#the acoustic version of something human is my shit

[zmb1eslut]

Masterlist

Luke Castellan singing a birthday song for Dionysus!reader.

gn!reader but the song talks in fem.

warnings: swearing.

Agreed, birthday parties were the second worst kind of parties, just after baby showers, and just as long as they're yours. But even the worst party was still a party and dam you loved those.

Maybe a bit of the attention too.

So it kinda sucked that after putting on your special person suit you got to face a normal routine where no one cared more than the occasional "happy birthday". It was just going to be normal thursday.

Except for Luke, apparently. He entered the dining pavilion at exactly 8:12 AM while you were just sitting down with your breakfast. He had a microphone, connected to a sort of boombox that he just left somewhere in the floor when Charlie came with a guitar and handed it to him.

Saturday mornin' jumped outta bed.

You instantly cringed. Luke didn't even knew how to play guitar (He learnt those chords just for you).

And put my best suit

He even looked so smug about it, looking down at his literally every day clothes.

Got in my car and raced like a jet.

Fuck, he made eye contact with you. You instantly turned around to the side, finding your father on the process, who seemed rather annoyed with the live show. But slowly you couldn't help but look again at his dorky act.

All the way to you.

No. Stop. Stay the fuck there. He was literally walking straight to you. Charlie following him now with the boombox and everyone looking, not quite making fun of him, not quite impressed about it all.

He put his hand on the Dionysus table, and then it dawned on you.

Knocked on your door with heart on my hand.

He wasn't walking towards you.

To ask you a question.

Your godly parent wished, for a moment, he had perished more than centuries ago, afar from the torturous instances that immortality day to day proved to offer.

He groaned and drowned his face on both his palms.

'Cause I know you are an old fashioned man.

There was something about a shameless idiot being able to have such a characteristically attractive smirk on him while performing the most humiliating act of his life, and taking you on his ride with no agreement of sny sort.

Oh, shit. Please don't.

He got on the fucking table.

Can I have your daughter for the rest of my life?

You could no longer fight it, you started to smile. You could no longer pretend you weren't listening to this song when you were 12, envy of the fact someone loved that way, maybe even hoping to be understood some day. You couldn't pretend you never felt as special as being completely socially annihilated by the cutest swordsman on camp.

Say yes. Say yes, 'cause I need to know.

He was actually really playing into the teenage pop-rockstar choreography and expression, as if it wasn't a terribly sung acoustic cover.

You say I'll never get your blessing 'til the day I die.

Maybe you also loved knowing his reputation was way to good for your father to actually be able to took it out on him and give him a lesson for ruining his morning.

Tough luck my friend but the answer is no!

Some people started to laugh, some people started to cheer him.

Until he stopped, and crouched to give the guitar to Charlie, who handed him the microphone.

"I couldn't learn the chorus for the life of me"

And he played the karaoke version.

Why you gotta be so rude?

Don't you know I'm human too?

Why you gotta be so rude?

I'm gonna marry her anyway.

It was funny in a way because Luke was... not even your boyfriend, or friend for that matter, just a sort of a pleasant stranger. He just greeted you sometimes, helped you a bit on your archery class. He'll sometimes tie your shoes when you didn't wanna bend down, or gave you notes when you were rehearsing for a play. Probably the closer you ever got were those times he would just purposefully mess up your hair when you were chatting with your friends and maybe that one time he... Oh.

I hate to do this, you leave no choice, can’t live without you.

And that's when he finally stopped bothering Mister D, right before looking at you and freezing you on a childish emotion.

Love me or hate me, we will be both standin’ at that altar.

It didn't felt much like a threat. Not even when he pulled you a little closer.

Or we will run away to another galaxy, you know.

Can we? fucking brown eyes taking the best of you.

You know that I am so in love with you, I'll go anywhere you go.

And you realized that's not even how the song goes, before he twirled you around.

Can I just be honest? Have a speck of your time?

Say yes. Say yes. Promise I'll be good.

'Cause really I feel you takin every bit of my mind.

And I must say, I think that it's love.

And he stopped singing, the music kept running for a couple counts more before Charlie turned it off. You were just looking at each other, him being considerably more nervous than you, though he did tried to hide it and you not quite so.

Your silence went for too long and he had to break it first.

"Happy birthday?"

And that made you laugh before you caught him on a giddy hug of excitement. He looked at Charlie from over your shoulder, he couldn't believe that shit actually worked.

#pjo tv show #luke castellan #luke castellan x reader #percy jackson series #pjo #I wrote this faster than anything else on my life.

[demonic-hypocrite]

Replaced!MC au but it's Replaced!Brothers instead.

Hello welcome to another one of my ramblings. I was listening to Last words of a shooting star by mitski, thinking about my mc Logan, and how many authors that make the new exchange student nice make them side with original MC. Then to my mind came this scenario, it's not really connected to the one I wrote prior.

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Talking to human B, Satan and Belphegor, the 4 of them were just chilling, on the common room of the house of lamentation, belphie sleping while the other 3 discussed some thriller webtoon Logan had introduced to them. At some point the topic about Logan falling down the stairs earlier that day comes out, he didn't really get hurt but he did fall weirdly, turns out it's normal for him to fall and trip? He has mastered the art of falling with style and said something about how whenever he falls with his full body he thinks "Ah yes this is how I die", but when he actually died he was thinking about the song mentioned before.

Logan pulls out a guitar out of some magic space whatever and plays the song for human B, let's call him Billy, and Billy is like "gurrl" and Logan is like "IKR!!". The demons do not understand this interaction, they are on the stage where they are like "nooo why are you hoarding all of Billy's time to yourself, stupid human" so they are mad and about to say something to Logan but Billy chimes in asking for another song. The only other song Logan knows how to play in acoustic guitar is Can't you see I'm lonely (the OTGW version) so he plays it and Billy immediately recognizes it.

Levi comes into the scene of the two of them full on nerding out and calls them out on it, they respond with "shut up weeb" in unison, they look at eachother, they're besties.

The demons present on the other hand don't really know how to feel because one "Noo Billy pay attention to us not him" but also they don't know shit about human (western)cartoons and realize they had never seen Logan interact with another human his age (they're 20), because sure there was Solomon, but Solomon was almost as old as them, he wouldn't know about some cartoon. So it's conflicting, this new human could give Logan something that they could never, this starts to slowly snap the three of them out of their new human trance.

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Their next public human to human interaction happens at next day's breakfast, they sit right next to eachother rather than on their normal places at the table, talking this time about human music, mostly how they both like punk. All of the brothers realize something, while passionately talking about how Welcome to the black parade moght be the best album ever, Billy is giving Logan the same eyes they used to.

Lucifer interrups them by bringing up RAD assignments, they give him the 'shut up boomer glare'. Of course they did their assignments, right after a marathon of the scream movies and a cool dinner of pizza rolls and orange juice. They had a slumbie also, cuddled a lot, they didn't say that out loud but the brothers could just tell.

Mammon asked Logan to hang out with him later but sorry he had plans to go to hang out with Bills on the lake later, Sorry Mammon :(! But wait hold on, wasn't Mammons nickname supposed to be Mams? Why are you calling him Mammon and using a similar one for Billy? He wasn't even paying attention to Billy anymore.

That night he had planned to go to a casino and abuse Logan's luck blessing he had gotten from some fairy on the woods but now he was stuck rambling to Levi on his room about "How dare he turn down the great Mammon? Who does he think he is?! Weren't you two supposed to be the closest? Joined at the hip and everything?"

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Hanging out with Asmo didn't change much surprisingly, shopping put for the newest beauty products was fun, fun for the humans that is. Getting some weird face masks and makeup they thought was cool, ignoring Asmo's off handed comments about how Logan absolutely needed them more than anybody, Billy overshadowing him with complimenting Logans steady hand while doing eyeliner, even surprising them both asking "what else are those hands good for?" With a smirk and a wink.

Worse, it works, IT WORKS?! Asmo spent the better part of two years trying to seduce this human, and suddenly this new one comes and immediately swoons him off his feet??? He hadn't even gotten beyond playful kisses and touches but here was Billy just a few weeks in, already managing to know exactly how his human wanted to be flirted with.

Asmo of course whined about it "It's about context" Logan said, not making sense to the demon at all.

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"Cooking is one if Logan's hobbies, and he is really good at it" Was the most recent discovery Billy had made, some really fancy looking toast was given to him, alongside a very exited face, this was a new recipe. The gleam on his eyes while explaining the ingredients an process at the same time Logan was playing with his free hand gave Billy the best kind of butterflies he ever had. The moment was about to get somewhat intimate, fingers interlocking, when Beel walked into the room.

Beelzebub immediately noticed the fact that Logan had cooked something, the only thing he got was an apology tho, "Sorry I just made enough for two people to taste" Wha- What did he mean? Logan always asked him to taste test new recipes, that toast was supposed to be his? Why did Billy had it? Billy wanst even good at cooking! Of course Beelzebub didn't say most of his thoughts out loud, but he sure did let out a displeased grunt when he had to settle for some store bought snacks that were already on the fridge.

He wasn't as mad when Logan said that now he knew how to make this new recipe he would make it for him later, something about this still bothered him.

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It was clear as day what was happening when the HoL gang decided to go out for karaoke. Levi didn't even get to hog the mic like before because Logan and Billy already had it. Sure at first they liked Billy, he was the shiny new human that Diavolo brought to study in the Devildom, he had style and this air of mystique to him at first, even stepping down from being the #1 simps of the old human for him.

Big fat mistake, while they left Logan out in the open ocean, turns out the shiny new rock wasn't a rock, but an octopus in camouflage, ready to devour their pretty fish they took so long to capture.

Now there they were, on their faces singing some human love song about haunted houses, not even trying to hide how much they clicked together like puzzle pieces, truly unbearable. But now they knew, they had to bring their beloved human back to them, he belonged with them, they knew they were to blame for alienating him for another new human, but the new human was no longer the object of their interest, but their enemy.

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Another one folks, I made Billy up for this post and this post only, but now even I like him a lot, might make him a permanent oc for myself.

Thank you for reading!

Goodnight ☆

#obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor #obey me replaced mc au #obey me original character #obey me oc

[mending-up-your-fences]

Alright, Cuyahoga “mending finally went to a full length show and will never stop talking about it” post show breakdown. Also my eye didnt attempt to blind me. And the weird voice thing I heard at bourbon and beyond was a weird festival amp thing that was not present here.

First: Cuyahoga is a stunning venue. Absolutely great. I don’t know how I lucked into face value seating so close and central to the stage but I did.

