SOUNDWAVE 2015 – special edition (Day 2)

I have had the most hectic week starting with Westfest and ending with 20 hours of work over 2 days but I’m finally getting around to writing about SW day 2 with my beautiful Sophie. Here’s to hoping my memory holds up. What I always forget about festivals that run over multiple days is how completely exhausted you are after going hard on the first day. So day 2 was, for me, significantly less energetic. I didn’t run, for starters. We were up just as early and arrived a little later than day 1 but it was clear it was going to be a more chilled day from the length of the line. Sweet relief. I could barely walk after my brief sprint the previous day so I hobbled over to bag check while Sophie sprinted (again, poor thing) to get her signing ticket for Gerard Way and I then took a place at the barrier on stage 1 while she went to stage 2 for a 4 hour wait for Gerard. We missed each other so we FB messaged basically the entire time we weren’t together. Separation anxiety is a real thing. I was waiting to see Lower Than Atlantis, a British band that I have only listened to since they were announced but knowing that they had previously supported You Me At Six and considering my obsession with British rock/pop punk bands I figured they were worth a try. They didn’t let me down AT ALL. As soon as they came out I lost it, having completely giving up caring about what anyone else thinks of me. Turned out there was a guy behind me who had the same philosophy and we ended up singing together and having the best time and it was just such a good set and made day 2 worth it already. Criminal, Emily, and Words Don’t Come So Easily are my 3 favourites and they played them all, so naturally I went hard. Zero inhibitions and 100% sweat. They had mentioned during their set about their signing and whilst I hadn’t planned on going, their set left me on such a high that I couldn’t not. I left then to go and get a ticket and high fived the dude I’d been dancing with and proceeded checked my twitter (as one does) and naturally, as was my life at this point, I had received a reply from LTA so we’re basically best friends now. And then I think through this interaction, the dude (hi Nick) managed to find me on twitter and it turns out we’re both going to see YMAS next month in Melbourne so serious excitement for new friends with sick taste in music!! The rest of the day, thankfully, was pretty chilled out (my body was not in any state to be dealing with another day like day 1) and after getting my LTA signing ticket, I stood at the back and watched Hollywood Undead who are great fun but also misogynistic and pretty disgusting. (Sophie pointed this out later and I hadn’t noticed so I looked into the lyrics and no thank you misogyny). I then went to the LTA signing and it was kind of anti-climactic because it was so rushed and I was hot and tired but they signed my programme and they redeemed themselves later (more on that to come…). I then walked very quickly (I will not be running for potentially the rest of my life) (and by that I mean until the next time I need to get a signing ticket) to watch the rest of Gerard Way who is an angel sent from heaven and whilst I hadn’t listened to much of his stuff, his set was still wonderful and I was taken back to my emo days (here is where I pretend I’m over those days) of MCR and the Black Parade. Gerard is another artist that uses his fame to inspire love and accept, his speech was so beautiful, telling us if we support our transgender friends then he loves us. He talked a lot about how much he loves his brother Mikey, too, which further sparked my nostalgia for MCR. I cried a little when he performed Brother, not gonna lie. Sophie and I reunited after this and decided it was definitely chill time until Gerard’s signing so we got Nandos (because apparently Nandos do food trucks now?!) and a woman walked past us and felt the need to tell us how bad it is for us, not that we cared one little bit because it was delicious and exactly what we needed (also there is a strong possibility that I am getting this part of the day all muddled but either way these things happened) (I’m also definitely overusing parentheses but we live and learn and let go). Anyway at some point between buying merch (that I will wear until my dying day) and food, Sophie had her Gerard signing and of course I went along for moral support because it isn’t every day you meet your idol and inspiration. The sold out line went down pretty quickly and I managed to keep up with where she was, meaning that when she came running towards me I was there to catch her while she sobbed into my shoulder which, in turn, started me off crying because I was so, so happy for her and I just adore what music does for people and this was a perfect example. We hung out for a little bit after this but there were no more bands we were desperate to see and the exhaustion was definitely catching up on us so we caught the tram (a LOT easier than the night before) and went our separate ways *insert sobs here*. The evening ended with me running around the building bra-less in my super girl pyjamas trying to find the pizza man that had woken me up and who I didn’t know was coming, followed by a swim in the rooftop pool at Mog’s apartment.

