Jaz Design

I’ve had a very musical week. An amazing week.

Last Sunday we headed over to Reading Festival to watch the one and only Radiohead perform. I had no idea what to expect, and was blown away. The other bands were good too, but I’d be lying if I said I’d gone to see them. I was there purely for Radiohead, and some festival fun.

I have to say, hearing that many people sing along to Karma Police, it sends chills down your spine – it really does. I’ve never quite got over that part of the gig experience, people singing along – all those people on the same page. There’s nothing like it.

It was great to just chill out to their interesting and extraordinary music. We had a wonderful time. You can catch the highlights on the BBC website here.

Then we had Muse. Muse and their homecoming gigs in Teignmouth, Devon. (163 miles away…) Somehow, somehow we ended up with tickets for both the gigs. Friday we headed down, checked into our hotel, headed back out to the first gig. Exhausted though I was from the epic driving, it was fantastic. The Den is a small venue, so no matter where you were the view was good.

Saturday, just as awesome. We spent the day exploring Teignmouth town , down on the beach, and eating cream teas… and donut men.

Probably my favourite song from the gigs was Cave. It wasn’t just Cave. It was a “jazz rendition”. The piano was spectacular.  The whole thing was spectacular. See the vid here!

My other favourite is the song which I guess has replaced Butterflies (similar in their epicness) on their live setlist, United States of Eurasia. I’d have been a bit upset if we’d only gone on the Saturday when Matt messed up the Chopin at the end and didn’t finish it

Favourite new song? Easy. Undisclosed Desires.

See my flickr for more pics!

The mister took me to V Festival at Chelmsford for my 21st birthday. We only went for the Saturday, primarily to see Muse (making this my fifth time)

We spent the day down at the main stage, enjoying the atmosphere and dipping in and out of the crowd for the bands we wanted to see.

We inadvertently saw the Futureheads a second time (they supported Muse at the Albert Hall) and I still wasn’t impressed although that song with the noises did get the whole place making the same silly noises, which was pretty entertaining.

We then made our way into the crowd. It was pretty early in the day so it wasn’t too busy just then. I was quite excited to see Alanis Morissette. I’ve never been that into her music, but the chance to see it live seemed like too good to miss.

Turns out I was right. Songs like Thankyou and Ironic were amazing. I didn’t realise quite how busy it had got either – whenever the camera panned back on the crowd I got quite a shock as we were quite near the front and there were just so many people! That many people singing in unision is awesome. Alanis was awesome, if not a little crazy

Following Alanis were the Lostprophets, who I also wanted to see. I wasn’t familiar with all their music, but it’s pretty easy to pick up for the most part.  The crowd had a great energy for their set, really screaming from the rooftops. The lead singer got a good rapport going with the crowd, singling out a guy waving a giant, inflatable penis (heh), telling him to represent. They played one new song, and plugged their new album quite excessively (out 2009, dontchaknow?). I was quite impressed, for some reason I thought they might be a band who produced good sounding albums and then wouldn’t be able to cut it live. I was wrong.

Watch @ youtube

Can’t Catch Tomorrow & A Town Called Hypocrisy

We took a break for lunch, not really interested in Maximo Park or the Kooks, although we did mooch back into the crowd during the Kooks – figuring when they left that we could make our way forward (it was necessary to be in front of the sound stage, otherwise there was a large stretch of crowd where you could barely hear anything) during the break between them and the Stereophonics, and then again in the gap before Muse.

The one thing I will comment on about the Kooks, is their crazy notion of making everyone sit down on a piss soaked, beer covered, rubbish strewn floor. Needless to say it didn’t work. We think he wanted everyone to jump up at the same time. No one did it. They threatened to not continue until everyone did. No one much seemed to care.

The Stereophonics were amazing. I had no idea what to expect, what they looked like, what the majority of their songs were (turns out it was a bunch I liked and had never bothered to find out what they were). I’m sure it’s been said, but the lead is sex on legs. Honestly. The sun was setting while they were playing and the camera got some great shots of him against the sun. It wasn’t until sometime during the week I found out his name was Kelly, and the whole idea of him was ruined Back to the night, they did a great set, all the classics, got the whole crowd singing, and performed a new song. I thoroughly enjoyed the set, and would definitely go and see them live again given the chance.

Watch @ youtube:

Dakota

And then, we just had to wait patiently for Muse. Or pretty impatiently. Standing up for 10 hours, being pushed and shoved, not drinking a lot to make staying in the crowd easier – we were exhausted, but not disappointed.

