Went and saw David Gray at Hamer Hall (the Arts Centre) last night.

It was awesome.

My sis and I were second row centre. Its slightly surreal being that close, and the accoustics are a bit weird (eg most of the sound was coming from speakers behind us even though he was about three metres in front of us), and it was kinda loud, but still awesome.

( So, some random thoughts about the show in point form (coz its easier for my brain that way) )

I went and saw Coldplay in concert last night.

We had earlier checked out the running sheet online so got there towards the end of the second support act, because the two support acts were no one we'd ever heard of before and didn't really care about seeing them. Luckily we were sitting at the aisle so we didn't have to try and find our way in the dark.

The concert was freaking awesome. I have heard from people who have seen them before how great they are live and I was not disappointed. They were energetic and enthusiastic, they utilised the space well and used the whole stage, they engaged the audience well and were really interesting and enthralling to watch. They're not as serious as you might think - on the contrart they were fun and silly even.

My personal highlights: Violet Hill, Lost, 42, Viva la Vida, In My Place, Cemetries of London, Fix You, Lovers in Japan. They played a mix of old and new, and the only old song I was disappointed not to hear was Trouble, which is one of my faves.

Okay, but to get to the point in my subject line. As I mentioned before I was sitting on the aisle. We were sitting on the side of the Arena, about three quarters along the stadium. When, during one of their songs, security people started draping tape along either side of the aisle (to keep it clear - stop people from going into the aisle) I started freaking out coz I had read in TheAge that they do a song from the back of the arena. Sure enough, at the end of that song, off the band went and ran down the end of the stadium. By this point everyone in our area realised that Coldplay were going to be walking up the aisle just near us. That's right people, I was five fucking centimetres away from Coldplay!!! Alas by the time they reached us (we were third row from the back in the lower section) everyone was getting a bit excited (including my friend standing next to me) and pushing forward a bit so I had to concentrate less on being five centimetres away from Coldplay and more on not falling into Coldplay.

All in all, it was a great concert. And now I am freaking tired. LOL.

My random thoughts about The Police concert - 26/01/08.

( in which the support act is Fergie and she is crap )

( in which the police rock )

So last night was the Elton John concert.

I was a bit worried about the weather, because it was an outdoor concert and I woke up to the sound of rain and it didnt let up until early arvo. But it did clear up and we had perfect weather for the concert.

Getting there was a bit of a nightmare. The concert was at Werribee Park Mansion, which is about 10 minutes from my house, and it took 90 minutes to get there. The traffic was that bad. We even used our local knowledge to go a lesser-known way (which we obviously werent the only ones to do) and it still took forever. I was seriously worried it would start before we got there, thats how bad it was. We ended up arriving just as the support act was finishing his final song. The wait wasnt too long, and then we heard a helicopter arrive (Elton is basing himself in Sydney and flying down to Melbourne each day for the concerts) and a few minutes later, with no announcement, Elton walked on stage.

The concert was great. I didnt know all the songs, and only knew about a quarter of them well enough to sing along to, but it was awesome. It was just Elton and a piano and he totally owns that thing. I was quite amused by how at the end of most songs he would stand from the piano and bow and point to people in the audience. :O)

Our seats werent great (see below the cut for pics) but our section of the bleachers were great, people wise. Everyone talked to each other and at one point a group of women left their seats to go dance on the grass, but one of them wouldnt move, so the others in her group were yelling at her to go with them so then we all joined in telling her to go. It was so funny.

My personal highlights of the evening were: Daniel, Tiny Dancer, Rocket Man, Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word, Your Song and Candle in the Wind.

Although I have to say my sister and I were very disappointed that he didnt do any of the songs from The Lion King, especially since he did a song from the Billy Elliott musical. (One of the guys at work told me he did Circle of Life as part of the encore, which meant we were expecting to hear it, but apparantly the set list we got was different than all the other Aussie shows.)

This was the only concert I have ever been to where they actually encouraged you to bring a camera. So...

( Pics from the concert and two videos (Daniel and Tiny Dancer) behind the cut )

So I went to the Josh Groban concert last night. I will not hesitate to say it was one of the best concerts I have ever been to. Seriously. It was awesome.

Katie Noonan was the support act. Fellow Aussies will know her as the lead singer of George. Anyway, she has a new solo CD so she sang mostly songs from that, plus a couple of George songs. She actually sang my fave George songs - Special Ones and Breathe In Now, but she kinda mixed them up from how they normally are and it wasnt really an improvement. Her new songs were good.

