a short post for an epic piece

The Star Wars Main Title, composed by John Williams, is one of my favourite pieces of music. I think it’s one of those truly epic music scores that you don’t need to be a fan of the films to appreciate. And this is coming from someone who has only watched two or three of the films (I know I’ve seen at least two, but can’t remember if I’ve seen a third one (probably not)).

If you ever get the chance to hear it played live in concert by a full orchestra, I highly recommend you take that opportunity.

I often get the song stuck in my head when I’m at work, and I think it makes an excellent soundtrack for a productive day.

That is really all I wanted to say. The music speaks for itself.

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these days

When Rudimental released dates and venues for their Toast to Our Differences World Tour, I was really disappointed to see that Brisbane was not on the list. Apart from major Australian cities like Melbourne and Sydney, they were also going to go to Darwin and Mount Gambier …but not Brisbane. I mean, no offence to Darwin and Mount Gambier, but they’re significantly smaller cities. It didn’t make sense.

I suppose they’re not in it for the money (?)

water under the bridge

I’m gonna take an ever so brief break from these Japan/holiday posts. I’ve already got a Tokyo-themed Thursday Doors post scheduled for this week (i.e. tomorrow), so I really do mean brief.

I really would have liked to have written and published this post on Monday night, but I suppose the universe had other plans. I ended up staying back at work until 9pm. And that was from a 7am start after no more than five hours of sleep the night before. Subtracting my lunch break, that’s a 13-hour day.

Longest. Day. Ever.

But I got through it thanks to the miracle that is coffee, and also chocolate. Oh, and the efforts of my team.

right here

I just realised that it’s been just over a year since I went to my first concert to see The Script. Last year, I went to two other concerts as well: Maroon 5 and Hozier. I enjoyed each of them for different reasons, and I’m not willing to choose a favourite (but, deep down, I feel like The Script would win).

Earlier this year I was lamenting the lack of good concerts for the year ahead. To be perfectly honest, I did think at one point that maybe it was a good thing, so that I wouldn’t go to concerts, and then I could save up money for other things. I’d basically resigned myself to that dreary but probably more sensible fate when, one day, listening to the radio, I heard an ad announcing that Rudimental were coming to Australia, and that Jess Glynne would be their support act.

someone new

This has been a bit of a weird day in which I didn’t really feel like doing anything at all. What I ended up doing, mostly, apart from eating, was reading journal articles and getting CPD points, which isn’t something I usually do on days when I’m lacking general motivation (it’s not even something I tend to do on days when I do have motivation).

I did some leisurely reading too, though. Just started One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (by Ken Kesey). It’s one that I’ve wanted to read for so long, so I’m glad I’m finally getting around to it.

I’m going to blame this general lack of motivation on the beginning of summer. Yes, it’s that time of the year again… That time when the temperature is regularly above 30 (talking Celsius here – I wish it was Fahrenheit), the humidity becomes stifling, and every second thought has something to do with rain or cool breezes or air con.

I could also just be tired because I went out last night to see Hozier at River Stage. It’s quite a nice venue (my first time seeing a concert there). The forecast kept saying there’d be storms or at least some rain, but luckily it held off the whole night – pretty much until I got home. All the lightning seemed to be happening out west, which meant there was this lovely light display in the sky just above and around the stage. It was pretty cool.

The concert itself was pretty good too. Admittedly, I’m not as familiar with Hozier’s music as I am with The Script or Maroon 5, so I wasn’t as psyched up this time, but I was quite pleased overall. The support/opening act, Rhodes, was also pretty impressive. He’s possibly the best support act I’ve seen out of all the concerts I’ve been to.

If you haven’t already guessed, “Someone New” is my favourite Hozier song. Also really like “Work Song” (which, despite the name, doesn’t seem to have anything to do with actual work). There are others I quite like but I really cannot remember their names right now.

