Concert Review: 5 Seconds of Summer in Hamburg, May 26th 2016

Last time I opened this blog to type a live review was over a year ago and it was for the same band like it is today. Kinda ironic, isn't it? It's not like I haven't seen any artist ever since, but none of them gave me this itchy feeling of sitting down and putting my thoughts into words. I'm actually typing this on my phone right now because I still have an hour to kill before my plane is taking off. I don't even know why I'm telling you this, maybe I just need to get back into this whole blogging thing.

Anyway, let's get to the important part. We had Soundcheck tickets, which means the following: we received a laminate and a wristband which turned us into VIPs (such important you have no idea), we also got an early entrance to the arena and a few more minutes with the boys. 

Once everyone had their assigned seat, 5sos came on stage and played Long Way Home. The performance was followed by a Q&A session which contained a few interesting moments. For example, Calum would study to become a teacher (PE and music) if the band didn't exist, Ashton wants 15 kids (I fully support this wish), and they don't want to continue this insane touring schedule because it makes them "lose touch to real life" according to Calum. Then they played If You Don't Know for us, and that was it. Long story short: Think twice about getting Soundcheck tickets, kids - it might be sold as an "intimate experience" but I still haven't figured out what's so intimate about being in a room with 150 others and the band. Maybe in the big scope it is intimate, maybe not.
After soundcheck, we were guided outside and had to go and find our seats. I'm not the biggest fan of sitting at a concert, but this time it was pretty convenient. No holding your bladder because you actually had to pee pretty bad, no pushing through the crowd and no aching feet from standing so much (my feet did ache a little because I was smart enough to wear high heeled boots, cheers to me). 
Don Broco got this party started big times - I only knew their name, but it took them just one song to convince me of their talent. These dudes have energy, catchy tunes and just the right pinch of heaviness to make listening exciting. I recommend y'all to have a listen, it'll be worth it. 

Something everyone in the 5sos fandom is very used to is them being late to everything. They were already late to soundcheck so I was slightly surprised when they came on stage on time. I'm not so surprised anymore now that I know that they wanted to see AC/DC play next door - from superstars to fanboys real quick. 
For an intro, they split their song Outer Space/Carry On and used Carry On to kick the show off. Luckily, they then played my least favourite songs right afterwards so we got these out of the way pretty quickly (Hey Everybody and Money) and moved on to Voodoo Doll and Don't Stop. These two songs took me right back to last year, however it was interesting to hear how the boys developed vocally. They try different things now to make the songs sound different from the album versions and that's pretty cool. 
One of the songs that made me look like the heart-eyes emoji was Waste the Night, one of my favourites ever since the album came out. Luke's voice has this sound that makes me want to burst sometimes because it goes so deep and creates this warm feeling in my stomach, you know? With songs like Waste The Night it's like coming home after a long day and knowing that things will be okay. The next song, however, literally rips me open and all my deepest thoughts and fears and worries spill out, and it seems to have the same effect on Michael. When Jet Black Heart was on, he was the only one on stage at first. I told myself it would be cool because I'm a tough girl who can't be messed up by a damn song. Yeah, that worked until Michael had tears in his eyes and tried to sing. When his voice broke so did I. In this moment he was so vulnerable in front of thousands of people, and that's something I haven't witnessed before. The crowd supported him by singing the words for him, in this moment everyone was so with him and it was just beautiful. I'm damn thankful I got to experience this. To cheer things up again, they played If You Don't Know right afterwards. That was sarcasm, sorry. They fully killed me with this one because I've longed to hear it live ever since I got into their music. They did it, I shed a few tears, all is well. You can find the full setlist [here], to finish this way too long review I quickly want to remark that I missed the interaction with the crowd - it's cool to ask how we're doing once, maybe twice, but asking every 10 minutes is boring and rushing through the set ain't cool. Ashton saved it with his speech on how it's his dream to fill football stadiums like AC/DC did across the street, and with She Looks So Perfect the night was over and the boys ran to catch the last two songs of their fellow Australians. 
All in all it was a fantastic night, I had loads of fun and walked through every emotion you can imagine. 5 Seconds of Summer are an incredibly talented band, and I hope I'll be there when they actually fill football stadiums.