Second: katie pruitt has a new song that talks about wanting to be Superman and I cried as she was performing it for the first time, so good luck to us all when that’s released. Also, Out of the Blue was freaking incredible live. Her voice rocks.

And now for the meat and potatoes:

Starting with Stay Gentle is a war crime. Plain and simple. I think I’ve experienced every emotion possible listening to this song, so I did not cry at this point, but the swell of the strings when she sings “be amazed by the sky”. Also, the linked arm thing is cute.

Over the Rainbow: her voice. Overall what a mood set.

Broken Horses: hahahaha wtf. It absolutely rips. Also, went on a side quest to the rock and roll hall of fame and they have where she wrote the lyrics, and you can actually see where she gets more intense as her writing goes along.

Things I Regret: fun song and good little sneaky vocal warm up for Brandi. Also slaps. Very fun song.

You and Me on the Rock: boy she loves an amphitheater of her fans. Chauntee, Kyleen, and Monique have very tight harmonies now! And so fun seeing all the lesbians dance together.

The Story: RIPS. Absolute carnage. It takes a special talent and focus to sing a single song thousands of times and make it still sound special. But then at the end, this wild thing happened where the applause went on for two minutes? Just one of those magical live performance moments, but Brandi genuinely seemed touched and overwhelmed by it (for reasons we will get to later).

The Eye: see this is where they got me. I have never once in my entire life cried to this song. But tonight? Wtf. The harmonies are so good, and the lyrics are so pretty and so yeah, I cried. Tim and Phil are the goats. If they don’t get memorialized together when they make the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I’ll riot.

After that cute moment I got emotionally assassinated: that’s right. It turns out cath and the kids are at home and one of the anniversaries was yesterday so Brandi has been in an extra “I’ve been touring all summer and now everyone’s at home without me funk.” And she referred to herself as a human casino thursday. So what does that mean?

It’s time for The Mother. Fuck my life. I cried. I thought about my mom, I thought about future kids. I thought about the gay parents in the audience. I can’t believe she did it. I think she’s performed it one other time this summer at a not solo show or special event. Was sure I was gonna live vicariously forever. But here we are in this new world where I’ve seen the mother performed live.

Acoustic mood? Sounds great. Now we’re gonna do Right on Time two ways (for real this time). ITCH was as great as on Thursday. But immediately followed by my first time hearing Right on Time (ITSD) which holy shit. Absolute banger. And vocally insane (featuring her demon laugh when she knows she’s just done something vocally wild).

Time to rip into My Song/they were too small of a band for U2 to nail them at the time for plagiarism but lol. She sings and performs this song in a way that makes her almost visibly time travel to being a sixteen year old busking her heart out.

Solidly into the rock part of the show? Wrong. It’s Mama Werewolf time. The concert version of it is perfect. It’s a perfect song and they sing it perfectly. Did not cry because I was emotionally exhausted at this point and could not dwell on the cyclic trauma of it all, but GD her and the twin harmonies.

So now foot’s off the pedal and we’re on cruise control right? Wrong. Because this is the moment I think the people surrounding me realized I am not a casual fan At All, the way I physically reacted to them playing the intro to Again Today. Another bucket list song checked off. Her voice. It’s just another “this song could end the whole concert and it’d be a great concert but this is Brandi carlile band so this is what our discography is like.” Fuck them, this song slaps, still mad it’s not a standalone track that I can loop.

Banger city now because it’s time for Raise Hell which absolutely blew the roof off the place. It was so loud and raucous at this point. Side note: but is insane that Raise Hell is so good and that the discography is so deep that it’s a special occasion now??? Anyway, no one has sat this whole show. I had been told we were a concert sitting people, but it seems like that era is over. People are bouncing, yelling, riled up… So naturally what song is next?

Remember this?

Party of One. LMAO. This concert was sequenced by an insane person. But whatever, I got redemption to see it twice. And it was awesome. The applause for the string quartet went on forever. I cried. Standard stuff.

Mainstream Kid! With Katie Pruitt! That is a girl that spent a lot of time singing along to that track in her car during college. But it RIPPED. That voice combo is crazy. And Tim got to do his best ever guitar solo. Brandi so clearly invests emotionally into these artists that repeatedly open for her, I just have a lot of BoB thoughts.

Sinners, Saints, and Fools aka “we do not deserve Sista Strings but Chauntee and Monique have decided we get to enjoy their gifts for this moment in time”. Fun fact is that they apparently saw a symphony concert at the venue as children! Other fun fact: Geraldo Rivera was at this performance. Kinda wanted to say “Hey this whole thing is about grifters like you.” Anyway, it slaps.

The Joke: nothing groundbreaking to report. I cried. Her voice is stupid. People should stop trying to cover it. Forever thankful that this song finally got BCB the recognition they’ve deserved the whole time.

Hold Out Your Hand: it’s so fast and so fun. It’s also another moment that amplifies the band a part of what makes them so special. They are just people. There’s no tight corporate control, no musical director/concert choreographer dictating every movement. It’s just a bunch of talented adults playing music together, and occasionally being a bit goofy.

Live and Let Die/We Are The Champions: Adam Lambert and Brandi Carlile could pull off this tandem. End of list. All you should need to convince anyone of how great Brandi is right now is to say “She has the stage presence and vocal ability to kill this cover as an encore at all her shows”. It absolutely works live.

Anyway, this was my favorite concert I’ve ever experienced. Hope my ramblings made you laugh a little. They’re mostly for me here so I remember as much of tonight as I possibly can. Love to y’all. Good night.

#brandi carlile #gotta go sleep before my plane #maybe my brain will be quiet now #Brandi carlile band

[sunburnacoustic]

HI MUSE ASKS

2, 11, 14, 32, 36 (I love this question), 45, 51, 59!!

sorry it’s a lot but I’m also not sorry

Hi hi hi @goosetown5! Thanks so much the ask 😊Don't be sorry at all, I'm so pleased to chat to you about Muse!

2. What's a Muse song that sounds better live than in the studio?

Without a doubt, Verona, that's the first song that comes to my mind! I had the pleasure of seeing it live, it's a literal religious experience. Matt lost in the sauce, eyes closed, playing guitar on the verses. My gig had a really good crowd too, so in my mind, I'll always remember Verona now with the chorus of fans singing, "I neeeeed you sooo" in a slight French accent, the reverb around the stadium on Matt's guitar and just how much bigger the song sounds live: you can feel the drums under your skin, in your chest, in your bones. Confetti blasted out into the air just after Matt belts the chorus, blue light lights up the stadium, hands are in the air, ugh. Beautiful. It's an experience just listening to the song in normal everyday life can't recreate. It's a great song otherwise, lyrically it's my favourite on the album, but holy shit you can't return to the studio version after the experience of seeing it live :) I need to experience this song again!

Eyes closed, just lost in the sauce guitar line.

EDIT: My pictures don't half do this moment justice, so enjoy these pics from @prttyinpvnk!

Pretty special, eh?

11. Favourite song that's never been played live?

Falling Away With You. I love that song so much, the way it transitions between the verses and the choruses, such agitation on that chorus, the change from a major -> minor feel, the synths, the lyrics; oh, rip my heart out! I'll never understand why Muse have never played it live. I guess, technically the did almost play it... that one time at an iHeart Radio gig or festival or something in 2018 that Matt began playing its intro on the acoustic guitar and then went "nah, just kidding" and began playing Something Human. Matt why would you toy with our hearts like that </3 They've teased it a few times before.

Map Of Your Head is another. Muse can write such addictive pop songs! (I would also want to say Falling With The Crowd because that's an old one from one of those demos that we have no live footage/audio of, but it was supposedly played regularly in 1997. It's quite fully formed for a song of that era, it's a proper song with verse-chorus-bridge-outro, and I think it's a tune. The problem is, it wasn't played at the one and only 1997 gig we have audio of*, Plymouth's Soundwaves Festival, that was taped by a friend of Muse's off a radio live broadcast locally in Plymouth. And there are no known setlists on which it appears, so has it ever been played live? Who knows.)

*Update, nevermind I found out we have a tiny clip of video footage by someone who saw Muse at a different gig in 1997! It's 50 seconds long, the videotaper seems to have been keener on recording Dom, and it's of the song Boredom. No mention of Falling With The Crowd on the set though. Still, what a treat, it's from so long ago, Matt wasn't nearly the performer he would shortly become. I'll make a different post about that though, so that I actually answer your ask here!

14. Favourite live riff/jam/intro/outro?

I love this question because I've been thinking about it recently! 😊

The improvised, extended Jimmy Jam riff at Wembley before Time Is Running Out. What annoyed me for years is that they split up the clip on the Muse Youtube in ~2015 to separately have the Jimmy Jam riff as one video and TIRO as another, and they fade Jimmy Jam out and that got stuck in my head without the ending. I should make a proper edit of it from HAARP because that jam is my jam, I love it!

Also, how it ends is so cool:

A second favourite is the outro to Assassin played at the Mayan Theatre in 2015 (Theater?), it's so fuzzy it's so filthy, it's so heavy I could listen to it all day. Drones was a good era for Muse's slow-heavy/chugging stuff that The Handler kicked off. I don't know the name of this riff, but it's so good.

And I must mention the riff played during the French 1999 Olaive interview, where the interviewers asked Matt questions and he had to reply by largely playing his guitar, an acoustic, and it was so beautiful despite Matt being really young and nervous, that one of the interviewers told him at the end of the interview that there was magic in his guitar (how poetic the French were, but he's right!). I'm not cheating on this question though, it is a legitimate intro because they brought it back years later and opened Unintended at Wembley with this piece, but transposed higher. It's a classical guitar etude by Cuban composer Leo Brouwer.

(And of course, some classics - Helsinki/Glasgow jam -> bringing bagpipes to a stadium rock gig and then playing Muse fuzzy bluesy hard rock under it is something I admire so fucking much)

32. Have you ever followed Matt's advice to not give a fuck if people think you're a pretentious wanker?

Yes, definitely, and the realisation came for me more from an off-stage moment rather than one on stage, because I guess in some ways you personally can write off on-stage ambition and personas as just something that's easier to do on stage, a place for theatre, but the fact that Matt just lives his life without shame, without feeling self-conscious, without giving a fuck what anyone else may think— I'm learning that from him, and it significantly came from this moment back in 2014:

He's out there living his best life, unbothered. He's knows not to care what anyone else thinks of him (and my respect for him just skyrocketed after this). That made it click for me, just don't give a fuck, don't care if anyone thinks you're a pretentious wanker, cut all the hangups in life—don't be afraid to be yourself! I've kept that in mind since 😊

36. Favourite song to sing along to.

Hm, I suppose it depends on the setting! In a stadium, hanging onto people, bouncing around, headbanging, screaming together "No one's gonna take me alive..." is a life-affirming experience!

