“Let’s drive to Brighton on the weekend.” — Waiting For The 7.18 by Bloc Party

Last Monday (May 25) was a bank holiday here so we decided to drive down to Brighton despite the weather forecast indicating it would be mostly cloudy and rainy. The thing with English weather is that it’s very fickle and forecasts are to be used as a very rough guide just so one would have a general idea.

As such, it was necessary to take a gamble now and again especially when this is the only day most people have the day off and can actually go.

Thankfully, the gamble paid off as the day turned out to be quite sunny for most of it, even though clouds would block the sun’s rays and during the evening it was still plenty warm.

The drive down to Brighton from Bushey was close to 2 hours due to traffic conditions when we finally reached Brighton and the end of the motorway.

We parked in the multi-story parking in Regency Square which was a bit far from the pier but turned to be a good thing since we ended up on the less crowded area of the beach.

The first half of the day was spent just sitting on the pebble beach and admiring the sun. The soothing sound of the ocean can also be heard despite the large crowd present.

Since we expected a bit of rain and not a day of absolute warmth and sunshine, we did not bring extra clothes and were not able to go in for a dip in the cool water. We did get our feet wet and the kids did strip down and enjoyed splashing in the water. This included throwing pebbles into the sea.

After several hours of just relaxing on the cool pebbles, we decided to head over to Brighton Pier.

Walking down the beach was quite a fun experience with so much to see. There are Copeira artists, live bands, people playing basketball and beach volleyball (there was an area with fine sand for this), and people just relaxing with either a pint or ice cream.

Eventually, we arrived at the pier which hosted an amusement park as well as restaurants, pubs and a club. The rides were pretty standard as expected for a small place on a pier but we made the most of it.

There was a rollercoaster which is exactly like the Cyclone Loop in Star City, Philippines.

The view of the coastline from the pier was also quite a site and gave a nice perspective on how far out you are in the sea.

With long days during spring, the darkness did not really fall until past 9 in the evening at which point, was time to call it a night as people had work the next day. It was a long but really fun day.

This was my first time down in Brighton since I was a kid. Pictures when I was young showed that we frequented the place quite a bit due to it’s distance from London.

I’d love to go back as soon as I can but as with other places, it’s one of those where I wish I’d have someone special with me the next time I do visit.

Regardless, as soon as I do pass my driving license, I wouldn’t mind driving down to Brighton again, on a weekend.

Watching a gig with support bands you’ve never heard of before is always a hit or miss. Sometimes they can be surprisingly good, pretty decent, and other times, plain horrible wanting you to wish there was a skip button to fast forward to the next song, heck, the next band even.

Last Thursday’s Cobra Starship gig at King’s College London had 3 support bands on the bill, MiMi Soya, Cash Cash and Sing It Aloud, all of which are bands I’ve never heard nor seen before.

The show started pretty early, say 20 minutes after the doors opened. The first band up on stage was MiMi Soya, a female-fronted quartet from sunny Brighton, England. Their brand of pop-punk was surprisingly good to the ears and their energy on stage was pretty fun to watch. Plus, having a female vocalist named Hero is pretty damn awesome.

Next up was a band called Cash Cash, from New Jersey, who were pretty popular with the female dominated crowd. They were quite average though but still performed a good set and their songs are very catchy, that’s powerpop for you.

The last support band was Sing It Loud, another band from the US, Minnesota to be precise. A five-piece band who plays pop punk/powerpop as well. I liked them better than Cash Cash, less catchy but their songs are more structured.

Eventually, the show run out of support bands and it was finally time for Cobra Starship to perform. If you’ve known me for sometime and have been reading my previous blog on WordPress, you would know that I was pretty disappointed when I first saw them live at GIAN 2008.

Their music is sort of  a guilty pleasure of mine and as such, the reason why I decided to give them another chance and watch one of their shows.

I was not disappointed.

They kicked off their set with The City Is A War and this time around, the sound was perfect with no more tech issues which ruined their GIAN show. This was followed by two tracks from the first album,  Send My Love to the Dancefloor, I’ll See You in Hell (Hey Mister DJ) and The Church Of Hot Addiction. They kept the crowd dancing and the energy flowing with Kiss My Sass.

