Give It A Name Incoming 2009.

Yes, I was there and I witnessed greatness.

Now, many people [well everyone] who know me, know that I love a good gig. There is nothing I enjoy more. In fact, I just about find a new gig to go to every week and usually I don't get to go. But still, I do go to quite a few gigs every year. Now, when I say I love gigs, I mean I LOVE gigs. I throw myself into mosh pits, laugh when I get battered by crowds of people, push myself so far to the front of the crowd that I can't literally move or breathe and get drenched in sweat, beer and other random things. It's incredible.

So my first gig of 2009. Give It A Name.

My first time at Brixton Academy. The queue was pretty good. It didn't take long, about 40 minutes approximately and we got there early. So it was raining. Typical. knowing we'd get baked inside we gave our hoodies to Gemma's mum so I had to stand in the rain for the whole queue with only a Tshirt on. There was entertainment though. Here's a list of some interesting things that happened in the queue:
Someone decided to throw some fruit out of a window and a group of dudes decided to amuse us all by trying to get it back in. There were plently of mashed bananas littering the floor by the time they had finished.
Someone also came up with the crazy idea of pouring cornflakes down a drain. Tasty.
There were some rather rude messages scribbled across the wall too.
A guy accidentally went to join the ladies queue to get searched and the security dudes genius response was 'Oi. This is the ladies queue. Now I know you're confused but you can't go there.' I was cracking up so bad.

And now to the main event:

The inside was weird. The floor is carpet but it's so sticky that when you walk across it you can feel your shoes sticking, like you've stepped on chewing gum. Secondly, there was the most amazing NO CROWDSURFING sign ever that depicted three stick men holding up another one. I wanted to take it but it was a pretty big sign. [The sign was ignored a lot later on.]

Okay so the first band on were called In This Moment and because nobody knew who they were we all got a pretty big shock. The usual big hairy men wearing black walked on, picked up their guitars and got ready to go which was to be expected, as this was a rock gig but then came the shock. A small, blonde woman in a little yellow dress came skipping on stage and we were all a little stunned but a bit like 'Oh well, lets just wait and see.' And then she started full on screaming down the microphone and all our jaws just dropped in unison. Now I've heard female screamo singers and they are good but she was really good because she could sing well too. Overall they were an okay band and we even got given a free CD when we left. 5/10.

Next up was someone called Lights who announced that she was from Canada to quite a bit of laughter, not that us British laugh at everyone but she was really into it and just so darn cheerful. She also announced that she loved England and the way we spoke. She did an impression of an English person saying "mental" that was actually quite good but I think somebody should have told her that virtually nobody in England has that stereotypical 'posh' accent anymore. Anyway her music was just as happy as she was and she was quite good but there was one criticism and that is that all of her songs sort of sounded the same except when she did a cover of one of those tacky, 90s boyband songs and everybody sung along. Good times. She should have been a 5/10 but there is one thing that happened that bumps that up a bit. Yes, she somehow managed to start some kind of crazy dancing. I turned to my right and what looked like a mosh pit had formed and I was thinking to myself 'Okaaay then' but then everyone took turns at dancing instead. Amazing. Sadly, the dancing turned into everyone in the circle sitting down chanting 'Sit' and waving their arms about so for that she gets a 6/10.

And then there was Emery. Now I listened to their songs on MySpace a few hours before and I can say that I wasn't entirely impressed. I listen to songs that have a lot of screaming but those type of songs need some kind of structure. I was willing to give them a chance to impress me though as being in a band is not about the CD but how good you are at performing songs live to your fans and therefore bands are usually better live. And my theory was proved correct. They were good live. Being hyped up in front of hundreds of people obviously paid off and they did have quite a few fans in the crowd. They got the crowd entertained. 6/10.

Hmm so next was The King Blues. I listened to their songs on MySpace too and they are a good band but I was a bit skeptical about how well they would do at a rock gig as they sound a bit indie. However, they were freaking awesome. They had the crowd dancing and someone in front of my was smoking something that looked a bit strange and the singer got out something that looked like a banjo and started dancing around. Also, they had a lot of fans there who sung along. 7/10.

OMG. Next up, The Academy Is... This is the band that my good friend Gemma and I had been hyping ourselves up for, for months! So, obviously we had to get down the front. We pushed and shoved and got quite close. Now, I have some mixed feelings. Naturally I knew from hours of watching live videos that William Beckett has an exceptional voice and they are a good live band but... the lights went down and the screaming fan girls screamed and only three members walked onstage. No Sisky or Mike. I'm not going to complain because they must have had decent reasons but to be honest I was a bit sad. However, Butcher did an awesome job on bass and they did play a lot of my favourites which was good. For the music they should get an 8 or 9 but something lacked. They didn't seem to have much enthusiasm and they had a really short set so Gemma and I were disappointed. For that they get a 7/10.

The Blackout. I must explain. My awesome friend Laura liked The Blackout a lot [I don't think she listens to them much anymore]. Anyway, for some reason I gave them a listen about a year ago and I thought they were crap to be completely honest. So for the past year I've had something against them. However, I decided to give them a chance to change my mind because they hadn't actually done anything wrong and I was just holding a weird grudge against them. I put a few of their songs on my iPod and listened to them whilst getting ready and I thought to myself 'They're not so bad. In fact, I bet they'll be good live.' So when they walked onstage I said "Right I'm going in" as the others had said that they were saving their energy for Enter Shikari. So I left them and ran into the biggest crowd yet. Pretty soon I found myself on the edge of a mosh pit. A brutal mosh pit. Sense vanished and I ran into this mosh pit full of guys. Obviously I got bashed about a bit. Bruised and kicked. But then the craziest thing happened. Whilst running about in this mosh pit getting bashed around I turned to see Gemma? So I shouted "Gemma WTF!" And she laughed and practically screamed "Holly!" And then I got slammed into and she explained that they had changed their minds. Right then. Anyway we got separated and I got shoved over and someone caught me and threw me back into the mosh pit and so on.
And then I witnessed greatness as The Blackout got everyone to kneel down and when Sean shouted 'Get The F*** Up!' Everyone went mental.
Not only the best band that played that night but one of the best bands I've seen [with the exception of Enter Shikari]. 10/10.

So then, 10pm and the final band take to the stage. One of my favourite bands in fact. Enter Shikari! I've seen them before, back in November and I've pretty much been a fan since Take To The Skies came out. Give It A Name had a lot to live up to as my experience seeing Enter Shikari before turned out to be the best gig I have ever been to. So all four of us barge through the crowd to get a decent spot and ended up in the place where all the best mosh pits happen. Yay. The lights go down, the entire crowd roar and as soon as the music starts a mosh pit forms in front of my eyes. I somehow manage to get dragged into it, straight out the other side and pushed through the crowd and guess where I ended up. On the barrier. I was by myself but it was so closely packed that I couldn't move at all and I was willing to take a chance on missing out on the mosh pits if it meant that one of the band members jumped into the crowd and I was that close. Now, one thing I'd forgotten is that when you're at the front, the crowdsurfers fall on your head. I literally had 10 people land on my head, one of which kicked me in the face whilst about three people around me passed out and had to be dragged out by the security guards. And then Rou jumped into the crowd and we all tried to run to him which was pretty much impossible. But I got close enough to be inches away from him. Everyone around me had their hands reached out to him [me included] and he shook the persons hand next to me instead. My disappointment was immense. Much like the rest of their set. 9/10. They remain the best band I've seen live.

Overall the night was incredible. Looking forward to next year.