Otherwise at home, on your own, a really satisfying vocal part to sing... I'd say a lot of Matt's falsetto bits are so much fun to try and do because you can lose your head and turn into an absolute diva for 20 seconds, I highly recommend trying it with no shame (refer to Q. 32!) And have I tried Micro Cuts out loud? Yeah, while fearing for my life I have lmao. Don't need neighbours calling the paramedics on me! Supermassive Black Hole is fun to try and sing along to (multiple parts). I Belong To You is nice. Showbiz is fun. Undisclosed Desires is another, Screenager too. Dead Inside is so good to sing along to! (and we haven't even got into singing riffs live, something Matt noted Muse fans do a lot live :D)

You're so right, I love this question too!  😊 (Side fun fact, a singer friend of mine told me that Time Is Running Out sung properly is actually quite technically difficulut— it's an acceptable Grade 5 piece to perform on Trinity College vocal exams (the rockschool ones))

45. Tell me a little-known fact about Muse

Oh, yes please! (not the song :P) I've been hoping someone would ask this one :)

Here's one I've decided on at random: Muse played a gig away in North Devon on Matt's 17th birthday. Someone found a poster for the gig years later in like 2008, look at how Muse sometimes stylised their name—quite psychedelic! This was on 9 June 1995, in Torrington.

51. Dom - bleach blond era, 90s slacker-band, wraparound shades era, surfer dude era, Drones black hair era, 2022 'pornstache' baby blue hair era, or 2006 aviators era?

Do you know what, I'm partial to aviators Dom. I'm so fucking partial to aviators Dom. But I think we all know which picture from Dom's Instagram I had in mind when I typed up "surfer dude-era Dom", don't we?

59. Favourite Muse accessory? (Matt's OOS era thick necklace, the guitar-pick necklace, any rings, etc.)

Very partial to the pick-necklace! Independently of Matt, I'd been doing it myself for years, so I was delighted to find that Matt had a pick necklace phase too (except mine is very DIY: it's a pick held together to a chain with paperclips lmao. I haven't lost the pick in 7 years so clearly it works... happy to show pictures of it if you like!)

Matt's 2006-era braces are a top notch accessory too, that was a really good look! I picked up a fondness of scarves from him too, which was also mostly BHAR-era photoshoots as well. Glitter in Matt's hair, A+ accessory; love it.

That time someone stuck a star on Matt's forehead

And of course, Matt's sunglasses. I wouldn't be the "Matt wearing his sunglasses on his head like my mum" blog if I didn't mention that.

(^3 pairs! of sunglasses!)

(This got quite Matt-heavy, didn't it? I love Dom's ever-expanding shades of trousers too! Orange is the latest one the WOTP tour has blessed us with :) Not really an accessory though, is it? Otherwise I'd be able to openly drool over Matt's cool jackets.)

#this was fun! #asks #muse asks #it's (not) too much to ask #niche muse asks #muse nitty gritties asks #muse band #musers #muse #long post #but utterly fun to do :) #hey thanks for this! 😊

[ukulelekatie]

Hello hello hello I’m right here with another concert recap, this time for Tegan and Sara on October 28 2022 at Royale in Boston! This was one of my absolute favorite shows I’ve ever been to, I literally cannot stop smiling thinking about it

Okay first of all HOLY FUCKING SHIT. This was my 6th time seeing Tegan and Sara, but the first time I’ve gone for the VIP package which was so cool and so worth it

The way they’re doing VIP for this tour is that you get to go to a Q&A and a little pre-show acoustic performance which I love so much better than a meet & greet where you wait in line to see them for like 30 seconds

For the VIP setlist they did Call It Off (yes I started crying instantly), Alligator, and This Ain’t Going Well, the last of which apparently wasn’t planned and Tegan straight up said “I don’t know this part” mid-song lmao. I love her, queen of forgetting her own lyrics.

I lucked out and ended up being the 9th person to show up to the VIP line, which means I was able to get a really great spot at the barricade for both the VIP event and the main show right in front of Sara.

They made us leave the venue in between so the opener could do their sound check, but had us line back up in the order of the numbers on our badges which I really appreciated because oh boy I had to pee SO badly and was worried about losing my spot (also it was kinda fun to get to cut in line not gonna lie I felt very powerful)

Tomberlin was the opener and they were great!! I’ve heard a few of their songs before, definitely gonna check out more of their music now.

As always, fucking fantastic performance from Tegan and Sara. They truly do get better with age.

They’re so easygoing on stage and know how to connect with their audience. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen them so many times before but I don’t really get that “omg you’re real humans and you’re standing in the same place as me” when I’m at their shows anymore, it just feels like we’re all hanging out as friends.

THE BANTER. My absolute favorite part of Tegan and Sara shows is that they’re not just concerts, they’re a musical performance with a side of standup comedy. Sara especially had some hysterical stories to tell (I was losing it at the martini costume story)

Like I predicted, there was more fluidity between them, similar to their 2019 book tour! Tegan sang lead on I Bet It Stung and How Come You Don’t Want Me which are two of Sara’s songs, and they switched off singing verses for a few tracks

They also changed up the arrangements for a few of the songs which was super cool, I love when they take their old stuff and make it more cohesive with their new stuff. The Con and Living Room are two songs where I have consistently liked the live versions more than the album recordings

There was an excellent balance of their old and new tracks. When you’ve been around for so long I bet it’s hard narrowing down a setlist to a 90 minute show

I cried once again when they played Nineteen. I don’t think I’ve ever not cried to a live performance of that song. I dunno it makes me so emotional thinking about the person I was at 19 and how different I was back then but we both still love this band with all our heart

The venue is a club and it was all decorated for Halloween including some giant inflatable ghosts in the back, which made Walking With A Ghost hilarious. Another great thing about the venue being a club is that it was an earlier show time to accommodate the club guests. I was at Metric’s show earlier this week and if I’ve learned anything it’s that I’m getting too old to be staying out past midnight for shows lmao

I have so much merch now, I got the VIP merch package and then at the end of the show I decided on a whim to buy a Crybaby hat. I never used to be a hat person but there’s something about band hats that have just hit different for me lately.

Photo time!!

[Image description: A photo of Tegan and Sara performing on stage. They are both singing and playing guitars. The stage is decorated with neon signs shaped like ice cream cones.]

(This quite possibly my favorite photo I have ever taken, I will be posting this everywhere I’m not sorry if you follow me on multiple platforms)

#concert recap #tegan and sara

[tothedarkdarkseas]

Okay, now I'm genuinely curious to hear what ideas you'd have if you were in charge of making Stu TikToks. I'm prepared to be amused and also horrified in the best way possible.

I'm sorry for the delay! (It's been a hell of a weekend.) When I first wrote something about the character profiles they made for Tiktok during P6, I'd never used the app. Nowadays, every social media app has their own version of shorts/reels/et cetera, and my only exposure to Tiktok now is through reposted content on YouTube or Instagram. I've come away with two impressions: there are major trends that dominate the average experience but also thriving niche communities for anything, and I'll be hearing "A little context if you care to listen, I find myself in a shit position" on my deathbed.

That all being said, here's what Stu's Tiktok page would look like if it were up to me!

He's active, but not constantly so. Not enough to give the impression he's got a routine, not a one video per day sort of user. Still, he posts too much to be passive. Always featuring himself.

Football videos. I'm sorry, I'm playing the hits (assuming the audience is... mostly me, haha) but football videos. The phone's sticking up out of a cup on a metal table in the garden. The videos are all raw footage, no snappy edits or even music overlaid-- rather, he's got one Bose earbud in and the other down in the cup to amplify sound, the music now recorded secondhand just utterly garbled. He's occasionally got his Chelsea kit on, but not always. The videos are not concise. Three to seven minutes on average of him running around, no one playing opposite him, just showing off his footwork and kicking the ball into the unguarded net. The videos all begin and end with him way too close to the camera as he starts and stops recording.

I'm imagining a thirst trap that Murdoc's recorded of him returning to his bedroom after a shower, hair and chest wet with his towel on his shoulder. He asks "Are you filming?" and then proceeds to tepidly hem and haw, doing nothing to stop him. He captions the video cant believ he film this. geri attic geezer.. goin tp get him back. (He's clearly unbothered because he knows he's fit.)

Too-dark videos of himself in bed shot with the forward facing camera, usually high, looking like he's just woken from a 7-hour nap. These are usually cloudy-headed musings about nature, music, death, life. Occasionally he says something crass or unintentionally funny, but for the most part they're just on the other side of incomprehensible. There's an internal logic to his musings, you assume, but he'll eventually stray too far for someone outside his head to follow.

I wouldn't be mad if these sorts of videos were occasionally quite astute, quite depressing, wise in a sort of sour way. But if I were "directing" things, I think it'd be best to space those between videos he reckons are touching a raw, truthful nerve, but are mostly sort of aimless and shot up his nose.

He'll play piano, or melodica, or marimba, or experiment with singing bowls or finger cymbals. He'll occasionally sing Gorillaz songs acoustic, or cover The Human League, or try out new material. In the latter case, he is notably high or notably low, so to speak. He never comes across entirely clear or professional.

He probably records in studio at times, trying much too hard to look important while remaining casual. He'll record something quick at an award show, showing nothing impressive to the camera and instead filming from his crotch in the car or a dressing room. Stu really ricochets between glamorizing and deglamorizing celebrity, I think, and you're often left feeling uncertain whether that was or wasn't intentional.

I don't know if you're able to see other users' liked videos/if their "FYP" is visible at all, but Stu's is all fanmade Chelsea reels, official Chelsea reels from players or WAGs, borderline pornography, "long-distance reiki healing" sessions/generally grifty new age spiritualist videos, extremely technical mechanical repairs primarily on synthesizers or soundboards done in silence, world music played straight to camera with little fanfare, very local British food chain content, SpraypaintTok, fashion and sneakerhead videos that he's not sure he actually gets but he understands have a certain value to his image, and the occasional animal doing something funny. The algorithm strongly favors the Chelsea, the partial nudity, and the fiddly repairs.

Sadly I don't think I've delivered on much horrifying content here! Suspending disbelief that there is no social media manager patrolling what he can and cannot post: he is, of course, not above filming a touch of borderline pornography himself. Never with Murdoc, even if their fingerprints both linger in other ways, but certainly with women in short dresses, heads tucked to his neck to obscure their face, his hand firm enough on their thigh to leave white lines in their wake. There's nothing that would get him flagged-- they're clothed, if unbuttoned, but there's a sort of editorial sleaze to it. His own head rocks to the side, self-impressed. Sometimes he buries in touring or award show content and captions it berlin. thanx for the memmory. o might be munich.

