Jiminy Cricket

Twisted Logic. Haha, fucking brilliant.

You know something's gone terribly wrong when you don't celebrate the new year. Tonight, I just thought "Oh, what's the point?" Oh, and the song lyrics I quoted were from The New Year by Death Cab For Cutie.

So this is the new year. And I don't feel any different. Happy New Year everyone. Hope it's a good one. Mine won't be. :(

Let's grow old together AND DIE AT THE SAME TIME!!!!! I love this band. Yes, they are morbid as fuck. They are also amazing, especially for releasing their album on 7"s. 7"s!!! I mean, who does that!? Sorting Simon (or DeathAndAllHisFriends - appropriate.) out with a link for some stuff that has to do with losing your life, death etc.

Mere numbers cannot express how much I love this song.

The Tale Of Despereaux - 8/10. I really enjoyed this, although there were quite a few things in the script that weren't in the book.

This. Especially that part about Run.

Surely a joke.

You won't I'm afraid. They've sold out. :(

I'm getting mine tomorrow. :D

Insqueeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed. IT'S CHRIS(T)MAS!!!!!!!!!!!! Squee.

+22 :dance:

Good old Popey - "Fear the gay. Climate change might kill us all, but the gay might bum you, and you know what Jesus says about that. Feeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!1 :wacko:" Lol, whatev.

Violet Hill Day was AMAZING.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/1222/breaking57.htm Another headline they could have used is 'Man in dress upset about blurred gender boundaries'. Religion is truly useless now. Also, yes, I am an atheist, and the fact that bigots like our friend Benedict here can make comments like this, and hide behind religion absolutely sickens me.

...which I should download, as Dave sort of KNOWS WHAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT when it comes to music.

DUBLINSQUEE *squee*

This song fucking rules. Especially live. :D

Maybe because everyone else got tickets to the first one? :P

Pics galore!!! :D

Life In Technicolor Violet Hill Clocks In My Place Speed Of Sound Yellow Chinese Sleep Chant 42 Fix You Strawberry Swing God Put A Smile Upon Your Face (Techno Version) Talk (Techno Version) The Hardest Part (Piano) Postcards From Far Away Viva La Vida Lost! Green Eyes (acoustic) Jingle Bells (acoustic) Fairytale Of New York (The Pogues cover - acoustic, Will singing) (Viva La Vida Remix) Lovers In Japan Death And All His Friends The Scientist Life in Technicolor ii (The Escapist) For the lazy ones among you. :P

Ah, I'm getting confused about the vids I got - I didn't get one of Jonny doing his thing, sorry. Some random pics that came out reasonably well are on their way, including one of Chris doing his thing at the piano, and some shots of The High Wire.

HOLY SHIT, THAT WAS PHENOMENAL. I was meant to be in the flat seats in Block G, an area which looked like it had been put together at the last minute. A few minutes before the High Wire come on, I say to my cousin, "Man, these aren't great seats. I have a plan." Two minutes later we're in amongst the majority of the still-empty flat seats, dead centre, seven rows back from the stage. So The High Wire come on. I have their album by now (picked it up at the merch stall - a snip at €7), and am impressed by them. They remind me of early Puressence. 15 mins after The High Wire go off, Jon Hopkins comes on, aka One Man, His Macs, And A Massive Screen. I recognised a few of his songs - from his third album, called Insides, due out in March. The massive screen, meanwhile, was showing the weirdest animated film I have EVER seen. For half an hour, everyone's talking amongst themselves. Then, as the credits roll, the applause starts. He got an amazingly good reception from us down at the front, even though for most of his set we were like "WTF?" He then goes back to DJing as equipment checks get underway. The place is buzzing now, and we are on tenterhooks for 20 minutes. Then a familiar classical piece comes on. I'm like, "Yup, that's it." The lights go down, and the Jon Hopkins sample at the beginning of Life In Technicolour begins to play. The crowd just erupts, and I have butterflies in my stomach at this point - the ohfuckmethisisgoingtobeamazing kind. I get told to sit down by some random woman who chose not to get to her feet. She's changed her mind by the time Violet Hill starts though, standing up, as we all are, our seats forgotten. Yellow was a partcular highlight, what with balloons and confetti and whatnot. I get an elbow in the mouth from the guy sitting next to me, trying hard to catch one of those balloons. That was fun. 42 and Fix You get astonishingly good receptions. Then suddenly we're all clapping as the opening notes of Strawberry Swing are played. I'm like, oh, fuck yes. This was always going to be the highlight of my night, and it was astonishing. Such a good live song. Then off they go the b-stage, where they play a techno version of God Put A Smile Upon Your Face, segueing it into Talk. That went down quite well, and I videoed the whole thing. It turned out shit, though. Chris is then left on his own at the piano. He plays the Hardest Part, which goes down really well, and I get a good pic of him. Postcards From Far Away follows, and it seems to me that not many people recognise it. I'm like "Have you lot not bought Prospekt's March?" Nobody has ANY trouble recognising the next song though. Viva La Vida gets the best reception of the night. As the song ends, the audience keep singing the refrain, then Coldplay, the sneaky bastards, surprise us by launching into Lost! without any warning. I was wondering how it'd go down live. It was brilliant. Off to the b-stage again then. Or so I think. They go past it. I ask my cousin where the fuck they're off to. Then I spot a stage. Hello, acoustic set. Green Eyes gets a very good reception from me, as it had never been one of my favourites on A Rush Of Blood To The Head up until recently. The lads then decide to get festive, with acoustic renditions of Jingle Bells, and - get this - Fairytale Of New York by The Pogues, which I cannot believe they pulled off, it was acetastic. That Viva La Vida remix plays over the PA. I'm like, oooh, encore coming. Politik was immense. I loved the lighting, and got a video of Jonny doing his thing near the end of the song. Lovers In Japan? It was all about the butterfly confetti. I got around 100 pieces. My cousin got 400, which I suppose is well possible when your jumper has pockets. The video for this song was, erm, interesting. Death And All His Friends is next. I overhear some randomer near me saying, "What song's this?". I laugh. As the song explodes into life, a VIVA banner unfurls itself at the back of the stage. The guys take a bow, and I see some of the roadies taking away a few props. Everyone else has got the right idea though, and we start making serious noise. Cue a second encore of The Scientist and another Prospekt's March Track, Life in Technicolor ii, which, again, most people fail to recognise. I could swear I was the only one in a group of 50 singing along. The lights come back up, and people start to make their way out of the venue, as The Escapist plays over the PA. Once we're outside, I ask my cousin what he thought of the gig. He replied, "It was epic." What an awesome show. It was, indeed, such a perfect day.

I am going to discount Coldplay's win, as it was always going to happen, and say this: That is mainly a FUCKING AWESOME TOP 5. #1: YAY for Elbow winning. Good year for them eh? Mercury Music Prize winners, One Day Like This soundtracks every program and montage known to man, and they win the Coldplaying Music Prize. Sounds epic. #2: Sigur Rós? I had no idea that... that album - you know the one - got so much <3 on here. *looks at Sigur Rós thread - eats words* #3: Keane!! IIRC this just missed my top 10. Excellent album, though I can't help but think of Pretend That You're Alone as filler. Everything else however.... Oh, and did I mention that the title track is a song and a half? :D #4: :uhoh: #5: 'MON THE PATROL!!! Were it not for Life Processes' late resurgence, this would have been album of 2008 for me. Every song is utterly brilliant - I wonder how many of them I'll see live in February? The Lightning Strike. Wow. One thousand times wow. I swear this becomes more astonishingly epic each and every time I listen to it.

STRAWBERRY SWING