Concerning Biffy and Becca.... [Dated 18/04/07]

Hey all, the superb Biffy Clyro were playing my old student union on Saturday, so I thought hell yeah! I'm there, good band and a chance to see some of my uni friends again - sorted.

My mate Adam was also coming but he was getting a lift there in a minibus which arrived maybe half an hour before the gig so there was no real time to hang out. I get off the bus and discover that none other than Fran, Becca and Snowy were also on it - some confusion and delight later and we're ready to head in.

Carter, suprise to me at least, can play guitar and sing, so he was warming up the crowd, his best being the cover of the quite recent dance song, "My heart is pumping for love", I don't know the title, whatever, but it brought a smile to my face, so congrats to that. The next band, This City were next, and they seemed like a load of scenesters, not very engaging and I spent most of the time flirting with Becca, more about that later.

The main act, and the reason we were all here, the Biff! We watched them open on Semi-mental from the side, but thanks to the positive mood I was in, and the alcohol coarsing through my veins, I had to get closer, so I threw myself into the pit, and stayed there for the rest of the set. I was listening solely to Biffy on the train down, and it cemented my belief that their early work, Blackened Sky and The Vertigo Of Bliss is their best, but with a new album soon out and the show being a warmup for the Bloc Party tour, it was not suprising that more recent material dominated the set list. They played new songs Asexual meat Kitchen, I'm a fire and new single Saturday Superhouse which despite me not being an immediate fan of the new stuff, I personally feel is a small step back towards the more chaotic stuff on Vertigo of Bliss. From Glitter and Trauma they played Some Kind of Wizard and suprisingly, The Kids from Kibble and the Fist of Light. They kept the hardcore fans happy as well, by playing classic 57 and also Hero Management, which was a suprise also. For their inevitable encore, they played All the Way Down (Ftw!) and Glitter and Trauma so very happy with that.
Biffy don't say much inbetween songs, a small thank you and a short praise for the support bands, but they just keep to knocking out song after song with a violent energy that is still unrivaled. I've seen them quite a few times now, probs not the best I've seen them, but it was still a great gig, and was happy I got to see them once more, good to see that they have maintained a high level of consistency for their live shows.


And now onto Becca. My uni friends were all very pleased to see me, as I was them, but I dunno there was something about Becca's manner, probably coupled with the couple of cans I had previously consumed that got me thinking, "hello, there may be something here". Now for those that aren't long prescribers of previous blogs, I can easily confess that I had a crush on Becca last year, around the start of the third term, then she went to germany and then the Koel thing sort of caught on, and we all know where that went. Anyways, back to the story, I reminded her that it has been in fact about a year since I'd seen her, coincidentally probs around the crush went away, lol. I had reasoned before of not ultimately going for it, cos well despite her being physically attractive, there didn't seem to be anything truly engaging about her, I'm afraid to say, but that was a thought back in my elitist days.
The truth being that I didn't really know her, and still don't really, but at least now I'm more open into entertaining that idea now. Anyways, before the bands came on, I tried to be witty and flirty at every opportunity - one problem I have is not being as obvious as I should be towards liking someone. When I told Koel I liked her, she was all omg!, I had no idea! etc.. I was even started to get irritated when Becca was talking with other guys, which is usually a good/bad (depending on how you read it) sign that I'm smitten. Anyways, what with the distance and the fact that only one of us is a student now, it's probs (read: defs) not a good idea to start anything despite being quite keen to :D.

Biffy came on as described above, so I left the company of my friends for some grooving to hot choons. When that was over, we met up again, and Fran/Becca was asking if I was getting the bus back - I was so joined them outside, where we met some of the Replica X guys. I met Paul the keyboardist and we got going about how hard it is to get a computing job, I mean, this guy has a first for christ's sake and he hasn't found one yet. It could be that he still prefers the student life, but that's another hot topic of discussion.