That's all I have for now, sorry if it's less scummy than you'd hoped! My brain's a bit fried lately. I'm open to your suggestions as well!

[chidoroki]

Heavenly Delusion EP8

aka: FUCKING SPEECHLESS

I get falling headfirst off people’s shoulders onto the pavement could really hurt, but I dunno if the Liviuman leader would really die from that.. I’m sure this guy is only telling the group that so they get emotional and retaliate against Immortal Order.

Sure they show Dr. Usami tending to some of his followers but I still think he’s kind of sketchy.

Oh, he wanted Maru to kill the person who asked to die last episode. Ngl the “let me die” audio still creeps me out even now.

“They are former humans who died from a disease that turns them into monsters.” Oh my god.. the illness that’s going around at the facility, are all those kids gonna become man-eaters? Or did that already happen and every monster we’ve seen so far is one of the kids we know?? Oohhhhh boy, I’m freaking myself out.

The chat screen on the tablet is named “Hoshio” but I’m not sure if we know anyone named that?

“I want to see the sky one last time.” Not entirely sure how you’re gonna fulfill that wish with all the machines hooked up to her like this.. unless ya blast a hole through the ceiling or something.

“That hurts! You idiot!” Pfft I shouldn’t be laughing that tug on one of the wires hurt her but I just wasn’t expect her to react like that and so quickly.

Yeah I don’t trust these two Liviuman people at all..

I’ll be damned, they actually moved her successfully so she could see the sky.

Quite an emotional fatal dive. And I really hope that was no one was actually know.

“Thank you for letting me die as a human.” Aww.

“Thank you for giving me your eye.” OH so that’s why Usami has the eyepatch? Okay. Okay, maybe he’s not all bad but still.

“Thank you for everything. I love you.” He’s breaking down in tears after that.

Yeah I knew that one dude from Liviuman was scheming.

Ah shit, a small man-eater was hiding under a car in the basement.

The people know Robin as Dr. Inazaki? At least we know he’s still alive somewhere.

Um, that button Usami is holding has the bird logo on it..

Oof, love that match cut from Hoshio’s fake eye to Usami’s real one.

Oh.. so that’s what the gun was for. His own headshot. Oh dear.

“I’m the total opposite of Usami and Robin. My hands bring only death.” Well.. sorta true, but don’t be so hard in yourself Maru.

I do love this acoustic version of the ending song though.

I was gonna question if we were gonna go another whole episode without seeing the kids, but here’s Mimihime… underground somewhere?

WAIT JUST A GODDAMN MINUTE!! Her eyelashes! They’re the same as Hoshio’s! Which means Usami might have been Shiro because we know he at least has feelings for her!!

Usami and Shiro do have similar eyes too.. and in the regular ending and even in ep2 he’s shown to have a handful of machines in his room..

Please tell me I’m wrong please tell me I’m wrong aaaahh oh my god.. if true then these deaths hurt SO MUCH MORE!

WHICH ALSO MEANS the facility place definitely takes places in the past if they’re were both grown up! And Maru could very well be Tokio & Maru’s secret love child OH GOD.

#heavenly delusion #episode reaction

[branmer]

@themuggymuggingmug​ tumblr refuses to let me reply to this ask so i am reduced to this asdkjsad. i can't give you a specific number on that, but i think they are pretty significantly stronger. humans are supposed to produce the most powerful telepaths out of all the aliens iirc, and it takes a whole group of minbari telepaths to block bester (i mean it also takes a whole group of human telepaths to trick him in another episode, but blocking is probably easier than say... hacking his mind so he sees something completely different from actual reality)

I’ll put this under the cut because it got long

I will take this opportunity tho to talk about a couple of telepath/minbari headcanons I have. The first is that the narn telepaths were pretty powerful, perhaps as powerful as human telepaths, and that’s why the shadows targeted them for destruction. Also kind of vibe with the idea that the ancient Narn might have figured out telepaths were a danger before everyone else and got wiped out for their bother.

Second is that each of the different alien races have different psy connections/talents aside from differences in power. My reasons for this are a) the centauri have this weird precognition shit going on (which i feel must be tied to telepathy somehow but idek) and they also have stuff like the emperor’s telepath companions who are all linked with each other even out of line of sight and light years away from each other which is … weird and not something we see even in human telepaths except maybe Lyta?

And b) we have the minbari telepath in Legend of the Rangers, Dulann, who sees visions/remnants of the dead crew of the ranger ship through his psy talent. In a couple of episodes human telepaths mention feeling the acoustics of the room through their power and I sort of see this thing Dulann does as an augmented version of that. So idk I had the idea that maybe the Minbari, despite being weaker generally, also have this specific way of connecting that allows them to see… echoes in a place I guess or something anyway. (on a side note i have ideas about how this might make Minbari telepaths good trackers, which is one of the ways the warrior caste use them in bmwf)

We don’t see any telepaths from other races unfortunately :(( so who knows if we would have seen other random psy powers (or if my ideas would have been totally jossed), but I vibe with this headcanon because it a) makes sense of these differences we see and b) works with the vorlons having created telepaths or interfered/experimented to encourage/guide their development. The minbari weren’t quite what they wanted (what use is seeing dead people to dealing with shadows eh??? I mean the brakiri would love it but not the vorlons) but the humans were exactly what they wanted - powerful, adaptable, and easily augmented (as we see by Lyta going from p5 to p-kosh-knows-what)

#TUMBLR IF YOU EAT THIS POST I WILL COME TO HQ AND UNHINGE MY JAW AND DEVOUR THE ENTIRE BUILDING WITH STAFF INSIDE #as always feel free to disagree with my headcanons they are simply that: headcanons and i am not an authority on anything #except my own clownery #i think ive discussed some of these elsewhere before idk

[untraceable-ace]

Thoughts on “In case I make It” as I listen:

Gonna be a long one folks, I’ll put it under the cut

Tomcat Disposables: Tomcat Disposables my beloved you make me cry every time “What’s the moon made of?/Meet me there after I’m gone” SOBBING

Becoming the Lastnames: The piano gives me the same vibes as the piano in the Camp Here and There full songs (like MBYT and Venetian Blind Man) I love it

Cicada Days: Tied w Tomcat Disposables as my favorite single, literally so in love, forever happy that the intro is just kinda white noise mimicking cicadas and not actual cicada buzzing my spd is happy “and then my sponsor said do nothing, nothing works/and then my doctor said dont do that if it hurts” feels like a weighted blanket directly on my chest it’s wonderful

Euthanasia: Instrumental intro reminds me of a Days n Daze song; main verse melody is literally so haunting I love it

Falling Up: WOAH that felt like a curveball after Euthanasia oh DAMN the chorus slaps the acoustic makes the song feel really like, full bodied? Oh god after the falling up lyric it temporarily becomes a country song I’m not sure how I feel about that I just kinda had the mental image of a dude falling up the stairs the whole time during the chorus and tbh it’s a good one to have

That’s Enough, Let’s Get You Home.:  Oooh, I have a feeling I’m gonna love stim singing to this one once I get a chance to listen to it a lot more; OH I KNOW WHAT THIS REMINDS ME OF it reminds me of Cecily Smith from Fly By Night!!!

Um, it’s Kind of a Lot: I’d been thinking this one might have some sampling from Everything is a Lot (the song, not the album), but from what I’ve heard, there’s not any sampling from the song, but I think the piano parts are inspired by the album? Or at least it feels that way The piano def reminds me of the album piano vibes. Damn, Mr Wood has an obsession w tourniquets oh SHIT bridge/breakdown hits HARD hell yeah. Also, first appearance of brass so far on the album I think?

Half-Decade Hangover: omg guys he said the name of the song that’s the name of the song!!!/j OH SHIT SELF-ish REFERENCE This feels like something you’d hear at a bar w a piano on the stage for people to go up and play on

Vampire Reference in a Minor Key: Same thought process as Um, it’s Kind of a Lot; the title got me thinkin “o shit vampire culture reference?” But again I think I was wrong; Guitar do be bangin tho OOH he just did like a lil riff that reminded me of 6up 5Oh I wanna do a tango in a tight fitting red dress to this song

You Liked This (Okay, Computer!): it’s.....it says things??? Uhhh good commentary on society ig?? LMAO its not a song sorry yall

The Main Character: JAZZY AS FUCK WOAH I already wanna dance to this I think this might be my favorite song from the album “So god forbid I’m seen as an average human being” fuck man r you coming for me or what

Against the Kitchen Floor: FUNKNY ASS BASSLINE OH DAMN this one is literally so fun? I wanna swing dance w someone to this LMAO the end spoken bit I love when songs do that

Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n’ Roll: I feel like I’d listen to this one when I’m sad, feels like a good one to listen to when I’m crying

Big Fat Bitchie’s Blueberry Pie, Christmas Tree, and Recreational Jell-o Emporium a.k.a. “Mr. Boy is on the Roof Again” (Feat. Pasta by Sneakers McSqueakers) [From the Motion Picture ”B.F.B.’s B-Sides: Bagel Batches, Marshmallows, and Barsh-mallows]: LMAO we’ve made a brief return to 30-word long song titles for this one fellas okay wait what the fuck is this LMAO wait okay okay vibing vibing 48 seconds of song for a 34 word long song title lets mcfucking go LMAO

Willard!: Feels like the main character’s power ballad in a musical; Wow yeah actually this is like- SUPER musical theater vibes damn oooh and I love the piano version of the Tomcat Disposables melody at the end

White Noise: The vocal melody on the chorus is muah muah chefs kiss This was a really good one to be the closer tbh AND OH OH the build up to the second chorus?? GOD that goes hard

Don’t worry everyone I’m sure I’ll be shitposting about at least one of the new songs later this week when I get a chance to hyperfixate on one or two

#my posts #Will Wood #wwattw #someone on the genius lyrics page made a comment about how excited they were to listen to big fat bitchie's blueberry pie like #8 minutes before album drop like #rip random genius lyrics user

[doomboogie]

Got through Ch 1 and Ch 2. Trying to even out my thoughts with gripes and praise but uhh so far mostly complaints. It feels very FFXV in a lot of ways that I don’t think are great! Nothing super coherent or clear yet in the critique department

My concerns were immediately founded . I hope this game can make me at least tolerate Zack since he’s obviously gonna be a major part of it and I’ve never been a fan. Remake made me change some of my reception to other characters so it’s certainly possible!

