With quiet words I’ll lead you in

[Unwinding Cable Car – Anberlin]

So last night was An Evening With Anberlin. I didn’t bring a camera so right now, I don’t have photos to share.

Went to Monash in the morning to pick Amelia up, and ran into Sonam again – starting to think the myths of her being a myth are myths, because she seems to be there all the time.

After Cindy gave me the Totoro beanie – and tried to also sneak in the Ash Ketchum cap I saw and made the mistake of saying “what, you didn’t tell me they had those!” which I promptly returned to her because, hey, she got me the damn beanie what more can I ask for? – and we sort of hung out for a bit, Amelia and I went to go to the city.

On the trip there, Amelia was doing some last minute Anberlin cramming, trying to get all the songs in her head for the concert – fair effort, considering she was introduced to the band only a fortnight prior. On the way, Amelia helped me discard an item which I kept on my person that I should have thrown out long ago. Amelia threw it over the escalator at Flinders station, and now it should be a piece of crushed plastic underneath some Epping train. I was hungry, so I went to my store to pick up some noms.

Met up with Annie at uni, and she was in the midst of pulling her hair out researching for an essay which I myself hadn’t started so, in an attempt to calm her, and to make myself feel less guilty, I moved us to South Lawn to sit in the setting sun for a while. (In case you’re wondering, yes I got burnt a little bit.)

Annie wanted to paint her nails, but demanded that I fix one of her nails for her. Now. You must know I have never held a nail-paint-brush-object in my life, and her continued mockery of my ineptness made me laugh uncontrollably, and you know when you’re trying to accurately do something on a small surface with a small tool, laughing simply does not mix.

Amelia took the brush off me with all the weary impatience of a female, and applied a coating. I gagged on the ammonia.

When Pearl arrived albeit half an hour late, we bid goodbye to Annie to pick up a quick takeaway dinner, and head to Palace Theater. Yes. Yes we had Maccas again. I managed to get the two new Snivy toys and, Clare, if you read this – I got you Munna.

There was a fire at Steve Madden on Bourke St, meaning the trams weren’t really running. We walked (ascending incline, I was horrified) to Palace Theatre, and lined up behind a dozen people – so not as far front as last time – and found Susan. We ate our cold dinner. Amelia downed enough Red Bull to make a bull go red.

Memorable quote of the night goes to Susan: “I can’t sit on the cold concrete, or I’ll get diarrhea!”

Slowly everyone arrived in line, and at around 7:30, we started going in. We all stripped outside the venue – ha – so that we could cloak immediately and get barrier. Julia froze in her tank top. I had to put that in because so many people said she was mental.

We did get barrier, but we were off to a corner, so missed the main mosh. It turned out that Anberlin was filming their Australian DVD last night, so it was rather disappointing that we weren’t in the midst of the main action, but it was still pretty damn good off to the side. Comment on the design of Palace Theatre, I guess, that even being off to the side you get a pretty good slice of the action.

Louis introduced us to another Brendan, who was enjoying his first time gig at his favorite band, so we were sure he was going to have the time of his life. It was to his advantage that he chose to stand behind a bunch of short Asian girls too, so he never missed anything. That guy was probably 6 foot tall.

Also got good mosh buddies – no one drunk. The girl’s boyfriend disliked crowds so left to go to the bar, and she was left with us. I felt kind of bad for her, but she seemed to have really enjoyed herself.

ANYWAY the set list! I can’t remember off the top of my head which songs were played, but they opened with Dismantle.Repair which got the mood going. The difference from March, I think, was that they sort of cooled down for a few songs for the acoustic ones. They didn’t do Inevitable, which probably killed Pearl.

They did A Day Late, however, which had me going so crazy – it being my favorite song by them – Amelia had to pull me to calm down. Then again, when they covered Unwinding Cable Car, Amelia went nuts, so, I mean, even Stevens. They also covered Don’t Dream It’s Over by Crowded House with the lead singer of the support band Tonight Only and…would you believe…Travis Clark from We The Kings! He just casually strolled onto stage and everyone squealed in surprise. Except for this one girl who said “oh…I don’t really like We The Kings anyway.” I gave her a good (friendly) pinch on the cheek.

