Saves The Day is another band I’ve been listening to for almost a decade now and has been the theme of every short-lived and failed relationship I’ve ever had.

This is as “emo” as things get but I don’t really care about that silly term. I love these guys and their music for years and it was amazing to finally see them live.

During this week, I was actually on holiday down by Clacton-on-Sea but since this was a once in a very rare opportunity, I decided to take the train from the south back to London for the evening just to see the band. I did get to sleep on my own bed after which is miles better than the crappy caravan beds and left the next morning.

Anyway, the venue was back in Camden, a place I would be visiting a few days later for the Camden Crawl. Specifically, it was the Electric Ballroom. I won’t get into the list of bands I’ve seen here now.

Support for the evening was Dinosaur Pile-Up who turned out to be a surprisingly amazing punk rock band. Their music was pretty tight and they sounded like a band who has been forever despite only having one record under their belt so far. An amazing three-piece band so much so that I saw them 5 days later during Camden Crawl. You should really check them out. Nothing completely unique and mind-blowing inventive about them but I haven’t listened to a good punk rock band like them in ages.

While the support band was playing, the place was pretty empty so I managed to push myself as far forward as possible and was almost at the front barrier. Perfect spot. Or so I thought.

Then it was finally time for Saves The Day. Chris looked exactly the same as he did in the At Your Funeral video only chubbier. No Glassjaw members with the band this time as Manny Carrero and Durijah Lang are now back full-time with Glassjaw.

Firefly was a perfect way to open the evening. The starting riff just set the tempo for the evening and got the crowd jumping right from the get-go.

I would love to go through each song individually but it was a long night and was a few weeks ago, so as usual, I’d cheat and list down the setlist which is again grabbed from Setlist.fm. I took a picture of the setlist but it has disappeared from my iPhone.

• Firefly
• Shoulder To The Wheel
• Anywhere With You
• 1984
• The End
• Cars & Calories
• Let It All Go
• Third Engine
• A Drag In D Flat
• Can’t Stay The Same
• Eulogy
• Freakish
• Kaleidoscope
• Z
• Nightingale
• What Went Wrong?
• Dying Day
• Deranged & Desperate
• See You
• Radio
• Where Are You?
• Head For The Hills
• In Reverie
• Jessie & My Whetstone
• Sell My Old Clothes, I’m Off To Heaven
• Holly Hox, Forget Me Nots
• Driving In The Dark
• Rocks Tonic Juice Magic
• Three Miles Down (encore)
• At Your Funeral (encore)

Prior to the gig, I was worried the band would mostly play songs from the newer records but thankfully, they didn’t. Most of the songs I completely love from them are from Stay What You Are and Through Being Cool.

Freakish and Nightingale were surprises for me as they are both beautiful songs. Rocks Tonic Juice Magic was sung out loud with everyone in the Ballroom. I still think it has the most brilliant lines ever like:

“Let me take this awkward saw and run it against your thighs. Cut some flesh away, I’ll carry this piece of you with me”

“My heart is on the floor, why don’t you step on it?”

It’s simply a thing of beauty, poetic really. You really need to read through the whole lyrics. Or listen to the song.

Closing out with At Your Funeral was perfection. Well, almost.

Despite the brilliant set which spanned the entirety of their records and b-sides, two of my favourite songs were missing namely You Vandal and My Sweet Fracture. Songs which best define my relationships of old.

It was shame not hearing some songs live but I didn’t really care after the gig since at that point, I was completely blown away by their amazing performance and the fact that I’ve finally seen one of my favourite bands for the past decade.

If you go back to the setlist and count, they played 30 songs this evening, that is quite something.

A band who always made me feel better as I sang and screamed along to their songs with every failed attempt at a relationship.

Also, if you would want to hear my actual thoughts after the gig, you can follow this link to Winkball as I was interviewed by them outside Electric Ballroom. You will noticed that my voice is a bit off due to all the singing. It was that kind of evening.

March 2007 was the date when Thursday payed their last headlining show in London. On April 2007, I moved to London coming from Manila. Missed by a month.

In May 2008, Thursday played two shows in the Philippines, one in Manila and the other in Camarines Sur. It was quite an ordeal listening to everyone’s stories about it.

It wasn’t until April of 2009 that I finally had the chance to see Thursday perform live. This was no headlining show though as they supported Taking Back Sunday for Give It A Name 2009.

Last year, they supported Rise Against at Brixton. Despite seeing them twice already, they don’t count as proper Thursday shows as they were only support acts which means playing 6-7 songs.

In hindsight, I did get to hear Jet Black New Year live twice now.

