Kaiit Killed It // Live

Hellooo friends, and welcome to another blog post.

Today’s post is gonna be a rundown of what was one of the most wholesome gigs I’ve ever attended. On the 12th of July, I got to see Kaiit, who I consider to be somewhat of a Melbourne legend.

She played at Max Watt’s theatre in the city, so it was another Friday night of meeting my friends, this time Dan and James who also play in a band with me, at the station and hopping on a train, then a replacement bus into the city. We got there considerably early, having our wrist stamped at around 8:15, so by the time we got into the venue it wasn’t too packed at all.

After a drink and a quick suss of the first opening act we decided to head back out into the city for something eat, with Subway making do, before returning to MW for Maya Hirasedo, the second opening act.

I’ve actually mentioned Maya on the blog before, so you can read that post HERE. She did a fantastic job of getting the vibes up and the place continued to fill up more and more as she performed.

Finally, it was time for Kaiit. While waiting for the boys to get another drink, I held the amazing spot we’d got on the steps above the pit that served as more of a moshing area compared to the rest of the space where the standing and dancing was a bit tamer. I also bumped into another friend who was making his way through, so him and his mate ended up joining us for the concert.

When it came time for Kaiit to come on stage, we were absolutely blessed to have her mum, come on stage and pay respects to traditional owners of the land, and throughout the performance there were elements of Indigenous and Polynesian culture which made my heart swell so much, it was such a beautiful and respectful display from such a beautiful artist.

Kaiit was phenomenal. Amazing. So, so, wholesome. She was constantly emphasising how grateful she was to have a sold out show in her hometown, and when she wasn’t saying it, it was coming through in her singing.

If you haven’t checked out her music, especially since you started reading this post – please do. Kaiit is so insanely talented, and if you’re someone who calls to artists like Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, Nai Palm, Jill Scott, Amy Winehouse, Kehlani or any female artist who sits in that pocket for inspiration or killer tunes, then you will 10/10 enjoy all of Kaiit’s music.

 

 

There were definitely crowd favourites. 2000 n Somethin went off, despite how mellow and ambient it is. Everyone in the crowd, sang every single lyric. My pals and I literally stood up on the steps with our arms around each other screaming all the lyrics. Like I said, a wholesome, wholesome gig.

When she sang her latest single, Miss Shiney, there was this huge cheer from the audience, and it was such a beautiful song to highlight her band and their musicality, especially her backup singers, who had two of the most angelic voices I’ve ever heard.

 

 

Natural Woman was sung later in the show, and it was such a great vibe. One of my friends new the rap just as tightly as I did, and we had the best time vibing off each other and singing lyrics to the others in our group. This song is one of the smoothest songs Kaiit has ever released in my opinion, and it translated perfectly live. Smooth like honey.

Her encore, was definitely one of my favourite encores so far this year. She came out to the sounds of one of her most loved songs, OG Luv Kush pt.2, the perfect way to end the show. She literally floated on stage, joint in mouth, with four spares to throw into the audience, and everyone went absolutely mad.

Kaiit absolutely killed it. Her Melbourne show was the perfect display of what makes her such a loved artist not only here in the city, but all over the country and around the world. Even as we were walking back to Flinder’s Street station and on the bus/train ride home, all the three of us could talk about was how she smashed it.

She’s gonna be huge. I’m telling you. Pinky promise.

x

Priya

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Gig Guide 2019 – SO FAR

Hello, hello and welcome back to my humble abode.

At the date of writing this, it’s currently the 26th of January, and in celebration of yet again purchasing some more concert tickets, I thought I’d share with you my gig guide for 2019, so far.

For some reason, I failed to do a Gig Guide for 2018, so I’ll do a really quick dot-point rundown of the gigs, festivals and concerts I attended last year before I move on to this year.

• The Kooks – January, 2018
• Rudimental/Jakubi, Australia Open Live Stage – January, 2018
• Let Go Fest – February, 2018
• Billie Eilish – February, 2018
• Jet – March, 2018
• Bruno Mars – March, 2018
• Ed Sheeran – March, 2018
• Blues Fest – March/April, 2018
• Harry Styles – April, 2018
• Niall Horan – June, 2018
• Gang Of Youths – November, 2018
• RINI – November, 2018
• Peninsula Showcase – December, 2018
• Falls Festival – December/November, 2018

So 2018 shaped up to be a banging year for music and live gigs, concerts, stadium tours and festivals, and if I continue the way I’m currently going, 2019 looks like it’ll be much the same.

