.^NOTHING BEATS A PAIR OF GOOD SHOES*(

Last night was just as I expected and hoped for. One of those typical indie rock gigs with lots of teenagers and early twenty year olds (?) at the front jumping, pushing, and moshing away. I got my ticket for 5 euros through someone I contacted via Last.fm, 'cause he had a ticket left even though the gig wasn't sold out yet. But regular tickets were 10 euros and that's excluding extra costs. The thing was that a record shop in Amsterdam was selling tickets with a 50% discount, so instead of 10 euros they sold them for 5. I went to the shop on Friday but the reduced tickets were already gone. 10 euros was still alright for this kind of gig, but knowing I could have had tickets for 5 euros had I found out about those reduced ones earlier, having to pay 10 euros no longer felt right. So when this guy offered a ticket for any price that he was okay with I suggested paying him 5 euros for it just as much as in that record store. He agreed to it and we decided to meet up at Paradiso before the show would start. So last night I received the ticket from a girl who I guess is his girlfriend or just a friend and then went inside. However, Florence + The Machine were there last night as well and when I went in that one had apparently just finished. The first seconds it was semi-crowded the way it's like when you about to see a concert with not many people inside just yet. So I took off my coat without any rush, but then when I wanted to hand it over to the guys at the cloakroom the place had become packed with people who just came out from the big venue hall downstairs. And when I finally got to the desk of the cloakroom this guy told me it was already full and I had to try the one upstairs. It was already some minutes before 10 pm by this time and Good Shoes were going to start at 10 pm so I was getting a little worried the guys would start without me! Some girls in front of me had just arrived as well and were also standing on the stairs to the way up waiting with their coats in their hands while being completely surrounded by all these people who had just watched Florence and were now trying to pick up their coats. I started to think I would never make it in time and it was already past 10. When I finally got to the cloakroom upstairs I handed over my coat and got straight up to the small concert hall upstairs. When I got there I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the gig had not started yet! :DD It was like they had waited for me. I was so happy. Once I was there it didn't take long before the guys took on the stage. At first I was standing a bit in the back, something like row no. 4. There were these two guys standing in front of me a bit taller than I am and their shoulders being quite big :p So I didn't feel like going to great pains in order to get more to the front and instead waited for the moment which I was sure would come that all the people at the front would start to push each other creating a small moshpit. When Good Shoes started playing their first song the people at the front kept awfully quiet making me wonder if this is what it was going to be like all night with people just looking on. I already started to dance a bit and soon figured out that would people be standing still all night I wouldn't care and would go wild all by myself, not holding back. I felt able to throw my own party without the need of anyone else to get me pumped up. Some people close to my left obviously felt the same 'cause they too started moving to the music. Then once song two or three kicked in people at the front woke up and the little moshpit I was hoping for came into existence and before I knew it I was standing at the front :D which allowed me to take better pictures! Good Shoes played a lot of their songs both from the new as well as the old album. Their songs are quite short so they can play lots of them on one night. The kids at the front especially got wild when they played songs from the first album like The Photos On My Wall, Morden, and of course the brilliant We Are Not The Same which has an intro to die for. Several kids crowd surfed including the singer of the band himself Rhys Jones and two kids felt the need to get on stage and hug him. Rhys was wearing this really cool T-shirt which had an image of Goofy on it and by the end had gotten all sweaty. The band seemed to enjoy themselves and appeared happy that the crowd eventually got really into it arms up yelling the words to the songs heads banging around wild, acting like a bunch of wild animals set loose. All this made for a pretty nice and very satisfying evening for me. It was like Japandroids, but when comparing the two Japandroids comes out as the one that's far more superior, although last night was quite good as well. But Good Shoes is one of those typical bands that are just for fun and nothing more. I can go crazy about them, but I know they're not anywhere near the quality of Bloc Party, Wolf Parade or Foals. They're just for good times and in that Good Shoes definitely succeeds. So last night I got another injection of indie rock gig adrenaline, just what I needed. I love those kind of gigs and wish I could go to one every night. For this month there's only one more left and that's gonna be The Drums who will be in Amsterdam on Friday. This will be a completely different affair, I don't expect any moshing, but definitely some people will be dancing or at least I will be and judging from this video it's gonna be fun and definitely something else. Just look at the guy shaking that tambourine. Hilarious. Gotta love 'em already :DD


cute cute cute

Good Shoes



















Guess they have a lot of fans/visitors. Just after the announcement which was on for only two days or just one even, Fashion Gone Rogue has already reached the amount of money needed to keep on existing! So that wasn't something to worry about