A photo that does the view no justice.

And this is where you think my Soundwave weekend is over, right? Wrong. I had another day in Melbourne which was mostly spent recovering and eating chocolate before Tara took me to the airport. Where I only went and saw LOWER THAN ATLANTIS waiting to take a domestic flight to Brisbane. We initially drove past them and by the time I’d walked back to where they were it was only Mike and one of their tech guys still there but this is where I got my redemption for the weak signing situation because he stood and talked to me for a solid 10 minutes and was absolutely great. I told him I’d seen their set and got a high five (the first of many) and we talked about how good the line up for Slam Dunk in the UK is this year. He then offered to get me on the guest list to this festival. WHAT. Obviously the problem comes with paying for flights but that is besides the point. We talked a bit about NZ because I told him I was heading back and he said they were hoping to get a bunch of British bands together and just touring the world together at which point I totally lost my cool and just freaked out because IMAGINE. They hung out with Twin a few days later in Brisbane and they’re already friends with YMAS. I just lost the ability to filter and just screamed in his face ‘I WOULD DIE’ which might not have been the best idea since he was drinking a slushie and had informed me he was horribly hung over but nothing excites me like British bands and the thought of seeing all my favourites together excites me a lot. It was the perfect end to the best 10 days I’ve had for as long as I can remember. I then spent the entire 3 and a half hour flight back home listening to my Soundwave playlist while I drifted in and out of consciousness and I’m pretty sure I was smiling the entire time.

SOUNDWAVE 2015 – special edition (Day 1)

A flight to Melbourne can only mean 2 things for me:

1. I’m going to see my best friend
2. There’s live music involved

Usually, they come hand in hand and I’ll text Mog a few months in advance telling her she has me for a few nights whilst I fulfil the need to see this band or that band. This time, it was in aid of my first Soundwave experience, about bloody time since I had wanted to go every year since I moved to NZ. 2015 was my year. I finally got around to it.

Holy heck, was it worth the wait.

Dude. Dude. Dude.

Before the weekend even came, I went for coffee with my friend who met You Me At Six with me back in September and as we were walking out of Melbourne Central to go to a music store I see someone. No. No freaking way. But yes. It was the drummer for Twin Atlantic, Craig (who I called Barry in a major fluster but I digress). I told him I’d come from NZ mainly for them and how they were my favourite band and then I showed him my tattoo and he was like “wow you’re not lying!” No. I may have just got your name wrong but I am no liar. So the rest of the band rocks up and Craig shouts “we have a fan!” and they all stood around and talked to me and marvelled (exaggeration ok) at my tattoo and were super excited to have such a huge fan and we took a photo where we all look cute as heck.

And then I saw them again later and Sam freakin’ McTrusty waved and smiled and said “hey” and I am no longer alive at this point because they already recognised me.

Who knows when I’ll come down from this. Maybe next year. Probably never.

I met my friend Sophie on another whimsical trip to Aus to see twenty one pilots when we queued for 10 hours. She brought the entire line snacks because she is an angel sent from heaven and we decided there and then that we were going to do Soundwave together this year. I couldn’t have asked for a better festival buddy. We turned the whole weekend into our very own meme and laughed for years at everything that came out of the other’s mouth. I just need to make it clear that this weekend would not have been the same without her. If we had taken a selfie I would have inserted it here.

After a day in bed recovering from a Thursday-night-in-Melbourne hangover, I got my life together and got on a train to Sophie’s where we scrapped the idea of watching a movie in favour of planning our weekend in extensive detail. Outfits laid out on the floor and timetable all written up, we went to bed but the signing times weren’t out so sleeping was not an option. What if they clashed and ruined our plans? (Sophie knows what). Half an hour later and they’re out and they fit perfectly with everything and now we were even more excited it was literally like we were 5 and it was Christmas Eve.

