Oh My God, Stereophonics. And: KELLY JONES IS TEH SEX.
written: 3:52 p.m. on Tuesday, Apr. 29, 2008

STEREOPHONICS WAS FUCKING AMAZING. Pass the Buck has been stuck in my head the whole day which is definitely a rare occurrence, considering the only songs that get stuck in my head nowadays are Cookie songs. Last night the line "why would I wanna do that" was stuck in my head all the way home and even while I was showering and I couldn't figure out what song it was even though I knew that I knew the song and I suspected it was from Pull the Pin. I checked my CD inlay and indeed it was from Pull the Pin! It's "I Could Lose Ya".

OMG, I LOVE STEREOPHONICS.

Before I get into writing about the gig in excruciating detail that will only be of interest to me, I'll just like to write about a tiny incident that happened when I was outside the concert venue, waiting for Mel to arrive. I'd just arrived at Fort Canning Green after walking all the way from Dhoby Gaut. I pretty much crossed the road at the Cathay and walked up the stairs from that church by the road side. By the time I reached Fort Canning, I was like, Oh my god, this place is fucking huge WHERE'S THE CONCERT VENUE? Thankfully there was a notice board with the relevant information, and thankfully there were signs pointing me to Fort Canning Green; otherwise, I think I would've got awfully lost in that huge-ass (okay, it's not that big but if you had no idea where you were, then it could seem pretty big) place.

Anyway, so I was all hot and sweaty when I got there, and I was kind of walking around, trying to look occupied, when out of nowhere, this guy came up to me and asked, "What concert is this?"

Naturally the correct response was to answer him, so I told him that it was Stereophonics (!!!!! <333333 omg *dies*). I was all ready to smile and say "no problem" when he said "oh thanks!", but somehow, a five-minute conversation ensued. First he started off by saying that he'd never heard of Stereophonics, to which I was like, "Oh, that's tragic." He thought I meant he was tragic because he was all, "Are they very big? I've never heard them on the radio." But what I meant was that it was sad for my 'Phonics because he's never heard of them, which I might have mentioned though I can't remember.

He asked me if I was waiting for anyone and I said that I was waiting for my friend who was doing an exam right now (it was about 6.45 p.m. then, and yes, I was kiasu enough to go early to queue but THERE WAS NO QUEUE until about 7.15 WTF!). He asked what school my friend was studying in, then asked if I was studying and if so what I was studying. I told him "NUS, law" and he went on a bit about the usual "oh you must have done well for your A Levels then" and "law is a very lucrative profession!" etc.

Somehow I failed to bite back the "yeah, but I don't really want to be a lawyer" which only prolonged the conversation. He told me that he had some friends who dropped out of the profession (me: "I'm not surprised") and then asked me what JC I was from. I was all, "Guess!" and obviously he couldn't guess, so I said, "Jurong." He was all, "No wonder you told me to guess."

Up to this point I was slightly intrigued. He was rather good-looking: tall (taller than me), kind of handsome, and Eurasian-looking. He was a bit tubby which was like, ew, because, you know, the only male in this world allowed to be tubby is David Cook and he obviously wasn't David Cook, but otherwise, I thought he was quite cute.

At some point I thought it was only polite if I asked him something about himself since we'd been talking about me the whole time, so I smartly asked, "So what are you here for then?"

And guess what he said? Let me give you a clue: Immediately after he answered my question, in my mind I was like, "Fuck." Then I was, once again, convinced that life ABSOLUTELY hates me.

He said, and I quote, "I'm here for Bible study."

And his name was even Christian.

Naturally he asked me what my religious preference was and I wanted to keep it simple by saying that I wasn't very religious, but he had to ask specifically what religion I subscribed to. I said, in what I think was a very charming manner, "Not yours!" (Apparently that wasn't very nice though; I told Rui the story and she said I was mean! But I wasn't being mean at all I swear!)

He was all, "Wow, that's very politically correct." I really didn't want to talk about my religion - or lack thereof - at all, so it was only until he asked me point blank if I was an atheist that I had to begrudgingly say "yes". To that he said, "Oh, so you're one of those."

