rockfotze | Entries tagged with festivals and gigs

Well Supanova 2011 is finally over and I am exhausted. If you thought attending for two days straight was exhausting, try having a stall there as well as going and getting your geek on. It was intense! We decided to get a booth for the Brisbane Zombie Walk, to help promote it and get some extra funds from donations and selling some merch. We got a lot of registrations and sold all our left over shirts from last years walk as well as the figurines and books we had from some of our sponsors. We’ve already started planning our stall for next year which may involve brain-icing cupcakes to draw in the crowds.

Things I observed over the last two days while surrounded by Brisbane’s biggest nerds:

The girl in the stall next to us drew people as anime characters and was revoltingly good at it. She would have made thousands from her custom portraits on top of the pre-drawn pictures of manga and anime characters she was also selling. We are amused to see one man get her to draw his little doll which he had sitting on his shoulder as he walked around the convention. It was super weird and probably the highlight of the weekend for all who witnessed it.

There is absolutely no such thing as body-shame at a convention like Supanova. Guys and girls were wearing some of the most revealing and skin-tight costumes I have ever seen and they walked around like they did not give a damn. Good on ‘em because god knows I’d have to lose about 20kg before I’d ever feel that confident without pants in public!

Tiny top hats are pretty popular at the moment which is kind of cool but also makes me very jealous and possessive because I feel like it is my thing. There were some amazing ones there though and will have to start hunting them down to add to my collection.

I was able to identify a lot more of the costumes than I thought I would. Maybe I spend too much time on the internet, or maybe I just have an excellent memory for useless crap. But at the same time there were just so many costumes I couldn’t identify at all so I just assumed they were all from anime’s I’ve never seen or heard of .

People were cashing in on internet memes like Troll face, fffuuu guy and Forever Alone which was hilarious. One guy had a mask of Troll Face and pranced and danced around all the time. Too funny.

Many nerds lack manners. The amount of times I was nearly knocked rotten by some pimply faced teen who was making for some stall was appalling. But then again, many of them are all super polite and in some cases extremely chatty. A couple of times I found myself in intense discussions about Lara Croft or dyslexia which was interesting albeit a little bit disconcerting.

People actually recognised me and read my blog! I was shocked to say the least. I’m now going to have to up the ante knowing people who aren’t my friends read this thing. Thanks to those who came said hello, it was so nice to meet you :)

As a grande finale for the weekend, my sister and I went and got photos with Tom Felton (aka Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter films). Naturally I was excited because I’ve always had a soft spot for poor Draco and loved how Tom played the character. He was really, really lovely and such a good sport. Basically the scene played like this:

Tom: Hi there.

My Sister: *loud whisper* Show him your tattoo!

Me: Hi! Um, I want to show my tattoo off in our photo *suddenly very starstruck and giggly*

Tom: Oh my god, is that genuine? *strokes my Dark Mark gently*

Me: Yep! *dying on the inside*

Photographer takes a photo, Tom has his hand around me and points at my arm and I try to pout but am overwhelmed with giggles so don’t quite pull of the come-hither look I was aiming for.

Tom: Thanks, lovely.

Me: Thank you! *walks the wrong way, dying some more*

Click the pic for the larger version

All in all it was a great weekend, though I am officially not doing anything zombie-related all week lest I end up strangling someone! I am probably going to be all Tom Felton/Draco Malfoy obsessed instead :D

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I know every blogger has done this before, but usually they’re boring and full of lame advice about wearing sunscreen and drinking lots of water which you should already know. I thought I’d mix it up a bit by explaining the Dos and DON’Ts through my recent experience at Summafieldayze which took place at the Gold Coast on January 2nd.

DO: Dress appropriately

Basically you can’t wear skinny jeans to a music festival in the middle of summer. I went to my first Summafieldayze in tight jeans and Chucks and almost died from overheating/sand in my shoes. I quickly learned you need to dress light and comfortably, though don’t be a massive dag about it if you can avoid it. As tacky as they are, those fluro kids had it right with their singlets and shorts and slip on shoes. Also, don’t wear thongs when you know there’s a good chance of rain/mud. You will lose them and have to risk walking through pee later in the evening.

DON’T: Wear new shoes

My friend did this and while they looked comfortable, they gave her such bad blisters she couldn’t walk for days afterwards. Wear shoes that are well-worn and comfortable while also being disposable should you lose them in a massive mud pit. If you know it will be raining and therefore muddy, gum boots are great but make sure they fit as those suckers can cause nasty blisters.

