As you might guess, I found about this when I was in Pulp. I was in there to give them my CV, and was so scared of talking to the sop assistants that I needed the excuse of spending £20 on a The Blackout t-shirt to get me near one. They mentioned this party thing as I was checking out, and it slipped to the back of my mind for a while.
Then, last month, I remembered it again for some reason. Fortunately, it was at such a convenient time that I managed to buy my friend Alix a ticket as well, as her birthday present. It looked good - at Sound Control, a small venue in central Manchester near the Ritz, the Palace Theatre, and the Cornerhouse Cinema (the pornerhouse if you've ever actually watched anything in there. I saw El Piel Que Habito, and it's scarred me for life) - and had a promising line-up; two small bands, Leopards and Lacey, with a DJ set by Sean Smith and Matthew Davies of The Blackout.
We turned up quite early, when there was just a small queue, which was lucky, because after about ten minutes The Scenekids turned up. I'm not saying I'm not one, because I do have some traits that undeniably are part of the whole erm . . . scene . . . but these guys were hardcore. Rainbows, tutus, neon facepaint, cat whiskers, lots of jumping on each other and having pretend orgies. You know the ones. Harmless, but a bit alarming. They're something to look at anyway, and fascinating in the way that they seem to multiply out of thin air, like wet Mogwai from Gremlins.
I was a bit confused as to why the downstairs was used for this evening, because of the pillars in the middle of the room that made it a bit dangerous if you were, say, me, who seemed to be expected to withstand the full force of a growing mosh pit while having my head knocked against one of said pillars. However, for the first two sets they died out pretty quickly because of a spate of mysterious disappearances - one guy's glasses disappeared right off his face and all we found was one lens.
The first set was the five-piece, Leopards. The sound needed to be sorted a bit because there was more bass than vocals (according to a bassist friend of mine, that's how it's supposed to sound), but otherwise it was good. Loud and thrashy and angry stuff, made better by the fact that Jenna (vocals) had a signed We Are The In Crowd t-shirt to give to the person she decided had gone craziest, which of course sent a large portion of the crowd into overdrive. I wanted to join in and get the t-shirt too, just to say I had - I don't even listen to WATIC, I'm just a spiteful and competitive person. The one thing that unnerved me a bit was the extreme confidence that Leopards showed - they really really went for it, which worried me a bit because of the cramped space we were in, and because I'm only used to that kind of brazenness from really big bands. But I suppose you need confidence to get out there and perform, so at the very least they've got that right.
Then came Lacey, from Nottingham as they informed us, followed by "don't go there, it's a shithole". They were good, too, and did a cover of that high-pitched, really annoying Ellie Goulding song (sorry, that just means all of them - I think I'm referring specifically to the song Anything Could Happen) but actually made it enjoyable. Their special prize for the performing monkeys at the front was a signed A Day To Remember t-shirt, which I was going to get as well but didn't because I was hiding from the mosh pit.
At some point, Sean and Matt turned up. Alix and I had been trying to work out how they'd get in without being mobbed, and I was running with the idea that they had just been hiding under the covered table in the corner all day and they'd just crawl out. I still don't know if that's actually what happened, but I do know that, as cool as I thought I might be about finally being near a Big Band Person, from the moment I saw the red hair I was stood behind Alix, hissing,
"THEY ACTUALLY EXIST. BAND PEOPLE EXIST OFFSTAGE. LOOK AT HIS HAIR. THIS IS THE CLOSEST I'VE BEEN TO A COOL PERSON."
But I kind of got that under control.
Sean and Matt's set was, as I suspected, full of songs we'd know - at one point I wasn't sure if they were playing the Kerrang! Rock 100 or not, but that's not a massive problem. Rollin', Last Resort, Weightless . . . it's all music I like, and everyone was enjoying themselves. I spent the first half an hour stood really close to them, trying to get some photos but failing because I have a terrible camera that doesn't understand that night mode means it's supposed to put the flash on, until this lovely girl offered to time her photos with mine so that her flash would light them up enough for me to get proper photos. Thank you, mystery flasher girl.
Me and Alix wanted photos with, at the very least, Sean, but obviously so did everyone else, which meant there was quite a crowd around them. I managed to get us through to the side of the table and hold back a few people that tried to push past (don't get in the way of me and my fucking band people, I will snap your arm off and beat out your teeth with it). However, then came the challenge of Talking To Strangers, which I really struggle with, even more so when I'm asking for something off them, because what if they say no?
But of course Sean didn't, he was lovely, and he said thank you to us after we'd taken our pictures. I'm still buzzing off it. Excuse my creepiness in this post, but I have touched Sean Smith. He is the person that makes me wish I could do screaming. Aaaaahhhhhhhhh.
Mission accomplished, it was a lot easier to relax. I found myself dancing and singing to Misery Business by Paramore, which is something I never thought I'd do. I sang along a lot, went a bit mental when they played I'm Not Okay (I Promise), and I experienced for the first time the phenomenon that is the Harlem Shake. They just started playing it, and everyone joined in - I feel like it's not just music, it's some kind of hypnotism. I don't remember deciding to do whatever it was I did at all. Twas fun though, as was the whole evening.
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