I went back to their house, and some swivel chair spinning later, we decided on watching this foreign film about nuns and some drug conspiracy, I was hoping it was gonna be something else. Anyways, I wasn't following the plot that much, so anything that could be interpreted as innuendo, I cried out "hell yeah!", to be joined by Snowy when he got in from his walk. By this time, Becca had dropped off, so me and Fran were throwing bits of paper over her. Time went on, and I had to make tracks for fear that Mark wouldn't be about.

I made the short walk back to Mark's to find that he was still up doing a little bit of revision. I got another drink, and thanks to some sneaky webiste giving out the codes required to activate Television X, we watched a bit of lesbian porn, before settling into the low budget horror film Hellraiser 4, which after seeing the original in the cov house last year, equally enjoyed this sequel with it's cheesy lines, questionable acting and dodgy special effects. We turned in around half 4, and not before discovering that Tom's bed (mark's housemate) had made holes in the wall from him and his gf getting freaky, as I was witness to the last time I stayed.
"shitttt!, Hooollllly Shiiiiit!" - that was hilarious, I almost pissed myself.

Overall a good weekend, I got back Sunday evening to discover that best of top gear, the film Lost in Translation, and match of the day was on, so my night's viewing was sorted. Thanks to my mate Andy, I got to watch Lost in Translation when it came out a few years back, and well I watched it again, mainly for Scarlett Johansson (Schwing!), and also Bill Murray, who is a legend.
Although I got annoyed as well I don't bother with celebrity crushes that much, but I got terribly annoyed, as she is very fine, and that's not just because her arse features in the opening credits.
I probably actually have a crush on the character she played, as she is almost not like that IRL, beign an actress, she probs has the arrogance, looking down her nose at ppl etc etc. I was wondering if I would ever to get meet to girls like the one that Scarlett played, or will I have to wait till I hit Bill Murray's age and become a dirty man, and then it's frowned on, lol.

Anyways, enough moaning about things that will never happen, i.e. meeting Scarlett. I am here in the library blogging away like a soldier, to use a poor similie, thinking about the crushes I've got going in Shrewsbury. Question: can you have more than one crush at a single time, cos I think I have like 4 right now, oh dear *shakes head*. Anyways, remembering What Koel said and how I should go for it with the Hot Librarian Chick, and then succeed in not seeing her since that conversation about a month ago, and look who is behind the desk when I walked in today. They say coincedences only happen in fiction, but I beg to differ just like Bill Bryson comes across numerous times a book. I don't know if i blogged somewhere about it, but she actually came into TJs one day - I was so stunned, I actually did do a double take. I unfortunately froze and couldn't do anything more than gawp at her, and she hasn't been in since, sigh. I would approach her, but with the setting being a library, it's impossible not to have everyone listen in. Ultimately I shouldn't care, and I like to practice the ideal that I don't care what strangers think, but it's not quite true and I can't quite live upto it completely.

Saying that, I have managed to be more selfish which I'm happy with. And I mean this in the respect, that if I have a choice to hang out with someone who smokes, I simply won't do it, or outings where I'm left a 3rd wheel, I will now avoid as I don't feel I should go through the awkwardness of it all.
A prime example, getting the train back with carl, he, not us, really have assembled a group of ppl that will go with us. The latest addition is this girl, woman really as she has kids and a proper job. Anyways, she is Carl's friend, and I did not enjoy having to tell part of my lfie story to her who is effectively a stranger when I first met her. Anyways, I don't even remember her name, and she smokes and walks back the same way as I do from the station. Now I could walk with her, have to put up with inhaling her smoke and forced to make awkward small chat, OR I could do what I do, let her go some distance ahead of me, then I walk back on my home, where I can enjoy cleaner air and my music, horray for me I think. If she's offended, then I'm not too fussed about it, at the end of the day, she's not my friend.

Ok, I've ranted more than I wanted to, but that's ok. Off to work I go, it seems the last few days, there hasn't been that much important work for me to do, and have the feeling of making up the numbers. Hopefully I will get to leave that place soon, here's hoping.

Take it Easy.
J-Man.