There‘s almost nothing more unpleasant than arriving in time for a concert (despite annoying traffic and parking lot issues), only to find out the schedule for the night has been revised and that the first band has already taken the stage.

While we did only catch the two last songs of Wintersleep‘s set, it‘s probably safe to say that we didn‘t miss out on anything all too surprising. The sound of guitars and their singer‘s voice sure fit the bill for the night remarkably well.

Being used to attending shows at which the audience hardly brushes the age of being old enough to conduct a car, it was nice for a change to be put in a crowd with mid-twenties and nearly fifties alike. Latter had probably hardly heard about the second band playing up that night, The Maccabees.

Now, having been privileged enough to actually go out clubbing regularly in London, I was fairly familiar with the sound of The Maccabees and their general awesomeness. Sadly though, they did not play my all-time favorite of theirs, Precious Time. However, the set made up of their newer songs was fabulous and fair enough, they had people cheering along by the end of their set.

Having previously experienced Editors (I‘ll have you know it‘s plain and simple ,Editors‘, not THE Editors) at Hurricane Festival in June of this year, I had somewhat high expectations to the band this time around. Spending the first three songs at the front of the crowd in the pit, I quickly noticed that the following 90 minutes would definitely turn out to be magical.

The audience chimed in with singer Tom Smith from the first word on and the band teased the finest sounded out of their instruments. For added effect to the already impression LED light show at the back of the stage, smoke blew around the band, reflecting the colourful lights to bathe them in a warm glow for the softer songs or an icy shine for the faster ones. The set was a marvellous mix of really old hits and new songs of Editors‘ recently released album ,In This Light and On This Evening‘.

Sadly, the sparks only flew as far as the first couple of rows of people and didn‘t reach the back of the hall. While we were stuck in the hardcore fan corner, most people around us could hardly be bothered to nod along or get their hands up to give the band a hand after each song. It wasn‘t that people were particularly bored or as if they didn‘t like the set, it almost felt as if they‘d been in a bit of a trance (another reason why I love going to shows with a younger audience - they‘re so enthusiastic).

By the time the band exited the stage for the first time, people were at least pumped enough to ask for an encore which they promptly got. Once more, I didn‘t get lucky as the band didn‘t play ,Weight of the World‘, one of my favorite songs.

Still, all in all, it was a fun night for everyone involved and it ended with a relaxed ride home that was filled with relationship talks and giggles.

Setlist - Editors

In this light and on this evening
An end has a start
Bullets
You don't know love
Bones
The racing rats
The boxer
All sparks
Escape the nest
Like treasure
The big exit
Eat raw meat = blood drool
Open your arms
You are fading
Smokers outside the hospital doors
Bricks and mortar

Walk the fleet road
Munich
Papillon
Fingers in the factory

The photos I took for the lovely folks of buzznet.com can be found here >>>.

And: Tuesdays are my days off. Ha.

Other than at uni, I've spent my days organizing my blog/website livelifedeeply.net. It had to be taken down earlier this year and now I'm working on getting to a regular blogging schedule in between classes and work and, well, life.

Also, I've been at work a couple of times, though I had to miss out on my shift yesterday as these past few days I've been feeling really, really poorly. But alas, I already feel better today which is great because tomorrow is, you guessed it, one of my before five wake up calls.

The year has come and gone so fast and even now, in the middle of October, I can say that it was truly, truly an exciting, life-changing one. The next few weeks will go by in a blur. Halloween is coming so soon and then it's only November til Advent starts and then it's Christmas and we already have 2010... WOW.

I've kind of come to that end with my studies. While I love training to be a teacher and the English language, I have, ever since I went to London and worked in a church, been wanting to quit English and start training for ordination. As it is, that's a rather unusual decision for a mid-twenty chick who rather attends rock shows than church services.

Still, ever since I came back in March 2008, I have thought about changing my course, although I'm 8 semesters into my Bachelor's degree and have only two more to finish. The thought never went away and with the new semester starting up soon, I've felt less and less motivated to look into my English studies and rather inclined to do Religious studies.

Everything about church, charity work and working with the congregation intrigues me so much and I really want to explore that road.

The negative aspect about it? I have to restart. I#ll be a fresher, pretty much, and by the end of my studies I will be 30 - which surely isn't old but not really young either. Still. I want to do that.

The past few days must have been the most horrible of my life. In fact, the entire last week has been pretty horrible: 

The boy has decided to leave and this whole exam thing has been asking a lot of off me. Also, my mother is undergoing major surgery over the next weekend and preparations for that are as much scary as exhausting... And then I've had to mull over my decision and I cried about it a lot and I cursed and I weighed the options...

I cannot finish studies that my heart just isn't in anymore. Over the last two days a lot of things have been hinting at it being the right decision though. I wasn't looking for signs but I'm glad I spotted them along the way.