They did a short Q&A from questions they received on Twitter, which was pretty funny and gave a great insight on the friendliness between the band members.

Finally, they encored with *fin (and I didn’t expect them to do the final part) which was the BEST way to cap off the night.

After the show, Amelia’s brother drove us home. I wasn’t sure how to tell them they missed my turn off, and they seemed to have forgotten I was in the car, so I waited until the brother said “oh shit, Amelia weren’t we meant to drop off your friend?” and Amelia, who’d dozed off, laughed at me for not speaking up when it became obvious they forgot me.

All in all, though, I think we were both glad that I nagged her to go so much, because it was an unforgettable night.

Alex.

But before this night is through…

[Bad Things – Jace Everett]

It’s one of the most tense moments in my life when I press play on one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands – in today’s case, I pressed play on an Anberlin song to a newly-made friend Amelia – and I try not to, but I’d watch their face for their reaction. As if someone’s love for a song can be gauged in the first few seconds.

Or maybe it can.

It’s one of the best moments when, without me badgering them with “what do you think?”, they come up to me on their own accord, and tell me they love a song.

It was a good day today. I’m kind of excited about converting someone to my music now.

Alex.

Was This Over Before It Ever Began?

[Feel Good Drag – Anberlin]

One last song title post, even though Autumn has hit. So, on March 1st, I went to see my first ever gig – Anberlin, supported by Bayside and The Starting Line.

I warn you now, very long post.

After my classes ended at quarter to five, I went to the tram stop to meet up with Julia, who had my ticket. At the same time, I was due to meet up with a friend of a friend’s, who up to that day I hadn’t met before. His name is Louis.

So we grabbed a quick bite before we headed to Bel’s apartment where Julia and I dropped off our stuff. We went back up to Billboard, where Susan had started lining up already. She had with her a whole bunch of food that she probably thought she could finish but then realized she had a limit to her appetite, so she tried to offload the food onto us.

Pearl arrived at around 7, just in time to get to know the people we were lining up with (friends of Julia’s). We went into Billboard as one of the first ones, got our stuff cloaked (and, I’ll say now with hindsight, I should not have kept my Metcard in my jeans pocket. Also, Metcards are damn durable.)

We’d gotten that amazing spot at the barriers, right near the center. At this point, standing around while more and more people crowded in behind us, Louis decided to tell me that 1) the waiting part takes ages (which it did, nearly 40 minutes), and 2) there is a chance I’d die (Julia also said she hoped I wouldn’t die). Now, seeing as this was my first gig ever, I had to take their warnings with a certain note of fear. Still, the atmosphere of the waiting crowd pretty much soon made me put aside those words.

At this point, two people began chatting to Louis, who was standing behind me. I didn’t catch the guy’s name, but the girl’s nickname was Ish, and they were both well lubricated with beer. There were general high-fives of excitement, and then the guy decided to pat my head, saying he liked my hair.

Bayside kicked the show off, and even though I didn’t really know any of their songs, their energy, and a guy standing two people behind me who knew every word, got me into the mood of the concert. There were some rocking of bodies, but in general the amount of violence was tolerable. Oh except for Pearl, who was being battered by Ish.

After they finished, the buzzing grew a bit louder, not only because I think more people liked TSL, but it was also one band closer to Anberlin.

At this point, Ish had managed to move her way to being right behind me, and so when TSL started, it became my turn to be battered by her. I supposed it was better to be battered by a drunk girl than to be beaten by an enthusiastic drunk guy. Anyway, TSL started playing Island, and Ish had been screaming for them to play it for two songs already, so you can imagine her enthusiasm and volume when they did start playing it. There were many amused glanced that Pearl and I shared at her excitement, but I rather enjoyed it (ignoring the bruises), because she made the whole event even more exciting, even when there wasn’t a song playing.

When The Best Of Me (admittedly, the only TSL song I knew that they played) began, so began my scream-along for the night.

The one thing I noticed about moshing (and, pressed against the barrier –  actually, pressed against Julia but that’s a later story – I could only assume that what I experienced was moshing) was that everyone around you, stranger or not, suddenly share the same emotional flow. Everyone screamed the same line, everyone threw their arms up in the same beat, and, to some extent, everyone jumped in unison.

