so, as most of you probably know I popped over to cambridge on monday night to see Mystery Jets.
the first support slot was a band who were called Youth. or maybe it was 'the youth'? I was trying to find them on myspace or youtube earlier today, because although their set was v. short I liked what I heard, but 'YOUTH' is a frustrating word to search for. let me explain why. 1) it is a word in its own right. 2) if you try 'the youth' that is also the title of an MGMT song, so therefore meaning you find that. 3) EVEN if you resort to trying 'youth band' or 'the youth band' YOU END UP WITH LOADS OF VIDEOS OF YOUTH BANDS PLAYING THINGS LIKE BEATLES MEDLEYS AND THE PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN THEME MUSIC RAUCOUSLY AND WITH LOTS OF BRASS.
I already HAVE to do that in my school concert band, which I am obliged to be a part of since the music department partially pay my school fees... *shiver*
so, yeah. the enigmatic 'youth' were good. I'll tell you more if I ever discover their music again.
Youth
Then played Tribes. They were also good, and less mysterious; their myspace is pretty easy to find.
I don't know if that will work. Apparently that is a link to the song on myspace. Who knows.
Their lead singer had a certain sex appeal too.
Tribes
And THEN it was the main event. Mystery Jets rocked onto stage. Blaine looked as much a rock star as anyone despite his crutches, and Will... kind of like a businessman. Maybe that was just me?
It was a really awesome show. The one downside was that, although we had been standing right in the middle very close to the front for the support bands, as soon as the Mystery Jets themselves started everything went a little pear-shaped. I'm as up for a bit of jumping about as the next person, but... we kind of had this feeling that a few people were there not for the gig so much as for just a 'fun night out', since it was only £12.50 for a ticket. So it got very mental in the centre of the crowd, very quickly. And it just wasn't fun. I think it was exacerbated by the fact that it was a small venue; I saw Muse last month but since it was Wembley, even though it was packed out, it wasn't the frantic crush that we experienced on monday night. I got stepped on by some bitch in stilletos (stilletos? At a gig? Why? I bet [and hope] she lost them) and elbowed in the face by a fat sweaty man who just shouldn't have been there at all. Gah.
So we only stuck it out in the centre for a few songs, then retreated a little way to the side. And the atmosphere changed, utterly, within about a metres walk. On the little fringey outskirts of the main crowd were, clearly, the true fans, those who were having a little dance and singing all the lyrics but didn't want to lose their lives. Also, from here you could actually see the band, whereas from my previous position my view was, more often than not, of someone's armpit, rather than of the stage.
Blaine. Aaah, blaine. How do I love thee, let me count the ways, etc.
So the set was nearly all from the new album, which we were expecting, and since the new album is awesome, this was fine. They didn't play anything from their first album, 'making dens', though, which was a trifle strange - though they threw in some old favourites from '21' like '2 doors down,' 'hideaway', 'hand me down' et al. Hurrah.
see what I mean with the businessman thing? Yes?
Kai Fish. He HAD to be famous with that name, surely.
So a fun time. One of my favourite moments was when they played the song 'After Dark', which is a Count & Sinden track featuring the old MJs, with Will singing. It's a dancey one, pretty different from their own stuff - they said at the beginning of the track that they don't play it very often, with Blaine adding "I don't know why." Neither do I - It worked so well live. And just as I thought it couldn't get any cooler, I heard the opening chords to 'Hideaway' and they merged into it, with lots of sirens and pizzazz. Man it was cool!
AND we saw Kai on the train back to London that night. It was in a way a highlight of the night, and in a way a massively annoying occurrence... What happened was this. We had been sitting on the train for about 45 minutes discussing - amongst other things such as long words and fudge - the gig. Then we came into Finsbury Park. Not our stop. No big deal. THEN we noticed through the window a man who had just got off the train wearing a cool, and strangely familiar shirt. (see the second to last picture for details). Someone said 'shit.. is that Kai?' We all agreed that yes it most certainly was and started to bang furiously on the train window. He turned round and gave us a friendly smile and returned our childish waves as the train drew away from the platform. He had been in our carriage.. listening to our entire conversation plus our occasional outbursts of humming/whistling his band's songs. Frustrating in a way. I'm sure had we spotted him in the carriage we would have had some super chats about life and music and the universe and we would be best friends by now. Oh Kai, if only you knew what could have been.
Toodle pip, and to finish, here's the Count & Sinden ft. Mystery Jetzzz song I mentioned somewhere above in my long and rambling stream of consciousness. It's a really fun song and video, do give it a watch.
x
