arrrgh i am so excited! bex and i finally did the thing; we've just gone and booked reading festival in for the august bank holiday weekend! we've been talking about it for so long - especially because some of my "must see before i die" bands are playing, but after my disappointing weekend at hyde park, it was definitely time and make some musical amends.
we left it a little late for like, super cheap accommodation, but - because there's no bloody way i'm getting anywhere near a tent that's not selling booze or food, bex managed to find something pretty central in reading, at a reasonable (albeit pretty last minute) price, which puts all the weekend campers' crusty camping crap holes to shame. yay for her and her currenlt unemployment status!
who am i most looking forward to seeing? so pleased you asked. first and foremost, limp bizkit. having missed them in about one hundred different scenarios of the last 15 years, i can fiiiinally tick them off my gig bucket list. chocolate starfish was one of those 'gateway albums' for me that took me from teenage 'pop-rock' (for lack of a better term; i haaaate labels) to my late-teen pop-punk appreciation, through to the hardcore and alternative rock 'stuff' that i'm into these days. god bless old freddy and that red cap - absolute game changer.
then there's some faves from the best years of my life; simple plan, new found glory and panic! at the disco were some of my favourite bands when i was learning how to be an adult, figuring out how to deal with emotions, hanging out in skate parks and driving recklessly to impress boys. a massive fan of simple plan since before they were hanging out with the olsens in 'a new york minute', and even once paid to see them open for green day, then left before green day came on. true fan, me. new found glory are - to this day, one of my favourite bands. i've seen them play so many times now - i many a line up, and so that's going to be incredible. panic! for me are like, an extension of fall out boy, who were (again), one of the first bands to really like, open my mind to something other than the backstreet boys (god, how much do i love the backstreet boys!); i've seen fall out boy onceeee, a long time ago, but never panic. it's going to be greeeeeat.
a couple of new favourites that have really swayed the friday line up for me are mariachi el bronx, the smith street band, american football, and modern baseball. thanks to a couple of new friends i've made this year, i've been recommended a lot of awesome and new-to-me music. mike made me a playlist recently, and on it was mariachi el bronx. now, confession time: i love mariachi music. absolutely love it. that, and bluegrass; i just love music that offers something a bit different, so when i first heard them on the playlist, it was love. when i saw them on the bill for friday, i was sold.
the smith street band was another of mike's recommendations that i really liked what i'd heard, and american football and modern baseball are two strong recs from little shaun, who clearly likes sports related bands. all amazing bands, and totally excited to be able to see them all on top of an already-incredible line up.
i am so excited, and only a couple of months to wait!
