Soundwave!

It appears as time passes I am getting better at, well, life.  I can semi-cook now since leaving home, I can... umm... hmm... it appears there isn't many examples where I have improved haha.  Well anyways you get my drift, anyone in their early 20's surely could agree =P


Currently we are in August, that means the time is very near where University comes to an end and we are blessed with the best time of year, the summer holidays!  Man I cannot wait =D  This happens every single year, the intense grip of Melbourne (Australia) winter starts to loose it's strength, days where a jumper is optional rather then a survival requirement become more frequent, the sun starts to shine, there is a crisp feeling in the air, life just seems better =) 

And every year as the sun starts to shine my spirit levels soar.

Anyways back to the premise of this post.  Every year Melbourne hosts a plethora of day long music festivals, one of which is Soundwave.  The play list of this particular festival is just epic and has been every year, although you'd think by the way in which I speak of it that I am a long time attendee?  Well... you'd be mistaken haha.  As it was documented nearly a year from now ago I was stupid enough to miss out on Soundwave tickets last time.

Ha oh geez... that post was written almost a year ago and just re-reading it again made me laugh.

"You'd think I'd be organized and get what I can only assume to be a crucial item for my Soundwave experience... the fucking tickets!!! Now they are sold out! Argghhh!!!" - The reaction from last years Soundwave mishap haha.

Alas as the now somewhat distant first line of this post would suggest this year I managed to get my stuff together for a change and managed to get myself tickets. Woo!  I am learning after all it would seem.  I even surprised myself by going so far as to sign up and buy them at the pre-sale! Although that could also be out of paranoia of repeating last years mistakes ha.

To add further evidence that I am in fact getting better at this thing called life, I managed to get 3 of my best mates organized and got them tickets at the pre-sale also... sweet.  What an epic time to look forward to =)

This years line up (while not as awesome as last years that had Taking Back Sunday and Paramore playing, both whom I would of killed to see...) is still rather epic.  One of my most highly anticipated is the legendary Rob Zombie!  I have loved this guy for ages now, songs like Dragula, Superbeast, Scum of the Earth are just the absolute best when pumped up loud.

Aaron 1. Life 349488. We live, we learn.

Cannot wait!

Paramore concert

Un-freakin-believeable =D I sit here now as I watch some of the recordings I took of the concert and it lets me re-live the awesome experience that was seeing Paramore play live.

I'll start off a little backwards here and mention a negative... it was way too short, a mere 1 hour and 20 minutes which is pretty poor. This was made worse because of the fact that they were so good and time definitely flies when your having fun... but besides that, I have nothing remaining but positivity!

I went with my good mate Martyn as we are both pretty big fans of the band, I remember the day we bought the tickets all the way back in November and it was a struggle to wait all this time as we counted down for the big day!

Now unlike the Taylor Swift concert that I went to a few weeks back, to which I complained that she didn't sing a few songs that I would of loved to hear, Paramore had no such problems in that regards. On the contrary it is safe to say that they played all my absolute favourites of theirs which just made the whole experience that much more outstanding!

Hayley Williams (the lead singer) is simply amazing, her voice is incredible! I said it about Taylor Swift, and I will say the same here, they are both the type of singer that can sing live just as good (if not better) then they do on their albums. Songs like 'Careful' and 'The only exception' that have a few long and high notes were sung with amazing precision.

I think my face nearly exploded from the smile that was on my face when they started playing 'The only exception' as that is one of my all time favourites, as well as 'Decode'! I was lucky enough to get a decent quality recording of 'Decode', 'Careful' and 'The only exception', I am listing to the recording of Decode at this very moment =P

Paramore are best known by their songs 'Misery Business', 'Decode' (as it is shamefully the theme song to Twilight) and 'Brick by Burning Brick' from their latest album. I am not much of a fan of their well known songs (I very rarely am for any band I like, strange), but most people usually are, so when they played 'Misery Business' it was so sweet how crazy the place went. Everyone went absolutely nuts, I think there was even a time in there when I was questioning the strength of the buildings foundations, wondering if it would collapse or not haha. Martyn and I only managed to get seats which turned out to be a bit of a bummer as the energy down on the floor looked amazing.

As with every concert I go to I always buy a band t-shirt (besides Taylor Swift that is lol). I know they are terribly over-priced but it is just the whole stigma of 'owning a shirt from the concert' that gets me every time haha.

All in all it was well worth it and Paramore have definitely secured their spot in my 'favourite bands of all time' list. Their new album 'Brand New Eyes' was on a continuous loop in my car for a solid 4 weeks, I highly recommend. If I had the chance to see them again I would.

Feel free to steal any pictures!

P.S Hayley is hot =)

Taylor Swift concert

=D

That is all.

Haha as if I could leave a post that short, you all know by now the subconscious rule I follow "if it isn't at least a page in length, it isn't a real post", or you could argue it is some kind of compulsion.  Regardless, it would be of great dis-respect to the great Taylor Swift if I didn't talk about her concert that I was luckily enough to attend the other night.