After TSL went offstage, the amount of time as Anberlin was being set up no longer became the placid waiting as it was for TSL – everyone began pushing forwards for the best view of the band they’d all come for. It was through some elbowing that I managed to keep my position behind Julia and next to Pearl.

Remember what I said about there being a later story? Well, having not experienced it before, it soon became clear to me that all rules about personal space and touching get trampled, as complete strangers pressed up against my back, and because of my limited upper body strength, I was subsequently pushed so far into Julia that we REALLY tested the boundaries of our friendship.

This is a photo of the setlist that Anberlin played yesterday (“King” was “We Owe It To Ourselves”). Standing right next to the speakers, it was a comment on the enthusiasm of the crowd that our collective screaming matched Stephen’s amplified vocals. It was so loud and so full of energy that he was momentarily taken aback at the microphone.

Bouncers threw water into the crowd, wetting the already sweat-soaked faces. Stephen passed by us many times, as did Deon. When the first few bars of Dismantle.Repair. began playing, I put aside the breathlessness I was feeling, and I fought off the tingling dizziness, and completely lost myself in the beat. It’s strange thinking back now of my conduct, but in that moment, with at least six other bodies occupying my personal bubble, and Julia’s hair in my mouth (yeah…), my crazed arm flailing and very-likely offkey screaming to lyrics that barely need any thinking to recall seemed like just the right thing to do. The crush of bodies turned from an unrelenting enemy into the friend that kept me upright.

At the end, they came back on for two more songs, Readyfuels and Never Take Friendship Personal. In a flash, the show was over. We retrieved our jackets, and sculled down blissfully cold water. I was tingling all over, half from exhaustion, half from the lack of oxygen, and half (my maths have taken a hit lately) from the overspill of excitement. I also noticed that my right side was completely soaked (as was my back, despite wearing two layers), and since I didn’t feel that sweaty, I realized that the wetness was due to the fat guy who’d fought his way to my right towards the end.

Louis and Pearl had to leave to take the train home – can’t express the gratitude I have for Bel for letting me crash at her place, because I was able to stay behind with Julia. We waited around for a while, and saw the band come out at the back. Through Julia’s persistence, we managed to get photos with three members of the band:

This is the one photo of the both of us with Deon, who, by that time, had become my favorite.

Deon actually stood with us and had a bit of a chat, and for a moment he managed to make me forget that he’s the guy who stood onstage in front of us, playing amazing bass. Stephen and Joey had gotten into the van already, so Julia only managed to get a quick signature.

This is sort of where the concert part of the blog post ends, the rest is just for my remembering pleasure.

After we left Billboard and made our way back to Swanston, we realized that we’d just missed all the trams for the night that go to Bel’s apartment. Ignoring the pain in my feet (Julia is a tank, she wasn’t in pain at all), we started on our leisurely stroll to Bel’s apartment (except at Julia’s walking speed which, in case you don’t know her, would make her future children speed walking champions). I tried to keep warm by singing the whole time, and Julia’s complete nonchalance to my musical attempts meant that I had to be the backup vocals too.

We got back to the apartment and, it being half past 1 in the morning, we cat-footed our way around the dark apartment, opting to shower the next day as to not wake Bel’s family. Julia took the mattress on the floor and I took the couch, which was leather. Here, I must recount the moment when, after I’d fallen asleep, the sweat on the back of my hand stuck to the leather and when I changed position, the ripping of my hand off the couch was possibly one of the more painful experiences in my life. How can something so little hurt so much? (That…is what she said.)

Bel left for uni early, so I was half awake at around the time the sun rose. Julia woke once or twice, each time rolling over to sleep more, but finally at around 8:30 we both gave up trying to continue sleeping and simply started the sluggish morning rituals.

After waiting a while for her phone to charge, and talking in semi-whispers in fear of waking Bel’s sister who might not have even been in, we went to DeGraves for brunch (oh, by the way, my sweat soaked Metcard – yes, ew – works, if not after a hesitant click from the turnstile). Dropping her off at Flinders Station so she could go to Uni, I made my way back to my own Uni, bumping into a newly made friend on the tram.

The rest of the day was spent in a sort of sore, tired stupor, and finishing class at 6:15 did not help.