Here’s the Guide so far for 2019:

Laneway Festival – February
Besides the disappointing news that my queen Jorja Smith won’t be performing anymore (I mean, a clash with the Grammy’s is reason enough I guess), I’m still super keen for this festival. I’m going with a great group of gal pals who I love, and I mean when I’m seeing Rex Orange County, Masego, Cosmos Midnight, Crooked Colours, G Flip and Middle Kids, I can’t complain too much. I am however missing Gang Of Youths because I have to leave early, but still, stellar line-up for what I’m sure will be a fab day.

Lauryn Hill – February
If you know me, you know this is a huge one. Heck, you know she’s one of my top favourite artists of all time, she featured in a squad of five artists I drew and framed for my room, and I’ve been singing Killing Me Softly since I exited the womb. My cousin, who I basically grew up with and have been best friends with since birth and I are going as a kind of celebration for her 21st birthday, and I cannot wait. If you read my write-up for Blues Fest which I attended with my family last year, you’d know I’ve already seen Ms. Hill, but a whole concert dedicated to her? A whole few hours of just Lauryn? Yes please.

Bene – February
Again. If you’ve been around the blog for a little while, you’ll know how keen I am for this concert. Hopefully you’ve read my write-up all about Bene and what a cool chick she is. Heck, I was 100% prepared to go to the concert on my own, luckily my best friend Jess jumped at the chance to come with me when I asked her if she was down. Currently Bene only has two singles out, so I’m keen to see what else she performs at the show!

Kodaline – March
This was a moment for 14-year old Priya. There are so many songs by this band that I listened to throughout high-school, so when I saw they were coming to Melbourne, I quickly messaged Jess who is 90% of the time always down for a cheeky concert, and booked our tickets straight away.

John Mayer – March
I’M SO KEEN. As soon as even the whisper of a concert was mentioned, I was on it. My mate and I waited for tickets and I spent the most stressful twenty minutes of my life trying to secure some decent tickets. Getting the confirmation email that we had our seats was such a relief and I’ve been counting down since that moment. John Mayer live, what more could you ask for? Nothing. The answer is nothing.

Matt Corby – April
Another magical man I get to see and hear live this year, and again, I’m counting down. I’m going with two friends who I’ve never been to a concert with before so I’m excited to experience it with them. Again, if you’ve been around for a little while, you’ll understand my obsession with Matt Corby and his incredible voice. Stay posted for the blog post all about seeing this man in the flesh.

RINI – April
Literally the day after Matt Corby, one of my close friends and I are going and seeing RINI, a homegrown, Melbourne RnB artist who we saw only in November! I can’t wait to see him again, he’s released a few new songs, and I’m sure there’ll be some stuff coming out before this concert as well.

Blues Fest – April
I’m super duper keen for Blues Fest. Like more so than I was than last year. ALSO! I’d like to make a small announcement. A few months back, I wrote an short article about a band called Ocean Alley, and said this:

 

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Low and behold, guess who was added to the Blues Fest line-up earlier this month? Ocean Alley. But anyway. Besides Ocean Alley, they’re are a heap of artists who I love coming to the festival, like Norah flipping Jones, Tash Sultana, Six60, one of the first bands I ever wrote about here, Allen Stone, Jack Johnson, Snarky Puppy and heaps more. Plus, this time my family and I decided to book an apartment in Byron Bay rather than camp at the festival, so I’m keen to enjoy some beach time and wandering around Byron before heading into the festival for the day.

Shawn Mendes – April
Possibly the cutest concert I have booked this year. I’m going with my best friend Kate, my little sister, and my little sister’s best friend. I genuinely can’t wait to see Shawn live, his vocals and his lyrics are amazing, and there are so many songs off his latest album that are sure to be hits in an arena setting.

A Week In My Life

Hello friends! So, I’ve done one of these before, and you all loved it. Or you at least claimed to love it. Either way, I got great feedback and reviews.

Because I like being affirmed that I’m capable of doing something right, I’m gonna do another one. This week isn’t ridiculously musical in terms of what I’m doing or where I’m going, but it’s a fun week so I thought I’d have another go!

I actually started this post two separate times, once because I wasn’t happy with the visuals and the photos I had taken, and another time because I forgot to take photos for one whole day and had nothing to show for it.

But yeah, here’s another week in my life.

This time, let’s see if I decide to go to my lectures … (hint: probably not).

MONDAY
Monday was a struggle, but I managed to drag myself out of bed and get into the city for university. I did feel slightly cheated, considering I got dressed and got on the bus, but by the time I was getting on the train the sun had started to beat down and it had reached close to 25 degrees. Cheated. It was exceptionally warm for Spring, and I was not prepared. Thankfully I spent quite some time inside, first at my tutorial.

It was an interesting enough tutorial. I couldn’t completely validate coming into the city for a one hour class, but I made the most of it, welcomed the extra work and practice for our upcoming final quiz, and thanked my tutor for her help this semester. I loved having her, she was a legend.