We were right by the sound stage for Muse, getting any further forward would have been impossible although it didn’t stop people from trying. We and some others tried to form some kind of impenetrable wall and just refuse to move, but it seems nothing stops the selfish people who didn’t bother to get in the crowd in time to see the show. Nevertheless, Muse did not disappoint, playing Dead Star which I’d never seen live, and it was totally awesome.  Saw Butterflies a fifth time and it just gets better and better.
They had lasers decorating the sky, and things reminiscent of the Wembley setup, which was cool. I was a little disappointed they didn’t live up to all the promises they made leading up to V (new songs, collaboration, space ships), but it was still worth the trip, and the standing up for much too long.

Watch @ youtube:

Knights of Cydonia
Hysteria
Supermassive Black Hole
Man with a Harmonica

We staggered back to the mister’s dad’s car, and were driven back to my little flat, ready for my birthday the next day, much in need of a shower and some sleep.

Last night was Muse at the Royal Albert Hall for the Teenage Cancer Trust gig. It was pretty darn special.

I didn’t think much of the support (the Futureheads), just sounded like really loud guitars playing chord after chord but that might just be because I don’t know their music. They did alright – better than the Noisettes at Wembley Arena anyway.

So what was so special? There’s a reason Muse have been labelled the best live act around at the minute and that’s because they are the epitome of awesome on stage. They did all the usual songs (Feeling Good, Supermassive Black Hole, Time is Running Out etc) but also played Fury (which I’ve never seen live) and Megalomania on the (excuse me) big fuck off organ. Second largest in the UK according to wiki. A lot of Muse fans are pretty excited about that, with good reason. It was immense. Matt on that thing reminded me of the Phantom of the Opera a little, he just has that haunting quality.

Of course I was more than happy once they played Butterflies and Hurricanes, which had a bit of a different twist to the piano, and was as usual, spellbinding. I can’t help it. I love that song.

There was also a lot of other random riffs and little short pieces and things and Matt for some reason burrowing under his guitar… and the massive Bliss balloons, one of which Matt burst with his guitar at the end of the song.

Anyway, I started a YouTube account for the rubbish videos I made with my phone, the audio’s ok though. My yootoob. Includes Megalomania on the organ and Butterflies and Hurricanes.

Picture by olly_og @ flickr

… is that the Mister and I managed to get tickets to see Muse at the Royal Albert Hall in April. The gig is for the Teenage Cancer Trust, and if past experience is anything to go by, it will be amazing. I’ve seen them at Wembley Arena, and Wembley Stadium, so this’ll be a different experience as it’s a significantly smaller venue. I’m excited. We’re 2 in 5000 peeps who get to go. How awesome.

Also I put up the rest of the Bleeding Rose pics. You can see them here or here. I don’t change the prices they put in on the prints, so if you want one let me know and I’ll sort them out to be more reasonable.

Pretty simple today. Something I wanted to try all week. Mostly I love the depth of field, mostly.

Also check out this link, there’s a short clip of Muse at Wembley doing Knights of Cydonia. I can’t wait for the DVD!

Just a fact. I’ve been pretty busy with the review deadline today for my self elected project, so here are yesterday’s and today’s photographs.

Jan 9th –

I did take this yesterday, but only got chance to post it today. Need to sort today’s out later too

Took this with my phone cam, was getting ready to go off out to class. Don’t know why I snapped it, this isn’t me at all, I look way too cutesie here. It’s probably the hair clip

Jan 10th – Invincible

I’ve had a busy day. I love my desk. I draw on it all the time. It’s where I make my art, do my work, think etc. So the doodles are important to my process.

These are part of the lyrics to Invincible by Muse. I have the entire song written on there. I love it.

I had a lovely Christmas, I spent Christmas eve and Christmas morning with the mister and his family, which was great and I really enjoyed myself. We spent Christmas eve snuggled up watching telly, drinking Champagne, and then woke up uncharacteristicly early Christmas morning to open our presents.

We’d decided to do a “serious” present, a “silly” present and a bunch of stockingy presents for each other. I’d bought him Mass Effect (Xbox 360), the Muse poster from the gigs we went to in June, a Screaming Flying Monkey and a lot of chocolate and sweeties

He’d accepted my suggestion of jewellery, and got me the beautiful set shown here. I picked butterflies because of the Muse song “Butterflies and Hurricanes” which is my favourite song of all time, it’s pretty special. He also got me Lego Star Wars II (PS2) (which I haven’t had chance to play yet), a make and display Play-Doh parrot which is awesome, and lots of sweeties.

My Mum got me a subscription to Adbusters magazine which is awesome because I won’t be able to read it at the library once I finish uni , I got money, a new duvet and set, lots of chocolate and sweeties, a nail varnish set, Sleepy Hollow, Design Without Boundaries: Visual Communication in Transition and I’m sure I’m forgetting some stuff.

As an aside, watch Toy Story, it’s awesome. I’m Woody, howdy howdy howdy.

