What have we become.. will you comfort me?

Last night was one I'll remember for quite sometime (despite the copious amounts of snakebites that were consumed). It has been a massive week for me and gigs and in the post-Foo Fighters aftermath we were gearing up for Australia v Brazil followed by Shihad at the Shebu Empire. The atmosphere was fantastic. A room chockas with Aussies and Kiwis (and unfortunately, a few stinking Brazilians), for just one of thousands of places showing the soccer, the noise we were making was fantastic! Unfortunately the boys didn't come through with the goods, but put up a damn good fight and we will be in force on Thursday when it comes down to do or die.

Anyhow, enough patriotism for now.

Before Shihad there was to be an AC/DC coverband, I'm quite partial to a bit of Acca Dacca myself so no worries there, to our surprise the 'had were actually the band, fronted by a different singer.. brilliant! Who on earth supports themselves?!

When Shihad finally came out (to thunderous applause) they fucking rocked the house down for a good 90 minutes. I had forgotten how brilliant they were live. Not two songs in and Jon Toogood disappeared from the stage.... he emerged 2 minutes.. on the balcony above our heads, straddled the ledge and continued to rock.. what a legend.




(Not the best photos, but hey, there were snakebites involved people!!)


And as for the Foo Saturday... what an adventure! We set down to Hyde Park around 1.30, met up witht he rugby girls for a birthday bash in the park and drank to our hearts content. It was a fantastic day to be in the park - about 28, there were people EVERYWHERE, even those not attending and the atmosphere was excellent (London really does come alive when the weather is worth being outside for). We pressed on in to the grounds around 5pm (as QOTSA geared up - also blowing a speaker in the throws, rock on \m/) - I cohersed the guards not to look in my bag by giving him a homemade roll.. we scored the Aussies a few brownie points that day.

After wading through 80,000 people we found a posi and began wondering how the hell we were going to hold on to all the beer previously consumed as we looked at the lines for the toilets. Festivals here just have not seemed to have caught onto the idea of having more than 5 toilets in one queue. Even in Aus our "tiny" 30,000 strong festivals have expanded their facilities in previous years as they have learnt from their mistakes! (ahem, rant over). Needless to say, there were a few 'peeing behind blankets' incidents (not naming any names, Trudi).

Foo's burst onto the stage around 9pm, just as I was making my way back through the crowd - thankfully running into both Andy and Dan, hence not being completely alone for this one-off experience. Unfortunately, I didn't see a lot of the set.. we were an excitable bunch and spent a lot of time talking and, well, being morons in general (What?! I hear you cry in disbelief). Sadly the sound on our side of the ground was dampened by the loss of the speaker earlier in the day, but they still put on a damn good show and it will be just another one of a miriad of stories I will be telling for a few more years.

Here's to rocking on to many more bands in the near future (but maybe not sharing that experience with 80,000+ people..)

P.S. Wanting to write a post Tool reflection... I'm still recovering from PTDS at the moment, it may take a while.