After finishing up my class, I headed back into Melbourne Central to meet up with a friend for lunch. We walked around the shops for half an hour or so, before getting back on the train and heading home.

TUESDAY
Tuesday was a good day. One of the things that has changed since my last A Week In My Life post, is that I’ve started working a bit more regularly. Tuesday was a 9-5:30 shift, and it was pretty quiet, considering how shitty the weather was. It was a drastic change to the warm, sunny weather on Monday, and the rain and humidity probably kept some people at home, meaning it was pretty quiet, enough to get some work done. I ended up working on a blog post for my work’s website, collating catalogs, tuning guitars, answering the phones and online inquiries, posting on the store FaceBook page, and assisting any brave customer that came in from the rain.

On Tuesday I also got a message from one of my best friend’s (my pal Nishika, who coincidentally appeared in my first Week In My Life) boyfriend, who’s the music director at a new cocktail bar, offering me another set time for Friday. A few weeks ago my guitarist and I performed a short 45 minute gig at the bar, and it was heaps of fun, so I was over the moon to get a message asking if I wanted to perform again on Friday. After frantically messaging my guitarist again to check his availability, I confirmed the gig and spent a little bit of time typing up a set list.

In the evening I spent some time editing some of my own blog posts, checking in on two of my last assignments for this week and listening to some music before driving to the gym. If you haven’t checked out my playlists for the gym, I have two, which you can check out HERE and HERE. After an amazingly sweaty and brutal leg session, I headed home to do some more work on my group assignments, and called it a day.

WEDNESDAY
As I mentioned above, I’ve started working more often, especially in the front end of the store with all the musical instruments rather than with sheet music and books, and Wednesday was another 9-5:30 shift. It was also another day of doing some pretty fun secretarial work, which I secretly really love. I’ve been taking on more responsibility in terms of back-end work and giving my opinion and input on bigger decisions that are made in regards to the running of the store and our online presence especially, which I love, and Wednesday gave me a decent dose of that. It was a pretty quiet day in terms of customers, though I did manage to help out a woman very early in the morning, meaning I got a sale in, which I didn’t do at all on Tuesday.

I got to fill in in the Print Department again, which is always nice. Because it tends to get really quiet back there throughout the middle of the day, I was able to do some of my own work, adding notes to a Slide presentation for Thursday and editing some blog posts.

After work I got a bit of driving done, which I absolutely love now that I have my license, and did a pick up and drop off between my Mum at a night class and my sister from her dance class. In between going back and forth to pick them up, I finished up the last final touches for my university presentations.

THURSDAY
My Thursday got off to a shaky start. I slept in a little bit late, but still managed to catch my bus to the train station. Then while on the train, I swear to God, I got so invested in looking at memes on FaceBook, I completely missed the stop at Richmond to get off and change to my City Loop train, meaning I had to go to Flinders Street and wait 15 minutes for the next train back to Melbourne Central. Which in turn, resulted in me walking into my 10:30 class at 10:40 and rushing to get sorted with my group for our presentation.

The presentation went alright. I’m just making a Credit in that class, which isn’t bad at all. But probably could have bumped my score up to a Distinction if we put a bit more effort but I finish uni this week and care factor is: 0.

The next two hours after that class were spent walking around Melbourne Central. I spent a bit of money, not too much, and afterwards headed to Nando’s for lunch, where I was joined by Kate, who has been mentioned on the blog quite a few times by now. After our Nando’s we walked over to Boost to get our Thursday Mango Tango which has been a tradition of ours this semester, and then headed to our Television Cultures class.

I had another presentation in this class, this time with Kate, and it was on the TV show The 100. Comparatively to the first presentation of the day, this one went really well and our class was fantastic. After university, we hopped on the train and headed back to my house, before getting changed and getting in the car to head to our netball game with all our friends.

It was a pretty close game, we lost by four, but it was a really fun match, though an indicator that my fitness levels are drastically worst than I initially thought. After dropping Kate, my other friend and my cousin back to their house, my little sister and I headed home.

What was left of the evening was spent preparing for an assignment that was due on Friday night which I had yet to start, as well as finalising all the details of my set for the next day.

FRIDAY
Friday was a slow, yet hectic day for me, if that makes any sense at all. In true Priya fashion I left one of my biggest assignments, until the last day it was due. My studio class this semester was about cover songs, recording covers, performing tributes, anything and everything to do with performing pre-existing songs.

Our final assessment was to be developed over the semester, and that was a recorded version of a cover of any song of our choice. Throughout the entire semester, I had no idea of what song I was doing. And up until Friday morning I was still down to a list of four songs. Eventually I landed on iRobot by my man, Jon Bellion (new album out next month, get keen, get prepared).