Sorry, no idea what that even means, and I could've said the same about him when he said he was going for Bible study but I very nicely and politely kept the snark to myself. By then I'd lost all interest and I kept glancing at the entrance to the gig venue to see if there was a queue (there wasn't) which he must've picked up on because he started talking about concerts and how he used to go for gigs a lot when he was younger. At this point he was on the brink of telling me his life story, starting off with how he was rebellious in the past and how he was into rock bands like Pearl Jam (to this I said, "I just bought a Pearl Jam CD."), Metallica, Megadeth. (Who listens to Megadeth? Yucks. And Metallica? Thanks for ruining Napster, assholes.) I could get on board the Pearl Jam, but the other two? Not so much, if at all.

In my head I was like, "Oh my god, please don't start telling me your life story now. I'm not interested anymore." Thankfully he pretty much left it at that, and then went on to make some comment about how he liked having conversations with people that he can take away something from. I had nothing to say, so I was all, "That's very profound." He then went off about how he thought the world was "profound" and all I did was smile and nod.

After I was done smiling and nodding and after he was done resisting his urge to preach, he finally said, "Okay then, enjoy your concert. Bye!"

I mean, he was nice enough and charming and definitely qualified as "normal" on my scale of Weird Guys Who Have Chatted Me Up, but seriously, whatever tinge of interest I had completely evaporated with the "I'm going for Bible study." Hence, I'm relieved that there wasn't any exchanging of digits; I really, REALLY wouldn't like to be bombarded with "invitations" to worship sessions, etc, no matter how cute the person doing the bombarding is.

But the incident has totally reinforced my notion that David Cook is my soulmate because real life guys just do not have the whole package. The cute ones are Christians, the non-Christian ones are not cute, the smart ones are short, the tall ones are ugly - oh my god, David, come to Singapore NOW NOW NOW. I'm totally saving myself for you!1!!111one!

Okay, that came out kinda wrong. And I'm obviously kidding. The fact that I need to state that I'm kidding kind of worries me, but um, well. He's a nice break from reality, even if he is reality. David, I mean. And I call him "David" as if I know him so intimately, but my saving grace is that I feel uncomfortable calling him "Dave". But my favourite? COOKIE!!! So adorable, like him.

Okay whatever, ON TO THE MAIN EVENT.

***

Because it cannot possibly be said enough, I need to say it again:

STEREOPHONICS WAS FUCKING AMAZING.

It was, hands down, my best concert experience EVER. Of course 'Phonics didn't have much competition, considering I've only seen, like, Jay Chou live and random acts around the Esplanade, but even if I had seen other bands live, 'Phonics would still the best. I'm still reeling from the whole thing the next day and I really cannot fully comprehend the fact that I just saw a rock concert, and it wasn't just any rock concert; it was MY FAVOURITE BLOODY BAND.

I don't even know why I like Stereophonics so much 'cause it's not like their music is ground-breaking or original or artistic. The whole thing started with Dakota, which is still my favourite song, and of course I had to buy the album it's on, and from there I bought Just Enough Education to Perform because I downloaded Have a Nice Day and loved it, then my dad was watching Crash on TV and they played Maybe Tomorrow over the ending credits, and I didn't know the song then but damned if I didn't instantly recognise Kelly's voice, so of course I had to buy the CD that Maybe Tomorrow was on (You Gotta Go There to Come Back - no idea what it means, don't care, the album rocks), and I think I always intended to buy their first two albums but I still haven't got round to doing it, then I was flipping through Juice magazine while waiting for Kenneth to meet me and found out about the gig AND the new album which somehow completely flew under my radar, then I went on a mission to buy Pull the Pin but it was somehow sold out everywhere I looked, so I eBayed it but Gramophone was in stock last week so of course I bought it last week since the gig was yesterday, and today my eBay CDs, including Pull the Pin, finally arrived, so now I have two copies of Pull the Pin, yay. The last time I bought multiple copies of the same album was when I was obsessed with Silverchair: I own at least three copies of Neon Ballroom, the album that got me into them. One is the Japanese import (that cost a BOMB), one is the tour edition, and one is the normal edition with a couple of bonus tracks.