Which was awesome I must say first up =)

If you were to ask me what kind of music I generally like, I would mention bands the likes of Dream Evil, Rammstein, Taking Back Sunday, Rob Zombie, Slipknot, Circa Survive and my all time favourite of Blink 182.  If you know one or even some of those bands you will pick up rather quickly that they sound nothing like Taylor Swift lol.  So many people ask me, in a slightly concerned voice "Your going to Taylor Swift?... what, by choice?"

Yes, it was by choice.  I never have an answer really, but for some reason I really like her and her music =)  In my defence, I have had had 3 other male friends who have said to me that they wish they were going and if there were any tickets left, so yeah, take that judgmental readers =P

I went with Sabbi which always turns into a funny story to tell.  We wondered around like tourists in a foreign country as we tried to find out seats.  Eventually we narrowed it down and managed to find our row... then as you could guess came the highly awkward shuffle past the people who are already sitting down, while they frantically try to squash their legs, that were already cramped as it was, into an even smaller position then before, as you do the 'so so sorry', 'thanks so much', 'whoops was that your breast? my bad' routine...  funny thing was though as we shuffled along the row of seats we made it through the entire row and came out the other end to the stairs and noticed our seats were right there on the end haha!

Our seats turned out pretty good actually, especially as it was a completely sold out event within a matter of days of them going on sale.  We were right at the back but directly in front so with my glasses on it was a great view and the sound was nice and stereo.

My favourite part of the show would have to be when she played her classic songs.  Her first song of the night was 'You Belong With Me' which was absolutely fantastic to start off with!  The performance of 'Love Story' was amazing, hopefully I can post my recording of it on YouTube, it was really really well done.  The crowd as you would expect was going insane the entire time which was great because other peoples excitement and enthusiasm always rubs off on me.

I took some dodgy photos with my sisters camera, feel free to steal them if you so wish.  The guy next to me had a camera though rivaling that of a TV news crew!  In my photos you can just make out the colour of her dress, in this guy's shots I think you could count the freckles on her nose!

A highlight and definitely an unexpected but welcomed surprise of the night was when Taylor came out from one of the stairwell to preform a song mere meters from where Sabbi and I were sitting!  I would of loved to get closer but there was just no room, the entire stadium had crushed together to get a closer look.

The performance was simply awesome and what I loved most about it was the fact that she is only 20 years old and already has this much talent.  It will be exciting to see how she will improve over the next few years.  The amount of effort, training and preparations that goes into her show is very impressive to say the least.

My only disappointment of the night was the exclusion of some of the songs from her first album that I really wanted to hear.  She played some of the main ones such as 'Tim McGraw', 'Should've Said No' and 'Our Song'.  But where was 'Mary's Song' and of course 'I'm only me when I'm with you'?!  Ah well, can't have everything.

All in all it was an amazing night and was definitely worth it, the visuals were great (the stage completely changed for just about every song), it went for a respectable 1 hour and 50 minutes, it was a sellout crowd and Taylor is one of those performers that can actually sing live, some of the notes she held were incredible.  Plus she is pretty hot =P

Next up, Paramore!

Times are good

You read correct my friends!... no guys, it was not a mistake.  No I am not drunk... although if I was it would probably increase the truth of the title anyway lol.  Things are, at this very moment as I sit here on a Tuesday night in my room, watching old episodes of Californication (in preparation for the new season coming out), actually pretty good... honest =)

I didn't want to leave this blog with no images, so I googled 'good times' and this is what appeared lol.  Enjoy!

I was thinking it most prominently on the drive home from work today, which you would think the hour long drive home would be the least likely time for me to be thinking happy thoughts, but on the contrary I find the drive rather relaxing and it is great fun to let my mind wander.  I also had Paramore's latest album (Brand New Eyes) playing which I had purchased today actually, it has some pretty epic songs that really get me going.

I can't really recall exactly what I was thinking about, perhaps it was nothing in particular and was rather just positive thinking in general.  I reflected a little about last year (things I had previously forgotten somehow), good things though that shows how far I have come.  The fact that I moved out of home for 6 months which is quite a monumental step now that I think about it, also the fact that I graduated (with Distinction) from my 3 year dream university degree (yay!)... which then got me thinking the fact that I got into my dream course to begin with lol.

I loved every single day of my degree.  One of the reasons why I am doing my Honours degree this year is partly because I don't think I am ready to part ways from dear Deakin University just yet.

Once again I have gone on a tangent without noticing... but yes, as the title states and to put it simply, times are good.  I really love my job, I enjoy it so much that some days I actually can't wait to get into work (I don't know if that is terribly lame, or to consider myself lucky lol).  The work is interesting, the people I work with are simply awesome (I developed a small computer virus yesterday and put it on Martyn's pc haha!), and it is much better then when I worked at Coles.

I have so much to look forward to this year that it would be hard not to be in a good mood even if I tried.