That resulted in the next six hours of the day, stuck at my desk, practising, recording and mixing my cover, trying to not deviate too much from the original, but following the assignment criteria enough to ‘make it my own’. I don’t know, we’ll see what my mark is, but I feel like I did a decent job.

By the time I finished the song, finished the spoken reflection, uploaded it all and submitted it, I had another two hours to spare before I needed to start getting ready for the evening, so naturally I watched a movie, XOXO, which was decent enough to pass some time and have on while I did some general cleaning around my room.

Around 7:00 I began getting ready for my gig that evening, and after I was all dressed up I quickly jumped to upload the cover to SoundCloud, and just as it finished uploading I got the text that my guitarist was in front of my house to pick me up.

We made it to the gig with a couple minutes to spare, and while it was a really quiet gig, I enjoyed it. There weren’t many people at all, but it made it a little less stressful, we mucked around a bit and chatted while we were up, and the vibe was generally really good. Getting paid to play music and muck around? Yes please.

Due to how quiet it was, we decided to kick off after our set, staying for a couple more minutes before getting into the car with another friend , and our other friend who plays drums with us, and head to McDonald’s for some food.

It was a good end to a decent day.

SATURDAY
Saturday went much like the last few weeks. I started work at 9:00 in the morning until 5:00. It was a pretty quiet day in the Print Department which is where I was for majority of the day, save for a couple of times when I was needed at the front register.

The evening, after work, is when it well and truly kicked off.

For the last fifteen years my immediate and extended family have held a huge fundraiser for some charities back in India where my family is from. It’s a huge event, we sell tickets to roughly 300 people each year, there’s a band, a DJ, incredible food and heaps of drinking and dancing. It’s one of the highlights of the year and it takes a huge amount of work to put on.

Since I was at my gig on Friday night and work all of Saturday, I missed the huge load of work that’s needed to be done in order to set up the hall for the fundraiser, but ended up going at 6:30 to do last minute stuff before people came at 7:00.

The night was incredible. The music was good, the food was amazing, Dan and James, my two friends who play guitar and drums for me came, along with Kate and another friend Yazmine, and the boys and I even got up and played a few songs for everyone.

It was also a late as heck night. By the time we turned off the music and everyone left it was close to 1:00am, but by the time we packed up what we needed to and left the hall it was closer to 3:30am.

A pretty good day to say the least.

SUNDAY
Sunday was a slow one. Understandably, considering we all only really got to sleep at 4:00. My little sister and I only woke up around 1:30, to the sweet smell of bacon may I add, and majority of the day was spent lazing around, going through photos from the night before, counting money for accounts and sorting out bags that had been dumped in the corridor the night before.

I did some photo editing and post editing for You Should Hear, scheduling a couple more posts and making some small moodboards for said Week In My Life post, before getting ready to see my family again, at one of my cousin’s 23rd birthday dinner.

 

It was a pretty quiet, chilled out dinner in terms of my family’s usual level of rowdiness. The night before was still pretty heavy on everyone and we were all still a little bit drained from the lack of sleep, but managed to have a really good time with great food again.

It was a good, relaxing way to end the week.

I really enjoyed making and writing this post. I hope it wasn’t boring to read, if you stuck around to read it all. Let me know what you thought, I’d love your feedback on these type of posts!

x

Priya

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Live Files – A Moodboard

Here are a couple of my favourite moments, from my favourite concerts and gigs, seeing some of my favourite people live, in a mood board. Majority of these also have links to posts dedicated to each artist and concert I went to.

ED SHEERAN // March, 2015

ELLIE GOULDING // October, 2016

ADELE // March, 2017

GRETTA RAY // April, 2017

DEAN LEWIS // August, 2017

KEHLANI // August, 2017

THE KOOKS // January, 2018

RUDIMENTAL ft JAKUBI // January, 2018

LET GO FEST // February, 2018

BILLIE EILISH // February, 2018

BRUNO MARS // March, 2018

ED SHEERAN // March, 2018

BLUESFEST // March/April, 2018

HARRY STYLES // April 2018

NIALL HORAN // June, 2018

I’ve been vicariously living through mood boards, either on Pinterest, Instagram or on paper, and so I thought I’d make some for some of my favourite moments ever, concerts and live gigs.

More to come …

x

Priya

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Finally Another Gig

I know what you’re saying.

“Priya. You can’t possibly be growing any savings by going for so many gigs.”

And you’d be right. My bank account is constantly in a state of despair, shaking it’s fist at me as I continue to sign myself up for pre-sales and wait in criminally long online waiting lines for ticket sales, but alas, I can’t be stopped.

 

However.

This particular gig, was one of my own.