We had set approximately 12 alarms for the next morning so that we didn’t miss the train and were fully expecting to be ready at 6:05am because after this photo, even our underwear got laid out properly.

So 5:45 (and 5:50 and 5:55 and 6:00…) comes and we’re up and talking about how our eyeballs are going to be in front of their eyeballs and making absolutely no sense whatsoever and finally make it to the gate we need to be at (after figuring out the tram and walking for years). I went to see Chony, who is a beautiful human from NZ with perfect music taste, and after a few hours and dealing with a frantic situation when the line got moved up while Sophie was using the portaloos, we finally got let in. Somehow I managed to get an 18+ band using my student card because I left all of my proof of age ID at home like a fool. Australians have no clue about NZ ID, the only date on that things says May 2012. And then we sprinted to get our signing tickets for Twin Atlantic and Tonight Alive. I have not run since I was 16 and I thought my lungs were going to give out on me before the day had even started but we got them (#1 for Twin and #14 for Tonight Alive) and finally recovered at the barrier for stage 1 where we waited for Twin very impatiently.

Apocalyptica played before Twin on stage 2 but besides marvelling at their beautiful, luscious, Finnish hair, and crazy string playing, I couldn’t concentrate because they were setting up the flags for Twin and I couldn’t stop staring. I was about to see my favourite Scottish boys for the first time in nearly 2 and a half years?! The judgment that followed was definitely expected. When no one has any clue who they are and you’ve known every lyric since you were 18 you will make a fool out of yourself. The setlist was almost perfect, just missing Crash Land or Wonder Sleeps Here or Oceans to show their softer side but I didn’t even care because we were dancing so hard and putting on our best Scottish accents the entire time. And they played What Is Light? Where is Laughter? So how could I ever be mad? After they ended, we left the barrier and let some big All Time Low fans take our spot because it was very clear who we were there for. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. We moved closer to stage 2 to see Tonight Alive and I walked off to fill our water bottles because the sweat was unreal and as I was heading out, someone tapped me on the shoulder and handed me 2 Twin setlists and said he’d seen us from the stage dancing hard out and I thanked him profusely to which he said “you are more than welcome, you deserve these”. WHAT IS LIFE?

And then Tonight Alive came on and we had such a good spot even though we were basically the only ones by stage 1 dancing and singing like crazy people. Jenna is such a beautiful and inspirational person. I love it so much when artists use their fame to promote strength and confidence and love and Jenna always makes the crowd repeat something about how we will refuse to be prisoners of other people’s judgment and it just always makes me feel so strong. I adore her and all of her morals and Tonight Alive’s music is just so freaking good. Lonely Girl and Hell and Back are 2 of my favourite songs at the moment and throw in some Rage Against The Machine covers and you’ve got a perfect set.

The crowd on stage 1 started getting a little rowdy at this point and the bras were coming out in preparation for throwing them on the stage. This could only mean All Time Low were coming. We only caught the first 20-25 minutes of their set because it clashed with the Twin Atlantic signing which we wouldn’t miss even if someone had hacked off our legs with a chainsaw. We got to see some of Sophie’s favourite songs which I was happy about since we were having to miss most of their set and she let loose her 14 year old self while we jammed to Irony of Choking on a Lifesaver, Lost in Stereo etc… They’re such a good live band, their sets never being fully complete until Jack has made some comment about sexual favours which luckily for us happened pretty quickly after they came on stage. We backed out heading to the signing tent still jamming until we couldn’t hear them anymore.

THEN WE MET TWIN AGAIN AND THEY REMEMBERED ME?!?!! They were super excited that we got the setlists and we told them how a tech/sound guy came to find us personally to give them to us which I like to think really impressed them. I had a good chat with Craig who had to get pulled away from me by Sam who tapped him on the shoulder with a ‘hey babycakes’ to get a photo with someone else. In case you were wondering, hearing a grown Scottish man call his best Scottish buddy ‘babycakes’ is something everyone should experience. I am not joking. Laughed for 8 years. Anyway, as always (I can say that now because we are friends) they were total sweethearts and Sam even wrote my favourite lyric from Crash Land on the back of my phone so I intend on buying a clear case so I can always have him with me. They were all super cute and all made an effort to have a really decent chat with us despite SW officials hurrying them along and I adore them forever.