And then, Josh. Seriously, I cannot complain about one thing. It felt like a stadium style show in a smaller venue - there were platforms and two screens (one above the stage where the lighting is so people like me in the balcony could see him close up and one behind the stage, where they had little vids and animations to go with the songs) and he used the whole stage. He has the most magical and moving voice. It was flawless.

There were a lot of musicians up on stage. There was two drummers, two guitarists, a piano/keyboard player, a violinist, and an 11-piece string section. And then for one song three more musicians (trumpets etc) came on stage. They were all great.

My personal highlights:

To Where You Are - OMG this song is so beautiful and it was just Josh and a piano and it was so powerful. I havent listened to this song in years but once he started singing it all came back to me. Amazing.

February Song - at the opposite end of the spectrum, this was Josh at the piano and the whole band at their best. The music filled the whole room and everything came together perfectly.

Machine - its my favourite song off the album, and it gave him a chance to rock out (not that he needed the excuse, coz he was all throughout the show and this was the last song before the encores).

Lullaby - another of my faves. This song is really short and sweet. It was cowritten by my man Dave Matthews *loves*. Basically, Josh sung it with this synthasizer machine which amplifies his voice so it sounds like there are five of him singing. It was just voice for the first half of the song and then his voice and a piano for the rest. Magical.

Mai - yet another of my faves. :O) Most of Joshs songs are epic, but this song was played a few songs in and it was the first time I really felt the goosebumps, you know. Amazing song.

He was so funny, joking around and telling stories between a few songs. He sung one song from the audience. He jumped on the drums at one point and totally killed it. Seriously, is there anything this man cannot do? There were only about three songs I didnt know - everything else was from his latest album, which meant pretty much all the songs I love got played. This was the first concert in, perhaps forever, where there was more than one encore. It was totally planned that way, but I dont care.

In short, if you have even a vague interest in his music, try and see him in concert. You will not be disappointed.

New LJ subtitle - Gravity by John Mayer. And yes, I know its a bit weird given I'm not a man, but the sentiment still stands. :O)

I've finally gotten on borad with Twilight. Half my flist rave about it so I thought I would give it a red-hot go. Loved it. Have finished Twlight and am on to New Moon.

Went and saw Brooke Fraser in concert last night. She is so awesome. Really funny and down to earth. There were major technical problems all through the night though. Seriously, considering its these peoples jobs to make sure everything runs smoothly and they do a sound check beforehand I dont get how they can have probs throughout the whole show! *shrugs* Nah well. Highlight was Hosea's Wife - not only is it my fave song from her second album but they completely rearranged the music so that for most of the song it was just a minimal drum beat and her voice. Amazing. I was really hoping she would play Indelible - my fave song from her first album and my J/G theme song (*glomps fellow shippers*) but alas, got nothing. Oh well. Um, what else. Did I mention I was in the front row!! So cool to be in the front row for something. My first, and probably last, time. LOL. Oh, and I bumped into an old friend of mine in the lobby before the concert. That was funny. Havent seen him since May so it was great to see him. Think thats it. :O)

I wish my muse would return. I have been working on my sexy_brilliance fic and its twice the suggested word limit, so I spose thats good. But I still have not made much headway with my 7spells Trio fic. All thats left for that is to write the smut scenes, but I cant seem to write anything for it. :O(

Think thats about it from me. Hope everyone is having a good weekend!!

♥

For jennashaped, who wanted to hear about the show, and anyone else who is interested (*crickets*).

( DMB - 1 May - Vodafone Arena, Melbourne, Australia )

I know I have been fairly quiet of late. Yes, I am still writing (though not as much as I would like I'm afraid) and I am still working on teh moodthemes. RL has been kicking my arse of late, hence why you guys havent seen much from me. But here is whats doing with me right now:

* Made it through the first challenges at raylor_lims and hermione_ldws. Huzzah!

* Have had some (for lack of a better word) issues with my holiday. Its a really long story which I wont go into - I am very hopeful that next week we can get it sorted and I can tell you guys about the changes to my holiday. I'm sure it will all work out okay - even better than my original holiday plan - but this limbo is so crappy.

* Dance has been translated into Russian!! Dance (in Russian). I got someone else to double-check the translation was spot on and she only saw one mis-translation. What should have been along the lines of she felt him tense was translated as she felt his arousal. LOL. Its been fixed now though.

* Because of the lovely Dave Matthews guest starring on an ep and me seeing some spoilery icons I finally caved and DL'ed all the S3 eps of House. :O) This also means that since I am now up to date and dont have to be worried about being spoiled again I have dipped my toe into the House fandom. Any of my US flisters into House??

