Understatement of The Day
By The Misfit | December 13, 2008
I am at such a loss for words about last night’s James show which was, hands down, the best live show I’ve ever seen – and I’ve seen a lot of live shows from both big-name bands and an assortment of local artists. I know regardless of what I say write about it, it’s never going to fully describe the experience, but here’s the lowdown:
I should probably start at the beginning…. The trip down to Glasgow was quite the interesting adventure in and of itself. K.W. went with me (I’m happy, happy, happy she did!) and the train we had originally planned on taking was cancelled because the train broke down. Nice. Anyone who knows me also knows that I tend to get a bit wound up on concert trips – I like to arrive early and leave plenty of time to get where we need to go – if things don’t go smoothly I get cranky. Thankfully, though, K.W. and I had arrived in enough time to catch an earlier train from Stirling, so that worked out quite nicely. It was also pouring down rain, cold, and windy, which, at least for me, meant using an umbrella was absolutely useless. The train was packed and standing room only, which wasn’t so bad since the train we were on went directly into Glasgow with no stops between Stirling and Glasgow, so instead of nearly an hour, it was only about a 35 minute trip. Once we got to Queen Street Station, we had to walk to Glasgow Central to pick up a train to the exhibition center. Normally, it wouldn’t have been too bad of a walk, but it was raining in Glasgow, too. We fairly easily figured out where we were going thanks to partial directions from a worker at Queen Street Station and additional directions from someone at another station (I don’t remember which one). It was a lot of walking and giggling and picking on each other, but we finally got to the exhibition center with some time to spare. I dropped far more money than I probably should have (not quite $100) on 2 t-shirts, a tote bag, and a limited edition CD. The show was my Christmas present to myself, so I don’t really feel all that bad about it. Besides, I have no idea if or when I’ll be able to catch them live again – they very rarely ever tour the states, and who knows if they’ll have another show before I head back to the states.
Anyway, after we got to the venue, we discovered that we had to check out backpacks, and, idiotic me, forgot to grab my earplugs. It sounds silly, I guess, but Cactus Girl got me hooked on wearing earplugs to shows some years ago – my hearing sucks on a good day from all the years of loud concerts, loud clubs, etc., so I’ve been really good about making sure to have them on hand for shows. Not last night. And the show was loud. James uses non-traditional instruments (for a pop / rock band, anyway) – trumpet, violin, additional percussion – in addition to the standards (guitar, keyboard, drums) and, as amazing as the show was, I thought for sure my ears would be bleeding by the time we left. It was worth it, absolutely, but my ears are going to be ringing for at least another 2-3 days.
The opening band, Athlete, was pretty good. I was actually really impressed with them (which doesn’t happen very often for me).
Then James came on…They had screens up, and they started by showing Tim Booth, followed by the band members, walking and singing. Only it took everyone a few seconds to realize that they were walking through the crowd from the back of the venue up to the stage. Singing and playing instruments. It was awesome. Of course, I couldn’t have lucked out and been in the section they walked through, but I’ll live. Besides, I don’t think I would have lasted long in the venue had I tackled Tim Booth’s legs and screamed like a little girl with tears streaming down my face. So, the first song was acoustic (and I can’t remember which song it was…I know it, but my brain is all scrambled) and once they hit the stage…WOW! I haven’t seen such unbridled energy in a very long time. Tim Booth dances like a man on speed having an epileptic fit, but his whole body was in it and you could tell he loved getting lost in the music – just feeling it course through his body. I know from personal experience how addicting that feeling is and I think seeing his joy was enough for me to experience the show from the perspective of allowing myself to get lost in it, as well.
They played both songs I definitely wanted to hear (yay!) and a couple that were sheer bonuses – two of which I heard from the hallway since we left before they came on for their encore. K.W. and I weren’t sure what time the last train to Stirling left and we didn’t want to get stuck in Glasgow for the night (we actually did end up on the very last train – I walked in the door around 1am and was up until about 3 – I couldn’t sleep because of my ears ringing). But even with not staying for the encore, I can’t imagine having a more awesome time. And I can’t recommend highly enough going to see them live if you get a chance. The best part of the night, though, was the realization of how much I miss music – books have more recently taken its place – and how much I miss being around it full time. I don’t know how I’ll rectify that because I certainly can’t afford to go to shows on a regular basis anymore – especially not in the states with TKTBSTRD (you’ll figure it out) being what it is. But I’ll worry about that another time. For now, I’m absolutely content to revel in the afterglow.
So, anyway…understatement of the day: James was fun! 
Topics: music for the misfit | 2 Comments »
December 15th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Just catching up on all meh blags and am SO happy to see this post on yours!!
I would be lying if I didn’t admit to having just a teeny, teeny-tiny twinge of jealousy BUT I know that there is no bigger fan of the boys than you AND that you TOTALLY deserved that most excellent and brilliant show- especially after such a crazee semester! How about that for a grande finale to your first semester abroad??!
so awesome!
December 17th, 2008 at 6:30 am
Stace ~ damn, girl, no lie, you would have LOVED the show! I wish they’d play the states more often because once I’m back in the states…well, I’d travel as far as I had to (time and work permitting) to go see them.
It was definitely a fitting ending to the chaos that was my first semester. This is one time I wish I was in Groundhog Day with the concert as Andie McDowell’s character.
*sigh*