Thankfully, owning two copies of Pull the Pin is more a manifestation of my impatience and disregard for money than a burgeoning obsession with Stereophonics. I love them and am willing to pay $98 to see them live, but I don't love them enough to stalk them or burst into tears when they sauntered on stage AN HOUR AND TEN MINUTES LATE or to throw my underwear at Kelly Jones or whatever. But the fact remains that I LOVE Stereophonics and I really cannot comprehend why. I mean, they basically have two sounds: up-tempo, rock numbers and melancholic, sometimes-melodic, sometimes-introspective slower numbers.

But I still love Stereophonics. And yesterday's gig was fucking amazing, just because it can't be said enough.

From the start:

So there was actually an opening act and it was a local band called The Great Spy Experiment whom of course I'd never heard of. And despite the fact that their name was mentioned like 10 times on stage, I still had no idea what the hell they were called until I googled "stereophonics singapore" a couple of hours ago. Talk about a wholly unmemorable and hard to remember name. The whole night I thought they were called the Great Spa Experiment, which was like, WTF?, and this morning I couldn't even remember a single word from their band name (except "the"). Somehow I had "horsemen" floating around in my mind, probably because of my Cookie obsession (he, Michael Johns, Luke Menard and Jason Yeager became good friends and called themselves The Four Horsemen. DORK!).

Having said all that derisive things, they weren't too bad. The lead singer had a nice voice and was quite cute, they sounded solid enough, and the songs were not bad. Of course I couldn't remember a single song after Stereophonics fucked my ears out, but apart from how Spy sounded a bit derivative even within themselves, I quite enjoyed their five-song set.

I did, however, thought it was effing hilarious when the lead singer introduced the random Chinese chick on the left of the stage (Mel and I were on the right) as the keyboardist. I was genuinely wondering who she was and why she was on stage and why she was even there when she stuck out like a sore thumb, and clearly I failed to notice that she was standing behind a set of keyboards. Duh.

Spy ended their set at around 8.30-ish, after which the two DJs from Perfect 10 came on stage to give out Samsung phones and make random members of the audience do stupidly embarrassing things to win said Samsung phones. The whole segment was a huge steaming pile of Painful and I just wanted them all to go away. I'd rather watch 'Phonics' roadies set up the equipment and test the mics/drums/guitars (OMG GUITARS!!!!!) etc than to suffer through the agony of local DJs doing stupid nonsense to plug the products of the Brand that Sponsored the Gig. I mean, great, Samsung totally rules for letting me see Stereophonics, but if Stereophonics hadn't want to play in Singapore, even Samsung wouldn't have been able to do anything about it, right? Totally.

ANYWAY, after the DJs were done with their schtick, they exited the stage with a "get ready for Stereophonics!"

The crowd proceeded to "get ready" for the next twenty minutes. And those twenty minutes? Longest twenty minutes of my life. EVER. When they finally deigned it appropriate to saunter on stage, it was about 9.10 p.m.

But oh my god, was it ever worth it.

They opened with "Bank Holiday Monday" which I instantly recognised. Kelly Jones, Mr. Rock Star, sauntered onto the stage donning his trademark aviator shades, looking HOT AS HELL, and "Bank Holiday Monday" was as amazing live as it was on the album. I'm quite sad that I don't remember the order of the songs they played and that there were about three or four songs from their first 2 albums that I didn't recognise; the whole 90 minutes (yes, it was only 90 minutes. I stupidly thought it'd be three hours, or at least TWO hours) just flew by in a blur and after they were done with one song, they quickly dove into the next, and I hardly had time to breathe. I could hardly breathe anyway; some fuck in front of me was smoking and his cigarette shit was clogging up my lungs and nostrils, but more importantly, how can I breathe properly when Stereophonics was this close to me?

Mel and I were standing pretty close to the stage, about five lines of people away from the barricade, and I had a DAMN AWESOME view of the band. Richard, the bassist, was practically right in front of me and I swear he was TOTALLY looking at me in the beginning!

