11/album-letlive-the-blackest-beautiful-2013/

Enter Shikari -  Radiate

http://www.theothersidereviews.com/2013/06/16/single-enter-shikari-radiate-2013/

Slam Dunk Festival Wales

http://www.theothersidereviews.com/2013/06/06/live-slam-dunk-festival-cardiff-university-student-union-cardiff-28052013-2/

I've always been poor at introductions

So, I'm fairly new to this blogging business. Actually, that's kind of a lie. I've been 'blogging' on Tumblr since my early teenage years (which feels like a long time now) but it's not until now I've decided to create an outlet for my hobby which is music reviewing. I won't bore you with endless technical music speak because let's face it, I'm not a Kerrang or Rock Sound critic right now, I'm just a 19 year old girl who has a passion for music and felt it was about time I had my own outlet to say what I want about who I want. I spent a short while writing reviews for a small internet ezine called The Other Side Reviews but I had to stop writing for them as being a student I was unreliable and couldn't commit to what they wanted from me but hey, it's all good, there's no bad blood there. In fact, I'll follow up this post with a few links of what I've written for them. Other than that brief introduction, I'll leave you with the knowledge that I love doing this and that if there's anything more that you need to know you can probably find it somewhere on here.

Also, bare with me whilst I get to grips with how to make my blog look pretty and stuff.