You may have remembered I mentioned that I had an upcoming performance in my Week In My Life, as within the week I had a rehearsal with my band.

Well, that was tonight (9/08), and yes. I am freshly showered, after spending the day anxiously waiting for my drummer and guitar player to pick me up, panicking that we were late, getting head shots, grabbing a traditional cheeky Nando’s for lunch, sound-checking and then performing to around 300-400 people, including family and friends who had come along to support. It was a hectic day. But I enjoyed it immensely.

The gig was at a large artist showcase, where artists, designers, hair and makeup artists, jewellery designers, dancers, photographers and musicians are selected to showcase their work. We were one of the three acts performing that night.

If you caught my ‘Week In My Life‘ post, you’d recall that for the last couple of Sunday’s I’ve been rehearsing with the boys in the band, trying out some songs, picking and scrapping songs and writing some of my own. About two weeks out from the show we even ended up swapping a song for a different one that had come up with while we were mucking around and jamming, but we finally settled on the set list of covers and original songs, which looked something like this;

• Sunday Morning – Maroon 5
• Stockholme – ORIGINAL
• Who’s Loving You – Jackson 5
• Toast – ORIGINAL
• Finesse – Bruno Mars

Compared to the last time I had played the showcase, it was a lot more energetic and up tempo, definitely down to the addition of our drummer. Even the original songs, which the boys helped me finish were some of the grooviest I’ve ever written, and we got loads of compliments on my song Toast.

//possible single cover??//

That said, it was a long day in the lead up to the 20 minute set.

The boys picked me up around 3:20, and we made the mad dash of a drive to get just outside the city before 4:00, considering out head shot time slot was between 3:40 and 4:00. We definitely broke some speeding laws.

Taking head shots was both awkward and stupidly hilarious, as none of us are professionals in front of the camera, which resulted in all sorts of stupid conversation and questions arising in an effort to get ‘candid’ shots, which also resulted in the photographer pausing in between takes to laugh at our stupidity.

After we had our photos taken, we decided to run the risk of potentially losing our incredible parking spot, and head out for an early dinner. As has become the tradition during rehearsals, we headed to the nearest Nando’s for a feed.

 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmiUEh2hK84/?taken-by=priya_francis

 

By the time we finished up our dinner, it was time to head back for the sound check.

Sound check went great. It was the perfect opportunity to run through a couple of our songs, and we got a few claps from some of the artists who were setting up their work around the huge function hall.

Once we were done with soundcheck, it was basically an half an hour long waiting game for the doors to open, which we spent going around and looking at some of the art, chatting to (up) some of the artists, talking to one of the other bands and overall preparing for our set since we were first up.

A little after 7:00, the doors open, and people started to make their way in. A few moments later, and all our friends, as well as my family had joined us, and it was a great couple of minutes catching up and chatting with everyone.

A bit closer to 8, I was tapped on the shoulder by my guitarist, and so we headed towards the stage to get ready while the MC opened the night and began our introduction.

Honestly, the set could not have gone better. All of us improvised a little bit, much to the excitement of the other two musicians on stage, and having the boys behind me made me all that more confident. My guitarist absolutely nailed all his solos, and our drummer was a huge standout, especially during Finesse where he got a huge solo in place of me singing the bridge.

It was heaps of fun to get up on stage again, especially with the boys backing me up this time. Definitely keen to get going again.

x

Priya

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Ed Sheeran and The Weekend From Heaven…Pt.2

 

Hello friends! I hope you all enjoyed my latest post, a dedication to the absolute experience that was seeing Bruno Mars live in concert on the 10th. Let’s kick on to the sequel.

So on the 11th of March, literally two days ago, my best friends, Kate and Jess, and I met up on the train (someone count the hours I spend on the train between university and getting to concerts), and found ourselves at Etihad Stadium, a short walk from Southern Cross station, joined by a huge crowd of people, quite obviously preparing themselves for the concert like we were.

We were very aware of the fact that our chances of properly seeing the man in HD were slim. People had been lining up since the early hours of the morning, and by the time we were getting on the train and making our way in, the main door for the mosh had been open for two hours. One thing you have to know about Etihad is this. It’s frigging ginormous. It’s massive. The first time I saw Ed Sheeran, Jess and I managed to find ourselves basically front row of the mosh pit in Rod Laver Arena. Etihad Stadium is a whole other ball game, one that we weren’t willing to play to be quite honest. I had a friend who had been lining up since 2, and was still in the front/middle section of the first mosh pit. Yes you read that correctly, the first mosh pit. But on to that later.