But oh, my eyes naturally gravitated towards Kelly because he's totally TEH SEX, and I swear (again), there were a couple of times when he was also looking at me. Like, for REAL. And what did I do? I grinned. Widely. Like a moron. From ear to ear and everything. When Kelly walked over to my side of the stage and looked out into the crowd, which he only did once, I was all, "AHHHH!!!" fangirl scream, jumping up and down, waving arm in the air, trying to get his attention.

The fact that I refrained from screaming "KELLY I LOVE YOU AND WANT TO HAVE YOUR BABIES" in between songs - and it would definitely have been heard loud and clear - and I really got the urge to do so a couple of times - shows that the fangirling wasn't even that over the top. And can I help it if Kelly Jones's major sexiness induces such urges in me? Hell no.

I have to say though, he looked quite short. I have no idea how tall he is but Richard was like this looming figure on stage while Kelly was this...tiny thing. Okay, not 'tiny' exactly, but he was quite small-looking. EVEN THEN, he totally owned the whole place and HE KNEW IT.

He took off his shades after the first song and I was all, "EEEEE!!! KELLY'S FACE!!!!" I honestly cannot remember what the second song was; it was probably A Thousand Trees which is from one of their two earlier albums. At some point Javier, the drummer, took off his shirt and it was another "OMGG!!! MAJOR TEH HOTNESS!!!!!!" moment and he drummed shirtless for the rest of the gig. And I never noticed how hot he was until last night; like I said before, for me, Stereophonics = Kelly Jones, but oh, how that has changed now. I actually know the names of the bassist AND the drummer, oh my god.

But Javier was FUCKING FIT. Nicely toned body, and suitably pasty, the way I like my men (look at David. He's practically transparent). YUM. He threw his drumsticks into the crowd after the gig ended but yeah, I was waaaay too far away to catch one. That would've been a great souvenir, and arguably tons better than the sweaty towel that Kelly threw into the crowd...which, um, I kind of wished I'd caught.

And speaking of throwing things, at one point Kelly nonchalantly tossed his guitar pick onto the floor and it was orange/pink and I thought that was damn cool.

Anyway, I'm lazy to talk about the gig all together in a coherent manner, so point form:

- My favourite moment of the entire gig? Definitely when they played "It Means Nothing". Thinking about it gives me chills and listening to it live was absolutely incredible. So haunting, laconically intense (seriously), and it was one of the few moments when I felt Kelly truly, TRULY connected with the lyrics and meant what he sang. I watched the Wembley (?) stadium version which was on the bonus DVD and I thought it was great, but nothing beats being there in the flesh when they play the song. Add the soft purple lights to the mix and you get the Best Moment of the Night. It was just absolutely AMAZING.

- When Kelly introduced "It Means Nothing" I knew instantly that it was "It Means Nothing". I can't remember what he said, exactly; something along the lines of not taking people for granted, which is what the song is about in a nutshell. I LOVE this song; it's absolutely gorgeous and chilling and haunting.

- This moment made me giggle: They played Doorman, and when he got to the second verse, instead of singing "so suck my banana, suck it with cream", Kelly changed it to "so suck my DICK, suck it with cream", then he turned to Javier and laughed. SO CUTE OH MY GOD.

- I loved it when they played Superman, which was of course immediately followed by Doorman, because Superman was AMAZING!!!! Kelly sang the chorus an octave lower until he got to the last chorus and I could barely hear him over the guitars and the crowd, but oh my god, it was AMAZING!!! Insanely devilish and menacing. I LOVE IT.

- Pass the Buck was FANTASTIC. The group of ang moh guys to my left were jumping up and down, more commonly known as moshing, to that song, and it was just GREAT GREAT GREAT.

- I also LOVED Devil. The crowd totally sang along to "So be my devil angel".

- My Friend was awesome too.

- During a song, I can't remember which one, Kelly was playing his guitar and probably made a mistake, which no one noticed, but he turned to the other guitar guy whose name I don't know (he's not a regular 'Phonics member; he and the keyboardist only join them on tour. They're a three-dudes band) and made a face and shook his head. SO CUTE OH MY GOD.

