Set Your Glory/New Found Goals/other less funny plays on band names...

Yes, it has been a while since I last posted anything on here, but it's not as long as you last had to wait so count yourself lucky I'm posting at all. The truth is, I witnessed something so glorious last night that I had to share it through every medium possible.

Anyway here's a little back story to the events that occurred...

Wednesday afternoon I'm sitting at work, bored, and while checking Twitter on my phone I notice a post by Set Your Goals announcing that they will be playing a special last minute show at The Fighting Cocks in Kingston. After quickly verifying that this wasn't some heinous prank, I bought two tickets as soon as they went on sale. I'm pretty sure I was in the first five people to purchase them; I know, I know, cool dude alert. As some of you know, I really like Set Your Goals, as does Apryl so it made perfect sense to get tickets without even checking if she was working or not. Thankfully she finished at 4pm, giving us just enough time to get to Kingston in time.

The main reason why this show was going to be so special is that the venue is tiny. When I say tiny, I mean like 110 cap at most. I've been to some truly amazing shows in Kingston, all put on by the ever incredible people at Banquet Records but this was shaping up to a truly memorable event.

Anyway, after the initial excitement of seeing SYG for the 12th time (it'll be 15 by the end of Tuesday night. NBD.) the rumours of a "secret support band" began to circulate. I think pretty much all the bands playing Slam Dunk were mentioned at various points, but no one was confirming or denying anything.

On the day of the show, we left Norwich by 4.30pm and made the journey down. I hate the drive to Kingston because I ALWAYS get stuck in traffic and it stresses me out. Yesterday was no exception, but it was made 981624876 times worse by the fact that around half way through the journey it was pretty much confirmed that the support band were New Found Glory. I'll just let that sink in for a second...NEW FOUND GLORY. In the Fighting Cocks. Fucking hell. As my friend Alice put it, "OMG doesn't even come close to describing my excitement!" Quite.

Anyway that aforementioned traffic meant that come 7.30pm we were still stuck on the worst road in the world, the M25, and were pretty much resigned to missing one of our favourite bands ever play in a room roughly the same size as my kitchen. Not cool. Once we made our way through the traffic and on to the main road in to Kingston I was driving way too fast in order that we may be able to catch at least part of NFG's set. Then Apryl's friend Vix messaged her to say Spycatcher were the opening band and NFG would be on afterwards. I don't really like Spycatcher all that much, I think they're ok but pretty dull, but on this occasion I was overjoyed that they were playing. This meant that although it would be close, we would probably be able to see the rest of the show once they finished.

Parking at the station and running to the venue we met up with Alice and our friend Charlotte (who'd managed to get a ticket about four seconds before the Banquet website crashed) and were informed that NFG weren't even at the venue yet. Breathless but relieved, we headed inside where I noticed the dudes from Fireworks, just hanging around. "Oh..." I thought, they must just be here to hang out with SYG. Yeah think again. Just before 8.30 Fireworks took to the stage and proclaimed, "Hey, we're Set Your Goals!" before blasting through 'Detroit' and 'When We Stand On Each Other We Block Out The Sun'. A brilliant way to kick off the rest of evening for me.

After milling around for a bit after they played I looked over at the stage to notice some dude picking up a guitar. Thinking it was just a tech or one of Fireworks, I began to turn away, only to realise that it was Chad Gilbert. Seriously, I - and everyone else present- could barely contain themselves. The rest of NFG took the stage and immediately launched in to 'My Friend's Over You' which sent the entire crowd crazy. People crowd surfing, piling forward to sing every word with the band, I don't think I've ever seen so many smiling faces in one room before. To be this close to a band who you've been listening to and loved for nearly a decade is a truly surreal and incredible experience and I honestly can't thank everyone involved enough for sorting it out. The rest of the set consisted of 'Catalyst', their Gorilla Biscuits cover 'No Reason' and 'Hit Or Miss' (probably my favourite NFG song) and with that they departed so much high-fiving and general thanks. I don't think I've ever been so hot at a show before, but it was amazing nonetheless.

And it was only going to get better as Set Your Goals hit the stage and played an absolutely brilliant set. To be honest, I would have liked couple of 'special treats' as it were, especially having seen a couple of their recent set-lists from their Kimbo U.S. tour, but at the end of the day, this is one of my favourite bands playing in an incredibly small venue, so to want more is being greedy. I obviously sung every word and generally had a great time, along with the rest of the room. I first saw SYG at the Underworld back in '06 and this was seriously up there with the best times I've seen them. They're up there, if not number one, on the list of great modern pop-punk bands and having seen them on bigger stages in bigger venues the last few times I've seen them it was so so good to see them in a venue such as this one. As I said previously, the most sincere thanks must go to everyone involved in making it happen, mainly everyone at Banquet Records who are an incredibly inspiring label/shop/group of people. Support them and everything they do/are doing.

Sitting typing this I still can't quite believe that last night happened, but it did and I'm so glad that I decided to spontaneously buy tickets seeing as it sold out in some ridiculously short time like 20 minutes or something.

So erm, yeah; in conclusion, listen to Set Your Goals, New Found Glory and Fireworks, support Banquet Records and go and follow me here if you want to have more regular postings.