On Thursday the 16th of October 2003, me and three friends (Eva, Kate H and Sita) went to see Hondo McClean, Million Dead, Further Seems Forever and Funeral for a Friend at the London Astoria.

It was a half-day, the beginning of our half-term, so by three-thirty we were ready to leave Eva's house and get the train up to London. When we finally got to the Astoria (after a heart-stopping incident when our tickets refused to go through the barriers!), there really wasn't much of a queue, only about twenty people or so, not nearly as much as there was at GC. So we got in line and prepared to wait the three hours or so until the doors open. The people in the queue must have thought I was a right weirdo, 'cos Eva HAD to visit a newsagents and she made me go with her... then Sita HAD to get a camera and I went with her- we walked ALL the way down the road until we found a shop selling cameras, and then we realised that Sita had left her purse with Eva... who was still in the queue. And then while Sita and Eva went to get the fagging camera, Sita ran back yelling, "Someone called your phone!" at me, which sent me into a panic attack 'cos I thought it was my parents. Thank the Lord it was only Elli! My parents did call, later, and I said (quite loudly), "I'm in New Malden!" so the people at the gig now think I'm a loony who doesn't know where she is.

Me and Eva went up to McDonald's, and she was singing Juno, and this girl there was like, "Oh, are you going to the gig, then?" and we said yeah. Then she said she went to the one in Bristol, and showed us these fat bruises she'd gotten. I was getting quite freaked out by this time, especially when we returned to the queue and saw the number of massive scary-looking guys there... I was like, "I refuse to die in this moshpit!"

Anyway, the doors finally opened at 7pm and let us in from the cold. Surprisingly they didn't ask any of us for any ID, despite the fact it was an over-16s only gig. Hehehehehehehe. (Woah, that was childish.) We went straight up to the front and got really good spaces- second row, to the left.

Hondo McClean
Hondo McClean opened the gig, and they were quite good. They had the CUTEST drummer I have ever seen. He looked surprisingly young and innocent. Ahhh! Anyway, they played well, and talked about the Movielife and stuff.

Million Dead
In between Hondo McClean and Million Dead, they were adjusting the amps and other technical stuff, and this blonde girl was doing something with the bass, and I was like, "Kate, do Million Dead have a girl bassist?" AND THEY DO!! Wow! How coolio. Yay for girl bassists. I really like Million Dead, I downloaded some of their stuff from the Net before we went, and I thought it was all really good, and they sounded amazing live. I may even buy their album... which the lead singer shamelessly pimped. Hehehe.

Further Seems Forever
Although Further Seems Forever weren't that bad, the crowd were getting kind of bored of support acts by this time, and they got a couple of bottles thrown at them. Despite this, they played an okay set and communicated with us. By this time my feet were killing me and my back was aching from holding Kate H's hand (while she was at the barrier and I was in the second row) and my ears were buzzing, so I wasn't really in the best of moods, and I was desperate for Funeral for a Friend to come on.

Funeral for a Friend
When I first heard a Funeral for a Friend song (I believe it was Red Is The New Black), I didn't really like them, but they grew on me loads, so when Eva said she'd got the tickets, I decided to go along. And it was SOOOOO amazing. They played all of their old songs, I think, plus all of the new album except two songs. I knew all the songs but not all the words, just all the choruses, but hey. Kate and I stayed at the side while Eva and Sita got pushed into the moshpit in the middle. No one around me and Kate was jumping... apart from us. Some guy slammed into us from the side, and this other guy in a Thrice tshirt told Kate to slap him, lol. Then Thrice guy yelled at the other guy and said "James, don't be so ungentlemanly!" and apologised to Kate on his behalf- awww, cuteness.

Matt, Funeral for a Friend's lead singer, has the CUTEST Welsh accent. It is so adorable! And he was surprisingly polite, thanking us after every song *squeals in stupid manner*. He decided to come into the 'pit, sadly not near me or Kate, but two feet away from Eva! Oh, and their drummer was amazing! He was drumming without looking and singing backing vocals into a mic at the same time! Multi-talented, huh?! Lol.

Eva decided that she was too 'hot' in the moshpit, and so she took off her top and was standing around in her bra and jeans which are too big for her. She had to retrieve her top at the end. Hahahahaha.

FFAF played really well, and sounded fuckin' amazing live. They sounded just like they do recorded, only BIGGER and BETTER. (random caps, lol).

I'm really glad I went, it was an amazing night, even if I had to lie to my parents about it. Who cares. I shall remember it forever! The atmosphere was good, about half the people knew ALL the words. I would have expected more, but then again their album only came out a few days before, so there you go.

Once again, WOW! and thanks to Eva for buying me a ticket. And thanks to Kate for converting me. And well done to Kate for not freaking out about the lack of space like she normally would have done (hehe). I'm sorry. Claustrophobia is not a joke. Well done Kate.

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