The Living End - 12 May 2006 - Hordern Pavillion

I've been wanting to see the Living End for years, and they didn't disappoint on Friday night. High energy atmosphere, awesome playing and mostly catchy tunes - what more could a girl ask for? Apart from the insane crush at the start of the concert and the fact I caught about 7 glimpses of the band in total, it was a great night.

I did jump around a lot, not just because the music dictated a pretty good mosh, but in trying to see better; this big guy in front of me (who seemed like one of maybe ten people who were our age and up, GAH) noticed and indicated he'd pick me up for a bit if I wanted. So I hopped on, wobbled perilously and I think actually made some kind of noise that was interpreted as a "whooo!" (I'm not sure if that was what I was thinking though, heh) and took a blurry photo from the vantage point and had a quick scour of the massed crowd below. Very cool. This guy also held my camera up a bit so I could take some video. I'm not sure if he was just very very nice, or rather annoyed at having this little Asian girl bouncing up and down behind him with her camera in the air, so. But anyway.

The music was mostly songs off the new album (State of Emergency - pretty much everything *except* my favourite track, Order of the Day) with a few old favourites chucked in. The absolute best thing was the jamming, extending familiar songs with awesome, really tight playing. The highlight was the rockabilly track because it was just excellent listening to them and wondering how the hell they can play that fast, that well, and so in sync with each other. Of course, with the really popular older singles, the crowd just went nuts all over again and ramped up the energy levels. I was dripping sweat after the first song and by the end I was dripping with everyone else's sweat.

All in all they were lots of fun, and completely worth seeing live. I got to hear old favourites, act like I was 16 again, and even got sold on a few of the newer tracks.


Who's Gonna Save Us
Save the Day
I Can't Give You What I Haven't Got
We Want More
No Way Out
Monday
One Step Behind
Black Cat
All Torn Down
Medley of older songs (incl. From Here On In and English Army)
Prisoner of Society
'Til the End
Wake Up
(rockabilly country thing)
Long Live the Weekend
?
Roll On

The Room
West End Riot