A medley of 3 to 4 songs was next which in my opinion was sort of a cop out to squeeze in more songs. As far as I remember, the medley contained Keep It Simple, Prostitution Is the World’s Oldest Profession, and The Ballad Of Big Poppa And Diamond Girl. I am not a 100% sure about this though. This medley might have been started with another song though, Damn You Look Good and I’m Drunk (Scandalous).

Cobra Starship rounded up the evening with other crowd favourites, Smile For The Paparazzi, Pete Wentz Is The Only Reason We’re Famous, and of course, Bring It (Snakes On A Plane). Pat and Ben from Sing It Loud also helped out on a few song.

Of course there was an encore, which started with Ryland talking on stage which he was pretty good at. After programming in a few beats, the song Pleasure Ryland started with the rest of Cobra Starship coming up on stage. They capped off the evening with Guilty Pleasure and called it a night.

My disappointment with Cobra Starship has now been erased and re-written over by an amazing set and performance last Thursday. MiMi Soya was the surprise support of the evening who really impressed me. As for Cash Cash and Sing It Loud, they are ok bands but in a sea of pop punk these days which is all the rage with the kids, they could easily get lost but do have some potential.

Last Friday, I was off to another gig, the first one for this month of May. It would be a relatively different gig than usual but a very familiar venue.

I can no longer recall exactly how I came to listen to Friendly Fires but the moment I did, I fell in love with their unique brand of dance-pop-punk. I knew watching them live would be a different experience than usual and boy was it different.

The venue was the HMV Forum in Camden which was the site where I saw Bloc Party last year and will be seeing Deftones later on in the year. It is still one of the better venues I’ve been to.

Support acts were not mentioned on the Last.fm event page but with just one album yet to their name, we knew there had to be something.

Three drumsets were on stage and at some time close to 7:45, a guy sat on one of them and started playing. The act was one guy playing on the drums with back up techno beats which was quite entertaining albeit being unusual. He played a few songs which did help the crowd ease into the evening. At no point did he mention what his name nor his act was called. He did mention that Magistrates was playing next. After some googling, I found out it was Wax Stag.

After his entertaining set, it was time for the longest wait for a second support band I have ever endured. I’d say Wax Stag finished a few minutes after 8 but Magistrates did not start playing until past 9 which is usually when main acts start.

Anyway, Magistrates finally came up on stage. I’ve never heard of them before this gig and had no idea what kind of music they played. Not having them listed on the Last.fm event page didn’t help either. Nonetheless, watching them on stage was quite enjoyable and surprisingly entertaining. Man, that sounded real lame but seriously, what can be said about a band you’ve never heard before. Believe me though, they were real energetic on stage and their music was pretty good.

At almost 10 in the evening, Friendly Fires finally came up on stage. As far as I remember from their videos, the band only has three members but I was surprised to see 6 come up on stage. With only one album released, you almost knew they’d play every song but of course in a different order. They started off the show with Lovesick which really got the crowd dancing early.

Yes, dancing. I was actually at a gig which was more like a rave than a rock concert. It’s a little out of my shell, but I went on with it and danced a little even though the (dance) floor was packed.

This is dumb. What good is a music gig post-slash-review if I can’t even remember the set list or how each song played out live. Setlist.fm does not have one for this event but I’d go with the top of the list as it does sounds close to what I recall so I’d go with it.

• Lovesick
• Jump In The Pool
• Skeleton Boy
• In The Hospital
• White Diamonds
• Strobe
• Photobooth
• On Board
• Paris
• Ex Lover

Notable songs would be their singles Paris, Skeleton Boy and an extended rendition of Ex Lover as sort of their encore.

Friendly Fires was an amazing and enjoyable experience. They have a ton of energy and unleash it onstage which I am pretty sure, feeds off from the amazing response from the crowd all singing and dancing.

It won’t be long until I see them next as they are supporting Blur on the 2nd of July. I am a bit skeptical about how they would sound in a huge open venue such as Hyde Park but if they pull it off, it would be a massive dancing party.

Apologies for the ridiculously blurry and awful pictures. I just felt the post would be duller without them. Doubt it helps really though.