First of all, if you haven't gotten into TLE yet, I highly, highly recommend you do.
I went with my friend Louise. We arrived at Newtown/Enmore around 5.30, and saw that there wasn't much of a line. Just a couple of people waiting outside of the main doors. So, with that settled, we decided we could afford to burn some time getting dinner. Newtown has some of the best Thai restaurants in Sydney, so we got some osm Thai food.
I was getting a little panicky, and probably annoying Louise tons, as I kept glancing at the clock at the restaurant. I was worried we'd get to the doors and there'd be a massive line. >_>
We headed back after dinner and there still wasn't too much of a line - only around 20, if that, people waited in front of us.
Finally the doors opened. As usual they conducted bag checks and made us chuck out our water. As soon as we were inside I rushed over to the merchandise stand and bought two tshirts - the tour shirt and a White Noise shirt. They were v. nice. I made the decision to keep my bag with me, even though I was in the floor.
Me and Louise managed to grab a spot on the barrier (we were in Floor 2, unfortunately, so we couldn't be in the mosh) right in the middle. We waited for a little while, and eventually the first support act The Silents came on.
They were... alright. I had one of their songs, Little Girl Lost, pretty much memorised, but the song didn't really cut it live. As a band, The Silents weren't too entertaining, and you could tell they were having trouble warming up the crowd. But it wasn't terrible. I'll just keep it at that. xD
Their set didn't go too slowly for me, and soon enough the sparkly drum kit was being pulled out for Children Collide. They were pretty good - a bit weird in parts, but all was well. Their last song sounded good, but all of a sudden they would start playing really violently and screaming. Either way, I still think I preferred them over The Silents. They played the new single of their upcoming album, which I'd heard before last night and it was really good live.
Then they were off the stage. And so the set up for TLE began. I was getting more anxious by the minute... one of my favourite bands were going to take to the stage any minute!
That was the first picture I took. Isn't Chris gorgeous? ~~
The band opened with Raise the Alarm, one of the songs off their new album. OH MY GOD. The amazing atmosphere was instant. That band live is... indescribable. They had the whole floor jumping up and down, and as it was one of my favourite songs off that album I was going nuts with happiness.
They played We Want More next, off the State of Emergency album. Needless to say it was unbelieveable.
Some of the other songs they played were:
Prisoner of Society
Second Solution
West End Riot
Have They Forgotten
Who's Gonna Save Us?
Roll On
Wake Up
How Do We Know
White Noise
Moment in the Sun
Make the Call
Loaded Gun
Kid
Moment in the Sun was magical (probably 'cause it's another favourite of mine), Prisoner of Society was angry, bratty and downright rebellious, Roll On was absolute fun, jumping up and down and yelling the words, Kid was really nice, as they dedicated it to every kid who ever had a hard time in school getting picked on.
Chris' guitar was as unbelieveable as ever. I'll never understand how he can play a song like Loaded Gun with the solos and everything but still sing perfectly in key. Talk about multitasking...
Scott and the double bass. Ohhh my godd. It's so catchy, and hip... near the start of the show, once he started getting a bit hot, he threw his jacket into the crowd. If only I had floor1 tickets..
Andy was as crazy and superb on the drums as usual. He didn't pull any crazy stunts like the other two did in the encore, but he did put on a black bra that had been thrown up on stage.
I was very tempted to jump the barrier to try and get into floor 1 - it wouldn't have been hard. Just as TLE was coming on stage a guy behind me shoved everybody out of the way to jump , and didn't get caught by security guards! He just disappeared into the mosh pit as quickly as possible.
The next kid to try that wasn't so lucky. He was pretty small, come to think of it... he jumped the barrier, made a run for the mosh only to get dived after by a security guard who subsequently kicked him out.
The encore was... there's no words to describe it. They were onstage for a while! It was during this time that Chris did his beer trick, opening it with his guitar and letting it foam over everywhere before putting it on his left hand and playing with it. He then chugged back another bottle, while still playing.
Scott did another round of his standing-on-bass routine, which was, needless to say, very entertaining. How he keeps his balance...
Unfortunately it came out blurry. T_T
All too soon it was over. I'll never get over the good spot on the barrier I had. It was too cool.
After the show I went to get myself a TLE flag, as I felt a burning desire to have one. >_> I've been wearing it as a cape all day. It's keeping the TLE spirit alive, man. :hand:
The Living End's show was the best I've been too so far. It was a fucking good venue, small enough for the band to interact with the audience really well, and they're so entertaining live it's unbelieveable.
It's gonna be a hard concert to beat. Watch out, Green Day. xD
So in one word, how do I describe it?
Perfect.
More photos here.