Hmm… Maybe I’d benefit from an early bedtime tonight. Then again, maybe I could just put on some music and not worry about bedtime. It is the week-end, after all…

one in a million

I’m just going to say straight up that this entire post is going to be about Maroon 5. If you do not listen to their music, or do not like their music, I highly recommend skipping this post (also, why don’t you listen to / like their music??). Feel free to go and read something more worthwhile. I can give you suggestions if you’re short on ideas.

Anyway, my music taste is pretty mainstream, so obviously I’m a big fan of Maroon 5 (they’re pretty mainstream, right? I mean, they get played on the radio so much… Not that I’m complaining…)

Last night, I went to see their concert and, since I did a post for The Script’s concert (actually, I’m pretty sure I did at least two posts for them), I am definitely writing one for Maroon 5. (Side note: I’d say The Script is also pretty mainstream, but less so than Maroon 5.) Part of me wants to draw comparisons between the two concerts, but I think I’ll just write about this one on its own merits.

First off, honorary mentions to the support/opening acts: Conrad Sewell and Dirty Loops. Pretty good performances from them both; got the energy going, etc.

When Maroon 5 got on the stage, though… wow… They smashed out a lot of high-energy songs at the start, one after the other. There were some nice chill moments when Adam Levine was just kind of chatting to us, but I’m kind of impressed with how many songs they fit into that concert. And they played some of their old songs, among which were my favourites, “Sunday morning” and “She will be loved”. According to Adam, they wrote “She will be loved” in about 20 minutes.

I particularly liked the acoustic intro they did for “Pay phone”, where they were all standing together in the middle of the stage, kind of in a huddle. And whenever they got the audience to join in and sing parts of the songs – there was something about that that just put a big smile on my face (as I sang along).

And the drum solos, the guitar solos, the frickin’ light displays and everything were all amazing. (Can you tell I’m kind of still on a bit of a high from last night? Might also be all those exercise-induced endorphins from my run earlier, but whatever..)

During the night, I also found myself looking around at the audience a bit, too. Just glancing around to marvel at the fact that all these people came out for a concert on a Monday night because they love this same music that I love. There were actually a lot of people in their 30s and 40s (and maybe even older) at the concert, and they seemed to be the ones who were most into the whole thing. I mean, they were all up off their seats, dancing and singing along, while some younger fans actually seemed content to just sit down for most of it.

There was one thing I was kind of disappointed with, though. It wasn’t about anything that Maroon 5 did (although I was slightly, slightly disappointed that they didn’t perform “The man who never lied”, but I never really expected them to do that song anyway, so I suppose that’s ok). What I was (kind of) disappointed with was the audience’s enthusiasm and persistence during the “fake end of the concert”. Basically, they played “Daylight” and then acted like it was the end of the show, said goodnight and left the stage; and this was when everyone was supposed to cheer and clap and whatever to get them to come back (seems to be a thing that artists do at concerts, like a test or something).

Now, I only really have The Script’s concert to compare it to, but when The Script pulled the same stunt, the energy from the crowd was tremendous – it just built and built until the band came back on stage. Last night’s crowd, however… Well, it could be because a lot of them might have been at work all day (and we all know how Mondays are) but the energy kind of just came in waves. There was still pretty incredible force behind it, but based on my previous experience, I was expecting more.

Overall, though, it was such an amazing concert. I would list all the songs they did, but there were so many. I was pleasantly surprised that they did “Lucky strike”, which I’ve actually just heard and taken a liking to this year. (Props to you if you made the connection between the title of this post and “Lucky strike” before getting to this paragraph.)

Of course, they saved “Sugar” for last, since it’s their big hit at the moment. But they also played “Locked away” and (omg!) Rock City made a guest appearance just for that song. Frickin’ unreal! Too bad they couldn’t get Christina Aguilera to come in for “Moves like Jagger” but I suppose Adam did a good job of it anyway 😛

I think I’ve said this before, but there actually isn’t a single Maroon 5 song that I do not like – and I know a lot of their songs. I knew all the ones they played at the concert, and for a lot of them I knew the lyrics too, so this was kind of the perfect concert for me.