10,000 fans

I saw Tool (one of my favourite bands Mum) the other night at Wembley Arena with Turtle, Big Mal and my new Spanish friend Raquel. It’s the 3rd time I’ve seen them now making them the international band I’ve seen the most. I only saw them in June at the Hammersmith Apollo, but Wembley Arena is larger so they were able to put on a better show visually with more screens on stage and cool green lasers fanning out over the crowd. Speaking of the crowd; British crowds suck! They take their place near the front, but won’t get into it and stand around like zombies instead of jumpin’ and moshing. And to make things worse when I want to move closer to try to find the few people who share my passion, the zombies hold their position and don’t let me through. We did eventually find a position we were happy with though, and rocked out from there.

The highlight for me was when they played “The Pot” off their new album 10,000 Days, which they didn’t play last time. Aenima and Vicarious were also crowd pleasers. As you can see from the set list there weren’t many songs, but they were long so it turned out to be nearly 2hrs in total. As usual they didn’t come back for an encore. They always like to maintain the control in the band/crowd relationship. It’s funny the way they always seem to stop a song near the end to get the crowd clapping and cheering, but then continue on again, making us feel stupid. Sometimes it’s actually pretty hard to groove to their rhythms too due to drummer Danny Carey’s use of odd time signatures. Despite all this, I loved it as usual. I find rock concerts one way of accessing a primitive energy that seeks its outlet simply by jumping, yelling, pushing…mmmm I love adrenaline. I can totally be lost in the moment and forget the past and the future. It’s one path to true enlightenment…

SET LIST

Stinkfist

Swamp Song

Jambi

Schism

Lost Keys

Rosetta Stoned

The Pot

Wings For Marie

10,000 Days

Lateralus

Vicarious

Ænima

Don't Make Plans

I’d had a pretty lazy day most of Saturday around the house until I went for a bit of a run at 4pm before it started to get dark (I didn’t stretch like I usually do halfway through and am paying for it today) then went to check out a flat in Clapham Junction at 7pm. Didn’t like it though; 6 people and only 1 shower. They said it wasn’t an issue, but hard to believe. Anyway, I was supposed to be heading into Piccadilly to catch up with my mate Ian and London newbie Chapstick, at the Sports Café to watch the All Blacks vs. whatever the French team are called. If you know me, you’ll probably know I’m not really into rugby so wasn’t totally ‘plussed’ about the idea, but nothing else was on the cards.

I was running a late for the kick-off (why did I care?) So when I got to the train station I quickly glanced at the screen and thought I saw that the London Waterloo train was leaving right now, so bolted up the stairs onto the platform to see the train, with the doors beeping. That means they’re closing soon and the train will depart. There’s something about a train that’s just about to leave that made me get on without fully checking it was the right one. It might be the thought of waiting another 10-15 min on a cold platform. It turned out it wasn’t the right one. In fact it was going in the opposite direction and the first stop was Woking – 20min away! I’ve never been there before, but didn’t really want to see it that night. Oh, well it wasn’t worth getting worked up about. Apart form the fact I didn’t have tickets for Woking. Most of the time the tickets aren’t checked but tonight they were. I just pulled out my travel card and they glanced at it and moved on. They obviously don’t read them properly.

Just as I was getting into Woking, I got a text from my friend John’s Spanish flatmate asking me if I wanted to head out to Brixton to check out a Jazz band. Suddenly my night was looking up. If I hadn’t have gotten on the wrong train I’d be in town by now and a lot less likely to leave. But I wasn’t, so organised to go back to Balham so we could make our way Brixton (bit of a shady place Brixton - Lots of trees).

So we met up with about ten Spanish people and I was about the only person at the table that couldn’t speak Spanish. Not a problem for me as I could just enjoy the Jazz anyway. But then someone tells me that this other guy who’s coming to the table is out of some famous band. Turns out he’s the guitarist for Jesus Jones. It’s not such a popular band now, but they were reasonably well known in the 90’s and produced some of the drinking anthems we used to listen to at university like Right Here Right Now and International Bright Young Thing. His name was Jerry and was sitting near me so we got to talking. He wasn’t all “I’m too cool for school” and was more than happy to talk to me about music and things. Well, mainly music. He likes the Zutons at the moment, and not so keen on Snow Patrol (I’m actually loving their latest album). His favourite band is the Beatles (surprise surprise) and they’re still together as a band playing sometimes (not The Beatles, Jesus Jones!). They only played in Auckland when they came to NZ – I told him that’s a shame. He thoroughly loved New Orleans in the US and still plays in Japan. All in all he was a top bloke and pretty cool for a 43 year old. He even remembered my name, which I was impressed with. All part of a great night which I couldn’t have planned.

Jerry De Borg, Jesus Jones

So the moral of the story: getting on the wrong train leads to meeting (semi) famous people.

Kiwi Ingenuity

This is a pretty impressive animation by a New York School of Visual Arts student. It challenges a widely held belief about Kiwis and reminds us that the truth is just a perspective.

Knight Rider

You may not know this, but 20 years ago my favourite TV show wasn't Seinfeld or Sopranos, it was in fact Knight Rider. So when my mate Pete invites Jase, Brett and I for a cruise in his Black Pontiac Firebird yesterday afternoon, we all jumped at the chance. This version didn't have the K.I.T.T voice nor capable of Turbo Boosts or 300mph, but that didn't matter, because it was black, it looked cool and we were in it. It certainly attracts a lot of attention where ever it goes - we were always been looked at by jealous onlookers. Plus it's hard to ignore the sound it makes; an American sports car sounds like thunder rolling through the streets.

We were pretty lucky to have a drive as Pete's sold it and loses possession next weekend, hence we had to be pretty careful. I hadn't even driven since Feb when I was in the States, so it was fun to be behind the wheel. It's a left hand drive, but we all handled the challenge pretty well. It's such a sensation to have control of the beast - we were all grinning like big kids for 2 hours straight! It wasn't raining so we took the chance to take the t-tops off to get that open air feeling our childhood hero David Hasselhoff used to get.

It was a great afternoon - thanks Pete!

So if I had to wait 20 years to drive my dream car, am I going to be like 40 when I get to drive a Porsche 911 Turbo? That sounds about right...

It's getting cold here

I think I need to go and buy a jacket, so watch this if you can while I'm gone. It's pretty funny.