Korn, 20th anniversity show, London

Last month I saw Korn at the O2 Academy Brixton, performing the entirety of their self-titled album in celebration of their 20-year anniversary. If you don’t know of Korn, they are an American nu-metal band which combine lots of different genres of music, such as hip-hop, rap, metal, rock and grunge.

I had seen Korn perform earlier on this year as well, supporting Slipknot in January, and I was amazed by how great they sound live and the energy they put in.

Supporting Korn were Sunflower Dead, a fairly new band who I hadn’t heard of before. I liked their sound, although they reminded me of other bands such as Disturbed. They were memorable for their painted faces, interesting clothing and good balance of clean vocals and screams. They also brought out an accordion for some songs, which was a unique addition to their music.

After Sunflower Dead, Snot performed. Snot are a nu-metal band, more similar to Korn, but I’m not fond of their music, as, in my opinion, lots of it sounds the same and the lyrics don’t interest me much. Because of this I didn’t enjoy their performance too much and was just waiting for Korn to come on stage.

Finally Korn were here, starting with the gradual build of ‘Blind’ and the familiar opening line “Arree yoouuu reeeaaadddyyyy?” to get the crowd going. Korn’s debut self-titled album includes songs based on personal experience, such as ‘Faget’ which relives the hate and bullying that singer Jonathan Davis was subject to as a child, as he used to wear eyeliner and earrings and never seemed to fit in with the norm.

The main song which I wanted to hear, however, was ‘Daddy’. This song focuses on how Jonathan Davis was abused by a neighbour, although his parents refused to believe him when he told them. The hurt he expresses through the delivery of his lines allows you to feel his pain. Korn hadn’t performed this live for 20 years, only performing it right at the start of their career, as it was too painful an experience for Jonathan to relive, so I really wanted to see this rare performance. Jonathan performed it with such raw emotion and anger, putting down the mic and leaving the stage as soon as the song ended, reminding the audience of how traumatic the event still was to him. A recording of the performance can be seen below.

Another of my favourites, ‘Shoots and Ladders,’ brought out Korn’t trademark unique sound, through the inclusion of the bagpipes played and interesting mix of nursery rhyme lyrics. Finally, after the entirety of the album, Korn finished off with a few of their most popular songs from other albums, ‘Falling Away From Me,’ ‘Here To Stay’ and ‘Freak on a Leash.’

It was an emotional and thoroughly enjoyable night, and I spent the majority of Korn’s performances in the mosh pits, being covered in everyone’s sweat. It was great to feel everyone’s excitement and enjoyment as the songs were played. It was really interesting seeing Korn perform an album which was released before I was born, and the simplicity of the stage decoration added to the old-school feel.

Apocalyptica, St Bart’s Pathology Museum

So as per usual my blog posts are really late, but on the 31st March I was lucky enough to receive free tickets to see Apocalyptica performing in a secret location in London. I’d heard about it on their Facebook page and applied by sending an email in the hope of winning, though I didn’t expect to be chosen. I received an email on the day, telling me that I’d won two tickets. By then I’d completely forgotten about the show and feared that I might not be able to leave College and get to the location fast enough. ‘Twas very exciting though.

Apocalyptica are a Finnish rock/metal band, consisting of 3 cellists, a drummer and now a permanent singer. They’re pretty cool and unique – how many cello metal bands do you know?

As none of my friends like (or know) Apocalyptica, I had to go on my own, but ’twas great all the same. We left our recording devices at the door, so this is the only photo I could quickly take.

So whilst we waited for them to come on stage, people hung around and admired the museum, looking at the collections of skulls and random jarred deformed body parts. ‘Twas a pretty cool atmosphere, I must admit.

Pictures of them performing are from http://www.teamrock.com

Apocalyptica played two new songs from their new album ‘Shadowmaker’ and then two of their classic songs. It was good to be able to hear their new singer, Franky, live, and I was really impressed with him. Their performance of ‘Cold Blood’ was amazing, and I probably even preferred it to the track on the album due to the harshness of his voice which made the song sound a bit heavier and more striking.

‘Tis cool because I can see myself in this image, standing up in the crowd near the centre.

Then we all sat or stood around and listened to the new album being played through speakers. ‘Twas very exciting because it hadn’t been released then. I really enjoyed it, especially the last song (‘Dead Man’s Eyes’) as Franky’s vocals really suit it and I love the way it gradually builds. The whole album is beautiful and I highly recommend that you listen to it if you haven’t already.