Wait time was next to nothing seeing as the doors had already opened, but we had plenty of time to spare. We found our way to the shortest line, scanned our tickets, got our GA mosh pit wristbands and entered the stadium. After concluding that our stomachs would most definitely not withstand the rest of the night, we bought ourselves some food to eat and made our way out onto the mats. It was insane how big the General Access ground space was. It was so big in fact, that one of the light rigs was literally in the middle of the mosh pit, meaning they split it into two. Those who got there extra early, managed to squeeze themselves into the front mosh, while we were in the second mosh, a bit further back. That said, we were closer to the front of the second mosh pit, so we definitely didn’t have the worst view ever.

Bliss N Esso were the first opening acts, and to their credit, they were fantastic. Not everyone were fans of theirs, I had only heard a few of their songs but knew who they were, and I found myself singing along, joining in whenever I knew the lyrics and genuinely enjoying their set. By the time the second act made her way on stage, the crowd had at least tripled. Partly due to the fact that it was one of Australia’s most loved singers, Ed Sheeran’s musical crush upon his discovery of her during his first trip to Australia years ago, Missy Higgins. Her set was incredible and her songs were all beautiful. Definitely check her out if you haven’t heard of her. She’s been singing for years and years and years, her song Scar broke my 8 year old heart, and it did again when she closed with the song on Sunday night. The entire crowd was singing along and it really lifted the vibe of the entire stadium in preparation for Ed.

And a short twenty minutes later, he was on. I’ve only once, in my life, heard a roar like I did in that moment, and that was when I was in Etihad Stadium three years ago, with Jess and Kate again, seeing One Direction, in their prime. The roar was deafening and the huge crowd surged forward as expected. Still, all we saw was little, teeny, tiny Ed.

 

 

I could quite honestly count on one hand the times I actually saw Ed Sheeran in the flesh, rather than on the giant screens but it didn’t matter at all. The sound he created time and time again, song after song, was so insane, and so admirable, I found myself not even looking at the stage sometimes.

Castle On The Hill was quite possibly the best opening song he could have chosen, and all the songs that followed after were even better. My favourites were definitely his medley from Feeling Good by Nina Simone, into I See Fire, his medley of Don’t and New Man, Bloodstream, Galway Girl, Nancy Mulligan (which caused both the girls to look at me knowingly as I screamed because it’s one of my favourites yet I didn’t expect it to be on the setlist at all), Sing and of course his encore which consisted of Shape Of You and You Need Me, I Don’t Need You, which went absolutely crazy. Bringing the old with the new to close the show was one of the best decisions he made, the crowd went absolutely mental, screaming and shouting whether they knew the lyrics or not.

 

 

 

I spoke a lot about the atmosphere in my Bruno Mars post. I can’t compare the two concerts in any way because of how polar opposite they are, and how they appeal to two completely different sides of me as a person, but the atmosphere at Ed Sheeran, was one of the craziest’s I’ve ever experienced in my entire life. When thinking of the size of the crowd, take into consideration that this was a record breaking tour for Ed Sheeran, especially in Australia and New Zealand where he sold more than a million tickets. His four shows in Melbourne sold over 250,000 tickets.

A lot of the awe and just absolutely wonder I continuously found myself feeling, was mainly due to what was happening on stage, or what I could hear of it.

By now, it’s common knowledge that Ed Sheeran doesn’t perform with a band. He doesn’t have a backing track, or pre-recorded samples that he sets up for himself. Everything he does, every sound he made, was with his monster loop pedal and loop board, of which I’m forever envious of, his guitar, and his mouth. The percussion, the harmonies, the choirs you hear on his studio versions, the intricate guitar riffs and the booming bass. All him. Live, on stage, and once he clicks over onto a new track, the previous song is gone forever (a little part of my heart died when he said that).

Knowing that all the sounds and ambience that was filling this bloody huge arena, reaching out to over 60,000 people, was coming from this one man, is still even now, something I can’t wrap my head around. It blows my mind, and it gives me so much respect for him. The atmosphere in that stadium was irreplaceable and one that cannot be replicated.

After the show we were discussing how we all found ourselves, at one moment or another, standing completely still, in a total trance, just watching the screens, I See Fire is one of my absolute, if not, favourite song by Ed Sheeran, specifically because of how emotive it is in translating this really magical story, drawing from such a fantastical film, to create this sound that carries everything it holds and more. It gives me a roundhouse kick to the head of nostalgia from reading fantasy books, old Enid Blyton adventure novels and not questioning the lengths to which authors went to describe magic forests and fairies, old English country-sides and characters that you really can’t begin to imagine existing, and that song captures all of that for me. Perfectly. Take that whole chunk of words I just spewed, put it into a feeling, and that’s all I felt for the entire concert. It didn’t matter if I was screaming back the lyrics in a particularly up-beat song, belting out his slower tunes or dancing along to Shape Of You with my best friends, that’s how I felt for the whole two hours that he was on stage.

