Saturday 14 February 2015

(Mostly) All Time Low featuring Jack Barakat

It began with an amazing band, called Walk The Moon. They played an honest, amazing show. And now, whenever I hear the songs they played (Especially Jenny)... I cry. I cry honest, happy tears because that's the kind of emotional wreck that I am. And it ended, with You me at six. What a gig- the SSE Hydro was jam packed with emotion and atmosphere. We partied, laughed, and cried all at the same time. It was a crazy amazing time, and even though Josh broke his ankle (Again... he's got some kind of curse I swear) he still jumped around like a hyped up teenager; which is exactly what I was doing. And it was amazing, and it was beautiful. But although both Walk The Moon and You me at Six were amazing and super and just... musically exempt, it was All Time low that really kicked me in the gut. Seriously, there must have been something in that water because ever since that night, my stomach has been a whirlwind of emotions.

For me, the beginning of my love (or obsession you know however you take it) of All Time Low began 6 years ago, about the time that Nothing Personal came out. I was the coolest kid on the block... in my mind. Nobody had heard of All Time Low, and I still kept a diary. Hells yeah. Fast forward 6 years, and it's 12th of Febuary. I am going to see my favourite band, for the first time in my life. Six years of waiting and saving and finally I am able to pay for my ticket. Hells yeah! So it's not surprising that even though I had seated tickets, I was up and dancing and jumping like nobodies business. They are my favourite band. They are my everything.

"You guys just know how to party. Damn right... Damn fuckin' right!" ~Alexander (Alex) William Gaskarth of All time Low at Glasgow Thursday 12th Febuary 2015.

The third song All Time Low played was heroes. This is significant, because Alexander frikking Gaskarth, is my hero. Why? Because he stopped midway a song, and asked for the light crew to "Hit the main lights, can we get some light on here?" And then preceded to get the attention and help that a girl needed to get her collapsed friend out of a mosh pit. He not only has the biggest heart in rock, but unlike so, so many bands he just proved that All Time Low would do anything for their fans, and put their fans infront of themselves. They are so selfless, and they don't care anything about Ah damn she ruined our song. All Time Low? Alex? Big. Respect.  

"We are you me at six!" "Yeah! We all have really small dicks!" ~Jack Barakat and Alex Gaskarth at Glasgow Thursday 12th Febuary 2015

Then came the irony of choking on a lifesaver, my all time favourite hate song in the world. There are countless times where people I have disliked have said or done something, and I've either quoted the lyrics, or ran into my room and blasted it full volume. Yes mum, this is the song. But while I was in that arena, I didn't think about hate- how could I? I was overwhelmed with love; love for All Time Low, love for music, and love for my friend Katie, without whom I wouldn't have amazing quality videos and pictures (Seriously her camera was amazing even though we had seats) not to mention the fact that I wouldn't have even been able to go to see my favourite band without her. D'aww, well isn't it valentines day after all? One thing I would have liked to see though, is toxic valentine. Ah well, maybe next year?

"Meet me in the girls bathroom in this direction after the show" ~Jack Barakat

Weightless, was amazing. But what came after that broke my heart and fixed it at the same time. The living paradox that is Therapy. Ever since it came out, I put my everything into that song. I learnt every lyric every note, and every tab and every chord. Why? Because it means everything to me. Because it's such a true and honest song that bleeds it's heart out to me, and I felt like I could bleed my heart out to it. Who needs real life therapy, when every time you stumble and fall and break, you can put on your headphones? When you can't sleep at night because you're sweating and crying and you're scared about the future. When you feel like everyone hates you. When I felt like everyone hated me. Growing up, I watched countless live videos of Therapy, Alex's signature speech was different every time, and I loved that it wasn't just a rehearsed thing, it meant something- it was real and deep and from the heart. And although he didn't make any speeches that night, As I stood up with my phone proudly in the air videoing my favourite song in the world for the first time, shaking with the tears that flowed from my eyes, I knew that life couldn't get much more perfect from this. But I was wrong.

"Don't cry... here can you hold this for me?" ~Jack Barakat said to me at 23:34 12th Febuary 2015

During the concert, I danced, jumped and screamed to everything apart from therpay (bring on the waterworks). But what came after is what really shocked me, and has left me in a flood of emotions and tears multiple times just thinking about it. Jack fucking Barakat is what happened.
"Katie come on, we have to at least try. I mean the others might not come out but Jack will. Jack always comes out, even when security tries to stop him" This knowledge came from watching way too many youtube videos over the years. And thank goodness I had that knowledge, because right after the show we raced (literally we ran for about 2minutes) to where the tour buses were, in the hope that we'd see our inspiration. 
Though we missed Alex and Rian, who I just found out had met fans before the gig, and Zach who we literally must have missed by half an hour or something, we waited desperately about 30-40 minutes after the show. I knew from watching youtube videos and talking to people on tumblr and twitter that they usually came out about half an hour to an hour after a show, so we clung on to that hope desperately as we clung our fingers around the freezing metal fence that divided us from our favourite people in this world. 
And Jack came out. 
One second I was chatting to my friend Katie and a bunch of no more than 50 other fans that were out there and them /boom/ he's a meter away. I grabbed desperately at my bag and whipped out my Don't Panic! Album, which I would then proceed to hand to him, in between sobs telling him how "I've been a fan of you guys for 6 years and this year was my first ever time seeing you live, thankyou" as he smiled sympathetically handing me back the CD, moving on to sign the tickets which my friend Katie handed to him, and taking her phone to take a selfie with both of us. He moved on to other fans, leaving me sobbing and practically gasping for air.
But he came back after seeing one other girl. And he asked me, 'Don't cry... can you hold this for me?" I felt so honoured. I thought he was getting me to hold his pen lid or something. I nodded, still crying and said "Of course" 
When I looked at what was in my palm, I saw that it was JACK BARAKATS PLECTRUM. He gave me his guitar pick. 
This of course just made me cry even more. 
It was the best night of my, and many other people's lifes. And I just want to say a massive shout out to everyone who saw YMAS, ATL, AND WTM on the co-headline tour. They rocked.

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