So here’s the predictable I LOVE MUSIC CONCERTS conclusion. I’m not quite sure if I want my next time to have two drunks right next to me, and I have yet to experience a concert where I wasn’t fighting for breath every three seconds, but the thrill of having a stranger next to you hold you up while you’re both leaping to the music is something I want to experience again.

Also, massive thanks to Julia who stuck with me the whole time, Pearl for exchanging amused looks with me the whole time, and Louis who tried his utmost to shield me from the worst of the moshing.

Alex.

Let Jerusalem Bells Ring!

I actually don’t know what Jerusalem bells refer to in Viva la Vida, but it sounds celebratory.

I have uploaded Chapter 7 of my writing project.

I used To The Wolves as the title, because I had just listened to Anberlin’s yet-to-be-released album on their MySpace, and the chorus seemed fitting.

“To the wolves, you fed me to the wolves”.

Will get onto Chapter 8 straightaway, seeing as I finished my essays. I’m not one for spoilers, especially since I can’t be sure what I will write – I haven’t started on Chapter 8, though I have some ideas about what will happen.

Alex.

Come and go now as you please

And I finally found that life life goes on with you
And my world still turns when you’re not around

Naive Orleans – Anberlin

(Well, I’m working my way towards that.)

Today was not an eventful day, but altogether not a bad day either.

This morning I took the 7:29 with Carmaine and we went to Dani’s place. Showed Carmaine Andrew’s Special Poster. It was rather interesting…for her…good for future references? Haha. We went down to Coles because her class was having a class party and people forgot food. We got some chips, dips, hot cross buns etc, and went back up. Andrew drove us to school.

I wrote Tiff’s plane letter in my 2nd period free while sitting on a picnic table with April. After writing the letter I started drawing random stuff on a piece of paper. April and were talking about a specific topic, and I started drawing our conversation onto the piece of paper. It went something like:

Dude 1: “No one wants me” [cries]

Dude 2: “Shut up, you’re getting me wet.”

Dude 1: “Don’t you care?”

Dude 2: “I do. I care about my keeping dry.”

It thus inspired me to start a small comic strip-thing titled “My Friends Don’t Give A Shit About Me” but now I’ve changed it to “Squish & Ko” because I might not necessarily do every comic as “my friends don’t give a shit about me”. It’s nothing personal against my friends, either. Just random funny moments that have happened.

Tomorrow is the last day of Term 1, and free dress day. Which means that today was actually my last official day wearing school uniform FOREVER! I only realized after I went out later to take out the rubbish that my school shoes, sitting in an easy-to-reach place on the rack, can now be moved to the very back. I drew on my school dress by accident but that doesn’t even matter anymore. My school socks have holes worn in them but that don’t matter, no. And since today and yesterday was rather hot, Tuesday was actually my last day wearing that blazer. Strange feeling, it was.

More to come tomorrow (I’m going out to dinner so…something to write about).

Alex.

Inevitable

Methods is actually rather enjoyable now that I’m in the same class with Carmaine and Shaz.

Well, I don’t remember much of Year 9 and 10 Methods anymore, but this year the three of us help each other and check answers with each other and it’s a rather friendly environment. But who am I to talk yet? We’ve only done Graphs so far. Wait ’til we get to Differenciation and Logarithm! Death.

Anyway, today in Methods while we were working, Carmaine and I listened to Inevitable by Anberlin over and over again. Thus I have done my bit to explain my title.

I wanna break every clock,

The hands of time could never move again.

We could stay in this moment (stay in this moment)

For the rest of our lives.

Is it over now, hey, hey is it over now?

I wanna be your last first kiss

That you’ll ever have.

Had a rather fun double free this morning. In P1 Dani brought in a huge 2L bottle of milk, labelled it for herself, and upon my questioning said that all her friends are welcome to it. Then in P2 Eunice came in and sat with us in the Common Room and we played some CDs and In The Summertime by Thirsty Merc came on so we both started singing loudly to it.

I don’t have a job,

I never liked them.

I just wanna play in the sunshine.

They say I was wrong,

But I know better!

I live my life like I’m dying.

Gimme a chance,

I’ll do my best to kick and scream and dance

When winter comes I’ll turn around…

So take me back to the

Sweet times, the happy nights,

Everything’s gonna be alright

In the Summertime,

Baby in the Summertime!