 

 

You Need Me, I Don’t Need You was the perfect note to end the night on. Not lyrics wise cos it’s very much an ‘eff you’ type of song, but just due to how much emotion and energy it evokes. He rapped all the verses perfectly, got the crowd so hyped up, got everyone involved, stepped away from the guitar after all the loops were set and looked so at home up on that huge stage. Singing that specific song, with the amount of people who were screaming along with him, felt like the perfect goodbye.

Another concert done, definitely up there with the best, 2018 is shaping up to be quite the year.

x

Priya

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Bruno Mars and The Weekend From Heaven…Pt.1

Hello friends, buckle your seat-belts, strap yourselves in, I’m two iced coffees into my day and keen to share the first night of a KILLER weekend.

My countdown app is…excessive, to say the least. I have a ton of things I’m counting down to on there, most of them concerts and gigs, but by far, one of the most anticipated concerts of the year so far, was Bruno Mars. My entire family, immediate and extended, hype the heck up whenever Bruno Mars comes on at any party. His music encompasses everything that we’re about. We’re the family at weddings and anniversaries and birthdays who are the first on the dance floor and the last to leave. We love his music, and have an unspoken pact between us that we show absolutely no disrespect to Bruno when his songs come on, and we dance. It’s just the general rule of thumb, and I’ve been waiting for so long to see this man live at his concert. Which I attended last night, Saturday the 10th of March.

I had work, again, and so notified them that I was leaving an hour earlier than usual and no-one was stopping me (no-one genuinely cared enough), and by 3:00 I was sprinting out the door.

By 5:45, my family and I were headed to the station to catch our train into the city.

We were quite early to Rod Laver, so my dad and I were able to have a drink, get some food for the four of us and soon we found our seats. This was a fantastic moment.

So through some friends at his work, my Dad was able to get us the tickets. I had already stressed myself out a week earlier and gone through the panic of buying two tickets through the online sale, but I wasn’t incredibly happy with the seats, as they were right at the back, around the side of the stage. So when Dad pulled out his stack of tickets for the lower section, I sold my two tickets as soon as I could. That said, we weren’t sure where exactly we were sitting. Which made it so much better when we were directed to the front of the lower section, with an incredible view of the stage and the entire arena. It was the perfect spot.

Forty-five minutes or so later, and the support act was up on stage. Safe to say, it was probably a major win for Bruno to snag Dua flipping Lipa as his support act. She got the crowd pumped, and her entire set was so high energy and fun. The entire crowd sang along to the songs we all knew, and she definitely gained two new fans in my mum and dad.

After a quick sprint to the toilet at the end of her set and a refill on drinks, we were back in our seats, eagerly waiting on the man himself.

I have to say. This whole week I’ve been asking my family if they’re were excited for the night. While my mum waved me off as she generally tends to do with my over-zealousness, and my sister agreed purely to get my off her back, my dad was very hesitant to set any standards or get his hopes up, despite Bruno being one of his favourite artists. However.

Was. Not. Disappointed.

Bruno opened with Finesse, the classic that has literally taken over the world, and right after the song finished my dad leaned over and screamed into my ear “That’s all the money’s worth already.”

He followed up with 24K Magic, another bop that got everyone so hyped. Every single person was out of their seats and dancing. My little sister and I definitely embarrassed my mum with our dance moves, but the show was so incredible, the energy level so high, that we were beyond caring. Bruno Mars sounds and moves, like butter. Everything about the man was so smooth and sometimes I found myself genuinely enchanted, just standing there watching him in awe. His performance value was so high, it made every dollar worth it.

I think I screamed when he moved on to Treasure. The great thing about the show was the classics that he threw in, sprinkled in between all the incredible songs from his 24K Magic album. Songs like Marry You, Runaway Baby, When I Was Your Man (that nearly brought me to tears) and Locked Out Of Heaven, threw everyone right back to the moment they were all released.

I have to mention his band, The Hooligans. Every single move that Bruno made, all the energy he was dispensing on his performance, they matched him equally, all the while killing it on their respective instruments, whether that was keys, guitar, saxophone, trumpet, drums, trombone or bass. Sometimes I found myself watching one of them perform, and it was so pleasing to watch their solos in between his songs. The saxophone player got a solo that gave me goosebumps, as did the guitar player, but the man on the keys absolutely killed his three minute long solo. Smashing the entire stage into Locked Out Of Heaven was no easy feat but he killed it, and brought the energy level straight back up.

His last song was Just The Way You Are, and he brought the house lights up for the final chorus, just to watch everyone singing back at him.