Album of the Week: Melanie Martinez - Cry Baby

Y'all probably thought I'm dead or something, but I just had a few crazy months. I really hope that I'm back on track now, so maybe I'll finally get to catch up on all the reviews. The records are literally piling up on my desk, it's ridiculous.

The first album I'd like to discuss today is Cry Baby by Melanie Martinez. It was released on August 14th and features 16 songs. The title of each song refers to something you definitely know from your childhood, e.g. Sippy Cup or Play Date or Teddy Bear. However, the themes aren't really about childhoods, but rather about problems you face as an adult.
Song number one immediately names the album and talks about the struggle of keeping friends while dealing with inner struggles. Do you know what it feels like to see one person after the other leave you? Maybe you're different than them for whatever reason, they don't understand your mindset, but you tell yourself it's not you it's them. Maybe you cry a lot and they see it as some sort of weakness when it's not, sometimes "your heart's too big for your body, it's where your feelings hide. They're pouring out where everyone can see." None of that matters though because sooner or later you'll find someone who looks at you and will see themselves because no matter how different you think you are, there's always someone who will understand.
This album is fucking real, excuse my language, but it's true. Dollhouse is only the second song, but it talks about the picture perfect family which is a damn mess behind the curtains. All of us know this one family that looks totally perfect on the outside, but none of us know what happens inside their four walls. We don't see the cheating husband or the son who's addicted to drugs. the mother who drinks, we don't see how desperately this family tries to hold everything together for the sake of not showing what's really going on. So next time you want to talk bad about that family, think of that they could possibly have to deal with.
Melanie goes on wrapping real lyrics into a relaxed tune, but don't let yourself just enjoy the sound - pay attention to these lyrics because they're extremely important and will definitely make you think.
Carousel is about love that doesn't work. She clearly says that "it's all fun and games until somebody falls in love" because that's when things become complicated, sometimes they even turn into a freak show. If it's unrequited love you spend way too much time chasing the person and it's like a fairytale because it's not real. 
Personally, I find Soap pretty interesting because Melanie uses a bath tub as a metaphor for herself and her actions: never say too much because otherwise the tub overflows (like her emotions?), and again it's about love  but this time it kills you because you "threw a toaster in the bathtub."
Training Wheels is for those of us who always want to be safe, the ones who always go the safe way. No risks, no crazy things. If you use your training wheels all your life, you'll never know how much you would have been capable of without them, you see? So take them off, listen to this song and let them go because someone will always be around and carrying band-aids in case you fall and hurt your skin.
Pity Party is one that hit me on a personal level because I'm the kind of person who tries not to drown in self-pity no matter what. In fact, I'm the kind of person who rather bottles my emotions up until I explode. This song is an anthem for people who embrace their sadness and throw a pity party for themselves - when the party is over, they move on. 
Tag, You're It deals with the topic of sexual assault, and through this song the atmosphere of the album changes. What used to sound like cotton candy tastes, is now dark and creepy - the experiences shaped the protagonist (let's just call them that) in a form that they do not care about boundaries or pretty much anything anymore, for example Pacify Her is about ruining someone's relationship because "You don’t love her, stop lying with those words."
Mrs. Potato Head covers the issue of unrealistic beauty standards of today's society. I'm sure you're all aware of the mentality that you only live a fulfilling life if you wear a certain size and your face looks a certain way because "no one will love you if you're unattractive" 
Remember how the protagonist was chasing their love in Carousel? Well, they gave that up pretty quickly: In Play Date there's a line that goes like this: "I'm tired of always chasing, chasing after you. I don't give a fuck about you anyways, whoever said I gave a shit about you?" You can now see the development I was referring to.
Teddy Bear picks up the subject of domestic violence: in many cases, the relationship is all great and lovely and the partner is like a teddy bear until they change into this aggressive person - "You were comforting and quiet, how did love become so violent?"
Most victims can't do anything about their situation because they're paralyzed and don't know what to do. However, if they find the courage to kick their partner out the way the protagonist of this song does, the violence doesn't stop. It shows up through phone calls and stalking and physological terror. 

All in all, Cry Baby by Melanie Martinez is an album everybody should listen to no matter what genre you usually like. This review focused mainly on lyrics, but as you can see the lyrics of this album are extremely important and socially aware which is rather rare these days. Melanie is a damn talented songwriter, singer and her music is absolutely honest. There's no sugarcoating of anything that goes wrong in our society - this woman keeps things real, so I feel like it's my duty to force everyone I know to listen to this album and to give this woman all the support. 