* I went and saw Weird Al Yankovic last night. The concert itself once it actually started was very good. The rest of the night sucked. Here is how it went. There were 7 of us going so my half of the group met at my best friends house to meet with his work mate and his wife who had a seven seater and were driving. We got there at 5pm. Driver & Wife were supposed to be there at 5.15. He rocked up at 6pm - with no apology, nothing. This was extra annoying because one of my friends had specifically left work early and made the effort to be there on time. We got into the city fine but because we left so late we didnt have time to have a proper sit down dinner in a restaurant. So we went to a food court in Southbank and went to Nandos. The people there had major attitude, the cashier gave me a meal when I just ordered a burger and drink (and I didnt realise until too late), and when I finally ate said burger halfway through I bit into a small bone. Yeah. So anyway, we went and sat down in the theatre. Show was supposed to start at 8pm - at which time the support act, a crappy stand-up comedienne came on. She sucked. She left at 8.15 and then people were scurrying about the stage so we figured the show would start at 8.30. 8.30 came and went. 8.45 came and went. 9.00 arrived. The audience was getting a bit narky at this point so Weird Al came over the speaker to announce they were having technical difficulties with their projectors and they wanted to give the best show possible and they really appreciated our patience etc etc. We could tell before that that they were having tecnhincal probs but it should not have taken 45 minutes for them to announce it. Finally at about 9.20 the show started - with 2 out of the 3 projectors working. But like I said, once the show actually started, it rocked.

* When we were at the Arts Centre we saw posters for King Lear with Sir Ian McKellon. Thats right, Sir Ian is coming to Melbourne to do Shakespeare. I really wanted to go when I found out about it around a month ago but figuring no one would want to see Shakespeare with me I didnt ask. But when I showed the posters to my sis she was all 'that would be cool.' I take this as further proof I have the worst luck in the world. :O) So I called up this morning to see if they had any tickets left but of course they were all sold out.

* I had an RDO yesterday and went and saw Wild Hogs. It wasnt bad. And I saw a preview for PotC3 up on the big screen. *grins*

* For anyone who remembers this post with me squeeing with pride over my younger sis finally getting on board with the hp books - she is halfway through PoA and yesterday bought all the remaining books. *beams*

Well, I think thats everything. If you made it through all that you deserve a cookie. :O) Hope everyone has a good weekend. *loves*

I went and saw Guy Sebastian in concert last night. And I have to say: he rocks. He was funny and grooved all the way through the concert and was awesome whether they were rocking out or going near accoustic. The Palms is an awesome venue! And someone from the audience got up on stage and proposed to his girlfriend. So cute. The only downside of the night were the slightly inappropriate 40yo's sitting behind us. But despite all that, it was an excellent night.

And now to the good news.

I am going overseas!!

I paid my deposit this morning so all systems are go. I am meeting the awesome auxetoiles23 in London and the two of us are seeing the world together. Well, the London, Paris and New York parts of it anyway.

I leave on Oct 17 (technically I leave on Oct 18 since my flight is 12.50am, but I have to be at the airport on the 17th) and travel to London. We are doing a Contiki tour of London and Paris for 9 days, then spending two extra nights in Paris and four extra nights in London before heading off to NY for just over a week. puddleduck3 - don't hate me, but you know what I am gonna do in NY. :O) I arrive back in Oz on Nov 13.

So if anyone lives in these cities, or has been to tham of late, feel free to suggest good things to see and do. :O)

So I went to the Vanessa Carlton concert last night. It was at The Palms at Crown Casino and I swear I felt like I was stepping into Las Vegas. Everything about the room screamed, "Vegas, baby!" :O)

Anyway, the concert was sooo good. There were some technical difficulties at the start, which was kinda funny. She played songs from both her albums and the middle third of the concert was made up of songs from her forthcoming album, one of which she had never played in public before. They were all awesome but there was this one song that really got to me. It was called The One and it was about knowing you are the right one for someone and waiting for them to realise the same. Seriously, I was nearly in tears as I listened to it coz I can totally relate. It's how I used to feel about this guy and I guess part of me has never really gotten over it. I felt so stupid, tearing up and all. Thank God for dark rooms, right. :O) Anyway, to cap it all off, for the encore she sang Twilight which is one of my fave songs of hers and the inspiration for my Remus/Hermione fic of the same name. All in all, a great night.

On a completely different note, I had an idea for a Viktor/Hermione fic yesterday which I think I am gonna write. I'm not sure if anyone will read it, but hey, when has that ever stopped me. :O)

Off to check the flist.

Love you all.