Friday 3 February 2012

All Time Low concert (review)


Venue: o2 Academy, Birmingham
Date: 28/01/2012
Support acts: We Are The In Crowd & The Maine
You’ll like if you like: Fall Out Boy, Mayday Parade, You Me At Six
Rating: * * * * *
On 28th January, I went to see All Time low at the o2 Academy in Bristol. Although I’ve seen a few concerts at this venue before, there are 2 main rooms (I think!) and I’ve only ever been into the smaller of the 2. If I’m honest, the smaller room is a lot better as you can get closer to the band and it feels more personal, but I also love the feel of getting near a band that can fill a larger arena.
My friends and I got to the venue early as we knew how dedicated ATL’s fan base is, we were right to do so as there was already a huge queue right down the road when we got there, 3 hours before the doors even opened! It was freezing waiting outside, but we enjoyed it as a few small bands came round to hand out their flyers, such as ‘8th Time Luckie’ who were really friendly and helped keep our spirits up.
As my friend’s on o2, we got to skip some of the queue, which was really great. However, the queue for the cloakroom inside was huge and prevented us from getting straight to the front.
We Are The In Crowd were first on. I’m a huge fan of this band, having seen them support Mayday Parade early last year, and was really excited about seeing them again. They didn’t sing any of their best songs from the album ‘Guaranteed to Disagree’, but they still put on a good show, getting the crowd really hyped up. The Maine were also really good, I haven’t heard many songs by them but I’ll definitely be checking them out soon!
All Time Low came out quite quickly, jumping around the stage and really getting the audience involved. Jack completely stole the show, but I’m not complaining! They were all really funny, telling stories in between their songs and talking to the crowd. The highlight for me was Alex’s solo performance of ‘Remembering Sunday’ which is one of my favourite songs and sounded absolutely beautiful. At one point, Jack bought out these inflatable ‘boob hands’ which, after playing around with, he threw out into the crowd. After a bit of fighting with the girls next to us, we managed to get one of these!
I’ve been to a lot of concerts, avoiding a lot of mosh pits, but I must say, this was the roughest crowd yet. I left with a few bruises, after being thrown around whilst the crowd rammed forward between support acts, to try to get closer to the stage. Although, I shouldn’t complain as I did manage to get right near the front!
All-in-all, it was an amazing night. All Time Low are incredibly talented, Alex has such a strong voice for that type of band and they all put in an amazing effort. The support acts fitted in perfectly and everyone seemed to love them. They said they’ll be touring again this summer, and, if this is your scene, I’d really recommend you get tickets as soon as they’re out, you won’t want to miss it!

Sunday 15 January 2012

Wasting Light, Foo Fighters (review)


Release date: 12/04/11
Track listing: (click here)
You'll like if you like: Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers
Rating: * * * *
I have to be honest when I say I’m not a huge Foo Fighters fan, I mean, I’ve always liked their music but this the first of their albums I’ve actually bought. I’d heard songs such as ‘Walk’ and ‘Rope’ on the radio and when I saw this on sale for only £5 I just had to buy it.
It’s a pretty average album cover, a plain back background with pink writing and the members faces faded over each other in a sort of oval shape. The whole effect’s quite strange but works with the album. I was disappointed to find there were no lyrics written in the case insert as I believe lyrics are the key to an amazing song and always like to read these before listening to the album. Instead, there’s some almost ‘pop-art’ style photos of the band performing and playing in the studio.
Highlights of the album include ‘Walk’, ‘Arlandria’ and the lesser-known ‘These Days’.  This is the band’s 7th album and I think the decision they made to go right back to basics was perfect for this record as the songs have a raw-edge to them that you don’t seem to find very often and you can really hear the emotion in Grohl’s voice.
However, the reason this album didn’t get a 5 star review is due to the fact it took me a good few listens to really appreciate the album, with songs such as ‘Bridge Burning’ that maybe took the edgy ‘rawness’ a step too far.
All-in-all, I would probably recommend this album to my friends as there are some really great, original songs that deserve a listen. I can’t compare to any of their old albums (as I haven’t heard any) but this is a strong 4 star record and one that I won’t be getting tired of any time soon.

Wednesday 4 January 2012

Rimmel Flash Eyeliner (review)


(This last photo was taken after a day of wearing the eyeliner, as you can see, the colour's still strong and the line hasn't been broken, the small smudges are hardly noticable)
What they say: Versatile felt tipped pen liquid liner, easier to apply than traditional liquid liners, continuous and controlled flow, fine-tip for precise lines, long-wearing, smudge and transfer resistant.
Colour: Black
Rating: * * * * *
There’s nothing worse than a bad eyeliner, drawing the perfect line for it to be smudged within an hour, ruining your whole look. (Well, that’s what I think anyway.) So it’s really important to have a good eyeliner you can wear every day.  That’s where Rimmel Flash Eyeliner comes into things.
It’s not much to look at, a plain red with a black lid and block black writing with the Rimmel symbol. My one complaint would be that, on mine, the writing has rubbed off, but this isn’t really a huge problem.
I’ve always preferred a felt tipped pen as they’re normally easy to apply and get a good shaped line with, Rimmel Flash eyeliner has the perfect shaped tip, the fine end makes it easy to draw thin lines whilst, by using the whole pen, you can create an edgy thick line.
The colour comes out bold straight away, with no need for layering up. The best thing is, it stays this way for hours and hours. I rarely find the line has broken or blurred, admittedly, I occasionally find a few smudges in the crease of my eyelids, but this could be due to the amount of eye make-up I’m wearing that day.
All in all, I’d highly recommend this product to anyone. I rarely agree completely with what the manufacture says about their product, but I have to say, Rimmel have got it pretty spot on here.




Monday 2 January 2012

2011, update etc

First of all, sorry I haven't posted a lot, I've been mega busy with the holidays but I'm going to correct that very shortly!

Some of my favourite buys of 2011:
Make-up:
  • Clinique High Lengths mascara
  • Cargo Lash Activator mascara
  • Rimmel Lasting Finish 25 Hour foundation
  • Rimmel Flash Eyeliner pen
Music:
  • England Keep My Bones, Frank Turner
  • What Did You Except From The Vaccines, The Vaccines
  • Hold Me Down, You Me At Six
  • Up Guards And At 'Em, The Pigeon Decectives
  • Young Pilgrim, Charlie Simpson
  • Ok there's been so many good albums this year I can't list them all!

Best Concerts: (ie every one I went to)
  • Charlie Simpson
  • Cee Lo Green
  • Mayday Parade
  • Scouting For Girls
  • The Pigeon Decectives
  • Katy Perry