The encore was probably one of the best vibes I’ve ever gotten at a live show. Everyone just waited in anticipation for him to reappear. It was also a case of ‘if you know, you know’. I felt so bad seeing all the people who genuinely thought the show was done, marching up the steps in a bid to get out early.  Thank god, they were all stopped dead in their tracks when we all started shrieking as the curtains rose again and he stepped out again to finish off the night with Uptown Funk, the song that has set the tone for his entire album, world tour and performance. It was everything that I wanted it to be and more.

I say this so much, but this is amongst one of my favourite live shows I’ve been for. It was everything I love about music, packed into two hours that I was so happy to share with my mum, dad and little sister. The atmosphere was crazy, Bruno Mars delivered all that he promises and more.

But my dudes…as this goes up, at the time this post is scheduled, I’ll be at Ed Sheeran. So prepare yourselves for Pt. 2.

x

Priya

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Maybe, Probably, In Love

 

By now, we all know how utterly obsessed I am with the phenomenon that is Billie Eilish. Since first hearing her early last year, I’ve wanted to grow up to be Billie, which made seeing her at The Howler on the 8th of February all that more incredible. As I’ve mentioned in my posts about seeing Gretta Ray and Dean Lewis, The Howler is one of my favourite venues in Melbourne, and Billie made it ten times better.

 

Two of my friends and I caught the train into the city, and after a quick dinner and some drinks, caught the tram down to Brunswick, where The Howler is located. It was a short tram ride and we made it for the last part of OKENYO, the support act’s, set. She was such a great support act. A mix of the hard hitting bass and dimension that Billie brings to her song, with an ethereal quality to it with really beautiful backing vocals. Her voice was equally as amazing. After listening to some of her songs on Spotify, I definitely enjoyed her live performance a lot more. It was so dynamic and impactful live, her vocals seemed so much more stronger in person, but definitely check out her Spotify and have a listen to some of her music when you get a chance.

 

There was a short break and finally, Billie came out.

 

 

Despite coming during the support act, we managed to get a pretty good spot, and when she came out it was slightly unnerving and unreal. After two years of seeing her through a screen, laughing at her Instagram mystory’s and just being in awe of her as a being, seeing her in person was so strange, but at the same time, one of the best experiences ever. She opened with bellyache, her most popular song from her album dont smile at me.

She was the perfect mix of insane energy and stillness when it was needed, and watching her, it was so hard to imagine that she only turns 17 this year. It’s simultaneously the most inspiring and crushing thing ever to know that she’s accomplished so much in such a short time and that she’s accomplished so much in such a short time.

Anyway.

Her set was perfect in every way. She was no-nonsense and while a lot of the time I genuinely enjoy when musicians stand on stage and have a bit of banter with the audience, Billie kept it to a minimum, but you could still see how much fun she was having and it seemed so natural that she kinda flied from song to song It really suited her and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

 

Her brother Finneas is just as talented. He co-writes a lot of her songs with her so halfway through she stepped to the side and he sang a song that literally punched me in the gut. It honestly runs in the family, I’m telling you. They even teamed up for a few dance breaks that link back to Billie’s formal dance train, and he accompanied her for a couple of songs as well.

 

 

Billie even sat down to sing a song that’s yet to be released, and if it’s anything like the live version, it’s going to be one of my favourites. The song captured everything I love about Billie. It was super, duper sad, but her vocals literally soared. It was a simple song, but the lyrics made my heart stop a couple of times, and there were genuine audible gasps from the audience. I’m just going to patiently wait for this song to be released. Probably not so patiently.

She finished with my boy, which was definitely a crowd pleaser and one of my favourites. Off stage for a minute, she swear to God, Naruto ran back on for the encore where she sang hostage, which hushed the crowd entirely. I’m pretty sure everyone was equally in awe as I was. For a 16 year old to hook and hold an 18+ crowd as tightly as she did, Billie’s charisma and energy was so infectious. Finally, finally, we were instructed to mosh as much has we wanted (“yeah even you guys at the front, punch someone.“) as she sang COPYCAT. It was like she had saved up her stores of energy for this one song, and she bounced and jumped around the stage, dancing and head banging along with the rest of us. The live version was so dynamic and the drum breaks added a whole new layer that the studio version doesn’t even touch. It was great to get another side to the song that allowed the audience to really physically get into it.

 

 

Not even a week after Let Go Fest and my mind was once again blown by such an incredible live act. To date, Billie Eilish is probably in my top five concerts I’ve attended and by far, my favourite act that I’ve seen at The Howler. From the moment it ended, up until the time we all got home, all my friends and I could think and talk about was how she surely wasn’t real? She seemed too good to be true, not only seeing her in person, but hearing such a mature and strong voice from someone so young, live and so close. If you ever get the chance to see Billie Eilish live, please go. You 100% will regret nothing, I promise.

 

x

Priya

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