DO: Medicate Yourself

If you suffer from any medical conditions, take what you need with you in a safe compartment of your bag and don’t rely on the ambo’s there to help you. I get migraines and only took some weak-ass pain killers with me which did bugger all when I was hit with a killer migraine of doom at the end of the night. Sitting on a bus with drunk/high festival-goers when you have a migraine blows big time, so assume the worst and take extra precautions (especially if you have a life-threatening condition, naturally).

DON’T: Forget to plan

It seems obvious, but I made this mistake very mistake the other day at Sumamfieldayze. For some reason we couldn’t find the timetable on the website so didn’t know who was on when until we got a timetable from someone else on the bus on our way there. As a result we missed one of the main acts we wanted to see because we assumed they’d be on a lot later than they actually were. We also left an hour later than we originally wanted to, and because the Gold Coast is just hopeless with organising festivals 90% of the time, it took us THREE hours to get from Surfers Paradise to the Spit, which is really only a 5-10 minute drive on a regular day. If we’d spent more time working out the plan instead of buying and consuming booze, we would have made it there a lot earlier and not had to hang around screeching morons for three too may hours. On the upside though, we managed to find someone willing to take us to the festival gates by jetski which was hilariously awesome.

DO: Drink before you get there

If you’re planning to drink at a music festival like this one, make sure you have saved your pennies. For a crazy $10.50 you can get a can of a premixed drink that is only mid-strength. Oh yes. I suggest having a few drinks before hand to get the day started and then go easy at the festival because you will send yourself broke if you try and get wasted there. Other options included getting into the VIP area which usually sells full strength drinks for less or just take drugs. Seriously, anything over $8 for a mid-strength drink is highway robbery and only encourages people to take drugs. I’m not saying I am condoning drug use, I’m just saying that for a lot of people it’s more economical to have a pill for around $30 than try and get drunk at a festival. For another perspective on this, check out this article by Sam Cleveland on The Punch.

DON’T: Rely on your phone too much

By the end of the night it’s likely you won’t be able to get reception, or like me your phone will go flat because you used it to take photos/update Facebook. If you’re worried about losing your friends, agree on a meeting point and wait there at the end of the night, or else just make your own way home. I have notoriously poor luck with mobiles at festivals, namely because friends give me their to hold which is a right pain in the butt when you end up losing them!

DO: make sure you have the next day off

I have tried to go to work the day after a big festival and it sucks. If you can do it, take the next day off work and recuperate. No one likes a hungover asshole in the office so get over your misery in the privacy of your own home and then get back to your routine the day after.

DONT: Go to a festival if it’s not your thing

I’ve gone to festivals with friends who were only going for one artist, and generally hate the style of music that dominates the day. Man it’s a massive downer. They either end up getting watsed and acting like a crazy fool and missing that one artist they came to see anyway. Or they bitch and moan about all the “losers” there, how shit the music is and what a terrible day it’s been. Nip this in the bud with a friend who’s looking at going to the next festival because they like whoever’s headlining. Remind them of all of the other acts who they hate and show them photos of patrons from previous years. Or even better, tell ‘em to get a life and stop hating so much. Both are good.

http://www.summafieldayze.com/goldcoast-photos/4-summafieldayze–gold-coast-2010/detail/143-dsc2068.html

Originally published at rubyvelour.com

Wow, I cannot believe 2010 is almost over! I know I’m not the only one who think this year went ridiculously fast. I remember going to the Good Vibrations festival in Sydney, having my 10 year high school reunion and moving into my awesome unit like it was last week (all happened in February) and I can’t believe I have had three, if not four, vastly different jobs in the last 12 months. I didn’t go overseas once this year while I managed to be overseas three separate time in 2009. That’s probably why the year flew by so quickly this year, as I didn’t have major holidays to look forward to, which tends to make time slow down drastically.

If I was going to be honest I’d tell you that 2010 hasn’t been my finest year. As I said, I’ve changed jobs a lot this year with some moves being great and others being not-so-great. Recently I lost my job, a job I loved, only to find myself staying within the company and into a position that I now also enjoy. It was tough but I try not to dwell too much and move on with my life. It did help me realise I am not content with where I am in life and have vowed to do something creative, most likely graphic design, next year. So now I am saving up to do a full-time course or at least a part time one sometime in 2011.

It’s not all been bad though of course. I’ve done some good things which I am proud of. I maintained this blog all year which is a pretty big deal for someone as vague and forgetful as me. I got into nail art and got over my fear of posting photos of me wearing clothes on the internet. I am also the fittest and healthiest (and therefor, slimmest) I have been in years which is an awesome accomplishment which I plan to continue. I’ve done some dumb diets and lost weight but this is the first time I just ate healthy and exercised a lot and I am really toned and so damn healthy, it’s sickening!