At the end, I got to meet the band members Mikko, Perttu, Eicca and Paavo, (though not Franky because he left early), which was hella exciting, even though I was kinda awkward and didn’t know what to say. I got their autographs and pictures with them. Aw, they were such nice blokes. They told me that they are planning on touring in the UK in November, so I really hope that I can see them again! 🙂

Much Ado About Nothing

Recently I went to Stratford-Upon-Avon for a few days to have a look around the area and see ‘Love’s Labour’s Won (Much Ado About Nothing).’ The production was put on by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).

Before the show, I’d gone on a guided tour around the area and seen places such as Shakespeare’s birthplace and where he was buried. This put me in the mood, and there is a surprising amount of interesting history surrounding the area.

I didn’t know much at all about the play before I went, but Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ is about love and marriage, being humorous and light-hearted as it is a comedy, and there are no deaths which is always nice.

The main part of the plot focuses on Benedick and Beatrice being tricked into falling in love with each other, thinking that the other loves them and is too shy/embarrassed to admit it. The scenes where they overheard deliberately staged conversations about them by the other characters were incredibly funny, and Benedick and Beatrice reacted in humorous ways which had the whole audience laughing.

Claudio and Hero are the other main focus, as Claudio is in love with Hero but is tricked into believing that she is unfaithful. You take a disliking to Claudio here for being a fool and being rude to Hero, refusing to marry her. Nevertheless the problems are resolved at the end, and who doesn’t like a happy ending?

The sets were brilliant, and they included a Christmas theme, which was nice as it was only a few days before Christmas (also being suitable because of the month the war ended). Towards the end, there was a slight problem with one of the sets as it stopped working and didn’t go into the floor properly, so there was a short break while it was fixed. This didn’t really matter though, and the show was brilliant.

The actors were convincing and well suited to their roles, and the music accompanying it was beautiful and also Christmassy in places. Different moods and feelings of the characters were portrayed brilliantly.

This play was the second of two plays (‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ and ‘Love’s Labour’s Won’). I feel as though it would have been good to have seen all of them as they include the same actors and it would be interesting to see more development of the characters.

Asking Alexandria Concert, London

Last Thursday I went to see Asking Alexandria performing at The Roundhouse. Asking Alexandria are an English metalcore band, consisting of Danny Worsnop (vocals), Ben Bruce (lead guitar), James Cassells (drums), Cameron Liddell (rhythm guitar) and Sam Bettley (bass guitar).

When I bought tickets, the support acts hadn’t been announced, so I was very happy when I heard that they were to be Secrets, Crown The Empire and The Ghost Inside as I’d heard of them all before (although am only a fan of Crown The Empire).

I’d wanted to watch all support acts, but I’d come straight from college to try to get there as soon as possible and despite being there an hour early the queue was already really long. It took us a while to get let in, so I missed Secrets.

Nevertheless, I arrived just in time to see all of Crown The Empire, the main support act I’d wanted to see. They were really good, and I love Andy Leo’s vocals which sound just as good live as recorded. The amount of energy that they put into their performance was admirable, as they kept the crowd moving, jumping, singing along and moshing. However, I must admit that I’m not as much of a fan of their new album ‘The Resistance: Rise Of The Runaways’ than their previous one ‘The Fallout,’ so I wish they could have performed more of their older songs.

Then The Ghost Inside came on and performed a few songs. They were quite impressive and you could feel the songs vibrating through your body, but I personally prefer songs with more clean vocals which aren’t purely shouting. I enjoyed their last song the most, ‘Engine 45’ as I recognised it and it’s also quite catchy.

 Then there was the big wait as Asking Alexandria’s stage was set up. They came on to the dramatic opening of ‘Don’t Pray For Me,’ which built up the anticipation, and the audience cheered and sang along as the vocals began.

The setlist was:
1. Don’t Pray For Me
2. Run Free
3. Breathless
4. Break Down The Walls
5. To The Stage
6. Dedication
7. Someone, Somewhere
8. Moving On
9. A Prophecy
10. The Final Episode (Let’s Change The Channel)
11. Not The American Average
12. Killing You
13. The Death Of Me
14. Poison

There’s been a lot of talk recently as fans have been saying that Danny ‘can’t scream anymore’ after breaking his vocal cords and having to get them fixed. From the performance I saw he can definitely still scream, but he just doesn’t do quite as much of it and has a different style.

I like how Asking Alexandria seem to get a different sound with each album as this means that their albums aren’t exactly the same and their sound develops. Now, Danny has more of a classic rock voice which definitely suits the new songs. It’s also interesting to see him incorporate this new style into their old songs such as the classics ‘The Final Episode’, ‘A Prophecy’ and ‘Not The American Average’.