Last year, the only thing that cheered me up somewhat when I realized summer was coming was the thought that on a really hot day, and when I’m with Eunice, we can sing In The Summertime!

Keep Cool (just keep swimmin’ just keep swimmin’)

D.F.

P.S. Carmaine and Eunice both ran for their Form Captain today, as well as Ca-, so let’s see who gets it. I helped Carmaine a bit with her speech, and we randomly put songs in and Carmaine put in Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl” but instead she kissed 12A and she liked it. In a dream she had.

Hey sister, do you remember when?

Alright this might potentially end up pretty long.

Yesterday I went out to the city again. Unless I’m mistaken, I haven’t been to the city since probably last assembly, back in mid December.

Mom took the day off yesterday so I didn’t have to worry about busses and all that. She dropped me off at Glen station, and when she drove away I thought I’d left my mobile at home. So I was nervously waiting for D.P. to show up, and then I asked her if I could use her phone to call Mom at home. But since it takes about 10 mins to drive home, we went to the Glen and walked around, and when it was around the right time I called Mom. I asked her to search my room for my phone. She was really pissed off because it was messy and she couldn’t find the phone. Later, I found it in my bag.

D.P. and I took the train and we caught up on the way, because we hadn’t seen each other in a while. I thought you looked rather pretty yesterday! But you wouldn’t accept it. Sheesh.

We got off at Melb Central, because D.P. wanted to check if someone was working there that day. She wasn’t, but we, or rather D.P. saw a couple of Asians she knows. After that we decided to take the No 1 to Dani’s place, but just missed one, so walked down to Collins and took the 112. Arrived at her place in time to watch Andrew get beaten by “crazy dancing chick” on Tekken. We took turns playing Tekken for a while (I hate games where I don’t know the keys and have to button mash. ‘Cos D.P. owns in button mashing).

Carmaine came later on, and we took a walk around South Melb. Or, specifically, around the vicinity of Clarendon. It was windy but it was definitely fun.

After a while, we came back into the apartment. Unfortunately D.P. had to leave, which made me feel guilty for dragging her out and then hanging out with Carmaine most of the time. We played with Lysh for a while, and we watched Dani feed Slash and Kane, the two Mexican-Something-Fishes. At around six we decided to go eat dinner, and said goodbye to the two lovebirds, and Marco, and went out to Clarendon to look for something to eat. Carmaine “didn’t want anything in particular” and took that to almost literal meaning when I suggested something and she’d say no. She said she felt like pasta. We went to 2 places with Pasta. She said no. Fair enough I said no too, to one. But still.

Decided that we’d eat at DeGraves, and took the tram down into the CBD. I needed to pee (sorry, tactless, I know) so we stopped by Australia on Collins because that was the nearest toilet I remember. As we were taking the escalator down into the foodcourt, where the toilet is, we noticed Il Divo had a $10 menu. So we decided to eat there to see what it was like. That and, we’re cheap. So we ordered the food and drinks, and sat down to a really awesome meal, talking about things that we normally didn’t talk about. I learned something about her, or actually I had some things confirmed that I thought about her, and well I don’t know, Carmaine, did you learn anything about me? What I did learn was how awesome you are, and how lucky I am. I really liked that dinner, despite the dry chicken and you ordering the same dish again, because, like you said, the “company was good”.

After dinner, we decided to walk off the food. Since, as previously mentioned, I have a pretty had sense of direction, all I remember is walking down Bourke St, and hitting GPO, and then I was pretty lost until we got back onto Lonsdale. But we took some pictures, found the alleyway with the commisionned graffiti (saw an awesome Grim Reaper one), and then stumbled across a DeGraves-like alley with cafes and stuff that we thought we’d take Bee to next time (there was a hot waiter, so we figured, Thursday nights, definitely). It was a bit annoying because as we walked past, the hot waiter thought we were potential customers. Carmaine was in front so she got the “hey how are you” nice smile and by the time I walked past they figured we were useless to them, so I got the “okay whatever, move along” face. Figures. Story of my life, eh?

