On Friday the 21st of November 2003, me and five friends (Kate H, Nadia, Katherine, Sian and Jo) went to see Limbeck, Motion City Soundtrack, and the All-American Rejects at the London Astoria.

Well, we ran straight from school to be sure of a good place. We got there about quarter past four, I think. I swear every time I go to the Astoria (all the gigs I've ever been to have been at the Astoria, bar Reading Festival) the queue is shorter. 'Cos there were so many of us, it was easy for two of us at a time to leave and get stuff like McDonald's and crap. For Jo, Katherine and Sian, it was their first gigs, and it was Nadia's first gig in London so me and Kate were like, "Yeah, we're experts!" Very funny.

It was quite cold and it started to drizzle so I was screaming, "Oh, let's get out the umbrella!" Then I realised that the ENTIRE QUEUE seemed to be at a funeral or something. I'm not kidding, they all looked dead miserable and they were all silent while our group were screaming and laughing. So I was like, "Shut up for a second, guys," and then we all realised how much fucking noise we were making! But we just carried on, it was funny. Finally the doors opened and we streamed in. Katherine got asked for ID (she is actually 16, but she doesn't look it) and when she showed it to the guy he looked massively pissed off but he had to let her in. It was so funny! Anyway, I lost everyone for a while when I was putting my bag (with everyone's coats CRAMMED inside) into the lockers, but when I actually got into the main bit, I realised... THEY HAD SAVED ME A PLACE AT THE BARRIER!! Whoot!

So we were at the barrier, me between Kate and Jo, waiting. They were playing weird Rasta music, don't know why but yeah. I noticed a sticker on one of the amps, and as I was not wearing my glasses I said to Kate, "Is that a Sugarcult sticker?" and she said yeah. Then I heard the girls behind me discussing it, and we were all like, "Oh my God how great would it be if Sugarcult were supporting?!" but we knew it blatantly wouldn't be them. Then five minutes later one of the girls tapped me on the shoulder and was like, "Apparently it IS Sugarcult!!!" but me and Kate were like, no, it was blatantly us discussing it and it got distorted on its way around the place, lol. Anyway, then the lights went up...

Limbeck
When they started playing, they introduced themselves, but I completely missed the name. I was really surprised at how good they were! I was like, Wow! Me and Jo kept looking at each other and putting our thumbs up. About this time, some fat guy came up behind me (there's one at every gig) and started moshing and actually shoving me into the barrier really hard. I put up with it- it wasn't ruining the music or anything. They played really well and sounded so brilliant live. I really want to see them again, but they blatantly won't play again in England until they're really massive. The guitarist's shoelace came undone halfway through their set, and it was really funny 'cos he hopped to the side of the stage and tried to tell the keyboard player of the next band what was wrong. He was attempting to point to his shoes and play guitar at the same time- teehee. The keyboard player eventually crawled onto the stage and did his shoelaces up. He was also filming them- and us, at certain points. He gave me the 'rock-on' sign and I stuck my tongue out at him. Ahem. Back to Limbeck- I remember them playing 'Julia', 'Albatross and Ivy' and 'Silver Things'. Tyson Ritter came out and sang a song with them- cue mass screaming. After the gig I bought their CD- more on that at the end of the review.

Motion City Soundtrack
They were definitely a bit more rock than Limbeck. Their set started with their lead singer and guitarist, Justin, standing on stage singing and playing on his own. I was like, What the hell? Then his bandmates came out and I got it. The keyboard player didn't seem to do much, but he made some cool moves with his mini-keyboard thing: like flip himself right around over it and keep on playing. About this time, the fat guy who was moshing behind me at Limbeck went absolutely spastic and actually began to slam himself into me. Kate says that she nearly tapped him on the shoulder to tell him, "Stop treating my friend like she is the barrier!" Apparently he was fit or something (I couldn't move, let alone turn around), but, uh, no. I have no respect for weird people who are so violent. Then the guy put his hand on the barrier between me and Jo, and she went mental. Remember this is her first gig! She turned around and gave him ten shades of hell, screaming about how he was a selfish so-and-so and he was blah blah blah. Much respect goes out to Jo. I, personally, was scared to pick a fight with him in case I got beaten up, but she didn't care. Tyson Ritter came out and did a song with them (Motion City Soundtrack, not Jo and the fat guy) and so cue a lot more screaming.