It was great how energetic the crowd was, although I was a bit disappointed that I wasn’t near a big mosh pit, as I’ve never been in one and wanted to give it a go. Despite being between two when Crown The Empire were performing, there were more on the other side when Asking Alexandria were playing.

I was very impressed with the performance AA gave, as Danny was very much in tune, and each member was full of energy. In between songs, Danny and Ben gave random comments and joked with each other, and it was a very enjoyable show. I feel as though they have improved live and their new style may make it easier for them to give consistent performances. I’m very glad I went.

Sleeping With Sirens Concert, London

Being a fan of Sleeping With Sirens, I was pretty excited when I heard that they were going to perform at a small club in London, The Underworld, Camden. And it was on GCSE results day, so I chose to buy tickets so that I had something to look forward to and do after results, whether my results were good or bad. Luckily my results were good and I was pleased with them so was in a better mood.

It was a bit annoying, though, that results day was on the same day, as I had to go into school at 9 am but if I’d been at The Underworld before 8:30 am I might have been able to be in the music video they were shooting for a new song, ‘Kick Me.’ Oh well.

The support act wasn’t amazing really. I mean, I’m sure he’s good at what he’s doing but he was a DJ (DJ Scout, also a member of the band ‘Issues’). It’s kind of a weird act as the audience is quiet, not being able to jump or sing along much, as they wait for the main act to come on. I’d watched a video of DJ Scout before the event and he played basically the same things, whilst the crowd picked up and started joining in towards the end, when the Bring Me The Horizon song, ‘Can You Feel My Heart’ was played. But the track was mixed up a lot so as soon as the crowd started jumping it quietened down again and so everyone was still again.

After DJ Scout had finished his performance the crowd waited for Sleeping With Sirens to come on stage, and as soon as they did they started with ‘If You Can’t Hang,’ which they performed very well and the crowd jumped around and sang as loud as they could.

I must admit that I’d been a bit worried that Kellin Quinn (lead vocalist) wouldn’t be able to sing very well or get all of the notes as I’d been watching videos of fairly recent shows and he couldn’t always stay in tune properly, but I was really impressed with how the whole show went. Sleeping With Sirens seem to be good live performers.

The playlist was:
1. If You Can’t Hang
2. Congratulations
3. Here We Go
4. Low
5. A Trophy Father’s Trophy Son
6. Tally It Up, Settle The Score
7. With Ears To See and Eyes To Hear
8. Kick Me (live debut)
9. Do It Now, Remember It Later
10. If I’m James Dean, You’re Audrey Hepburn

It was surprising when the show ended after only 45 minutes as Kellin had said that he really meant it when he said it was the last song, though the audience waited for another 10 or so minutes, at the beginning chanting ‘One More Song,’ then seeming disappointed and leaving.

People hung around outside in the hope to meet them and gathered around the stage door, but were sent away by people working there who told them that they were coming out the front (which of course they weren’t) so we waited just around the corner. Then the members came out, but only Kellin came around to sign (which is kinda understandable as he’s the main guy but also weird as the others are hardly recognised).

BUT I GOT HIS AUTOGRAPH! I got it on a scrap of paper and also my hand. We weren’t allowed photos as there wasn’t enough time so I took a kinda awkward selfie nearby with him in the background. Aw, he held my hand and signed it 🙂 and my sister also got to hug him. Cute. He was incredibly nice and was talking to people and also stopped to cheer someone up and give encouraging words, which was so lovely.

It was a great night and although the show didn’t last as long as I’d wanted, meeting Kellin Quinn more than made up for this.

Within Temptation, Wembley

Last Saturday I went to Wembley Arena, London, to see Within Temptation perform. If you don’t already know of Within Temptation they are a symphonic rock band who have been around for quite a while, forming in 1996 and having released several albums since then, the most recent being ‘Hydra’, released this year in February. I had really been looking forward to the album and bought the tickets in advance, but was not initially as pleased with the album as I had hoped for some reason. On reflection, it is actually pretty great and I don’t know what else I was expecting it to be.

When queueing up to get in I couldn’t help but notice the recurring theme of people’s clothing – a line of people dressed in black, elaborate dresses, leather jackets and tall gothic boots – it was quite a good sight and meant that I knew I’d come to the right place.

I stood in the standing area with a good view (despite the tall guy in front of us). The support act was Delain, who I didn’t really know of and had looked up before, but it was pretty awkward not knowing their songs as people were singing along. Well, they were pretty great and similar to Within Temptation in many ways.

After a 20 minute wait Within Temptation came on stage, introduced by a dramatic dropping of the curtain and a short video about the Dragon to set the Hydra theme.