This 2011, they finally announced a headlining show at KCLSU and I was quick to buy tickets even though Asobi Seksu was playing on the same day. There was no contest between the two as I’ve seen headline Asobi Seksu twice. It was a shame though as they also had a new album.

Speaking of new albums, Thursday released No Devolucion recently which has turned out to be quite a crazy good record despite being experimental and light years different than all the other records they’ve made. Thursday with synths? Unheard of.

The venue was KCLSU which is a pretty intimate venue with cheap (in London) beer.

First support was Attack! Vipers! which is another post-hardcore band. Yes, I am too old for this stuff.

Second support was a slightly familiar band, Circa Survive, and throughout their set I was thinking who they supported before as I was pretty sure I’ve seen them before. It was a choice between Funeral For A Friend and Taking Back Sunday. Further investigation when I got home proved it was Taking Back Sunday at the now demolished Astoria.

Their set was much fun and Anthony’s unusual vocals and antics on stage are always fun to watch. I haven’t listened to them in years and would have to find the time to do so at some point.

Like most bands with new albums, Thursday started the evening with a new song, Fast To The End, which is the first track of their new album. This was then followed by  an assault of more new songs; Magnets Caught In A Metal Heart, No Answers and Past And Future Remains.

With the new songs introduced to the crowd, it was time for some old songs. As it’s the 10 year anniversary of Full Collapse, Thursday’s debut album, they’ve been doing Full Collapse tours in the US where the album is played in it’s entirety in the correct order.

Despite the new flavour and brilliance of No Devolucion, Full Collapse is still Thursday’s best album and the crowd (and I) were more than ready for it, singing (screaming) along to every song.

The whole album was one big highlight but if I have to be forced to specify songs it would be Paris In Flames and Wind-Up both of which I finally heard live.

For their encore, they played Turnpike Divides from their new album. Would have loved to hear Jet Black New Year again but this evening was absolutely fantastic as it was.

Finally seeing Thursday perform a headlining show was quite an experience especially with all the new songs and the whole Full Collapse album.

It needs to be mentioned that Geoff’s epic mic flailing was drastically less this evening.

I would always be in line to watch Thursday live and do a proper headline show where they play random songs from all their albums.

Yes, I just made up an excuse to see Thursday again. Not that I really needed to anyway.

When I first heard to Architecture In Helsinki, I instantly loved them. Their brilliant and catchy indie pop was a nice and cheerful mix to all the rock music I was listening to around 7 years ago and was completely refreshing at times.

Discovered them along with The Go! Team whom I’ve seen at the beginning of the year. For some reason, both bands have not been touring for a few years, haven’t played in London but came back this year with new records in tow.

The venue was XOYO which has quickly become my favourite small venue. After all, it is a venue in Shoreditch which is such a vibrant place although not as crazy and crowded as Camden.

Support for the evening was The Russian Futurists, an indie pop band from Canada. Yes, we have Architecture In Helsinki who actually hail from Australia and The Russian Futurists from Canada. It’s a fun twist on band names.

Their music was a little slower paced but catchy as you’d expect from pop and was a mix of indie styles which made their set very interesting despite not much enthusiasm from the crowd. Not as fast and upbeat as AiH, but a great support band. Too bad I missed them on both dates of Camden Crawl. It would have been nice to have seen this lot again.

Now, Architecture In Helsinki, where do I even start as it has now been more than half a month and 4 gigs after this event.

As this was a tour of their new album, most of the songs were from Moment Bends which is a pretty good record in itself and well worth the the four year wait since Places Like This (released in 2007).

For some reason, I always thought Architecture In Helsinki had at least 9 members which made me wonder how 9 people would fit in XOYO’s tiny platform of a stage.

It seems somewhere between Places Like This and Moment Bends, the band somehow trimmed down to 5.

The new songs sounded as cheerful as they do on record. Unlike old records, Moment Bends has a positive tone to it’s songs and by this, I mean the lyrics as well as the tune. Most of the new songs sounded quite polished live.

Highlights of the evening would be Escapee, which is my favourite from the new album, and old songs which included Hold Music, Debbie, Like It Or Not, Do The Whirlwind, and It’s 5!.

Surprisingly, they did not perform Cemetery much to the disappointment of everyone in the venue.

The show seemed quite short but was definitely sweet. AiH brandished their new songs as well as I expected them to do so after years of listening to them.

Seeing them live was very much worth the wait despite the fact that they didn’t play Cemetery which is the most song about a cemetery.

My trifecta of seeing The Go! Team, of Montreal and Architecture In Helsinki is now complete and I will most gladly see any of these bands again for some brilliantly uplifting indie pop.