Repeating NPC dialogue still sucks, but that’s not unique to FF. Still annoying.

Zangan is interesting and I’m really wanting more of him! I like his design a lot.

Don’t like the addition of Aerith chiming in on “You asshole!” when Cloud goes through Tifa’s room, I liked when it was just Tifa in the demo.

😞 they removed the sheet music from Tifa’s piano.

The audio mixing is still bad. The music is way too loud, even when manually adjusting in the options settings. Voices get drowned out

The acoustic guitar rendition of Tifa’s theme is really cute

I don’t mind the yellow shelf paint, because the game is already so visually busy it really needs to paint to stand out

As one half of my favorite YT video gamers, ChipCheezum, said: there is a level of nuance given to Sephiroth here that he usually isn’t given, and it is very refreshing to see

Pacing is a bit slow while crawling in the village. By a bit slow I mean way too slow

Cutting the camera away from Tifa showing her scar just made the scene funny, idk why they did that

Literally laughed out loud at the weather warfare conspiracy. I get that magic exists in this world but lmfao, yeah, Wutai controls the weather. Great cover story Shinra

I see a mysterious freak with a kind disposition and dying cough and I latch on, so Broden’s inevitable doom will break my heart.

I usually like remake Aerith fine but Christ she is very aggressive in her flirting and there’s no option to tell her no. I don’t care about the love triangle and never have so it’s just exhausting.

I spent all of Ch 2 with Red and Barret as my party because I got so tired of the romance shit with the girls in the opening scenes. Doesn’t seem to matter tho because party members never really say anything unless there’s a side quest they care about.

Red’s fun to play, I like his spins a lot! He still does the standing up roaring animation on battle end which is cute, and he rides a chocobo like a human shaped person which is also cute.

Animations are slow and overbearing. Not quite rdr2 levels but still enough to be annoying.

There’s a few seconds after moving from something or getting up from a bench when you cannot enter the start menu or save menu and it trips me up every time.

MAI. Is certainly a character. I turned her voice off (and by extension Chadley) because the one introduction was too much. Chadley is fine, Chadley is good. I did not need a worse version of him chittering in my ear during combat. It’s like they saw how (some) people like Purah and wanted to make their own.

There��s a lot going on mechanics wise and I think maybe there’s too much. Crafting, synergy moves, weapon abilities, folios, equipment leveling, materia, all on top of the combat system. I do not think this game needed crafting, tbh.

Fuck queen’s blood and fuck the side quest chain for it. Sorry Tifa, I’m not helping out this bartender because i don’t like this card game and your favored side quest requires me to play it.

The field and combat versions of Hollow are great, really liked those.

Fuck those moogles, man.

I hate the overfilled open world! Society has progressed past the need for open world in everything! What took 10 minutes in the original is now 10 hours - I don’t see how people can consider that a good thing when most of that time is wandering around doing fetch quests and gathering crafting materials. Unfortunately the only way to find out which quests are actually interesting is by playing them through. A burst pipe leading to a fast approaching energy crisis? Sounds interesting, too bad fucking Kyrie ruins it. A farmer’s cows are harassed by a monster? Sounds boring as fuck, but it leads to a questline shedding light on Junon’s history and Broden’s past, both of which are interesting and relevant to the story!

#rebirth posting #FF7R tag

[notkrispy]

senior year, summed up in quotes said by my me and my friends and teachers

it's nearly the start of the new school year, so here's a thing to get y'all through the first week at least. and no, you don't get context.

"if you answer this question wrong, i will throw spoons at your forehead from six feet away."

"what the hell is this congregate matter?"

"you were birthed by the color beige, weren't you?"

"the picture of dorian gray should be the new bible."

"dorian gray is jesus."

"apology rejected."

"dorian is the 18th century version of the joker."

"i'm not wasteful; what do you think i am, American?"

"is mr. peabody a DILF?"

"oh look, there goes grater cheese nose bitch."

"look if i wanted to get rejected, i'd just go on a date."

"you sound like someone with the intelligence of a beetroot."

"okay so we can buy Turkey, and you can be the cave gremlin."

"how could you hate me? i only try to harm in you in the most severe ways possible."

"i mean this in the best way possible: are you a spy?"

"we all have issues; you're not special."

"i repeat: i did not bake my child into a pie."

"...directionally proportionate to shit."

"taylor swift is santa confirmed."

"hi, 7, i'm dad."

"boy, i sure love ikea."

"de-capitation! CAPIT-AH!" *slaps themself*

"you are the rafiki to my simba."

"are you in quicksand, my dude?"

"i'm just really excited about drugs. can't wait until we get to cocaine."

"dolphin: smart. deer: dumb."

"he couldn't shatter anything, let alone a cervix."

"go enjoy dots."

"oh, you're the one from the Discord!"

"mr. k does not advocate for the violent overthrowing of the government."

"let me rephrase this: i am not a lawyer."

"i skinned a baguette."

"who knew Cthulhu was a family guy?"

"he turned a hot dog into a gas."

"so: you could follow Jesus. or you could follow Math Jesus."

"i formally declare this land as Satania."

"death by spoons."

"i want you to skin my sandwich tonight."

"when you get sent a picture of a decapitated head, you say, "oh, that's where it went."

"squirrels should be wearing pants. at all times."

"because i don't have faith in humanity."

"let's talk about anarchy and overthrowing the government!"

"your honor, i did it because they were old."

"oh great, i'm a registered door offender now."

"i support burning pedophiles."

"you're grass's number one enemy."

"the Great Grass Wars."

"ian loves sticking his finger in the ground."

"it takes me five minutes to plant my seeds."

"you cannot kill me; the crows have made me immortal."

"my crow cape will protect me."

"step aside, Florida Man, there's a new villain in town."

"yo, i love stomping babies!"

"pizzas are supposed to be outside in!"

"no, your honor, i am not. i am simply hugging the cube."

"i will slowly flatten your baby."

"bad babies get put under the straightening stick."

"mr. k is telling you not to do illegal things. please don't do illegal things. in case the government is listening."

"there is too many math."

"the acoustics in the auditorium sucketh."

"what's the plural of blubber? blubbi?"

"the onion seems to be bleeding."

"i dodge bitches like i dodge COVID-19."

"my corn shall be connected."

"today has been a long week."

"uh, i just did a bunch of scribbles, did some funky number magic..."

"small buggies dictate my life, too; it's fine."

"screw your private beaches, come hang out in the public beaches with us plebes."

"...i'm going to be so horrible. it's going to be so much fun."

"it's magic, not drugs."

"you can buy the sex doll, i'll buy the fireworks."

"what do the squiggles prophesy?"

"oh no, the squiggles are telling me something's not right."

"are you raping an effigy?"

"the hospital is stashing alcohol. it's modern-day prohibition."

"as a californian, i am 5% spicy."

"mr. k says, 'don't have a tomato fight.'"

"i am neither gentle nor a man; i identify as a menace."

"it's the gulag, but for Jesus."

"Jesus is ready to rumble."

s/o to @nimnob for contributing many of these quotes

#krista tells stories #quotes 4-7 all happened on the same day within a span of 10-15 minutes #names have been shortened or changed to preserve privacy #out of context quotes

[bananaofswifts]

Taylor Swift Turns on a Facsimile Machine for the Ingenious Recreations of ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’: Album Review

Swift recreates her entire 2008 album literally down to the last note, then gives herself room for stylistic latitude on six never-before-recorded "vault" tracks.

By Chris Willman

Swift recreates her entire 2008 album literally down to the last note, then gives herself room for stylistic latitude on six never-before-recorded "vault" tracks.

There is no “best actress” award at the Grammys, perhaps for obvious reasons, but maybe there should be this coming year. And the Grammy would go to… Taylor Swift, for so persuasively playing her 18-year-old self in “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” her beyond-meticulous recreation of the 2008 recording that did win her her first album of the year trophy back in the day. It’s impossible to overstate just how thoroughly the new version is intended as an exact replica of the old — all the way down to her startling ability to recapture an untrained teen singing voice she’s long matured and moved on from. It’s a stunt, to be sure, but a stunt for the ages — mastering the guile it takes to go back to sounding this guileless.

There are two different, very solid reasons to pick up or stream “Taylor’s Version,” regardless of whether you share her ire for the Big Machine label, whose loose ways with her nine-figure catalog precipitated this, the first in a six-album series of remakes where she’ll be turning on the facsimile machine. One is to marvel at her gift for self-mimicry on the album’s original tracks, where she sounds as possessed by her younger self as Regan ever was by Pazuzu. The other reason is, of course, to check out the six “vault” numbers that Swift wrote during that time frame but has never released before in any form, which dispenses with stylistic fealty to the late 2000s and frames her “Fearless”-era discards in production and arrangements closer to “Folklore.” Those half-dozen (kind of) new tracks really do sound like modern Taylor Swift covering her old stuff.

But those original lucky 13? It’s the same damn record… which is kind of hilarious and marvelous and the kind of meta-ness that will inspire a thousand more think-pieces than it already has, along with possibly efforts at forensic analysis to figure out how she did it.

It would not be surprising if, as we speak, Big Machine was putting a combined team of scientists and lawyers on the case of the new album’s waveform readouts, to make sure it’s not just the original album, remixed. Honestly, it’s that close. The timings of the songs are all within a few seconds of the original tracks, if not coming in at exactly the same length. The duplication effort doesn’t allow any detours. If “Forever and Always” had a cold open then, it’s going to have a cold open now. If the 2008 “That’s the Way I Love You” had slamming rock guitars with an almost subliminal banjo being plucked beneath the racket, so will the 2021 “That’s the Way I Loved You.” A drum roll to end the old “Change”? A drum roll to end its body-snatcher doppelganger. And if she chuckled before the final chorus of “Hey Stephen” 13 years ago, so will that moment be cause for a delighted giggle now.

Of course, much analysis will be put into whether the new laugh is a more knowing-sounding laugh. And that will be part of the fun for a certain segment of audiophile Swifties who will go looking for the slightest change as evidence of something meaningful. When “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” first came out weeks back to preview the album, there were reviews written that swore she’d subtly changed up her phrasing to put a contemporary spin on the song. And maybe they were right, but, having done a fair amount of A/B testing of the two versions of the album, I found myself feeling like I do when vinyl buffs insist there are significant sonic differences between the first stamper version of an LP and one that was pressed a year later. If you can spot those very, very, very modest tweaks, go for it.

