For the first time in a long time, we arrived early to the Horden, wanting to get in as soon as the doors opened to get a good spot and not wanting to miss a moment of The Vaccines. I was confused as to why they had all the side seating curtained off and only the back seating available, did they not sell this gig out? Was that even possible? I know the tickets were stupidly overpriced but I was sure it was sold out. Anyway we got a decent spot in the back seating knowing it was going to be a 3 hour concert.
The Vaccines came on and got cracking straight away with staples off their debut album "What Did You Expect from the Vaccines". I love these guys, they have a real old school Punk Rock sound to them, it's loud and bouncy and awesome. This can especially be seen in their track "Wreaking Bar (Ra Ra Ra)" which they opened the night with like a huge kick in the head "BAM WE'RE ON!!" Since they formed in 2010 they've been compared to the Strokes and Ramones they've stated their influences to include 70's Punk Rock and that's quite obvious.
The show was set up more like a double billed gig rather than a headliner and support act, and because The Vaccines seem to be doing so well with their latest album, their crowd wasn't much smaller than Kasabians, seems like most people decided to get their moneys worth and see both acts, wise choice!
Being that they only have the 1 album, they played every song on it, I think which was great because my favourite track "Wetsuit" was cranked out only a few songs in, and played so brilliantly. "Elenore" was another highlight and I was impressed with how well Lead Vocals Justin Young's voice was live, I was also amused by the fact that, from where I was, he looked uncanyingly like Bernard Black from the TV hilarity Black Books (watch it, it changed my life!). They finished with the stupidly catchy "Norgaard" and had the crowd wishing they had more tracks to their repertoire but alas, that was it for the night from The Vaccines.
When Kasabian came out and the lights went up, I sat for at least a full song trying to work out if lead singer Tom Meighan was gay, his feminine dancing and strutting threw me off a bit, especially because The Vaccines had just left, clothed in black grubby rock outfits and Meighan was wearing a grey shiny tight leather jacket and sun glasses. I later decided that he wasn't gay but he was however completely drugged out of his head and barely able to control his own limbs. When he did gain control he was really over doing it on the arms out stretched - head towards the sky - tell me how amazing I am - Power pose, and I tried not to form a permanent opinion of him as a bit of a Douche bag because my goodness they were belting out some amazing music.
When I mentioned his obvious chemically altered state to my brother sitting next to me, I was informed that there aren't enough bands off their heads these days. Apparently that's whats needed to write amazing songs, a drug abuse problem. I was then given the example of the Chili Peppers and reminded how messed up Anthony Kedis was during the writing of One Hot Minute, he then cleaned up (sort of) and these days...well who knows what their stuff sounds like these days, case and point. That cant be it though, can it? Surely there are loads of amazing and huge bands writing genius music whilst being healthy and wholesome...right?
Anyway I digress, the crowd were absolutely loving them and whilst I'm very familiar with their latest album Velociraptor! and their previous album West Ryder Lunatic Asylum, there were still 2 or 3 "Oh yeah I know this old one!" tracks that got everyone going, like their track "Club Foot" off their 2004 debut self titled album.
Occasionally Sergio Pizzorno on guitar and backing vocals, took the mic with vocals that sounded similar to Toms but much better suited to the slower songs he was singing, Tom then came back onstage without his glasses and I instantly liked him a little more, I think the sunnies really bugged me!
Towards the end of the show my attention started waning, I had a huge headache, honestly it was just too loud and the lighting guy needed to be sacked for spending most of the gig blinding the audience. I was a little relieved when the standard "Thank you Sydney! Goodnight!" rang out and the band walked off, I even considered missing the encore for the first time in my life, but they hadn't played hit song 'Fire" yet so we decided to hang around a bit longer. Out they came, after the chorus "woahs" of "Lost Souls Forever" rang out throughout the crowd as an encore call, a few minutes and a wardrobe change later (the Douche level rose a little there) and played the missing song plus a few others. We walked out just before they finished up but could hear them finish from the Fox Studios car park where I jumped in the car and took 2 nurofen.
It was truly an amazing night, I'm glad we got seats and I think I preferred the Vaccines a little over KasabianCoachella's music festival. I walked away blind and deaf with a huge headache but my god both bands put on a freaken great show and I walked away thinking that the exorbitant $87 I paid for the ticket might have just about been worth it...almost.
