themoononastick

I’ve been trying to post this for a couple of days but LJ has been being most unco-operative. Stupid LJ.

Anyhoo, on Tuesday I jumped on a train and went to Newcastle to meet up with turps33 and see My Chemical Romance. It was awesome.

turps33 posted an excellent recap here so if you haven’t already read it you should go do so. Mine is likely to be a lot less detailed and a lot more rambly, as is my want.



My journey up to Newcastle started out with me, typically, running around my house packing an overnight bag in the half an hour before I had to catch a train for London. Because I am the least organized and most easily distracted person ever. To the point where I almost had to run to catch said train. But I made it with about thirty seconds to spare. Go me.

London achieved, I made my way across town to Kings Cross and then promptly took a wrong turning away from the overground station and towards the Piccadilly Line because I’d mentally slipped back in time to my Uni days which I mostly spent going back and forth from Holloway Road to Liverpool Street via Kings Cross. Luckily I had enough time to spare that my little sidetrip into nostalgiaville wasn’t a problem.

I finally found the right area of the station and my train and, omg, East Coast trains are the most comfortable trains ever. No really, it was luxury compared to what I am used to, but then I am used to a service that uses trains so old they should be in a museum, so. I spent my journey listening to my ipod and becoming increasingly nervous about meeting turps33 because I am so so bad at social interaction. This is the most likely reason for my sudden need to perform good deeds for my fellow passengers – I swapped seats three times so people could sit together and bought a lady sitting opposite me a cup of tea because she didn’t have enough change and she looked like she really needed one – I think I was attempting to store up some good karma for my trip!

And it worked because turps33 is adorable and lovely and she and her hubby are so funny and easy to talk to that it wasn’t awkward or weird and pretty soon we were hanging out, sitting in the car chatting about random nonsense while waiting for the doors to open.

As soon as we saw the queue vanish inside we headed on in and, wow, the Metroradio Arena is the most civilized venue I have ever been to. There was no wait to get in, hardly any queue for the toilets, and once in our seats there were people wandering around selling coke and bags of sweets and popcorn. So very different to what I’m used to in London! A++++ for customer service, Newcastle.

The first support was Lostalone who were musically very tight and were obviously so happy to be on the tour. Their enthusiasm was all kinds of infectious. Also, they had amusing hair.

The second support was The Blackout who, again, were tight and clearly very comfortable playing in a large venue. But the points they won for their sound they lost with some obnoxiously faily banter. I was not impressed.

Then it was time for the pre-show slide show on the big screens which started off to the sound of Jane’s Addiction on the PA which made me ridiculously happy as Jane’s are and will always be my very favourite band, so the combination of them and pictures of the Ways fighting back to back gave me the biggest heart eyes ever.

And then My Chem came on stage and I forgot all about Jane’s Addiction, because, ugh, BAND. They are just such an amazing live band. It’s so awesome to watch performers who genuinely seem to love what they’re doing and that take such joy in seeing and hearing the crowds reactions to their songs. The amount of beaming smiles and laughter on stage was just such a delight to see. turps33 has much more detail about the show in her post, but for me the highlights were the little things like Mikey taking pictures of the crowd and his band in between songs, and Gerard’s little speech about watching Rob Zombie videos on the bus turning into an impromptu performance of my favourite White Zombie song – Thunder Kiss ’65, and Destroya, because I adore that song so much (hint: it sounds a lot like Jane’s Addiction!). Also Gerard and his Gerardness and Mikeyway and his everything. And Frank and Ray as well of course, but I maybe have an issue with remembering there is anyone but Mikey on stage at times *g*

Also, there was a lady sitting in front of me with her two children – a girl who was maybe around 8 and a boy who looked a little younger. The kids were both decked out in Killjoys t shirts and bandanas and they were so excited when My Chem came on stage, they were singing and dancing and pointing things out to their mum and when MCR played Welcome To The Black Parade the little girl was singing her little heart out. It was so awesome to see.

The most adorable moment of the evening came right at the end when they were going off stage and Mikey threw his plectrum out into the audience. Or at least he tried to. What actually happened was he wound up for a big throw, let go of it and it travelled about a foot and landed just beyond the stage at the feet of a security guard who promptly cracked up laughing. But Mikey fist pumped in victory anyway. &Mikeyway;

Then it was all over and it was back to turps33’s house for tea and late night chatting, and on the way there I got to be hopelessly touristy and be all excited at seeing Newcastle’s bridges in all their lit up glory and The Angel of The North standing beside the motorway. Newcastle is a gorgeous city and I definitely want to go there again and take some time to look around and see all it has to offer.

Wednesday started with more tea and chatter about fannish things and writing and all things Mikey Way based. I also attempted to impress upon turps33 the importance of comfort in the h/c equation but I think I just ended up encouraging her evil side. Oh well, at least I tried! And then all too soon it was time to head back to Newcastle so I could catch my (super comfy omg) train home and I headed off back to London with MCR on my ipod, wishing I could have stayed longer.



Here, have some (not especially great) photos.



Sadly my camera had a really hard time focusing due to the light show and the relative distance of the stage so these are the best of the bunch.




The most civilised arena in the world!


The crowd waiting for MCR to take the stage






I don't know what I like best about this photo - Mikey's pose, or the blur of Frank's arm in the background


When my camera did manage to focus it was on Mikey. I love my camera!











These next few are super blurry but I'm including them because they amuse me


Frank on his knees >:)


What is that pose, Gerard?


Smiling Mikey! :]


Smiling Mikey with bonus smiley Frank - this was when they were playing Thunder Kiss '65 by White Zombie \o/



And have a few random shots of Newcastle for good measure




Park Lane metro station in Sunderland - I just really liked the colours and the lighting


The Angel of The North as viewed from the train


Graffiti just outside Newcastle Central Station that summed up my feelings pretty much perfectly


In short: MCR are awesome, Newcastle is gorgeous, and turps33 and her family are wonderful, lovely, funny as hell and I really did not want to go home.