Concert Review: 5 Seconds of Summer at Olympiahalle Munich, Germany

Honestly y'all, I've been dealing with the worst post concert depression ever but I feel like I got this now.

Our first challenge of the day was finding the venue, and believe me it was not an easy one. We also had to be at the venue at 5.45pm for the M&G, so we were kinda very stressed about not making it in time. However, after asking a bunch of really nice security people we found the right entrance and were totally ready to meet the boys. They weren't ready until 45 minutes later, so you can imagine how nervous everyone around me was (to be fair, I really pulled myself together to remain calm). When it was finally time, we were guided downstairs aka backstage, where they made us line up in pairs of two, so we wouldn't lose too much time. After a couple more minutes, the boys finally walked in; unfortunately there wasn't much time at all, so all we could do was say hi and hug, take a picture and leave again. I'm still sad about that yes because I genuinely believe that these four boys are really nice, especially Michael. He made sure that all of us were okay and he tried to have conversations as much as the lack of time let him, so that was neat (I was way too stressed to say anything apart from hi, I didn't even declare my undying love for him can you believe). Long story short: as soon as the M&G started it was over and we had to head inside the venue. 

We had tickets for the front, and I was really surprised about how relaxed the crowd around me was. Nobody wanted to push their way to the front because all of us had more than enough space to move, it was lovely. We actually stood in the fifth row, so the view to the stage was amazing. 
Before they were associated with 5sos, I've never heard anything about Hey Violet, so I had zero expectations which is always a good thing. Their set was short of course, but they quickly managed to heat up the crowd, to get everybody to dance and sing along. I actually like their sound, it was fun to listen to them and watch them perform, and they really killed their cover of Blank Space, I was impressed. So yes, if you have any prejudice towards them, do yourself a favour and leave it at the doors so you won't miss out on a great performance.
It didn't take the 5sos crew too long to rearrange the stage, so soon after Hey Violet, the boys finally entered the stage. They opened their set with End Up Here which is one of their strongest songs I believe, and the crowd went wild immediately. Up next was Out of my Limit which is the song that made me fall for them in the first place, so you can imagine how happy I was to hear it live. They put a new song on the list as well: Permanent Vacation. Honestly I've only heard it like twice and it goes so hard. Straight into your ear and most likely straight into your heart because the vocals are on point and so are the lyrics. It's really fascinating how they nail basically all of their songs lyrics wise. Anyway, before they play the song they ask the crowd for a little help: Michael's side is responsible for the nana part, Luke's group for the clapping and Calum's side does the hey hey. I was on Calum's side and it sounded like Mikey's side let him down a little but I guess all of us were just too busy enjoying the song itself. Also if the whole album will be as strong as this song God will hopefully have mercy on all of us.
The next song that really got to me was Long Way Home. Luke's intro was the most beautiful thing because basically the crowd sang and I get chills only thinking about it. This band is really connected to the crowd in a way I haven't experienced it before.
After getting somebody on stage before Rejects and playing Heartache on the big Screen, they gave us a little break by playing a few slower songs. 
I was so unbelievably emotional during Wrapped Around Your Finger mainly because Michael sings so much in it but also because the whole venue became very emotional. This song just makes my heart ache a lot it's so beautiful. However, they weren't done with making me sad yet: Amnesia was up next and looking back I'm surprised I didn't shed a single tear; I was certainly ready to curl into a ball on the floor.
I also have to talk about Everything I Didn't Say because Calum started it with a solo and I feel like this guy is underappreciated. I don't even know enough english words to describe what I'm trying to say, but if you still think these boys aren't talented, you need to reevaluate your life. 
They picked up the pace again with Green Day's American Idiot and at a few points I was seriously concerned for Michael's voice: he was a little sick, but it didn't keep him from giving his absolute best.
You know the show is getting to an end when She Looks So Perfect is played. I'm still a little meh about this song, I would run away with Michael though if he showed up with a plane ticket and a shiny diamond ring with my name on it. 
Good Girls is one of the funniest songs ever to be honest, mainly because of the line "she can speak french, I think she's fluent." Apparently the boys didn't know that speaking french can have a completely different meaning in german, which makes it even funnier. 
5sos wrapped things up with What I Like About You and left behind one big mess. I saw a bunch of girls sobbing while they left the venue, I saw a whole lot waiting for the band outside and I have to say that I've been sad and emotional ever since we left the venue as well. It's fascinating how 5sos have this strong relationship to their fans, it's fascinating how they play in a different city almost every day and still always give their best like it's the first show of the tour. It might sound unprofessional but I love this band with all my heart and I'm so grateful that I got the chance to watch them do what they love so much. They might be "just four boys from Australia", but they create something special and I'm so glad that I know about them because they make life a little easier at least.