But my suspicion is that if Swift has decided to turn a phrase a little differently here or there on this album, or done anything too differently aside from brighten the sound, she’s doing it more as an Easter egg, for the people who are on that kind of hunt, than anything really designed as reinterpretation. Because the last thing Swift wants most of her fans doing is A/B-ing the two versions, the way I did. The whole point is to have folks retire the OG “Fearless” from their Spotify playlists, right? The Swift faithful were already threatening to rain down damnation on anyone caught sneaking an audio peek at the old version after midnight. What she intended was to come up with a rendering so faithful that you would never have a need to spin the vintage album again. In that, she has succeeded beyond what could have been imagined even in the dreams of the few self-forgers who’ve tried this before, like a Jeff Lynne.

Is there any reason to find value in the new versions if you couldn’t care less about the issues of masters and contracts and respect in business deals that made all this strangely possible? Yes, with the first one being that the new album just sounds like a terrific remastering of the old — the same notes, and you’d swear the same performances, but sounding brighter and punchier just on a surface level. But on a more philosophical one, it’s not just a case of Swift playing with her back catalog like Andy Warhol played with his soup can. It’s really a triumph of self-knowledge and self-awareness, in the way that Swift is so hyper-conscious of the ways she’s matured that she has the ability to un-mature before our very ears. With her vocals, it’s virtuosic, in a way, how she’s made herself return to her unvirtuosic upstart self.

On Swift’s earliest albums and in those seminal live shows — at the time when she was famously being told she “can’t sing,” to quote a song from the follow-up album — there was a slight shrillness around the edges of her voice that, if you lacked faith, you might’ve imaged would be there forever. It wasn’t. That was partly youth, and partly just the sheer earnestness with which she wanted to convey the honesty of the songs. She’s advanced so much since then — into one of pop’s most gifted modern singers, really — that the woman of “Folklore” and “Evermore” seems like a completely different human being than the one who made the self-titled debut and “Fearless,” never mind just a woman versus girl. It wouldn’t have seemed possible that she could go back to her old way of singing at the accomplished age of 31, but she found and recreated that nervous, sincere, pleading voice of yesteryear. And maybe it was just a technical feat, of temporarily unlearning what she’s learned since then, but you can sense that maybe she had to go there internally, too, to the place where she was counseling other girls to guard their sexual virtue in “Fifteen,” or wondering whether to believe the fairy tale of “Love Story” or the wakeup call of “White Horse,” or proving with “Forever & Always” that writing a song telling off Joe Jonas for his 27-second breakup call was better than revenge.

If at first you’re not inclined to notice that Swift has re-adopted a completely different singing voice for the “Fearless” remakes, the realization may kick in when those “vault” tracks start appearing in the later stretch of this hour-and-50-minute album. The writing on the six songs that have been pulled up from the 2008 cutting room floor seems primitive, even a little bit by the standards of the “Fearless” album; there are great lines and couplets throughout the rescued tracks, but you can see why she left them as works-in-progress. But she doesn’t use her youthful voice on these resurrections, nor does she employ the actual style of “Fearless” very strictly. Of course, she feels more freedom on these, because there are no predecessors in the Big Machine catalog she’s asking you to leave behind. Her current collaborators of choice, Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, divided the co-producing work on these fresher songs, as they did for the two all-new albums she released in the last year. (The “Fearless” recreations are co-produced by Swift with Christopher Rowe, someone who worked on remixes for Swift back in that era.) They co-produce the vault songs in a style that sounds somewhere between “Fearless” and Folklore”… a more spectral brand of country-pop, with flutes and synths and ringing 12-string guitars and a modicum of drum programming replacing some (but not all) of the acoustic stringed instruments you’d expect to be carried over from “Fearless” proper.

Of the previously unheard tracks, Swift was right — she’s always been her own best self-editor — in putting out “You All Over Me” first, in advance of the album. With its imagery of half-muddy stones being upturned on the road, this song has advanced lyrical conceits more of a piece with the level of writing she’s doing now than some of the slightly less precocious songs that follow. Still, there’s something to be said for the sheer zippiness with which Swift conveys teen heartbreak in “Mr. Perfectly Fine,” which has a lyric that shows Swift had long since absorbed the lessons Nashville had to offer about how to come up with a high-concept song — the concept, in this case, being just to stick the word “mister” in front of a lot of phrases relating to her shallow ex, as if they were honorary titles to be conferred for being a shit, while she employs the “miss” for herself more sparingly.

Some of the remaining outtake songs go back more toward the sedate side of “Fearless”-style material; she didn’t leave any real bangers in the can. “We Were Happy,” the first of two successive tracks to bring in Keith Urban (but only for backgrounds on this one), employs fake strings and real cello as Swift waxes nostalgic for a time when “you threw your arms around my neck, back when I deserved it.” It’s funny, in a good way, to hear Swift at 31 recreating a song she wrote at 17 or 18 that pined for long-past better times. The next song, “That’s When,” brings Urban in for a proper duet where he gets a whole second verse and featured status on half a chorus, and it’s lovely to hear them together. But, as a make-up song, it doesn’t feel as real or lived-in as the more personal things she was writing at the time — and the fact that its chords are pretty close to a slightly more balladic version of the superior “You Belong With Me” was probably a pretty good reason for dropping it at the time.

the 18-year-old Taylor Swift is a great place to visit, but “Folklore” and “Evermore” are the place you’ll want to return to and live, unless you have an especially strong sentimental attachment to “Fearless”… which, sure, half of young America does. It’s not irreconcilable to say that the two albums she issued in the last year represent a daring pinnacle of her career, but that “Fearless” deserved to win album of the year in 2008. Has there been a greater pop single in the 20th century than “You Belong With Me”? Probably not. Did the album also have lesser moments you probably haven’t thought about in a while, like the just-okay “Breathe”? Yes. (I looked up to see whether Swift had ever played that little remarked upon number in concert, and according to setlists.fm, she did, exactly once… in 2018. Because she’s Taylor Swift, and of course she did.) It’s not certain that her duet with Colbie Caillat really needed to be resurrected, except it’s fun, because hey, she even roped former duet partners back into her time warp. But there are so many number that have stood the test of time, like “The Way I Love You,” an early song that really got at the complicated feelings about passion and fidelity that she would come to explore more as she grew into her 20s… and just kind of a headbanger, too, on an album that does love its fiddles and mandolins.

It doesn’t take much to wonder why Swift put up “Fearless” first in this six-album exercise; it’s one of her two biggest albums, along with “1989,” and it’s 13 years old, which does mean something superstitious in the Taylor-verse. In a way, it’ll be more interesting to see what happens when she gets to more complicated productions, like “1989” or “Reputation.” But maybe “Fearless” did present the opportunity for the grandest experiment out of the gate: to recreate something that pure and heartfelt, with all the meticulousness a studio master like Swift can put to that process now, without having it seem like she’s faking sincerity. Let the think-pieces proceed — because this is about six hundred different shades of meta. But, all craftiness and calculation aside, there’s a sweetness to the regression that’s not inconsequential. It harks back to a time when she only wondered if she could be fearless, before she learned it the harder way for sure. What they say about actors “disappearing into the role”? That really applies to Taylor Swift, playing herself.

#taylor swift #fearless #review

[dalishious]

not da but I'm getting into Canadian music, I think you've mentioned before you like the tragically hip, what do you think of sloan? any other bands and artists to consider?

There’s a reason The Tragically Hip is so beloved in this country. Their songs aren’t just songs, they’re poetry. If you want to check them out, I recommend starting with the album Yer Favourites, which is a collection of their top songs voted by fans. And also I’d like to give a special shoutout to what I consider to be an extremely underrated album: We Are The Same. Most people will tell you Fully Completely is their best one, but there isn’t a single song in We Are The Same that I don’t love. (Especially Country Days, The Depression Suite, Coffee Girl, and of course, Now The Struggle Has a Name...)

Sloan has some good ones, and I’d be a poor Nova Scotian not to say that lol. If you like any of The Hip’s songs that have a more pop-ish vibe, you’ll probably like them.

Anyway, some more recommendations, only English unless you’re open to some French as well, let me know:

MATTHEW GOOD. MATTHEW GOOD. MATTHEW GOOD. (Before going solo, Matthew Good Band.) One of my all time favourite artists. I recently shared my playlist of my favourites on my main blog if you’re interested. Also just like The Hip, his lyrics are more often than not very poetic, and I love that. Especially given a number of them come from personal places and I’ll just say if you have any mental disorders yourself there’s a good chance you’ll be able to really feel when he sings about his own. Anyway, my two favourite albums in particular are Hospital Music and Avalanche, with Moving Walls and Underdogs (Matthew Good Band) close behind.

Our Lady Peace is fantastic. I recommend starting with the albums Gravity and Clumsy.

The Stanfields are a fun mix of what they call Folk’n’Roll. Check out their albums Vanguard of the Young & Reckless and Death & Taxes for sure. (Oh fuck, also check out the video for Afraid of the World because the end of it gets me every time... white woman walks around scoffing at all the pumpkin heads, then goes home and puts on her pumpkin head.)

If you’re interested in another really great mix of Atlantic Folk and alternative rock, I suggest Joel Plaskett / Joel Plaskett Emergency. Start with either the Joel Plaskett Emergency album Ashtray Rock, or the solo Joel Plaskett album Three. Also the album Solidarity he did with his father, Bill Plaskett, is beautiful. The Next Blue Sky is one of my favourite songs ever.

Matt Mays is one more Atlantic Folksy rock guy. Once Upon a Hell of a Time and Twice Upon a Hell of a Time (acoustic versions of Once) are a perfect starting point in my opinion, though most fans of his would tell you to start with the album Coyote, which is also great!

Arcade Fire is... I’m not really sure how to describe Arcade Fire. I like some of their stuff, but they are something of an acquired taste, I think. Try the album The Suburbs.

If I tell you I adored Avril Lavigne and Billy Talent growing up, would you judge me? Because I did, and I still do. If you’re willing to keep an open mind, try Avril Lavigne’s albums Under My Skin and Let Go, and if you’re in a real angsty mood, try Billy Talent’s albums Dead Silence and Hits. (I would especially recommend trying Billy Talent if you like bands like say, Green Day and MCR.)

Okay, some more classics... Rush, The Guess Who, Bachman-Turner Overdrive (BTO), and April Wine are all great. They all have greatest hits / best of albums, so just start there.

Oh shit, I almost forgot Bryan Adams, AKA the Canadian Bruce Springsteen. Though you’ll have trouble finding one of my favourite songs by him, so here it is.

I also feel like I needn’t even bother mentioning Neil Young since I’m assuming you him before, but... yeah. Neil Young, obviously.

EDIT: AAHHH forgot Great Big Sea! Check out their album Play.