For starters, there is MonsterLan this weekend, soooweeeet! Oh yeah!  I was originally going to miss it, as I miserably mentioned in my post 'Missing the monster lan as well...' a few months back, but as luck would have it it got postponed a whole month and is now scheduled for this weekend!  Un-freakin-believable! =D

The weekend after I am camping with Sabbi and friends as apart of Rovers, which I tried a few months back to little success, but this one apparently has like 200 people so I am sure there are at least a few people I can relate to, I hope lol.

After that I have tickets to see Taylor Swift in concert! (yes Taylor Swift, ha..ha... funny, yes keep laughing... you finished?).  Believe it or not I am quite a fan of her songs so I am actually pretty excited about it lol.  That's in February sometime.  Also during February I have tickets to see Paramore!  And after just listening to their latest album today I am now more then ever pumped to see them live! Sweet!

Sometime after that is a trip to Queensland with my sister as a present from me... (as part of her 18th birthday present + 19th birthday present + 2009 Christmas present combined... yeah I was a little slack lol).

Then I am continuing my ambition to join a Hockey team for the year, also with plans to move out of home again back to Geelong, both hopefully in time for the Uni year (starting my Honours degree which I cannot wait for) which starts early March.

Haha, what a massive turn around to how everything was like not so long ago.  Things are definitely on the rise, and for the first time in a long time, it looks like they are going to continue.

Stay tuned!

Insert blog here...

Start the blog, insert here...Error: Blogging vibe not detected!

Command: 'Manual override of writing blog'

Command accepted, proceed with blog...

As you can see from the status update of my blog writing program (BlogWriter5000) it has reported that my blogging vibe cannot be detected. This is usually a fatal error, which stops me from blogging, but I have opted to override the error and blog anyway. Hmm, some music will help... Circa Survive it is!

Oh oh! Circa Survive my many readers *sarcasm* are a fantastic new band that I accidentally stumbled accross, that I really can't get enough of at the moment. They are nothing to what I would usually listen to... they are, wait for it... mellow! Argh! But, to my surprise, I absolutely love them! In the chaotic life I seem to live, that chaos seems to seep down into my choice of music, so I usually enjoy high tempo songs that I can really get into, bang my head to the beat as I sit at work, or sing at the top of my lungs as I power through the streets in Baz (my car), and it is a given that the volume is to the max. Circa Survive on the other hand, while some songs are pretty high tempo, they seem to posses a touch of harmonics to their songs that sits subtltely just out of ear shot, but still gives you a calming, enlightening feeling deep within.

I have found myself on many occasions lately sitting on my favourite beach chair, ipod in my ears, sun on my face, listening to them and falling into a deep trance of sorts, allowing my mind to wander and the tunes to take me there. My favourite song of theirs so far is 'Circa Survive - The only difference between medicine and poison is in the dose'. Huge title lol. Pump it to the max and tell me what you think!

I am currently sitting on Sabrina's back porch, relaxing after my extremely hectic, tiring and never ending weekend that has just come to pass in hopefully a relaxing end. I'll leave this here for the moment until my blogging vibe has genuinelly returned, as I am struggling to think of what to write.

BBS!

Missing the sound wave...

Omfg... yep that pretty much sums it up. Today I was listening to one of my new favourite bands, Funeral for a Friend. Hmm, I wonder if they are playing at Soundwave festival? You know, Soundwave, that awesome festival that is hosting some awesome bands like Taking Back Sunday, The Devil Wears Prada, All Time Low... oh yeah, did I mention fucking TAKING BACK SUNDAY! Yes indeed, this is the same Soundwave festival that I have been excited about for a few months now, checking the website every now and again, going on and on about to the guys at work.

You'd think I'd be organized and get what I can only assume to be a crucial item for my Soundwave experience... the fucking tickets!!! Now they are sold out! Argghhh!!!

Check eBay, as I was told by many. Great idea people, they're trying to sell them for like $250... I did contemplate it for for the smallest of moments lol. I guess it isn't tooooooo bad. My 'friends' who I was going to go with (the guys I was relying on to inform me when they were going to buy their tickets) aren't going anymore it appears (hence why I didn't hear anything about it lol...). But still!

I did have other friends going at least. Or at the very least, maybe I could be one of those extremely over friendly guys you see at events, where they are standing around by themselves enjoying the event a little too enthusiastically, joining into your convos at random, acting as if they have known you forever, and you think they have just been separated from their own group of friends, but after like 5 hours of them hanging on their own, you start to realize they have indeed come on their own, so you feel sorry for them so you let them join your group for the day, but then you start to realize why no one wanted to go with them in the first place because they are a little eccentric and at times down right strange lol. Yeah, I could be that guy!

Well, hmm, what's my options? Doesn't appear to be any really lol. This sounds as bad as the petrol station incident! Now seriously, is this just bad luck, or do I create these messes lol? I guess this time is my own fault lol... sigh!

Big Day Out festival anyone?