All-American Rejects
FINALLY the All-American Rejects came on. They played 'My Paper Heart' first, and everyone started going absolutely mental. They changed guitars a trillion times, don't ask me why, I know nothing. Tyson Ritter said some disgusting stuff about, "Go on and feel the girl in front of you up, just reach out and touch her between her *incomprehensible*, you know she wants it!" Uh, no, Tyson, thank you. Anyway, they played really well, even though I could barely breathe because the fat guy behind me had been replaced by scary frantic girls. They played 'Your Star', which made me really happy 'cos it's my favourite song. They played 'Swing, Swing' last and then left, and then came back on. For the record, bands that do that annoy me, but I guess AAR can get away with it, 'cos they played so well!

Then I had to go and get the bag while everyone else seemed to end up in the alleyway outside. When I finally caught up with them, they were trying to break in backstage. Kate tried to force me to pull the security guard. Those of you who know me will be glad to hear that I refused. Eventually, after this random dude who gave me and Kate plectrums came out, the security guy started to get pissed off. I watched in bemusement as two guys and a girl came out the door. One of the guys moaned, "I knew I should have said I was Dave's cousin! There's always a Dave in the support band!" Teehee. They made friends with Kate and everyone. Then Kate asked this random, very fit guy what his t-shirt said, and they had a long conversation which ended in him giving her his e-mail address. He said he played bass and sang 'in a small band'. Then these two random guys ran down and one of them screamed, "OH MY GOD IT'S FRANCIS!" (which was the cute guy's name) and jumped on him. They both got extremely excited, saying, "Francis, we love your band!" One of the guys rang someone on his mobile and said into it, "No shit, dude, it's Francis, I have Francis on the phone!" He handed his phone to the extremely-scared-looking Francis, who talked to the person on the phone. Kate said to Francis, "I don't think the other dude wants his phone back... RUN! RUN FOR IT!" but I think he was just too shocked to get it. It was all extremely hilarious. The two guys got Francis's signature and left, whereupon we all insisted we had to have his signature too in case he got famous, lol.

Then we all got bored and went to stand around waiting for Sian's dad to pick us up, at the front of the Astoria. We all got signed Limbeck CDs, although Jo was the only one to get the whole set of signatures. The Limbeck guys were all really nice, especially Patrick and Matt, who talked to Nadia for about half-an-hour about some show called the OC or something like that. Oh, and then the Limbeck driver Jamie gave Jo his Coke (I'm talking the fizzy drink here, not illegal drugs) and Kate asked him if he wanted to swap bracelets. He said alright, but then she decided she couldn't part with hers and so she stole his and paid him with a hug and a kiss. I asked him if he wanted to swap with me, and he said yeah alright (very nice guy! lol) but I couldn't find a bracelet, so I took the hairtie out of my tie and attempted to remove my purple ribbon from it. When this proved undoable, I just gave him the hairtie, ribbon and all; and nicked one of his bracelets. Which is surprisingly gay-looking, actually. Teehee.

So anyway, we were all just hanging around outside the Astoria, waiting for Sian's dad. (I'm impressed that you've managed to read this far!) And you'll never guess what happened- unless you know me and I've told you already. That's right, I saw a whole load of pigs- flying right across the sky! No, I'm joking. What really happened: Kate screamed and pointed- at THE ALL-AMERICAN FUCKING REJECTS, who just walked straight out of the Astoria and right in front of us. AND NO-ONE NOTICED, despite the fact that the drummer had a weirdo Elvis wig on. Being freakish teeny obsessives (especially Kate, who INSISTED we do this), what else could we do but STALK the All-American Rejects down the backstreets of London (okay, I'm exaggerating here- down across the road)? We saw them getting into their van, so Nadia ran down, poked her head inside and said, "Hi, we're not stalking you, but we just wanna say that you're all really fit and can we have hugs?" So Nadia got a hug off Tyson, and then Jo got a hug and she got INSIDE their van. Me and Kate hugged him at the same time, and Jo was just about to hug Nick (whom Kate and Nadia yelled, "You're EXTRA fit!" to) when their driver person yelled, "We have to GO!" and nearly slammed the van door with Jo inside! He stared at her in wonder before she hopped out. Tyson said, "Bye, crazy stalker people!" and we had to leave :( so we, uh... randowntheroadscreaming. Extremely teeny behaviour, I know, but come on, we're only teenagers once. We then all phoned people to scream down the phone at THEM. Me and Kate phoned Eva and, uh, woke her up (SORRY!).

Finally Sian's dad arrived to pick her up. He was so nice! He allowed these six screaming girls to sit in his car and do not much else but scream and giggle and talk loudly all the way from the Astoria to Wimbledon, so thank you Sian's dad.

I swear every gig I go to gets better and better!

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