#the leeds instore where they played cotton after i joked about wanting to hear it to ash earlier in the day?

[skywatch3rs]

top 5 times you've seen tmg

this resulted in me pulling up setlist fm and my travel spreadsheets to double check how many tmg shows i've actually been to and its 11 full shows and one instore so i do actually have to pick and its hard!!!

dublin 2019 - palmcorder yanya, waylon jennings live!, this is about when younger solidifed as one of my all time favourites. john played ash's request for birth of serpents back to back with my request for steal smoked fish in the encore and afterwards we hung out with matt and got hugs and were like, fully solidified as Those Two who were barrier at every show of the tour

dublin 2015 beat the champ tour - my first time! i flew from cardiff to dublin to stay with a pal and went to the gig on my own, got in the second row, and sobbed my way through most of the set next to an older irish woman who grabbed my hand during never quite free. the setlist was insane: cry for judas, ballad of bull ramos, heel turn 2, steal smoked fish, amy aka spent gladiator, and my first time ever hearing this year live. whelan's is a tiny venue, the crowd was rowdy af and joyful, and until this year it was the only full band show i'd been to!

brighton 2017 - last show of the goths tour, i tweeted john from outside the venue asking if i could teach myself how to make an origami unicorn before the show, would he consider playing from tg&y (my fav unreleased song). i successfully made the unicorn and left it on the keyboard, he held it up during high unicorn tolerance and referred to me as "his friend". he did play from tg&y during the solo set and it changed my brain chemistry forever. also this was maybe my favourite version of harlem roulette i've seen live?

leeds night 2 2019. i have loved all the leeds shows, the brudenell club is my favourite venue, the crowd is always incredible, hearing andrew eldritch is moving back to leeds in leeds remains one of the most joyful musical experiences of my life every goddamn time, but this show in particular had autoclave in the solo set and then the double whammy of cry for judas into woke up new. this was 18 months after ash and i lost a friend to suicide and woke up new hits different when you're in grief like that. getting to cry and hug my best friend listening to our favourite band together doesn't get old ever.

dublin 2017 - HEEL TURN 1 BABYYYYY. new chevrolet in flamess!! the young thousands!! you were cool in the encore!!!!! ash and i befriended a very chill dude at barrier who lost his shit when JD played masher in the solo set, extremely good vibes. but really: heel turn one. screaming "i/ i/ i'm not gonna die in here" with a room full of people increasingly loudly was just so much.

honorable mention for berlin 2022, my first and only show of this tour bc i got incredibly sick the day after the gig. but going to germany with ash to see tmg again post-pandemic was just such a joy. matt melted my face off with his guitar solo during dark in here, seeing a full band show for the first time since 2015 rocked, waylon jennings live! full band? incredible. i screamed along so hard to up the wolves that my mask fell off; the catharsis was deeply needed

#tmg #every show is special like all the leeds ones have been so good and unique; glasgow 2019 was insane #the leeds instore where they played cotton after i joked about wanting to hear it to ash earlier in the day? #thee band of all time for me