After months of letting it do its thing, I finally got my hair cut today. Over summer I don’t like to have a fringe because I find that I get too hot and it sticks to my forehead or just bugs me, but now that it’s starting to kind of cool down I decided to get the fringe back.

Last Sunday my guy and I went to see Lady Gaga. It was quite enjoyable despite our horrible seats. She really put on a great show and I was most pleased with having gone. I didn’t really get her when she first appeared on the international music scene, and it’s really only been over the last six months that I’ve been coming to the conclusion she’s not actually a useless over-commercialised, untallented idiot. She actually writes her songs, plays instruments and, as I was witness to it, can sing (very well, actually). While dancing almost continuously, I might add, which is incredibly difficult (trust me, I’ve tried doing it while home alone and it’s pretty freakin’ exhausting). So, basically, I love her now. And I can’t stop listening to her albums, either. She’s the first woman I’ve seen live, too, which is kind of cool, I think.

Anyway, this week has been pretty busy at university, but it’s going to get much busier over the coming weeks. I have mid-terms coming up and assignments to start/finish, etc. To keep my sanity I’ve been reading for leisure daily, but I don’t get to do much in terms of hobbies (i.e. finish crocheting fingerless gloves) and that makes me feel a bit off. Luckily I don’t have much time to think about it.

I shall leave you with a little What I Wore Today thing. I don’t do this nearly as much as I should, but now that I have a decent camera on my phone I think I’ll be more inclined to, haha.

Top from Glassons.
Skirt made by me from a New Look pattern.
Black pantyhose.
Not pictured are the black ballet flats and the black cardigan with pink ribbon detail.

I love the pockets on the skirt because they are so super-handy!

Holy jizz-in-my-pants, last night was amazing, epic, brilliant, beautiful, magnificent and marvellous, among other things! My nephew and I had such a great time singing along, dancing, screaming, clapping, jumping and all that one should do a concert of such high calibre.

Kings of Leon are a truly brilliant band who are what I consider to be one of the best live acts of my generation. They appeal to a vast range of people and, as last night’s crowd attested, everyone had an awesome time. I have not been a part of a crowd as enthusiastic and who sung as much, since I saw Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2002, and even then the Chili Pepper’s crowd wasn’t quite like the Kings’ one. There were not many songs last night that the audience didn’t participate in, and even for the songs that are less familiar there were still those hardcore fans everywhere (like myself) who knew every damn word and made sure to scream it like we meant it, ’cause we did.

It is needless to say that during ‘Sex On Fire’ it was difficult to hear the band singing over the chorus from the crowd. I think almost every single person at Vector Arena was singing it, and even then anyone who wasn’t screaming it was singing under their breath. I don’t think I have ever experienced that at a concert before. When we all sung along to the more well known songs, especially the latest singles, I got goosebumps from the shear passion everyone was exuding. It still gives me goosebumps thinking about it and I feel so lucky to have been there and been a part of a show I will, without a doubt, remember forever.

The band themselves were in great form and Caleb, the singer/guitarist, was chatty with the crowd. I love it when there is interaction with the crowd. He kept saying how great an audience we were, which, I suppose, he says at all shows, however I choose to believe that he meant it when he said it was one of the best shows they’ve done all tour. We were a fucking great crowd and we lapped everything up like cult followers but in a less weird, we’ll-be-back-to-normal-after way.

I was very impressed with the setlist (thought I can’t find it listed anywhere online yet): they played songs from all the albums, and they played ‘Closer’ and ‘Molly’s Chambers’ which are two of my all-time favourite tracks. No ‘Arizona’ but that’s ok because at the end of the day there isn’t one Kings of Leon song I don’t, at the very least, like, so whatever was given to us was fine with me.

The opening band was The Stills and they’re from Montreal, Canada. I had no idea who was opening before I went to the show so it was a surprise, and a pretty nice one, too. Although I am not familiar with their music they were quite enjoyable and there was this one song with the most epic drumming in it. I want to find their setlist so I can find that song!

The only thing about the entire night that I was not so pleased with was our seating. We were on the back bleachers, though at a nice medium height, but I would have preferred being closer to the stage. It was extremely difficult to get any decent camera footage with being that far back, but it’s not a big deal and once they came on stage I couldn’t care less where I was as long as I could dance and sing and dance some more, which I did. I’ve never danced like that at a concert before; I’ve either been too squashed or too shy to, but last night, after about three songs, I said to myself, Fuck it, this is Kings of fucking Leon, self, stop with the bobbing and throw yourself around!! So I did.

I wish like hell I can see them again before they leave the country but all their other shows are sold out, and rightly so. I hope that if you’re going to see them, you enjoy yourself as much as I did!

Anyway, here’s a photo I took. See, bad quality.

The rest of the photos are here, with video to come later.

Note: I have since re-written this post because, after re-reading it, I realised I probably should have waited until after my headache and groggy state of mind had lifted before even beginning to write.

I had a really great time last night, for the most part*. For the last few weeks I hadn’t really been all that excited about seeing NIN, mainly because I hadn’t listened to him much in years, but when they started and were playing songs I actually new (because I’m not so familiar with the new stuff), I felt pretty damn ecstatic! Trent Reznor was quite a prominent figure in my 15-year-old self’s mind, so it ended up being a little surreal for me, which I wasn’t expecting. I’m really glad I went because he probably wont be back here again, at least not as NIN anyway.

My friend that I went with has seen them a couple of times before and said they didn’t seem as good as she’d seen previously, and that’s what I overhead others say, too, but I have nothing to compare it with and wouldn’t want to anyway. They played ‘Hurt’, which was awesome, and also my very old beloved ‘Starfuckers’, among others! I still know the words. No ‘Closer’ though, which was a little bit of a let down because it’s a great song and, let’s face it, who doesn’t want to see Trent sing “I wanna fuck you like an animal” in person?

Speaking of which, I totally would have let him. When I could see him, for I often had a number of different fanboys in my way, he went from insanely intense to…well, even hotter, if I’m being honest here… Can I just say that he has got great arms. Seriously. He also talked quite a bit in comparison to other shows I’ve been to, and the sound was decent so I could understand him well. He seemed really nice and looked like he had a good time. The guys he had playing with him were very good, too. Because the live line-up changes fairly often I think the mood can be affected by that — sometimes the chemistry between everyone might be off, but last night I thought it all meshed very well.

The only thing that left some of us a bit miffed was that the set list was shorter than we expected and there was no encore, much to everyone’s disappointment. I didn’t really mind all that much because I’ve been to shows with no encore and frankly I don’t really the point in them anyway. As Trent said, it was the first night they had played with the new set-up they had, so they themselves didn’t have a solid idea of what they were doing, however I didn’t think that showed much at all.

The opening band was The Naked and Famous. I didn’t think I knew who they were until they played a song I recognised, then I was like “Oohhh, that’s who you are.” They were decent and the singer is a girl, so yay for that.

Overall, I had an amazing time and I totally have a crush on Trent again. Cannot be helped. I am left with a sense of being very lucky to have experienced that night. It’s the sort of thing I hope to tell my currently non-existent kids one day and they’ll be all “Oh my God, Mum, you saw Nine Inch Nails live??!! You are sooo cool!” or something like that. I think that about my own mother who saw Led Zeppelin at 15. What I would give, what I would give…

*The only crappy parts for me were the fanboys who have no consideration for other people (I value my toes and their ability to, you know, function), and standing behind a girl with dreads who flicked her hair in my face, and eye!, on numerous occasions while dancing.