- I THINK they closed with If I Could Lose Ya before they went off to wait for the encore. But it was great.

- Oh, they also played Mr Writer though I don't really understand why they still play that song when they have all these other songs to play. It's great, but a bit of a downer when played live. But yeah, it's a hit and all, so oh well.

- They also did a song that had the line "hurry up and wait" which is also from one of their two early albums. I know this because I recognised the chorus but not the whole song. Oh wait, maybe it's on Just Enough Education to Perform, which I haven't listened to enough to remember songs other than Mr Writer and Have a Nice Day. THAT must be remedied, STAT.

- I'm a bit bummed they didn't play Daisy Lane which is one of my favourite songs from Pull the Pin, and that they didn't play more songs from You Gotta Go There to Come Back. In fact, they played a grand total of ONE song from that album - Maybe Tomorrow, duh. How sad! I totally love that album.

- And speaking of Maybe Tomorrow: After he was done letting the crowd boost his ego, Kelly finally reappeared on stage for the "encore". He walked out by himself with his guitar and let it loose on Maybe Tomorrow. It was great. It would've been better if the crowd had shut up and just let him sing, but of course everyone had to sing along. I thought it was quite funny that the loudest part was "and MAYBE TOMORROW, I'll find my wayyyyyyyyy home." The way the crowd dragged out the "way" was SO funny. It was also funny that many people didn't know the words to the verses, but of course I did. I can't really say how Kelly sounded because he was more or less drowned out by the crowd on the chorus, but from what I heard for the verses, absolutely perfect. Dude doesn't go out of tune - ever. And I love the wailing at the end, which the crowd couldn't keep up with, so when they were all "find my wayyyyyy home", Kelly was still dragging out the sentence. It was amusing. And Kelly is a rock star.

- And now we get to Dakota. This deserves paragraphing, so I'll take a break from the point form for now.

Dakota. My favourite song ever. Even with my DCook obsession, Dakota is still my favourite song. It's also 'Phonics' biggest hit to date which means the entire world and their mothers know this song.

I knew that Dakota was going to be their last song, and that they would play it after Kelly does his solo on Maybe Tomorrow (yes, I researched their Pull the Pin set list before the gig). Even then, when Kelly needlessly introduced the song in his dryly comedic matter-of-fact manner, "This song is called Dakota", I about when fucking nuts. I was all jumping up and down, screaming at the top of my lungs, completely stoked as hell. I was honestly quite taken aback by my own reaction, even in that moment. I mean, I was definitely eagerly anticipating the Dakota moment, but oh my, I didn't think I'd react in such a manner, and it wasn't a "must cheer!" kind of thing; it was genuine and real and I felt the excitement hit me in the face the second Kelly said "this song is called Dakota".

It was amazing. But it wasn't OMG AMAZING. Why? Because Dakota is their biggest hit to date and so the entire world and their mothers know this song. The crowd was singing along to the WHOLE DAMN SONG, not just the chorus, not just the "take a look at me now", but the WHOLE DAMN SONG. The first verse was definitely louder than the other verses, but all the same, I could only half-hear Kelly which was quite sad because, oh my god, I love Dakota and the rock concert thing almost ruined it for me.

Is it just me or is Dakota not a happy song at all? Because I don't see how anyone can mosh to Dakota. It's definitely catchy and has a constantly pulsing beat that induces the urge to bob the head, but it's actually quite a melancholic song if you look at the lyrics, and it's precisely why I fell hard for the song way back last year. "I wonder if we'll meet again, talk about life since then, talk about why did it end." "You made me feel like the one", as opposed to actually being "the one". "Wake up call, coffee and juice; remembering you. What happened to you?"

Oh my god, it's a fucking sad song. It's even sadder when you consider how the melancholic nature of the lyrics are masked behind song's nonchalant, weary up tempo beats and riffs. I never really thought about this before until now, but now that I've thought about it? I love Dakota even more. The sharp contrast between the lyrics and the rest of the song is genius and it really does drive home the resignation that's in the words when Kelly isn't even happy about the up tempo riffs and goes to the extent of injecting a laconic, weary, tired vibe to it.

