Last week, there was a sudden in flux of gigs announced in London and most of the tickets were released for sale on Thursday and Friday. Not wanting to realize regret later on, I went ahead and splurged on ticket shopping. Heck, we just received our paycheck.

Thursday tickets (Somerset House events) were pretty easy to acquire. Friday tickets (Greenday and Deftones) were a little trickier since one is a big band playing a big gig and the other is a band playing in a smaller venue. Being an O2 customer finally paid off with priority ticketing with Greenday. However, there was a little worry with Deftones as tickets did not seem to be available at the time advertised which usually means they sold out. Thankfully, the correct purchase link came up around 20 to 30 minutes after the time initially posted as being available.

After the dust settled, I ended up purchasing tickets for 4 different shows as listed below spending close to a couple hundred quid.

• The Mars Volta at Somerset House on July 13.
• Bat For Lashes at Somerset House on July 16.
• Deftones at HMV Forum on August 27.
• Greenday at The O2 (previously known as Millenium Dome) on October 24.

Of the four, I am looking forward the most to see Deftones as I’ve been listening to them for the longest time. Plus, they haven’t been touring much outside the US so I’ve sort of written them off as a band I’ll not be seeing. With the announcement of them playing at this year’s Reading and Leeds festival, a small window opened for them playing a gig in London. This venue happens to be the same one where I saw Bloc Party last year.

To put in perspective, I would have been more frustrated in missing out of tickets to see Deftones than Greenday. I almost never purchase tickets from Ebay (the exception being Taking Back Sunday at Astoria last year) as I don’t like supporting touts, but I would have done anything to get my hands on tickets for Deftones.

As for Green Day, I am not a big fan but do enjoy them quite a bit. Also, they are the type of band you would have to see atleast once like The Cure. I’ve already missed watching Foo Fighters twice so consider this my redemption.

The Mars Volta is a band I will be seeing for the third time now, the first being one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to and the second being quite a let down. With a new album coming out, the third time should be a charm and could quite possibly live up to the brilliant performance at Brixton.

The last would be Bat For Lashes which is an act whose sound I’ve been digging quite a bit and far different from all the other British female artists like Lily Allen and Kate Nash. She (Natasha Khan) performed a few weeks ago at Shepherd’s Bush but I was at GIAN. This should be fun.

This at a time when I am supposed to be saving as much as I possibly can for an automobile, which is still up in the air anyway since I need to pass my practical exam first.

Seeing now that standing tickets for every gig, except Bat for Lashes, have already soldout somehow makes me feel better.