$:TOTAL FOALS FOREVER_)

Phew, that was intense!! I got myself in the mosh pit a bit, danced a little during the somewhat slower parts, went from the right to the left to a bit in the middle and back, spoke to three girls, one from the US called Emily, met a guy at the front door afterwards handing out flyers who happens to be in my new class at school (he'll give me a link how to join the flyer brigade so I can do the same and go to gigs for free!!), put on my headphones afterwards and rode my bike listening to Two Steps, Twice, I took pictures that turned out real well I think, so all in all it was a gooooood night! :DDD I was there around 19.15, an accident happened so the tram had to make a detour. Anyway, still pretty much on time and to my surprise it wasn't crowded at all. I expected a lot of fangirls and -boys already being there real early. At the Yeasayer gig it was incredibly crowded when I got there, but that was on a Saturday so maybe that's why? The support act, The Invisibles started to play not too long after I arrived and during their performance someone patted me on the back who happened to be this girl Emily. She wanted to know how I had done the set up on my camera, 'cause one of the friends she was with had just gotten a camera like mine for her birthday so she isn't yet an expert. Not that I am, but I took her camera and put the exact same settings as mine. Then she took a picture and I received the thumbs up. Then The Invisibles were done and I kept talking to Emily and her friends a bit. Turns out there is this European school in Amsterdam. Emily is 17 or 18, one of the two :), by the way, and she's from the US. Cool girl. She bought the camera for her friend and was the one taking her two friends to the gig. The friend with the camera had never been to one before. Imagine your first concert being Foals!! AMAZING



Anyway, Foals started on time and because I met these girls time flew by so I didn't even have time to feel nervous :D I don't know why but I often happen to stand at the wrong side or at least at the beginning 'cause the people on the right didn't burst out into this giant bolt of energy immediately after the guys took the stage but some people in the middle and left did so I was like, shit! I need to get to the other side at one point. People started to jump, elbows flying around and not too long after the first song I got myself in there, holding my camera tightly in my right hand. It was super hot, I almost hit someone with my cam, sorry, I hereby apologize. I thought, let's put both arms up, but I shouldn't have done that obviously. Turning my camera into a weapon, not a clever thing to do. So I took my right arm down again. It all goes so fast, you take pictures, listen to the music, catch glimpses of the guys on stage, try to enjoy listening to Yannis' voice. But it's so overwhelming that I really need to go again :D Plus, I feel that a gig like this works much better in a smaller venue, such as when I saw Japandroids or Good Shoes in the small space upstairs of Paradiso, there you can jump around like a fool but with still enough space to breathe. Still, it was brilliant though. They played new songs as well as the old ones of course, but no reaaaaaaaaal old ones, just old ones as in tracks from the first album. So no Astronauts And All for example :(( , my favourite, or Hummer or Mathletics :((( BOOOOOOO!! But still it was good and the new songs sounded really nice, maybe even a bit better than the old ones. I was curious about how This Orient would turn out live 'cause it's really one of those songs that's danceable but also perfect to go crazy moshy and jump on, that kind of thing. I really think it's one of my favourites. I love it I really do.



I think someone hit me right above my right eye because it feels like it's going to swell up a bit :DDD And my plugs have these little rubber bands to keep them in place and the two on the right disappeared. They must have fallen off when I was jumping around :P What else what else, Electric Bloom was great as well as Two Steps, Twice. Those are gooooooooood live. So like I said I did a bit of everything. At the end I slowed it down a little and got back on the right side but by this time the right had also woken up and was filled with people who were losing themselves. I haven't seen Emily & Co. anymore. Perhaps they left, 'cause Emily mentioned a gig where people started to mosh and everyone was sweaty and she didn't really like that. And then I was like, uhhhhh, I think that's exactly what's gonna happen here as well. So maybe they went into the back 'cause after Foals were done they were nowhere to be seen. But that's okay. If I had seen them perhaps I would have stayed a bit longer though. But because it's so overwhelming and so much is going on at once I didn't even have time to have a hysterical Yannis moment or something. 'Cause I know that at gigs which are much calmer like Beirut for instance, there are many times that I'm like, oooooh Zach Condon this was goood. But here I didn't have time for that. I did catch a good glimpse of Jimmy who is the most handsome of the band even when all sweaty and I love how he holds his guitar and gets really into it! So thoughts like oh he looks good sweaty, did cross my mind :) But no obsessive Yannis adoration thoughts. The lighting was really nice as well which is a good thing 'cause it makes taking good pictures a lot easier. The last couple of gigs I went to had a bit of shitty lighting, way too dark. And so afterwards I got my stuff, it took quite a long time to get my bag, and then when I got out I was given a flyer by this guy who's in my class. So next Saturday I'll have someone to talk about it to. Just what I needed. Well, I really NEED to see these guys again. Hope they come back when the new album is released. This is when I get real happy about Amsterdam and our country's policy regarding drugs because Yannis already mentioned he felt like getting stoned afterwards and they don't play a lot of gigs in any other cities anytime soon. But they did come to Amsterdam and we're not exactly a big country, so of course the coffeeshops are very appealing and I bet have been a good reason for them to perform here. Now I'm gonna post pictures and stuff and then jump into bed. I'm so happy. I had a really nice evening, nothing to feel nervous about, and people like my haiiiir :D