After meeting Twin we went straight to hang out with Tonight Alive and the ever flawless Jenna McDougall who is not only beautiful aesthetically but she also has a beautiful heart and I feel really privileged to have now met her. Sophie and I were discussing how amazing she looked after having just performed and so the first thing I said was ‘how do you still look this good after that sweat fest?!’ and she spent forever reassuring me that she had touched up and she is, in fact, human. She then asked my name (??!?!?!) so that she could personalise my autograph which was so sweet because, again, they were getting rushed like crazy. When she found out she was like ‘oh my God did you ever have Bratz!?’ because there’s one called Yasmin so naturally I owned one so I freaked out and we fan girled over Bratz and Jenna is my spirit animal for sure. The rest of the band were super cute too, saying they liked my Twin shirt and then we talked about how great they are and I love it when bands love bands so that was too fun.

After the signings, we had a nice amount of time to chill and calm down from the craziness of our morning/afternoon so we got some food and sat down by stage 3 in preparation for Fall Out Boy which was still over 3 hours away so obviously we decided to get a decent spot and watch the few bands that came before them which turned out to be a fantastic decision because we got to experience the beauties that are Escape the Fate and Of Mice and Men. Neither Sophie or I had ever really listened to them before but they were both so great live and OM&M led to some serious teary moments, especially during one old song that everyone knew the lyrics to and had one giant, tattooed man crying hysterically and it was so beautiful to see music affect people in such a lovely way. At this point we were just so happy because that’s what it’s all about, seeing how these bands that we don’t know have affected others’ lives just like our bands have affected ours and it was just so beautiful!!

The sun started to set after this, causing the most beautiful sunset I have seen over a crowd of people all there for the same reason and right then and there I was the happiest I have ever been.

FALL OUT BOY WAS ABOUT TO GO DOWN. The excitement was real, the inside jokes with Sophie were completely out of control (FOB/immediate ghost), and we were ready. Fall Out Boy is one of those bands where I know every word to every song (as well as you can know FOB lyrics, anyway) and yet I never class them as a favourite band. At this point in my life, I didn’t care about any other band other than FOB. They were the only band in the world, as far as I was concerned and they were about to put their faces in front of our faces (except for Andy because we couldn’t actually see the drumset from our spot on the barrier…). Let me say straight away that the setlist was perfect. Absolutely the best that we could have hoped for and a perfect mix of all of their stuff and they performed it all perfectly, with so much energy and they looked so happy to be there it was adorable and enough to make the coldest heart melt. Patrick forgot the lyrics to Immortals and Pete jumped in to help (thanks Pete!!) and then later when Pete was talking about memes (aka our lives) and how you just have to keep doing your art, whatever it might be, Patrick jumped in with ‘my art is currently forgetting the lyrics to Immortals’ which was so cute and we were just like ‘it’s okay we didn’t know them either!!’. What a precious little muffin. I was just so ecstatic for the entire set and so stoked with the choice of songs, I even jammed to AB/AP which I stubbornly hated when it first came out but now I can’t help but love it after we made up a perfect dance that everyone followed. I will never stop loving Sophie for being completely weird with me throughout the whole show! After we continued to sing Light ‘Em Up when they went off, they came back for the encore calling us ‘legends’ and just looked so happy and I love it when bands just so clearly love what they do and love making us happy and hearing us sing back their music it’s so rewarding and I never, ever wanted it to end but it did and I couldn’t even be sad because it was such a perfect day!!

(Really good photography occurred.)

Then for the ridiculous journey home that ended up taking 3 hours and involved an evil old lady who spat on us, 3 litres of apple juice and battling with Melbourne’s White Night. It also meant we had all of 5 hours to sleep before we got up and did it all again. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.