Oh, so genius, so amazing. I wish the crowd didn't know this song, I wish it hadn't been their first #1 hit, because it's really the best song they've ever done, so wonderfully layered, and it would've been OMG AMAZING last night if the crowd had stood still, maybe bob its head along with the rhythm, and just listen to the band play the song. It's also Kelly's best lyrics ever; I can honestly find no fault with the lyrics, no "WTF was Kelly smoking when he wrote this?" lines like I do with Brother and Doorman, just to name a few songs.

Still, Dakota was the second best moment of the night, right behind It Means Nothing. In this light, then, it should show how absolutely mind-blowing and amazing It Means Nothing was if my favourite song couldn't beat it for Best Moment of the Night. But Dakota, oh Dakota. I love it, love it, LOVE IT, I want to marry it, it's just amazing.

I have zero pictures of Dakota because I RECORDED THE WHOLE DAMN THING on my camera. The video is unwatchable though (unless one's fond of getting vertigo, which I'm not) but the point was the sound. I have the whole thing on video! Good thing it was the last song; my camera was running low on battery, and because of that I didn't record Maybe Tomorrow. For Dakota I was like, I'm just going to record this whole thing and if my battery runs out, so be it. My arm ached like fuck after; it wasn't easy holding the camera high above my head for like, 4 minutes.

After last night, I'm now back to being convinced that the only person who can sing Dakota is Kelly Jones. Much as I love David Cook, I don't even want to hear him sing the song. Not that he ever would; I don't think he listens to much Brit rock, most unfortunately (IMO - and this is a gross generalisation but whatever - Brit rock totally pwns American rock bands). But if he does, I don't think I'd like it. He can sing anything, Dakota included, but it doesn't mean that I'd like it. Dakota is SOLELY KJones territory; even DCook isn't allowed. It's sacrosanct to me because it's just an amazing song on so many levels and one of the very few songs that speak directly to me, and needless to say, definitely has a special place in my heart. I LOVE IT.

Have I mentioned Stereophonics was amazing? Because they were. It was so worth every penny spent, every minute wasted waiting for them to come on stage, it was even worth getting hit in my right eye by some random ang moh guy's flying beer, it was worth sweating buckets for and coming home stinking like mad and with my feet and legs aching.

Stereophonics was amazing, and I totally left them a comment on their MySpace page. I'm still SO HAPPY that I saw them live! And you know, I don't use the word 'happy' much in a serious manner but there's really no better word to describe how I felt last night, and now. AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING.

Okay, back to the point form. Other interesting incidents:

- Some dude crowd-surfed to the front of the stage. He was, of course, an ang moh dude. Thankfully no one else followed.

- There was this UK flag that some guys were waving around that subsequently got passed (and lost) to the back of the crowd.

- In the beginning, even before 'Phonics were on, some chick at directly behind the barricade had to be carried out of the place. No idea what happened to her. Mel and I looked at each other, and Mel went, "Good, more space!" I totally concurred.

- A bunch of ang moh guys started pushing each other around, ostensibly for fun, and I was all scared and Mel saw my frightened face and traded places with me. I love her. <3

- The crowd sang the keyboardist Happy Birthday! How sweet. I have no idea who he is though.

- Because it was the keyboardist's birthday, they got four long-haired girls to come on stage bearing a cake and some champagne. KELLY POPPED THE CHAMPAGNE ON STAGE OH MY GOD. I saw a couple of the girls outside the venue when I was waiting for Mel. The Chinese chick wore a short skirt and I was all, WTF who wears a skirt for this kind of thing? Seeing her on stage was like, No wonder. The whole thing was quite retarded; the girl with the cake more or less stood there holding the cake, spun a couple of rounds, and left the stage still holding the cake. But DAMNED IF I WASN'T INSANELY JEALOUS. They were like some bimbo groupie types and I WANTED TO BE ONE OF THEM. If it'd been David Cook instead of 'Phonics, I would've done something really drastic and hurt a few people in the process.