I managed to go to a heap of festivals, I didn’t even let the fact two of them were on the same day up here in QLD and went on a road trip down to Sydney for Good Vibes and then got to see one of my favourite bands, Faith No More, play up in Brisbane (and I also got to meet the band Anvil who I was briefly obsessed with thanks to their doco). I also saw Lady Gaga twice in one weekend and Calvin Harris twice this year, both of whom I love very much. I also managed to run one of the biggest events in Brisbane – the Brisbane Zombie Walk. 10,000 people and $13k raised in donations later, we officially run the larehst zombie walk anywhere in the world.

OK so maybe it wasn’t that bad after all. I didn’t travel and I am still without a bangin’ career but I am working on both of those things. In fact I am working on a lot of things already, including getting more crafty with the new sewing machine my mum bought me for Christmas as well as my new found love of scrapbooking. I also intend to totally overhaul my blog soon and so some excellent things with it which I haven’t had a chance to do yet.

I wish you all a fun New Years Eve and hope 2011 is all you want it to be. Don’t forget to keep safe and if you’re heading out, be responsible and look how while doing so! (Just remember to hide the tacky plastic cups when posing for photos, as I quickly learned today. Ooops!)

For my last few days of 2010, I plan to relax a whole heap, sleep in late, catch up with old friends and then head down to the Gold Coast for some trashy NYE fun before the first festival of the new year – Summafieldayze! Catch ya’ll on the flip side!

Originally published at rubyvelour.com
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It's taken me some time to write some sort of review for Lady Gaga's concerts (she had two in Brisbane and I went to both). I blame the fact immediately after that crazy weekend, I caught a bastard of a cold which is still hanging around and pissing me off. But there's also the fact I needed a few days to come down from the high I felt from seeing her live.

I am a big fan of Lady Gaga and have been since I first heard about her and saw her perform "Just Dance" for Miss Universe 2008 before she really took off here in Australia. I was intrigued by her look, what music inspires her and the song itself which I thought was an awesome catchy pop song. Within no time the song was a huge hit in Australia and so anyone who thought themselves better than the masses who choose what songs appear in the charts declared her as a one-hit wonder and rubbished her. I've remained a loyal an and defended her defiantly whenever moron's had something stupid to say about her, her music or those ridiculous rumours that kept popping up.

Suffice to say I was very excited about her proper tour of Australia as I wasn't willing to waste my money seeing the Pussycat Dolls (I'm really not a fan of theirs to out it mildly) just to see her supporting them. I'd only planned to go to the first show on the Friday night but a couple of days before the date I suddenly got the bright idea that I should go to both of her shows (not something I put much thought into, resulting in a few heart attacks and a lot of money spent thanks to most people on ebay being complete morons) which meant my dilemma of not having anything wear was immediately doubled! Though thankfully it was also easily resolved.

I could go into a lot of lavish and descriptive detail about every part of her show, especially since seeing it twice meant I saw a lot of stuff I missed on the first night, but that would be boring and isn't quite the point of today's blog. You see, I was a little bit worried Lady Gaga was going to be all Gwen Stefani on me (I saw Gwen's last concert and it was just dreadful, I loved her in No Doubt but as a solo singer she's terrible and her show wasn't very impressive at all). But I quickly discovered Lady Gaga is an amazingly talented woman! Not only are her songs great but she's a fantastic singer! We're talking about belting out he words without ever dropping a note, being able to sing some opera-style stuff and even did a gorgeous little showtune ditty! Her costumes were more amazing than you could ever, EVER imagine (the one up top is the most magnificent thing I ever laid eyes on - it all moved by itself, I kid you not!). She's not the best dancer in the world but she danced just enough to look good without getting all Britney Spears on us. She played the piano in various ways, including one that was on FIRE and a few keytar's to boot. She even played double bass! The set was fantastic and the transitions between the set/major costume changes were almost my favourite bit of the whole show (projected images of her on a white screen with thumping house music - some of the most divine and artistic imagery I've ever seen). The whole show had a storyline which tied everything together while also creating a real stage-show feel to the whole thing. And last, but certainly not least, girl has a GREAT ASS! Lemme tell you, I'd never wear pants either if I had a butt that good!

