good shoes won't save you this time

fran healy's words of wisdom before performing Love Will Come Through at singfest.

so poignant.

Day 1:

got there in time for the last bit of some indon chick whom roger described as a feminazi and that automatically turned me off giving her ANY of my attention.

new found glory then stepped on stage..the reception was not too bad actually! the first quarter of the fort canning slope was filled- dunno if any moshing went on. speaking of moshing, it was sucha dumbass thing for me to wear a dress to a gig lineup that included predominantly rock acts- which meant that if i intended to go anywhere near the middle of the crowd i'd have to be ready to be jostled/elbowed/shoved/pushed but since i was wearing a DRESS, i couldn't afford to put myself in such a position could i?? so stupid of me. i'm sticking to skinnies/jeans/shorts the next time i go for a festival. SLAP ME..just slap me if i'm wearing a dress. it considerably dampened my experience since i couldn't be in the thick of the action at the lostprophets set later on. it was a lapse of judgement, but oh well, you learn. the coolest thing about the NFG set was that at halfway through a song, this kid shouted out that he knew how to play the song and they ACTUALLY INVITED HIM ON STAGE TO PLAY!! the guitarist helped him adjust the strap and everything and HE PLAYED IT in time with the band and everything, with the notes spot on and OHH the crowd went wild!! so proud of him! wow. that must be a dream come true for a fan..playing with the band you love- that was a moment of music magic right there. i must admit i didn't know most of their songs, but when they started playing My Friend's Over You it was a "heyyy finally something i know" moment :P

then Mêlée came on stage. there was a whole debate about how the band name should be pronounced lol. malay? mee-lay? meh-leh? mi-lee? dono lah. but dayumn the lead vocalist, when he started belting it, we were blown away. i'm quite sure the hairs on the back of my neck stood- maria and i just said "wow" and that was about enough to encapsulate the awe we felt. i only recognised a couple of their tracks namely Can't Hold On, The War and the beautiful beautiful song that is Built To Last (i swear D, i was thinking of you through this one! haha maybe its cos we feel the same way about the song- inferring from your lj post from ages back *wink*) Ich liebe diesen song! but yeah, they were good overall :)

and then, LOSTPROPHETS. (yes it's all one word)

they took QUITE a while to set up which was making me more edgy than i already was, what with worrying about getting stuck in the mosh in a dress, and this tingling combination of tension and excitment about being in the thick of a proper rock gig after linkin park waaaaay back in 04 (The Police doesn't really count cos we weren't in the standing section). from where we were standing on the right hand side of the stage, we could see Jamie Oliver (the keyboardist/turntablist/vocals guy in the band) trying desperately to figure out something with his macbook. i think most of the crowd didn't even recognise that an LPS bandmember was on the stage(well neither did i- i thought they enlsited a new guy in the lineup) cos he'd gone platinum blonde after year and years of being a black haired emo/goth boy LOL. so when they DID eventually start it was ohkay- new guy is pretty good! he's just as SEOW as jamie! but all along it was just jamie with new hair pffft. damn spoilerzxzz.

well yeah i've touched on their setlist and the infinite hotness that is Ian Watkins in an earlier post already. Lostprophets' set was energy, badass-ness and Rockstardom and ian has an awesome sense of humor with one of his best lines being "Even if you don't know us, even if we suck, let us unite in ROCK!!!!" YEAH BABYY! the atmosphere was Electrik and so much damn fun. i'm quite shocked though that they DIDN't perform Wake Up. i double checked with auds and against a setlist. oh man. quite disappointed about that, but at the same time, i didn't even notice like until2 days later so it's not such a bad thing innit.

and then the fags Simple Plan came on. didnt even bother leaving our homebase in front of the nokia VIP tent to join the crowd and watch them haha. but yeah, somehow or other you know their songs cos they receive so much radio airplay in xinjiapo and whether you like it or not, you know the tunes and even the lyrics :P HYPNOPEDIA I SAY! "How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that hath such people in it" High five to all the lit students in the house! pierre the canard as ven called him, was annoying. but hey, it was kinda fun when they started doing the rock version of Flo Rida's Low.

Then, the gig we'd all been waiting for. The headling act of day 1. scotland's very own TRAVIS WOOHOOOOO!! it would've been tonnes better if they came for their own gig, not as part of a festival but HEY i ain;t complaining, considering that their set was almost 2 hours long AND they did 4 new songs off their new album Ode to J Smith (the J Smith referring to John Smith, the most common name in britain and representative of the everyman. orwell's 1984 anyone? once again, high 5 to all the lit students in the house!) yeah! the first song in their medley of the 4 new tracks was John Smith which i'd heard on hype, but before fran played the song he was all like "Nobody would've heard this song unless you're a hardcore travis fan!". i don't claim to be a hardcore travis fan..that distinction is reserved for Thevarrrr aka 7h3v4r, i mean Ashvin haha.

ok back to travis..their setlist was peppered with travis staples. started off with Selfish Jean, Writing to Reach You, Beautiful Occupation, Side, in the middle there was Love Will Come Through, Closer, Sing, Driftwood, Turn, All I Wanna Do Is Rock (ultimate busker song, according to fran), and for the encore Flowers in the Window and the last song was Why Does It Always Rain On Me..i probably missed out 5/6 songs but these were the ones i remember, and i'm pretty damn sure they're in order (yes kenn, i'm weird like that haha).

i feel blessed to have witnessed them live, honest. it made me feel all warm on the inside, and it is for live music like this that i get by and put up with shit and soldier on.