Have you ever had to make such life-altering decisions? I'd love to hear what obstacles you had to overcome and whether or not it was for the better or worse.

Love, xA.

The set was short (ATL played ten songs plus two for the encore) but really sweet and a lot exhausting for everyone on stage, as there was a lot of kicking, jumping and dancing was going, as well as off stage, where the mob danced, screamed and sung their hearts out.

(Halfway through their second song, Six Feet Under The Stars, Jack took a seat at the edge of the stage, giving me the perfect opportunity to shoot a couple of close ups but alas! My camera failed me. Or rather: I failed because I didn‘t know what he eff was suddenly happening.)

Old and new songs blended in perfectly. There was a time to dance and a time to just sway along when Alex played "Remembering Sunday“. Also, there seemed to be a competition going on as to who could spew more curses and dirty words, it seemed.

At one point, Alex discussed the matter of not fitting his manhood into the pretty panties someone had thrown on stage (really, how mature was the audience?) and really, no manorexic man could have fit into them.

But all joking aside, musically the set was flawless, voices and instruments never failed the guys and everyone had a good time (and wow, does it sound like I‘m praising them ever so highly? Really, I don‘t, although I‘d have every reason to be biased!).

As mentioned, the night concluded with All Time Low playing two songs for the encore, "Damned if I do ya“ and "Dear Maria (Count Me In)“. The former had even the bar staff and the venue techs pumping their fists in the air for each "Go“.

Everyone got to express their amazement to the band personally (minus Rian) after the show when they all came out to meet the fans who‘d stuck around by the bus and venue.

It was an all-around good night and I got to hang out with some of my favorite people (junegloom and friends!) and had some delicious subs at Subway after (with All Time Low nonetheless! Well, something like that).

Yours truly, A.

I haven't been exactly around much. I did upload the occasional picture but I've mostly been spending time on twitter or - shock, gasp - at work. Yes, really!

I'm still working the same job as last year - being a part-time waitress - and everything has developed amazingly well; so much so that I was promoted to being shift manager in December.

Apart from being at work, I've been to shows (less and less to clubs really) - one of them being a festival where Katy Perry and Kings of Leon played -, hung out with my few friends or co-workers and spend some time working on my blog/wesbite before it got accidentally deleted from the server. Oh, also, I spent a week in London in April and a weekend in France just recently, but apart from that I haven't had any real holidays.

I've been pretty upset by the whole split thing involving Panic(!) at the Disco, but yeah. I guess I'm over it.

There's been a lot going on in my life that I don't see fit to discuss on here - I wish I could - but life is good to me, really brilliantly good :)

Well, whatever atmosphere was supposed to be missing (none of which my friend or I noticed), Panic at the Disco definitely brought the place alive.

Storming on stage in sunglasses, the band launched into their first song, We’re So Starving, full of enthusiasm. Being on two tours since the beginning of 2008, first in Europe and then headlining the Honda Civic Tour in the United States, did not show in exhaustion on stage but through perfect harmony in their performance as well as skilled handling of their instruments.

As time for the performance was limited to an hour of live broadcasting on the radio, the band repeatedly excused for the lack of interaction with the audience, an unnecessary act of politeness really, because singer Brendon Urie did his fair amount of joking with the mainly female, and quite young, audience. And sometimes even a bit of stage banter between the band could be heard, about winning competitions of all sorts and mysteriously losing clothes.

Brendon concluded quite rightly so that the audience were ‘all winners’, because tickets to the show could only be won through the radio station, a long forgotten MySpace competition hosted by Warner Music Germany and a last minute ticket giveaway via the band’s MySpace profile. But even more so everyone could count themselves lucky because Panic at the Disco offered a splendid, fun mix of their new songs from their record ‘Pretty. Odd.’ (out since the end of March) as well as their old songs in refreshing new arrangements.

Despite the small set-up and tiny stage, guitarist Ryan, singer Brendon and bassist Jon didn’t hesitate to bring as much gear as possible, switching between instruments countless times, with one technician constantly adjusting their gear (and happily singing along).

Against my very own expectations that the band would probably only promote their fairly new material, they surprised me with a well-chosen set that continued with their second single of ‘A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out’, ‘But It’s Better If You Do’, right after their new show opener.

Since the audience proved that they could sing together during the first three songs, Ryan Ross encouraged everyone to dance along to ‘Camisado’ with them, while Brendon couldn’t help but show off with his knowledge of German by chipping in ‘Ich tanze’, before starting off with the song.

Halfway through their set, Ryan ‘decided’ to give Mister Urie a break from singing and stepped up to the microphone himself, proving that in their stage absence the band not only wrote songs but worked on their musical improvement as well. He presented the audience with a near flawless rendition of  ‘Behind The Sea’, one of their new songs, before passing the singer’s duties back to Brendon for ‘Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off’.

