What am I even doing, out partying on a weeknight! But in a stroke of luck while checking in on some of the artists I listen to, I spotted grandson on tour in Aus!
Alas, it wasn’t a city venue and I had to travel out to Freo, which wouldn’t have been an issue except that 1. the performance started an hour late due to technical issues and 2. there was minor trackwork that required a bus connection before catching the train the rest of the way home, so I didn’t get home till after midnight!
It was definitely very fun though and I enjoyed it a lot!
The doors opened at 7, but I wasn’t sure which order the bands would be performing – techinically the show’s headliner was Enter Shikari, and “and grandson” was sort of tacked on underneath.
And the doors didn’t actually open at 7. The entire line was stuck waiting outside for an hour in the cold, and later we learned it was due to technical issues. I was in for a long night!
Apparently I was actually closer to the front of the line than I thought, so as I walked in, I made it to second row!
The supporting act was a band called Chez, performing with full energy! And a little fun rendition of Toxic by Britney Spears at the end (though I am not sure anyone knew the words? I totally didn’t!)
And hooray!! grandson!!! His style on stage is great! And he did his usual political rant halfway through too!
Since I regretted not being in the pit for the Linkin Park concert, I was very glad I choose a floor ticket for this! The smaller venue put me that much closer to the action – there was some serious moshing and crowd surfing! Such fun vibes and energy, and no, I didn’t join – I’m far too old and it was far too late at night for cardio activities!
I felt very lucky to have known all the songs he sang too; I prepared mainly with his INERTIA content but not most of his Death of an Optimist content so I wouldn’t have been able to sing along as effectively (not that I successfully memorised all his stuff anyway haha!).
He actually performed for a decent amount of time and I considered going home straight after he was done, but then I was like, well I paid for a ticket and I’m working from home the next day, so why not stick around and enjoy the headline act!
I did try listening to some Enter Shikari beforehand to familiarise myself, but honestly I felt my time was better spent really knowing grandson lyrics instead.
So while I didn’t know any of the songs, this was a new experience because the entire pit was absolutely heaving. Even right at the start I was wondering why everyone was being knocked around, the moshpit was trying to expand to the very edges! And somehow in trying to stay out of the excitment, I’d managed to migrate all the way to the back of the floor and found a nice spot at the back where I could also lean against… the sound stage? Just something table-like and solid haha where people were putting their empty drinks. Plus someone who was a regular or something was holding back the wave of people and that really helped too! If I thought the moshing and surfing were epic with grandson, that was nothing compared to how hyped they were for Enter Shikari!!
It was definitely fun to be in the pit and see how wild it can get, if only it didn’t run so late haha.
What was also really cool was that while waiting in the line to get in, overhearing some of the conversations from the people also stnading in line, I realised that for these small venues, not everyone knows the bands! The people behind me were there just to check things out and hear new music, which I thought was pretty cool! And the non-hardcore fans were basically just chatting and socialising in their friend groups!
I wonder if I’ll get to see another show at some point!!
Leave a Reply