EDIT: Yes I love Nickelback too. Sue me.

EDIT: I forgot, Alanis Morissete is Canadian. Listen to her Jagged Little Pill album if you’ve never done so before.

EDIT: I had no idea Three Days Grace was Canadian??? One-X and Human are my favourite albums by them, but Life Starts Now is also pretty up there. (Similar vibes to Bily Talent, but I’d say even more angsty lol)

I also wanna give a particular shoutout to at least some albums from my fave Canadian Indigenous artists:

Shawnee deserves so many more listeners please check her out. Her only full album as of now is Let It Burn, but she’s also got a bunch of released singles. 

Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Medicine Songs and The Best Of

Jeremy Dutcher’s Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa... I know I said I’d limit reccomendations to English but I can’t help it.

Susan Aglukark’s This Child

Adrian Sutherland is a newbie, but I am begging everyone reading this to check out his song Politician Man. Needless to say, I look forward to hearing more from him.

#not da #music #Anonymous #ask

[asmolbirb]

A semi-comprehensive list of sexy moments in Love Run (2019) by The Amazing Devil

In honor of them hopefully releasing their new album today, I listened to their first album for the seven thousandth time and wrote down every moment that made my soul sing. I will not be talking (much) about lyrics here because I simply do not have the space to do so!

Love Run (Intro)

When Madeleine joins Joey on “love’s worth running to” and her voice goes up when his goes down. Ya bitch loves contrasting vocal harmonies!

The buildup of the “ahhh”

The quiet amalgam of lyrics from other tracks underlying the “ahhh” in the focus

King

The fact that King is in triple time is already Supremely Sexy

When Joey joins Madeleine on “let the seabirds cry” and the percussion drops out so it’s just vocals and guitar

How breathy Joey’s voice gets at “burning there”

The rhythmic buildup of the percussion under the second set of “let the seabirds cry”

“Every unwanted daughter” is just. Yeah.

Madeleine’s vocalizations under Joey’s “I’ll keep the king”s at the end of the song

Pruning Shears

Can I say “the whole song”? No? Fuck, okay, here we go

The percussive sound of the first verse, made all the more sexy because Joey has a tendency to close to consonants really quickly

(Also in the live version, the way Joey says “car is so kitch”)

The way Madeleine’s lines have overlapping syllables with Joey’s!! This is an Amazing Devil constant but it still FUCKS ME UP

How Madeleine’s line is actually lower than Joey’s at “had it all planned” emphasizing that this line/experience is from Joey’s POV whereas her verses are higher than Joey’s suggesting that her verses are her own POV

The vocalization under the second half of the final chorus !

The “whoa oh whoa oh” after the final chorus !!!

The percussive sound of Joey’s final “in the back” hhhh

Shower Day

Joey and Madeleine’s unison for the entirety of the first verse and chorus really underscores the way they split into harmony afterward

Just. The bi/pan solidarity of the “you” character both “lov[ing] him” and “kiss[ing] her sister” (OR, if you interpret the song like I sometimes do, the closeted struggle of “know[ing] you should love him” but wanting to “[kiss] her”)

The syncopation (hemiolas specifically) at “we’ll wear our eyeliner” !!!! Fuck me up!! (Also the solidarity of the male POV character/Joey wearing eyeliner too! We need more men in eyeliner, this is the future liberals want)

THE REVERBERATING PERCUSSION THAT JOINS IN AT “WELL I’M LOOKING BACK” AND ALSO LITERALLY EVERYTHING THAT FOLLOWS. This whole portion of the song is full of so much heartache and desperation and emotion!!

The way Madeleine and Joey sing “For Christ’s sake just say something” in a round

The way Joey says his S’s in the repeated “say something” section at the end

Elsa’s Song

Okay so the fact that this starts off a cappella is massively sexy

How every verse ends with “forget me not”

Everything about Madeleine’s harmony!! It’s the return of the contrasting vocal harmony but turned up to 11. If I listed out every sexy piece of contrasting harmony I would simply have to list out the whole song

The introduction of the rhythmic percussion in the third verse

In general, how Madeleine is really leaning into her sop range here! It’s such a lovely contrast to Joey’s baritone. It’s a treat to hear her sop range shine when she tends to stick to mezzo/alto lines.

Pray

How Madeleine closes to a hum on “mean” in “what holy men really mean”

How Joey echoes Madeleine in the second verse

(How Madeleine ad libs the repeated “I won’t, I won’t pray for” section in the live version)

Madeleine’s ad libbed vocalization directly after the “I won’t, I won’t pray for” section. Heart eyes motherfucker

The repeated “oh oh oh” under Madeleine starting at “why you cannot sleep for sighing”

The harmonic buildup of all the background vocalizations under Madeleine’s final chorus. Like every new measure adds another layer of harmony and it’s just SO SEXY

Little Miss Why So

Suddenly I can’t see through the fucking waterfall taking up residence on my face

This is such a poignant description of depression and how difficult it is to explain to people who don’t get it

The part that fucks me up the most is the accelerated repetition of “it’s so boring” that releases into the a tempo “etc”, simultaneously emphasizing the lover’s frustration and encapsulating the narrator’s apathy. The buildup and release of tension is exquisite.

Also every time Joey joins in is just....incredible. The desperation of “For Christ’s sake, just say something” kills me every time.

But I can’t really in good conscience call anything in this song sexy because it’s all so...gentle and it just hits home so hard

So. Moving on

New York Torch Song

DID U MEAN. MY LIFEBLOOD.

The “fuck you”s both at the beginning and in the bridge

The slide on “tomorrow” in the intro right before the percussion kicks in

Joey’s “bright with every hum, ah-ah”

Joey’s humming under Madeleine’s “watch the fire” in the choruses

How the section starting with “god or devil” speeds up and adds more percussive complexity

The way Joey closes to the consonants when he sings “from within this”. It’s so delightfully sibilant !

How Madeleine laughs as she says “can’t we just talk about this”

The way Joey says “tippy toe tin rooftops” hnnnng it’s already a sexy lyric because of the alliteration but he makes it so much more percussive

THE WAY JOEY FLIPS UP ON “LIGHT” IN “TRICK OF THE LIGHT”. THE WAY HE HAS TO GO INTO HIS HEAD VOICE. THIS WHOLE POST IS SIMPLY AN EXCUSE TO DIE OVER THIS WORD. 

Two Minutes

The fact that it’s a live recording and not a studio recording and there are all these little noises and echoes in the background

Madeleine harmonizing with words that are just barely intelligible, right up until she finally sings “I can hear the children calling,” is so damn haunting

The moment when the piano picks up !!! 

Not Yet / Love Run (Reprise)

Buckle in kids !!! This song is 8 minutes long and every second is sexy!

The contrast between the gentleness of Joey’s voice and the almost anthemic determination of Madeleine’s voice in the verses, plus the alternation between acoustic guitar and heavy percussion

Madeleine’s “seams” vs Joey’s “seems”, Madeleine’s “hell” vs Joey’s “I held”, Madeleine’s “she’d howl” vs Joey’s “she’d hold”

Just. Everything about the Not Yet chorus. It makes me so fucking tender

Especially Joey’s diphthong in “pirates”; he closes to the long i sound almost instantly and it w r e c k s me

The way Joey says “everyone knows sex is better when you’re unemployed,” especially in the bridge right before the breakdown

(The way Joey says “you can’t dance for shit” in the live version)

The way Madeleine basically growls “Where is God, ma / Where’s the vodka”

The harmonies under the bridge right before the breakdown

The fact that Madeleine sings Love Run (Reprise) when Joey sang Love Run (Intro)!!! Inversion bitchesss

Joey’s entire verse in Love Run (Reprise) hhhhh -- it’s just rife with all his little vocal tics that make me absolutely feral

The vocalizations beneath the main track that start at Joey’s verse and continue through the end of the song

The tradeoff of “love run” between Joey and Madeleine

Madeleine’s “all that matters is that you’re here, all that matters” is so haunting and beautiful and sexy

The brief moment of acoustic respite at the start of the third verse

THE SHOUTED/GROWLED “RUN”S UNDER THE SECOND AND THIRD CHORUSES AAAAA

In conclusion:

This post was brought to you by a bisexual disaster who is an Amazing Devil stan first and a functional human second

I’m almost definitely missing some moments because I only listened to the album like twice while I made this post so please feel free to add your own sexy moments 

Please, Joey and Madeleine, for the love of god release The Horror and The Wild, I am starving--

#the amazing devil #joey batey #madeleine hyland #love run #the horror and the wild

[downinthedevildom]

Hi lovely! I was wondering if I could have a matchup please? I'm staright girl, I love reading, singing, acting and exercising. I'm a bit reserved with strangers, but with my friends I'm bubbly, talkative and crazy, I'm perfectionist, smart, kind but I'm stubborn, independent and I tend to put others needs before myself. I love learning and I adore challenges, they help me become the best version of myself. I believe there is something good in everyone. My personality type is ENFJ. Thank you!

Hello there sweetie! I’ll be happy to give you a match up! You sound so sweet 💜☺️ we stan the positive vibes coming from you friendo!!

Okay, I pair you with....

Satan.

So I was going back and forth with a few of the boiis but I kept coming back with more points for Satan,

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first shall we, books! B O O KS! Catch you both reading into the dead of night, just in perfect quiet company.

Your in the music room, (obviously the best acoustics in the house of lamentation) just singing away, Satan walking back to his room wanders over to the sound of your voice

Soft wrath boy standing quietly listening to your voice while leaning casually on the wall near the door until you notice him.

If you stop, he will compliment you and ask you not to stop on his account. He will grab a book, settle in and just read and listen (though he mostly will be just concentrating on your voice)

When you start coming out of your shell with him and his brothers and start to be more your bubbly self Satan would want to know what other personality trates you were hiding at first. He will find more ways to talk to you, take you to book stores and cafes in the hopes of helping you open up more.

He even finds your stubborn side endearing. Though if your being stubborn about a factor of your safety he will be more stubborn then you. His human isn’t getting themself hurt on his watch.

He loves the fact you are so hungry to learn new things and challenge yourself, knowledge is a power all of its own and your will to continuously improve yourself ... it’s safe to say he is full of admonished and respect for you..

Satan is observant, it won’t take him long to notice you are putting his brothers needs above your own. Though your doing it with a smile, he can see you getting progressively more tired by neglecting yourself.

This will not stand, no sir!

Exspect to be dragged away from the chaos for a day or two, your taken for a nice walk to free your mind, a dinner date to make sure your fed. Just relaxing time.