The night was a constant change of swaying along to new tunes and rocking out to Panic at the Disco classics which ended with the performance of ‘Mad As Rabbits’ for which the band reunited on stage once more after Brendon played an acoustic version of ‘Time To Dance’.

The band left the stage with smiled plastered to their faces, just like the audience left the theatre a few minutes after ten o’clock.

A short time after, Spencer Smith and Ryan Ross could be spotted exiting the venue to climb on the orange tourbus, joking and laughing, without being harassed by the fans that were still around.

The bus, conveniently parked in front of the theatre due to the little space available in the side-road, wasn’t exactly blocked by the fan masses and could easily leave after all members of crew and band –even a half-dressed Brendon Urie who came out wearing his tiny jeans and a towel casually thrown over his naked shoulder – had packed up.

Huge smiles splitting our faces almost in two, my friend Jessica and I left the premises as well, and made our way home on the motorway.

Fifteen minutes into our ride, however, we spotted the tour bus right in front of us, and I couldn’t help but roll the window down and wave and shout frantically at the thing.

As always, Jessica and I ended up at the local McDonald’s branch for a recap in which she confessed to have seen Brendon rush back and forth between venue and bus before the show. Zack joking around with the masses must have kept everyone’s attention on him.

It’s safe to say that winning tickets to this particular show was probably the best prize I could win in a competition!

Setlist

We’re So Starving
Nine In The Afternoon
But It’s Better If You Do
Camisado
She’s A Handsome Woman
The Only Difference Between…
Pas De Cheval
Behind The Sea
Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have
That Green Gentleman
I Write Sins Not Tragedies
Northern Downpour
Time To Dance
Mad As Rabbits/Hey Jude

Photos to go with the review can be found here, in my Panic at the Disco album.

No one will notice your absence, which is just fine with you. Granted, you once wanted to be part of it all, the fine social construct of the place, and you managed to get a foot in the door. But never further. Ad even that was fine with you.

Your temper, your quirks, habits, likes are after all probably too much to take for them and that’s cool because you get along. You just wish it would last for a little while longer.

You leave the road behind, pass the glass palace to your left and walk out onto the bridge.

On there, the wind is so much stronger and it stings in your eyes, tears dwelling up, rolling down your cheeks and maybe, just maybe, you let go. You let go of the anger, hurt and fear that is slowly boiling up inside you.

Trembling lops and blotted cheeks, your hands curl into fists, so hard that fingernails dig into the flesh of your palms. Maybe the skin breaks but you don’t mind at all because you don’t feel anything but the cold.

The cold leaves your body in a pleasant state of numbness. As long as you’re numb, you don’t feel hollow, don’t feel the scary emptiness that’s filling you up when you think of going home.

Pacing up and down the bridge, from one end to the other, you let the music in your headphones wash over you and take in the sight. The City of London on one side, Tower Bridge standing out proudly in the dark, the Cathedral lit up for the weekend’s festivities and almost endless darkness on the other shore; the sight will be etched on your memory and heart for all eternity, because this, this is home.

It is true, you’ve never felt more alone, but you’ve never felt so much in place like now: In the big city, beneath the pale moon, surrounded by strangers.

Everyone that walks past gives you a funny stare and you briefly wonder what all of them think – not that you care, no.

They probably think you just lost someone to death, had an argument or were dumped by your sweetheart – when it’s so much more than that. Strangers will never know and you can’t help but smile at the thought. They’ll never know how good your life has been.

you love those lonely night in London because they give you time to step back from your life and reflect upon it. Wandering the streets aimlessly, never getting lost but losing yourself in thought is exactly what you need after a busy weekend, busy nights at the clubs, busy days at work.

And no matter how different your route, the conclusion at the end will probably always be that there’s no answer as to why you have this, this life that is so different from all that you’ve known before. 

And maybe you think too much about it. But there’s the fear that if you don’t you’ll forget all the details – forget names, places, then faces.

That late night at the end of March you only turn your back on London’s illuminated skyline because you can hardly feel your toes anymore. Without any feel in your limbs it’s so hard to walk home – and you have no intention of going there yet – but you start anyway.

There’s hardly anyone out in the streets and it’s just as well because you couldn’t stand meeting the guy of your dreams so few days before your departure, and when you look a right mess. Then again, it’s your life and you wouldn’t be surprised if it actually happened.

After the Panic, a friend asked me whether there’d be a life after that day, and I said ‘Yeah, sure. Watch me move on.’ because I know myself. One day, I’m utterly in love with one thing and the next day I drop it. That’s how hysteria works for me.

What I’ve figured out for myself just recently is that whenever I get into a ‘phase’, it’s usually to cover up the hurt that someone, something else has caused me.