- Kelly's interaction with the crowd was so minimal that it made the word 'minimal' look abundant. He was drinking iced water with what looked like lime from where I stood from what looked like a bubble tea sort of clear plastic cup, and twice he said, "Cheers Singapore", like he had nothing else to say. I think he had nothing else to say, really. The longest time he spoke to the crowd was when he introduced "It Means Nothing" and when he introduced the band.

- Other things he said (paraphrased): "Are you having a good time?" "We've been touring for 11 years, and this is our first time in Singapore. We'll be back." (To this I was all, AHHHHh!!! OMG FANGIRL FREAK OUT.) There was also something about a song from Performance and Cocktails but I don't remember what it was.

- I honestly don't think that Stereophonics had as good a time as I did though. The only people moshing were the ang mohs; the Singaporeans around me either bobbed their heads or moved a bit or did absolutely nothing. Poor 'Phonics! And as amazing as I found the whole thing to be, I also found them to be going through the motions a little. The only moment that I didn't get that feeling at all was when they played It Means Nothing. Still, despite the slightly phoned-in performances, they were still rock solid and awesome.

- I wish I'd recorded the whole of It Means Nothing too, but I only have the first verse, the chorus, and two lines of the second verse. BOO.

- Kelly Jones is simply TEH SEX. Have I already said that? Smothering hotness. He wore a brown leather jacket that he never once took off and he wiped his face with his long white towel, which he subsequently threw into the crowd, very often.

- There was this rack of like, six, seven guitars on stage. Kelly changed his guitars once every two songs, as did the other guitarist. That was oddly hot.

- I really liked the moment when Kelly nonchalantly tossed his guitar pick onto the ground.

- I love Kelly's rock star swagger and too-cool-for-you vibe.

- They just came on stage, played their set, and left. And that was it. Like I said, minimal crowd interaction, and it was awesome.

- Kelly and his aviator shades are still TO DIE FOR.

- Have I mentioned Kelly Jones is teh sex?

And now: PICTURES! Yay. They weren't like oh my god amazing pictures, but they were way better than what I was expecting from my crap camera. YAY.

The opening act - Great Spy Experiment.

'Phonics performing Bank Holiday Monday. I love the "dabbing speed like a monkey in the fucking zoo" line. And CHECK OUT KELLY'S LAVA HOT AVIATOR SHADES.

Because Javier is smiling in this one!!! <333

Still Bank Holiday Monday, and Kelly Jones is TEH SEX.

His SHADES, you guys, and look, the entire band captured in one picture!

Showing some love to Richard! Did I mention that he was totally looking at me?

Hello, Kelly's face!

This is so not the worst of the Random Hands and Arms and Fingers that appeared in, oh, half my pictures. In fact, this one is actually one of the better ones.

Simply because I love the colour, and because the entire band is in this picture.

Ugh, my camera sucks. But oh, Kelly so doesn't.

I like the lights. And look, Javier shirtless!!1!1one!omg!

Kelly and Javier are always in pictures together because Javier was directly behind Kelly. And I totally don't mind - that bod is HOT.

This was pretty much how close I was to the stage. I was SO. HAPPY.

Look, Kelly is all sweaty! Look, Javier is STILL shirtless!

That stupid hand on the left was already severely cropped. I couldn't crop it any more for Kelly to still somewhat be in the centre of the picture. STUPID HAND.

Lights are a bit too bright, but look, he waved to the crowd! This was after the last pre-encore song. (And OMG STUPID HAND once more.)

Kelly performing Maybe Tomorrow solo. *dies*

A professional picture, just because I can.

And lastly, ME AND MEL!!!!!!!!!

I took about 115 pictures, including videos. I personally find it damn funny that my Dakota video's filename is DSCN6666.mov. Hearts.

Have I mentioned that Stereophonics is amazing? They are. Amazing.

before sunrise // before sunset


Previously:
- - Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017
I'm moving. - Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010
In all honesty - Tuesday, Jul. 06, 2010
What I want for my birthday... - Sunday, Jul. 04, 2010
On Roger's behalf. - Friday, Jul. 02, 2010