Even being hauled up in his room quietly reading togeather with some tea. Girl relax! Take care of yourself! Those idiot brothers can deal with there own shit. X3

‘How can you be so disgustingly positive? It’s positively adorable’ yes, he may say it’s silly that you try to see the good in everyone but there is no denying that he loves this part of you, you saw the good in him after all.

I hope you enjoy this dear! 💜💜

Honarable mentions : Asmodeus

Listen, this boy is all about the self love. There no way you neglecting your need will fly with him. Singing, an obvious here! Boy will demand you duet. Karaoke dates never looked so good! He just thinks your wonderfull, but not as wonderfull as him of course! X3 

#obey me matchups #obey me #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #fun fact #i kept typeing ovey me instead of obey me #and now i cant stop giggling about it... #and its progressed to me loosing my mind 😂 #that is all!! #Angel rambles in the tags #matchup by angel💜 #h.m by angel💜 #( MATCHUPS .)

[siyeonjisoo]

So this year for my birthday, I took an adventure to the exotic state of Ohio – just for a concert where I could meet someone I have looked up to for over a decade on the actual day of my birthday.  And I guess hang out with some of my Ohio friends.

My friend @ali-kat211 was amazing enough to brave the cold and hang out with my outside the venue all day from like 12:30 until we finally went inside.  Just so I could be the first person to meet Amber.  Thank you for hanging out with me and making this so much fun <3

We were joined by the street team after a while and they called us the real MVPs since we technically even beat them as well as most of the artists.

We sat down and were just chatting and making friends in line when LB (Amber’s support drummer) came out the door and we were sitting in front of and made us all scramble and scream.  This happened so many times, and I think LB was doing it on purpose after the 3rd or 4th time he came out.

We were across the street from the Ohio State Student Union building (I didn’t actually know American universities would have those. I thought that was something the UK made up lol) and would wander over there whenever we needed to use the bathroom or to warm up for a few minutes.  The first time we went over, though, WE RAN INTO JUSTIN.  I saw him walking toward us and I did a double take and then said “Hi, Justin” while all of the folks I was with just thought I was saying hi to someone I knew at first before they also did a double take and recognized us.  He chatted with us for a few seconds and told us to stay warm before he walked inside the back entrance to the venue to eat his lunch.

We got back in line and screamed about it to everyone else but most of us were here for Amber, not Justin or Meg&Dia, so it wasn’t super exciting second-hand.

Time continues to pass and then we get let in for the Meet and Greet maybe like 15 minutes late so around 5:30.  Two of my friends I was with didn’t have M&G so I told them that if they gave me cash, I would get some merch signed by Amber for them so I bought my merch and then stood there trying not to puke before meeting Amber.

We got let into the main area where they were gonna do the event and Justin was just wandering around and we all were just casually chatting with him.  I told him about the group chat we have him added to from the Gone Rogue tour as well as after the NYC stop of this tour and he was really happy to know that we had a good friend group based off of our experiences at his shows.

Amber comes out and walks past us with Leo and, before I even say hi to Amber, I start chatting with Leo.  (Leo is one of the amazingly talented dancers on this tour along with Dom) I told him that me and my friends from the NYC show wanted to know if we could adopt him.  He agreed so everyone stay away from my son Leo, if you hurt him you will die.

And then.  It was time to meet Amber.  I thought they were gonna set up the table and figure things out and I would have to watch them for a few minutes but nope! She called me down right away and was like “come on down, give me a hug!  We’re gonna take a minute to set this up but come and chat” kinda vibes and I almost tripped over my own two feet when she came to collect me from the stairs I was waiting on.  I told her I was from the NYC show and that I made the nickname CuddlePuddle and she was soo happy to hear that.  Her smile kind of blinded me.  She then looked kinda confused about why I was here in Ohio so I explained I came from New Jersey but came all the way to Ohio because this show, on the 13th, was on my birthday and it was my wish to see her and to meet her on my birthday.  I was then the only person she sang happy birthday to out of the whole M&G and it made me feel really special.  She signed the stuff I bought and then we took some pictures and I am never posting one of them because I was too busy laughing (but also worrying about Amber falling over) and feel like I look a lil silly but the other pictures came out awesome.

I walked shakily off to the other side of the theater and just. Collapsed.  Because this was already amazing and I couldn’t imagine things getting much better from here.

We all just stood around waiting for the rest of the M&G to end and were packed in like sardines (with no one wanting to move back but then completely fucking up the line order because folks were just stopping at the front of the crowd that were at the back of the line and I wasn’t having it and I got a lil snappy with folks in order to protect my spot).  Justin was still just wandering around and chatting. He came over and gave me a handshake because I asked him for one as my birthday gift.  He then told us to go and buy some of his merch and then we can attend his M&G after the show so we went running off to buy that since we still had time before the show was gonna start.

Meet and Greet finally ends and Amber waves good bye to us and then we all go running off to get our spots.  I MANAGE TO BE FRONT AND CENTER ON THE BARRICADE.  Literally dead center as marked on the stage.  We all settle in and everyone else gets let in. This is prolly around 7 by now I think.

LB comes out and sits down on the edge of the stage and starts chatting with us.  I told him I came from New Jersey and was actually at the birthday show.  I told him he is birthday twins-ish with my friend and that he gave her his drum stick after that concert since the NYC concert on 2/7 was actually her birthday.  He said he remembered her and that he needed to think of something to do for me.  My friends next to me and I were all hungry too and he was sitting there and pulled out food.  So LB legit gives me and one other person the first 2 bites of his food before he starts eating it himself.  He learns that we have been there since 12:30 and haven’t really eaten much of anything so he decides he’s gonna go off to the back of the venue to the pizza stand and BUYS US A WHOLE FUCKING PEPPERONI PIZZA that we share with the whole crowd, ripping pieces in half and passing them around.  It was actually some of the best pizza I have had in a really long time.  We all decide that he has adopted us and is now a father of five.  Ben comes out and is like “Yo, Justin is waiting for you to move so he can get his set started” so LB scrambles away and like 2 seconds later, the concert starts.

Justin is usual sexy fuckboi self.  I know I should but I can’t help loving that man.  He grabbed my hand and serenaded me and I have never been a more heterosexual human being in my life than those 3 seconds.  I also handed him the second half of my pizza and I think he actually took it off stage and may have eaten it after and I love him.

Meg&Dia come out and they are sooo cute.  Grant is a wonderful drummer and Carlo is super handsome.  I’m sad they didn’t do the acoustic version of Koala like they did in NYC because that was almost hauntingly good but that’s the only thing I think I would have changed about this whole day.

Then it is time.  The moment of truth (pt2).  Amber. I am right in front of her.  The stage is less than an arm’s width away from me and Amber comes pretty close to the edge of it a few times.  I actually got scared at one point when Amber, Leo, and Dom stormed the edge of the stage and kicked out that I was gonna get kicked in the face and flinched and Amber saw and laughed at me a little bit.

I helped remind Amber to drink water and stay hydrated throughout.

When introducing the whole naming of the crowds thing she went through the recent nicknames and THEN POINTED TO ME AND SAID “This girl is the person who came up with the nickname for NYC, she made Cuddle Puddle” AND I TURNED AROUND AND WAVED AT EVERYONE AND GOT APPLAUSE.

I nagged Amber again for eating CDs and she apologized lol

DJ is just super chill and funny.  One point he was clapping along with one of the songs and I copied him and he saw me and pointed at me with a smile.  I think that’s what earned me something that happened later.

After the third song, Get Myself, Amber grabbed my hand and sang to me.  I, feeling a little overwhelmed, looked at my hand and screamed a little bit.  Justin, the lil shit, was sitting in front of the barricade and watching it and so Amber went over to him and did the same hand hold to him.  Justin, I kid you not, looked at me and then FUCKING COPIED ME IN A VERY EXAGGERATED MANNER and I died laughing. After that song, I took literally the best picture I have ever taken in my LIFE

A lot of people started crying during Numb and Amber gave a person behind me her towel because we couldn’t find any tissues. That song almost got me but it was the next song, Borders, that had me literally dry sobbing because I didn’t have the hydration levels to be able to produce tears.

Amber, apparently, learned about LB adopting us and mentioned it and we all waved and said “hi, Dad” and LB waved back at us and I have not felt more proud of a father figure in my life.

Main set ends and everyone goes off stage for a few minutes and some people seemed to think it was legit over and were really happy to learn that there was still some more.

Frozen happens and it is terrifying chaos BUT DAMN CAN AMBER SING.  I feel like she sings that song better than most people who try to do covers of it.

And then POKEMON TIME.  It is the most impossible chaos for them to not be crashing into each other the whole time.

Carlo came out dressed as the Snorlax and just flops down on the stage and looked legit terrified someone was gonna run over him at a couple of moments but there were no accidents.

And then it was over.  We took a picture all together.  The instrumental for Other People was playing while we got situated for that and Amber looked really sappily happy but also kinda embarrassed that we were singing her song to her.

LB gives me his drum stick and wished me a happy birthday again before leaving the stage

DJ comes up with a sheet of paper that we all know is the setlist and people’s hands come flying up and I get crushed against the barricade since everyone behind me pushes up to get it.  He folds it lightly and bats their hands away with it to make sure he GIVES IT TO ME.

We all make our way to the bar and get some water because we are all dying from screaming and singing for 2 hours before we make our way to the line for Justin’s Meet and Greet.  The man is just chatting with folks and taking his time and the venue staff is like “c’mon man, we gotta go” and hurrying him along.  And I think they had a flight to catch so they couldn’t linger, either, since they had a concert in Atlanta the next day.  DJ comes running through the line to take a video and literally trips coming up the stairs.  He showed us after because we were at the end of the line and he needed to show it to someone to laugh off the embarrassment lol.  He edited it out before uploading it to Justin’s Instagram, poor soul.

Justin takes a picture with me eventually and I told him “thanks for making it worth coming all the way from Jersey” and he said something to the effect of you’re welcome and I’ll try to come back soon or whatever and then it is time for the trip back outside to the cold.

So this was the most amazingly wonderful concert experience I think I have ever had. In. My. Life.  And definitely one of the most memorable birthday experiences I think I have ever had. In. my. Life.  Thank you to everyone who was part of it.  I’m writing this 2 days later while I sit in the airport, waiting to fly home and wake up from this wonderful dream.  I’m gonna get home and just cry because the post-concert depression still hasn’t set in because I’m still not sure any of it was even real.  Being back home is going to make it all settle in, I think.

#Hohio #Amber #f(x) #TourX #LB #Leo #Justin #JustinPark #best way to spend a birthday #wonderful memories were created