Got back to Melbourne Central and noticed our next train was in 28 minutes because we’d just missed one. So we decided to walk around and sit down again, and as we were walking around, we saw Dom and 2 other guys at the breaking spot. So we went up and sat down and watched them breakdance (Dom has a cool digital watch that has big numbers, so even short sighted people can see it at a glance) and Carmaine took a video on her camera of Dom breaking. But this was before we decided our train was going to be here, and we went down to the station. Only to realize we missed that train again, by moments. So we waited another half hour with Dom and the others. At some point, security was called and AGAIN we got kicked out of that place. According to Dom, though, his breaking sessions usually only end when security comes. We weren’t late for the 2nd train, at 8:30, and on the train home Carmaine did Sudoku while I sat on the floor (it was a bit busy because it was only three carriages. Imagine our surprise when we, sitting where the first carriage usually is, watched as the train stopped short 20 meters away) and dozed. Then when the person next to Carmaine left, I sat next to her, and we both played Younglife by Anberlin on our separate iPod/MP3s, “over and over again”.

Hugged her goodbye, while agreeing that an emo chick was too skinny, and realized that this was the last time I’d see her until she got back from camp (it’s like the cruise all over again) but it was somewhat dulled by the awesome wait that is SALE! Wait, not a sale, I mean the place, Sale.

Because, and this will be my early explanation, from Monday to Tuesday (considering I don’t know when I return on Tuesday) I’m going with Pure Awesomeness, Julia, Jen, Vania…and myself…to Sale. I get to go to the country! Last year Sonam, Julia, April and I were going to do the same, but even further, going to Bairnsdale, but it was cancelled. This time it’s fo’ sho’. Unfortunately I have to be at Flinders by 7:56 in the morning. Kill. Me.

On Saturday I’m going to April’s birthday “thing”. I can’t believe it’s been a year since we last went out for her birthday, to Soda Rock, and watching Hunting and Gathering, and getting April a free milkshake because it was her birthday.

I came home last night at past 9, so I was a bit lazy and didn’t email Eunice and Bee to make them laugh. Otherwise I’ve been doing really well with my resolution. I think I’ll make them laugh extra hard today. I slept at 11 because I was up talking to CJ (another mention!) and that was rather stupid of me leaving early because I ended up not falling asleep for ages. I think I’ve caught the Vania-Syndrome. Who knows. I might start calling Robert Pattionson “RPattz” soon. Ha. Fat chance. He has aids.

God it was good to get out of the house.

“Old enough to know, but too young to care.” Right, Carmaine?

Defluffe, Out.

Attention and Chopping Music

When Sneakerologist aka Cheryl commented on my Summer Project which I only put up for about a day, I decided that I want to shamelessly advertise my blog so that more people read it, and so I get famous-er, so maybe one day someone would notice me and say “Oh my god you’re De Fluffe!”

Not that that many people use WordPress anyway…not the people that I know. They’re still being sucked in by Facebook. Diee…

Of course that leaves me the dilemma. If too many strangers end up reading this I can’t exactly be personal, or blog about my day-to-day life. I mean, my life isn’t that much fun unless you’re talking about those “real life” kind of stuff.

The second part is chopping music. Today we made dumplings again (Bee, speaking of which, can I have that container back some time?) and I chopped up a lot of Chinese cabbage but I had my iPod in and I realized that Reclusion by Anberlin and Viva la Vida by Coldplay were good chopping music. I’m helping to cook a lot more, and I am oh-so-close to making a meal for myself.

Right now I’m on

tedmosbyisajerk.blogspot.com

If you watch How I Met Your Mother, I think you might get it. There’s even a 20 minute song that goes with the site. It’s hilarious and long…and has this really bad singer but I think that was irony. Some lyrics include “die Ted Mosby die” “I love you, I love you, I hate you, I hate you so bad”  “I I I I I hate you, you you you you should die.” “I love you I HATE YOU I love you I HATE YOU I love..you..HATE YOU..lo-lo-love you, hate you, I ha-ha-hate you and I hope you break down and die. And if you don’t, I’ll kill you, I I I’ll kill you over breakfast, I’ve done it before, but that’s another song (that’s another song) that’s another song (that’s another song) I’ll tell you about it another time (oooooooh, that’s another song)”

It goes on for 20 whole minutes…

Anyway, do go on that site for some fun.

De Fluffe, Out.

P.S. Tomorrow, results come in! Wooooot! Haha