Madina Lake on 2007-07-18
So, tonight was fantastic. I haven't been this eligible to say "fantastic" in a while.
The other day, maybe Friday, I was rung on my mobile, by an unknown number. Turned out to be this guy from Roadrunner Records telling me that I'd won gig tickets to see Madina Lake, in a competition I completely forgot about. The gig was actually an exclusive, competition-winners-only, gig at Camden Barfly.
Around 7pm this evening, my sister and I (I decided to give the other ticket to her, as she's the only person I know with similar music tastes) left home to go to Waterloo so we were able to catch the underground tube to Camden. The ride wasn't interesting, except the man who I was sitting next to was listening to his trumpet music on his CD player. I resisted hugging him before I left.
We were running late, as doors opened at 8pm and we usually go half an hour before doors. Anyway, somehow, by the time we got there it was 8:20pm. We lined up for a while, before getting in and telling the woman my name, which was on the guest list. The man stamped my wrist with a "I Heart M L" (Madina Lake) stamp, which I honestly don't want to wash off now. We went in the door and stood around in the bar area, as the stage area's doors were closed. It didn't really matter what time we got there. After going to the toilet, which had "Kate Moss is not the only role model" on, we went back to the bar and stood around for ages because all of the seats were taken. Standing up is hard work.
Sometime later, when the stage doors were still closed, this boy came up to us and said "do you want to sit down with us? We wont touch you", which was genius. We ended up sitting down with two boys called Dan and Ritchie (I think), who were the same age as me. We made pretty un-awkward conversation for a while, with a lot of "huh?", "what?" and leaning ins, because the sound system was so loud. Blinking in Morse code would have been easier than conversation. They were in the same boat as us, as we didn't know much about Madina Lake's music and how we all just went for Wikipedia.
At around 9:15pm the doors opened and we went up some stairs to the stage area. It was about the size of my living room down, so tiny. Somehow we ended up sticking with those other guys for the rest of the evening, which was friendly.
It was a while until Madina Lake came on stage, but the wait was well worth it. The whole set was fantastic. So fantastic. Nathan, the lead, kept on rising out into the crowd and inviting everyone up for stage dives. At one point he said "I love venues like this, with no barricades. We're just the same", which I really admired. During the set, Nathan kept on handing out water, when a bottle spilt over the microphone and some the the electrical equipment, which began to make weird sounds. At the point they had to stop playing and so Nathan was like "don't get bored! What do you guys want to talk about?", when Ritchie shouted out "where do babies come from?". It was so genuine that Nathan was talking to everyone in the middle of the gig so we wouldn't get bored, bringing almost a new meaning to intimacy.
Much like at Muse, which I still need to write up about and My Chemical Romance at Koko, there were large balloons filled with confetti, which were passed about. When they burst, the confetti fluttered down on everyone, while we all cheered. I managed to keep a piece of the balloon, because I tend to get sentimental about things.
Towards the end a giant circle pit opened up and a couple of minutes later it finished, so my sister and I, just walked forward to be a couple of metres from the band. It was amazing. At the end Nathan climbed up the side of the stage and dived off into the audience, where I was able to freely caress his leg, forward slash, help his along.
Nathan, before the final stage dive.
The best part, without a doubt, was when I just jumped up on stage, which I've never done before. I was on stage with Madina Lake. It was intense though, I've never done anything like that before and I didn't know I had the guts to. I was standing next to Mateo, the guitarist, like "uhh, hi" and decided to take a photo of, which would have been good without the hand. Ohwell. :]
Mateo on stage, next to me.
The gig finished about an hour later and I walked back to my sister, Dan and Ritchie, where we talked like "Oh, my god!", "I know!". We walked back down the stairs and talked for a while later, before heading off. Before we left I swapped Myspace addresses with them, which will be great because they're such friendly guys. Before we left, even though we knew them for like three hours, we hugged like "come here, you". It's just nice to know that there are similar people around.
It really was fantastic. So fantastic, that we've planned to go back and see them in October. I hope the tickets aren't sold out. Maybe I'll go back on stage again.
Rosie xxx