All in all she exceeded my expectations and thrilled the hell out of me. I had to endure weeks of teasing prior to the show from friends who refuse to accept the fact she's any good and think I'm pathetic for loving her so much, but now I laugh in their faces and say "you have NO fucking idea what you missed out on". I only wish I could have taken the doubters with me to show them how great she is, because it would have blown their minds and I would have received a thousand apologies from all of them. And if you don't believe me, check out this awesome review by Obnoxious Owl which only strengthens my point!

Lara, Kayla & I before the show Check out the rest of my photos here!

It is sad but true - I have become total balls at blogging lately. BUT it is not my fault! Since we moved last month we have been waiting (very impatiently) for our internet to be connected. It has seriously been over three weeks and it's still NOT BLOODY CONNECTED! It's a damn joke and I have been ranting and raving at them about it to no avail. So I don't know when we'll have the internet connected, if ever D: On the plus side our new unit is AMAZING and makes me happy every time I come home from work.

Speaking of work, I started a new job this week! It's not necessarily a glamorous job but I am impressed by how good they are to their employees and have been having a blast in training. With the exception of maybe one person, everyone in my group is awesome and I am going to really enjoy working with them all. I am stoked, let me tell you!

Aside from those two massive things, I have been enduring my HUGE month of festivals. Good Vibrations in Sydney was epic, Soundwave was fantastic and tomorrow is Future Music Festival! It's been fun but I will be glad when it's all over. I need sleep and a lot of it.

Until I can get back into writing more, I will leave you with a photo of myself from Soundwave where I got to meet Anvil! This is me and Lips! As you can probably tell I was EXTREMELY EXCITED!

Me & Lips

ruby_sig

Originally published at rubyvelour.com.
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I'm sorry I haven't been posting for a few days but I have an excellent reason! You see I went on my first proper road trip! I went to Sydney by car with my friend Sarah and my sister Erin for the Good Vibrations festival. Because Good Vibes up here in Queensland was on the same day as Soundwave (an alternative, rock music festival) which I already had tickets for, we decided there was no sense in missing the amazing lineup at Good Vibes so made the trek down to Sydney via Newcastle.

It was a fun trip and a great festival and well worth doing again. By driving down we stayed at Sarah's friends place in Newcastle (two hours out of Sydney) for free and only had to pay for petrol. Going by plane would have cost us twice as much, plus we would have had to pay for accommodation. We got to see some famous Aussie landmarks such as the Big Prawn in Ballina and the Big Banana in Coffs Harbour which I never would have seen otherwise. Unfortunately we missed out on going to the Big Banana as we got there too late on Sunday afternoon, but we stopped and took photos anyway - it's too Aussie/tacky to just drive by!

The festival itself was great - everyone was so chilled out and lovely. Also very badly dressed we noticed (and had a lot of fun taking sneaky photos of the really terrible outfits). It rained most of the day but it was still a tonne of fun, even if I ended up being bitterly disappointed by Armand Van Helden's set (he's my favourite producer but man did his electro-house riddled set suck major balls). I lost the other right as Basement Jaxx came on stage which resulted in panicking and temper tantrums but that was the only bad thing that happened thankully.

And that was the first festival for my extremely busy February. Only two left! Thank god I have this week off to recover a little bit.

ruby_sig

Originally published at rubyvelour.com.
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Last night I went to my first big gig of 2010, one that I'd been particularly excited about due to it featuring three of my favourite artists - Calvin Harris, Dizzee Rascal and Lily Allen. I have been a fan of both Calvin and Lily since their first single's came out and have seen each of them once before. With Dizzee I admit I kind of jumped on the bandwagon when "Dance Wit Me" came out, but as someone who is actually very much into rap and not just a fancy-pants who likes whatever is popular right now, I don't feel too bad about it.

Last night's gig was a mixture of good and bad. Oh the music and artists were great, but there was a lot of shit stuff going on that nearly ruined my evening. First of all it was at the Riverstage which is an excellent venue but as it's all-ages and has 10pm noise restrictions, gigs there often start quite early which sucks if you work til 5pm which is when the gates typically open. My friend Sarah, my sister Erin and I planned to lave mine at 6pm to get there around 6:30pm thinking that's about when Miami Horror (who?) would be done. But oh no, turns out Calvin Harris started at 6:15 and so we only made it for his last two songs ("The Girls" and "I'm Not Alone") which PISSED ME OFF SO MUCH! Not only did he have a shit start time, his set was only 30 minutes long. God I was angry. I am seriously considering writing a strongly-worded email to someone about this. Or bust some heads together, whichever ends up being easier. I managed to dance and cheer and swoon for these two songs at least, so I guess it could have been worse (ie. missing him entirely). My sister and I both got his t-shirt as a tribute to him and our poor timing. Also because he is so very handsome and ought to be painted in gold across my boobs ;)

