Wherewolves, The Academy Is... and Anberlin

Who - Wherewolves, The Academy Is... and Anberlin
When - August 25th, 2009
Where - Billboard The Venue, Melbourne, Australia

A very informal account of the night's magic.

The start of the night wasnt nearly as awesome as the end of it was. Got there a couple of hours early... turns out it was just in time for it to start a torrential downpour, hail included. There was no shelter for us because the part of shelter there was already was crowded with people. so we stood in the rain and cold for about an hour. Then it was just cold with huge winds. I literally went numb. The Santi's went in for their meet and greet, and subsequently got kicked out about 30 minutes later because the security team decided it was unfair to let them stay in when they only got to the venue 15 minutes before the meet and a few of us had been standing in line for hours in the rain and cold. Yay security team! We got in, I was on barrier in front of Carden (Beckett accidentally knocked his mic stand over during Neighbours and it hit me in the face, awesome! >.< it hurt. A lot) And when everyone was concentrated on Beckett in the crowd at the end, I waved to Carden and he blew me a kiss. Didn't think it was really a Mike reaction, but hey, I'll take it!

I don't even know how to write about Anberlins performance. It was so energetic, Stephen jumped and danced and ran all over the stage which made the crowd even more energetic. Stephen, Christian and Deon were very practised at headbanging and dancing and it showed. I was in front of Christian and the amount of times we made eye contact when we were singing was totally amazing. I have this thing where I dont look at the singers a whole lot, I tend to focus on whoever is in front of me at the time because I'm too busy dancing or moshing so Christian was totally into the fact that someone in the audience was actually singing at him (he told me so after the show) and Stephen sang at me during one of their songs because I was the only one who knew the words to True Faith, their Joy Division cover. The whole performance was visceral and intense and I highly recommend them as one of the best live bands I have ever seen. And that's something coming from me.

After the show there was such a line to pay to get out of the parking garage that I figured that we may aswell go out the back and see if we got to meet any of the guys. About an hour later, a couple of roadies came out so we figured the guys must be coming soon (we already knew that TAI had left the building. They left before Anberlin even started playing. Rude!) but Tony and Josh came out to start loading the stuff into the truck so I said hi to them. They're really nice guys, I'm sure you already know that. Then the tour manager for Anberlin came out followed by Christian who was taking with him a box of the free water they supply for the people on barrier haha. There was only maybe five of us there so we stood around having a chat, taking pictures and autographs in turn like nice little fans. I went up to Christian and got and immediate hug which kind of caught me off guard (but it was a big huge bearhug and it was so nice that I didnt care, I was also the only one to get a hug from any of them. After he let me go he was like "Hey, I remember you from last time we were here, at Soundwave. You had red hair back then didnt you?" He was right, I did have red hair at the time) and I got him to sign my setlist and got a photo and as I said thank you very much he grabbed my arm and said (not verbatim) "Thank you for singing along and dancing and screaming. Its fans like you that make my nights. And let me say, not one person who has ever been in front of me for the entire show has paid so much attention to what I was doing that didn't take a single photo the entire show, even though she had a camera in her pocket. You are the reason I didn't keep going to the middle of the stage." and he gave me another huge hug. Deon came out about five minutes after and Christian retired to the bus. Deon was not expecting anyone to be there after how long they took and he was so happy that people waited to meet them. We did the whole taking it in turns and chatting thing. He's really quiet but really sweet. He gave me a big hug too. And he's smiling soooo big in the photo that I have with him. Then Nate came out and wow he's tall and so super gorgeous in real life. They are all pretty damn attractive really. He came out, saw us and was like "No way! Oh my gosh I so didn't know you guys were here, I would have come out so much sooner if I knew you were here. And I'm so sorry I sound horrible I'm just really sick. Stephen and Joey are already gone because they're super sick too. I'm feeling a bit better today though" and he was really talkative. We all had signatures and photos and hung around chatting to the guys for a while and it was really a unique experience to have with a band. To just be able to stand there and talk to them like normal people without security guards or any rush to get through with it. We left only once their tour manager said they had to go because they had to be on an early flight. They were all so personable and sweet and so sincere. They're just beautiful guys. I'm definitely going to remember that.

I heard that TAI's performances have really gone downhill, but William was incredibly active and Carden came out of his sickness to play for us last night. It was really good. Not quite as good as the first time I saw them in 2007, but still impressive. William almost kicked Sisky in the face though.

TAI Setlist (In order... I think)
Almost Here
Slow Down
Summer Hair = Forever Young
Rumoured Nights
Neighbours
Checkmarks
Seed
His Girl Friday
Big Mess

Anberlin Setlist (definitely in order because I got the setlist)
The Resistance
A Whisper And A Clamor
Disappear
Breaking
Adelaide
A Day Late
Paperthin Hymn
Inevitable (GORGEOUS)
The Unwinding Cable Car (Also gorgeous)
Hello Alone
True Faith (Joy Division cover)
Dismantle. Repair.
Godspeed
Feel Good Drag
And for the encore they played (*Fin)