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One of the bands who opened for Ash on the 17th was Nightmare of You. Neither Dwayne nor I had heard them before that night. Since then, I've become quite obsessed.
Nightmare of You's set started out a little rocky: the bass player couldn't get any sound out of his bass. For over five minutes, he messed around, trying to figure out what the problem could be. The other band members tried to help him. They were checking cords and switches, and brought out in a new head to switch out. But from up high where Dwayne and I were hanging out on the balcony, we could see that the bass tuner was on which was the thing causing the lack of sound from the bass. (Okay, I didn't know what I was seeing; Dwayne told me.) I had a feeling it could be a long, long time before they figured out the real problem so I sent Dwayne down to the main level to save the day. And he did! He couldn't get the band members' attention, so from the floor, he simply reached up onto the stage floor and turned the tuner off. Instantly, the bass started working. Magic! There was applause all around and the lead singer went up to the mic and asked Dwayne, "Do you want to play bass for us tonight?" So adorable.
I liked the music right when they started playing, but it wasn't until their song "I Was Never a Normal Boy" that I was completely won over. Afterward, Dwayne and I talked about it, and he said that was the song that did it for him, too. This is one of the things that is so cool to me. In a Venn diagram of Dwayne's and my music tastes, there are plenty of things that fall outside the convergence, of course. But overall -- lately, at least -- the songs and bands that we like best have been along similar lines. I love that we were both moved by the same song at the exact same moment.
We bought their EP "Bang." Also, Sunday, I ordered a full-length CD from 2005. Nightmare of You is playing a U.S. tour starting soon and will be in Seattle in May. I really hope we can make it out for that.
Anyhow. Ash was the main event, of course, and they did not disappoint. For being such big fans who have all their CDs and who flew across the country to see them, it's pretty odd that Dwayne and I didn't know the band members names or what they look like. We were sure we wouldn't be able to spot them in a crowd. I did point out a guy whom I suspected to be a member of Ash, and as it turned out, he is the bass player. So, score one for me!
The lead singer - whose name I still don't know, although it would be easy enough to open another window to look it up - was very polite and charming and modest. Or that's how he came across. He seemed like he was geniuinely glad to be there and thankful for the turn out. The bassist was moodier-seeming. But I liked that about him. The drummer, well, I didn't pay much attention. Despite being married to one, I rarely pay attention to drummers. Sorry!
I was surprised by the set list and by the crowd's reactions to the songs. Dwayne and I had never even heard of Ash until "Meltdown" even though in the UK and elsewhere they've been around for ages. The next CD we got was "Twilight of the Innocents," which is their newest. Then I got "1977." After that, I ordered all the rest on the same day.
These are the albums in order of my preference:
1. Twilight of the Innocents
2. Meltdown
3. 1977
4. Free All Angels
5 & 6 (toss up). Trailer and Nu-Clear Sounds
Dwayne likes them in this order:
1. Meltdown
2. Twilight of the Innocents
3. Free All Angels
4. 1977
5. Nu-Clear Sounds
6. Trailer (Although he's hardly listened to this one because I listened to it in the car and he never uploaded it to his iPod until after we got back from NY. I suspect he might like it better if he'd heard it more than twice. Maybe.)
Anyway. So that's where we're coming from as fans. In general, we both feel that their song writing has gotten better over the years. We were hoping and expecting to hear a bunch from the two latest albums with the occasional oldie-but-goodie thrown in. They did play some from each of the newer albums, but really, they were playing stuff from every album pretty equally I'd say. I was amazed by how many songs they chose to do from Trailer and 1977. Those songs are SO OLD. I think they have a lot of charm in that they were written by teenage boys (and they feel like it, too, I think). But those old songs were the ones that the crowd went crazy for! The songs from Meltdown and Twilight didn't get nearly the same reactions. Well, except from us.
I'd say that the only real disappointment of the night was the they didn't play "Starcrossed" which is the song that originally turned Dwayne and me onto this band in the first place. But they did play the title track of "Twilight of the Innocents" which is my favorite song of theirs of all time. I wasn't expecting to hear it live, but it ended up being the last song before the encore set. I was so happy, I almost cried.
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