Dizzee Rascal was next and that's about when all the teenyboppers came along. A number of which stood right by us and tried to push through. We wouldn't let them so they decided it's be clever to push and crash into us violently. We told them to stop, yelled at them and then started pushing back. But they kept doing it and being little smart-arses about it, just to add icing to the cake. So Sarah pushed them as hard as she could so they almost toppled over and told them to "put some clothes on you sluts" (I'm sorry but girls who are clearly 15 years old should NOT be out wearing tiny denim shorts and little velveteen bra-tops, nor should they wear that much trashy blue eyeshadow and red lipstick). One in particular, I shall call her Velveteen (for her poor choice in top-material) was yelly and getting all up in our faces. I got very black all of a sudden and did the crazy-black-lady hand-thing and yelled "Do you wanna do this?" very loudly in her face a bunch of times. This kept on even as Dizzee got on stage, Sarah pushed them again and a couple of them came back swinging so we grabbed them, roughed them, mostly Miss Velveteen, up ever so slightly (just a few choke-holds, face-smooshings, slappings etc) and a final shove and they finally decided to back off. We shook with rage for a while but we soon transformed that into energy to DANCE.

Dizzee Rascal was excellent, I really loved his show. I saw him once at Parklife a couple of years ago but was too far back and too smashed to enjoy it properly so this was a much better experience. He started off with a bit of his back catalog and a few of the non-singles from his latest album which were all excellent. He worked the crowd a lot, getting us all to cheer and chant things and generally being very cute yet a lil bit gangsta (his face is so cute I could pinch his cheeks forever, which is probably not the look he's going for really). I flipped my lid when he and his rather handsome backup singer (backup rapper?) started doing the Funky Charlston before "Old School" because it's my favourite dance of all times ever! Then at the end he played all the big, new hits, starting with "Dance Wit Me", followed by "Holiday" (probably my favorite) and ending with "Bonkers". I never jumped/danced so much in my life, my legs and butt are still sore actually, and I very nearly peed myself from all the jumping/needing to go to the bathroom.

Lily Allen was on next, but we were exhausted and so stood a bit further back where the slope starts in order to see her properly. God is she short! And her legs are amazing! I don't know if it's weight-loss or just those fantastic high heels she wore but damn I couldn't stop staring at those pins! She opened with Lil Wayne's "A Milli" which I thought was hilarious because that song is so bad it's good. She played a lot from her new album which I admit I only got a month or so ago, so I didn't know a couple of the songs. I loved how she dropped some drum n bass and dubstep into her songs, such as "Smile" because I was feeling as though her songs were just a teeny bit slow going at first. She did an AMAZING cover of Brittney's "Womanizer" which I know all the words too apparently (as if anyone's actually shocked by this fact!) and ended the gig with a very extended version of "Not Fair" which had some (decent) electro as the last chorus. I personally loved her rants the most - she told us she'd watched BBC news the other day and was angry at the Americans criticizing Obama for not making the changes he promised since becoming President last year. I laughed, imagining her shouting at the TV, shaking her fist and thinking "right, I'm going to have to rant about this tonight to get it off my chest". Hilarious. I also loved hearing everyone yelling the lyrics to "Fuck You" whilst giving the finger. Very classy!

Overall it was a lot of fun and I guess I can't complain too much. I just wish we'd seen all of Calvin and that those slutty little girls had OD'd before they got to the gig (they were definitely on something), though admittedly I did get a lovely rush of adrenaline after our biff-up so maybe it was a good thing!

ruby_sig

Originally published at rubyvelour.com.

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Cara Westworth

RUBY VELOUR

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Page Summary

Brisbane Zombie Walk at Supanova 2011
The DO’s and DON’Ts of Summer Music festivals
2010 – A Year in Review
Loving Lady Gaga - Ruby's Review
I am Crap at Blogging
Road Trips are Fun!
Ruby's First Gig of 2010 - Calvin Harris/Dizzee Rascal/Lily Allen

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Ruby Velour

Rock Fotze

Entries tagged with festivals and gigs

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Brisbane Zombie Walk at Supanova 2011

The DO’s and DON’Ts of Summer Music festivals

Source

2010 – A Year in Review

Loving Lady Gaga - Ruby's Review

I am Crap at Blogging

Road Trips are Fun!

Ruby's First Gig of 2010 - Calvin Harris/Dizzee Rascal/Lily Allen

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