Update: Now available on DA, although still not happy with the photo.

Some of you know I was painting, and painting I did. The piece is finished, however, the photo I have of it, it was still wet, and the painting is now down at my boyfriend’s in Portsmouth. So, until I’m next round there to take a decent photo to put on DeviantArt, you’ll just have to cope with the sneak preview in my photobucket here. The lighting of the photo is also rubbish, so basically, it looks an awful lot better than that.

Click to fullview

DeviantArt Description – This is Matt Bellamy (aka Tiny Man) of Muse, at the opening of some concert in Las Vegas. Or at least that’s the reference I used for it. There are differences however, just not many. Reference is here

I went to see Muse a few weeks ago with someone quite lufly. The concert was amazing, and I missed art, and felt like doing something creative with the experience. They opened the concert with Take a Bow, and in this amazing moment when the singing stopped and the music took off, Matt stepped up, kissed his fist and thrust it in the air. Everyone went wild, it was amazing. And that was the entire basis for this painting. You can see a not great quality vid of the opening here

Acryllic on card – roughly A2 size. Maybe, 20 hours? On the painting, the sketch took about 2/3 I should imagine.

I gave it away the same day I finished it, now hung proudly on the lufly person’s wall.

—

As an aside, we have tickets to see Muse at Wembley Stadium – woooooooooooooo.

Yesterday was Muesday. Yesterday was awesome.

(See also this post)

I’ve never been to a gig before. I am evidently very deprived. We went to Wembley, to see Muse. Hence, Muesday.

The crowd was rather boisterous, so whilst we were near the front for the first song we did move back a bit so as not to die or something.

It was amazing.

The set list (found here) was as follows:

Take a Bow – amazing intro, people got quite into the “you’ll burn in hell” part. I was a bit distracted by all the being thrown from side to side and what not, but it was still awesome.
Video@myspace Shortvid@youtube Vid@youtube Bestvidthusfar@youtube
Hysteria
Vid@youtube
New Born - I was dying to see this. I love the piano bits in their songs. Thus, the intro to this song, is amazing, and it was even more amazing seeing it live.
Video@youtubeland Video2@youtubeland
Butterflies and Hurricanes – This is my favourite Muse song. Ever. Therefore, them playing it, well. It. Was. Amazing. Just how Matt plays piano like that is beyond me.
Vid@youtube Pianosolovid@youtube Vid2@youtube
Assassin Vid@youtube
Map of the Problematique Vid@youtube
Plug in Baby – Shiny. Shiny. Shiny.
Vid@youtube
Soldier’s Poem – This was pretty special. Matt told peeps to get their mobiles/lighters out. I think Wembley holds something like 12,500 people, so looking back over the crowds was stunning.
Vid@youtube
Invincible – The whole arms in the air thing. The music. I loved it. Probably one of the best songs they performed, although that said it is really really hard to choose.
Vid@youtube Vid2@youtube
Supermassive Black Hole – This song gives me a buzz, live, was just. I hate to keep using the words amazing and awesome. But that’s really what it was.
Video@youtubeland Vid2@youtube
Forced In
Time is Running Out – One of the things I really liked is how they did different intros, outros and stuff. Half the time you didn’t know what they were about to play because it didn’t quite sound how you expected. This was one of those. I was glad they played it, I remember years ago when it first came out, it felt nice and nostalgic.
Starlight – I loved this. The clapping. The everything. I really love the lyrics to this.
Vid@youtube Vid2@youtube
Stockholm Syndrome – My favourite parts were the “this is the last time…” bits, everyone got all arms in the air-y.
Vid@youtube Vid2@youtube Vid3@youtube
—————————————–
Citizen Erased
Vid@youtube
Bliss (with balloons) – Balloons. Balloons are awesome. Although they were the wrong side of the arena for us really. Bliss is also an excellent song, and this was all very excellent.
VidofBallooooooons@youtube
—————————————–
Hoodoo – Shiny piano. Lots of it.
Vid@youtube
Knights of Cydonia – Great finale. The on screen type was a bit cheesy, but that’s ok. My arms almost died at this point. I still can’t really move them very well.
Vid@youtube Vid2@youtube Vid3@youtube

I checked out flickr, as you do, and thus far there are two people with sets of photos from last night – you can check those out here and here.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I want to see them again. Right now. I loved the set list too. Especially as they played Butterflies. That made my week.

Will probably update this shortly.

After watching random clips of Muse‘s live performances, I’m now more than excited about next week. Live Muuuse, how spiffing.

Also, pianos + Matt Bellamy = amazing.

(Check the piano link for an awesome photo, also, see below for another awesome photo…)

The Haunted Piano
Originally uploaded by WisDoc.