My obsessions with constantly dying my hair is one of those distraction techniques.

I don’t just change the colour because I’m bored with it – I also do it to start fresh.

So my falling in love with Panic at the Disco was a phase to cover up my hurt after Samuel broke up with me. The Panic guys were there, pretty boys with pretty make up serving me with spiteful lyrics screaming for love and truth and a bit of affection. In that moment, they worked perfectly for me and when I discovered their ‘new image’, so much more mature and down to earth, tangible, I clung onto it. And look where it got me:  New friends, and memories to last me a lifetime.

Still, after all my phases, there’s always a different life left for me.

The question should then have been: Will there ever be a life after London?

London was never a phase to me. London turned from a wicked idea to a goal in life to reality before it became my life and I got completely tangled up in it. It wasn’t hard to integrate into the new life because I’d wanted the change so badly. But it was almost unbearable to let go of it in the end.

There are still moments now in which I look back and could cry because I know the difference between being okay and being utterly fucking happy, so happy that your smile splits your face in half and you spill your guts to everyone who’ll listen.

And I’ll tell you stories gladly, if you promise to stay around for a while afterwards.

As happy as re-living the memories makes me, as badly hurting it leaves me afterwards. It’s maybe a bit like a hangover after a drunken night out – the difference being that you can take a pill or two against the headache.

Heartache knows no cure other than love.

Why? Do you have no job?
That's right. I don't have a job at the moment, except for the 'job of being a student'.

After high school graduation in 2005, I decided to go to University in Bochum and do Anglistics/English studies as well as Religious Studies/Protestant Theology in order to become a teacher for kids aged 12 to 18.

Bochum is what one would call a 'university for the masses'. Currently, there are about 33 000 students on campus. If you wonder how we fit them into one place, look at that:

In my free time I used to do ballroom dancing for a couple of years but my friends dropped out and then I had to concentrate on uni some more, so I stopped taking classes which is a shame really because I loved it quite a lot.

If I could, I'd spent my entire free time going to concerts. But alas, due to lack of job = money, that's not possible. Still I try to go to live shows as often as possible. Music is such an enormous part of my day: The minute I get up I switch on some music and I never leave the house without my dearly loved iPod (which was, by the way, a farewell gift from the people I worked for in London :) ). Still, I don't play any instrument on my own. I wish I could; I really wanted to learn how to play the guitar but my parents always thought it was just a phase I went through when I was 11. So they wouldn't let me.
One day I will take lessons though!

Due to my studies, I happen to spend a lot of time on reading as well.
For Theology, there are many theoretical texts to be read but since I'm taking classes for Modern English Literature and American Literature, I do get to read a good deal of fictional stuff as well.
So far, I can say that I loved my class on Truman Capote the most. His writing is plain incredible, especially his short story 'Hand-carved coffins'. I could go on and on about that one half-sentence in there which broke my heart.
Other authors I adore are Paul Auster and Oscar Wilde, especially Wilde. I love all his poems and plays that I read so far and 'The Picture of Dorian Grey' was the first novel I read in English.

Thanks to my great affinity to the English language, I spent a good deal of the day online, talking to friends all across the world. It's fun to exchange thoughts and ideas and to share your life.
And yeah, I guess that's why I've always loved to travel: To make new friends everywhere and to just see the world.

That I'd fall desperately in love with one place and just that one I didn't expect.
I went to London for the first time in 2005 and heck, if that city isn't a place that everyone wants to live in than I don't know...

After those few days I spent there and after many other weekends I knew that I'd want to live there one day.
In October 2007, I finally got the chance. Required for my studies is a stay abroad for a couple of weeks and I decided to make that time worthwhile and combine my fields of studies, so I ended up working in an Anglican church in London, as already mentioned.

Those six months I spent there have, so far, been the best six months of my life as I didn't only learn so so much about 'the English culture' but about myself: I know now that I can definitely get by on my own, that people actually value my work and it helped me to figure out what I want to do in life. It definitely helped to see what one can do after they get their degree in Theology and showed me different options for my future.

Besides that, I met some of the most amazing people and I wouldn't change one single second of the time.

I probably got by in London so well because I tend to be so open-minded about everything: Everyone gets an equal chance when we first meet and I don't think much of prejudices. Over the last three or four years, since I graduated, I changed my attitude towards people a lot. Actually, I think I've become much more outgoing than I used to be five years back. I have no problem asking random people for help or just walking up to people in a queue when I know no one - how else are you supposed to meet possible new friends?

That said, I don't think I need to point out that my tolerance for homophobia and racism equals zero and there isn't a lot else that will make me jump to action and make me angry.

Well, that's about it for now, I think. If there's anything else you wanna know - just go ahead and ask!!!