The setlist was (as found on setlist.fm):

1. Let Us Burn
2. Paradise (What About Us?)
3. Faster
4. Iron
5. Edge of the World
6. In the Middle of the Night
7. Our Solemn Hour
8. Angels
9. Dangerous
10. And We Run
11. Tell Me Why
    Elements Intro
12. See Who I Am
13. Stand My Ground
14. The Cross
15. Covered By Roses
16. Mother Earth
    Encore:
17. What Have You Done
18. Whole World Is Watching
    (Acoustic)
19. Summertime Sadness
    (Lana Del Rey cover)
20. Ice Queen

Within Temptation performed for two hours and were absolutely brilliant, Sharon’s voice being so beautiful. It’s so much better gathering with other fans and listening to music live than on your iPod. The time went so quickly and I actually find it surprising to know that 20 songs were played! Sharon wore three outfits (shown in the image above) which was quite impressive for one show as she went off stage and changed between songs. The Hydra World Tour has been going on for quite a while and I don’t understand how Sharon still manages to sound so great and reach all the notes perfectly!

At the end there was a group picture taken of Within Temptation with the audience to keep as a memory. It was a great night. I love how sweet the members of Within Temptation are, making videos for their fans on YouTube and writing and replying to them on Twitter. Within Temptation retweeted my tweet of a picture of them the next day! 😀 Yay!

‘Jack Whitehall Gets Around’

The other week I went to see Jack Whitehall at Wembley, London, for his ‘Jack Whitehall gets around’ live tour as he’s a pretty funny guy, and the show wasn’t disappointing at all. I think he did a pretty good job of it, but I’m a bit critical and so I’m going to have to admit that I didn’t like all of the jokes – I hate when jokes that weren’t even funny in the first place are dragged out too much. But despite this the good jokes were good and so made up for this annoyance.

The show started with a video being played of Jack Whitehall and his dad, and it was a funny video so all was looking positive. However, the quality of his jokes weren’t all too great or original (having already heard some parts of them in sketches, interviews, radio programmes, etc. of other people before). And I don’t really mind having predictable jokes or non-original jokes so long as he can make them funny or add things to them, which he did in fact do for some jokes. However the jokes which I didn’t like (and I’m probably the only one) was the constant references to his penis and his sex life. Fine, jokes often are about relationships and sex, I know, but constantly going on about it… well I suppose it’s not what I look for in comedy.

Look what I’m doing now, making it seem like I hated the show. I really didn’t hate it. Like I said before, it was overall very funny, but I can’t comment on the good jokes for fear of making them sound rubbish so I’ve instead chosen to express my dislike for the not-so-good-ones.

There were some very funny and original anecdotes as well as a good “Get it wrong, gotta be strong” section in which he spoke about correcting mistakes (or just going along with them) so that you don’t feel awkward. It was also nice how he used members of the audience to ask questions and involve in the comedy. The ending was pretty good as Jack Whitehall dressed up as a lion and showed how the Lion King should have been (which actually in this case improved a not very good joke, so well done him!). The audience seemed pretty happy at the end of it, so I would indeed say that it was a good show, but, like in all comedy, there were jokes that weren’t too good.

Black Veil Brides

Normally I don’t do much with my life, but yesterday I went to see Black Veil Brides at the Roundhouse, London, and they were rather good.

I went with my sister and father (who weren’t very enthusiastic) but I did have quite a good time. I understand that often people don’t like Black Veil Brides for their image or claim that they have a ‘generic music style’ but I love a spot o’ Black Veil Brides, so I don’t really care what people say.

There was quite a great gathering of people, often dressed in band merchandise and wearing war-paint, which was pretty much what I had expected.

As I’m not used to the ways of concerts, I didn’t arrive miles early – only about 15 minutes before the support acts started – and then I had to join a massive queue, leading all the way down several roads. This meant that I missed the first support act, but got in in time to see most of the second, ‘Heaven’s Basement,’ who were quite good.

After this, there was the expected anticipation for Black Veil Brides to come on stage, and so they did. There they were, Andy Biersack, CC, Ashley Purdy, Jake Pitts and Jinxx, and my seat was actually rather ok. That is, ignoring the irritating pillar in the way. All the same, the show was amazing, and I took a few photos throughout – I wanted to have at least one fairly reasonable picture of each member.

BVB are very good at performing live, and although my father wasn’t too amazed by Andy Biersack (why, I don’t know), he did admit that the drumming and guitars were pretty impressive. It was a great show! And I bought the tour t-shirt – the design is cool, and it’s a nice souvenir of the night.