So yes, thanks to Universal Germany for letting me experience all of this, I'm so happy this happened.

Album of the Week: One Direction - Four

One Direction were still five members when they released their current album Four; now they're four members doing the wild job of touring to promote this album.
The first song on the record is also the first single of the new album: “Steal My Girl” comes along with a catchy tune and typical boyband lyrics about this special girl they want to keep because “she belongs to [them].” Can somebody please tell them that girls don't belong to anybody but themselves?
Steal My Girl seems to be the exception though because song number two, “Ready To Run”, immediately convinces with grown-up lyrics and it shines through that One Direction have distanced themselves from their past sound. Ready To Run already foreshadows what to expect.
“Where Do Broken Hearts Go” is a legit question, but unfortunately they don't know the answer either. What's interesting is that by now, they don't explicitly sing about girls anymore, but they use the neutral pronoun “you”.
One Direction have made “a long way from the playground” in a very short period of time, they've matured a lot since Midnight Memories, and “18” is only another way to prove that. This track is different from past songs because it's not the boy chases girl because she's so pretty anymore; this track talks about deep emotions that have grown for a while now, it talks about making mistakes and learning from them, it talks about how to love means to try.
Song number five has to be my favourite one ever: “Girl Almighty” quickly became the anthem for girls all over the world; there's just something about this song that boosts my confidence. Maybe it's Liam singing “I get down on my knees for you” because that's exactly how girls should be celebrated.
The atmosphere is becoming thoughtful again when “Fool's Gold” kicks in and we're back at deep lyrics. This song is for those who were betrayed, who have this one person in their life who keeps playing with them but they aren't able to leave. It's for those who know that their relationship won't go anywhere, but they still hold on tight.
This album is a rollercoaster: from sad and deep songs you're pushed to up tempo tracks like “No Control”: certainly there's nothing sad about someone telling you that they're “waking up beside you, I'm a loaded gun” and that they're all yours and got no control. This song is probably the farthest away from the cliché boyband material people still associate One Direction with, what makes it even more important than it already is.
With “Fireproof” the relaxed tunes are back with harmonies that are on point, and “Spaces” follows this with lots of phrases that could keep you up all night evaluating your own life. In light of recent events, the question of “Who's gonna be the first to say good bye” can be answered with Zayn, and the rest is dealt with in secret. Obviously, the spaces between Zayn and his life as a famous band member kept getting deeper until he couldn't do it anymore. The question for their management would be “Will we ever learn? When will we learn?” because it's only logic that something like this was going to happen when the band never gets a proper break.
The last song on the album is also the one that's the most fun: “Act My Age” has this Irish vibe as it tells the story of somebody who still enjoys their life even when they're “fat and old.” It also perfectly shows that One Direction take their job seriously, but they can take a step back as well and laugh about themselves.
All in all, Four is the best album One Direction have relased so far. It's the perfect prove to show how much these boys have grown and matured during their five years as a band. They've reached the point where they can make the music they like which is an important step in their career, whether they're four or five members.

Concert Review: Alive Like Me, Dangerkids, Set It Off & Crown The Empire in Stuttgart, Germany

I know I'm late as usual with this, but I've been sick for a week now plus I'm in the middle of exams. Anyway, I went to see a bunch of bands last week and got the chance to talk to Maxx, Austin and Cody from Set It Off.

The interview happened before the show, so first things first: 

When it was finally time to enter the venue, we were the last ones to get in because the guy responsible for the guest lists had disappeared and was nowhere to be found, which was definitely a new for me as well. Luckily, the guys at the entrance were quite chill and let us in nevertheless - by then Alive Like Me were already playing but we only missed their first two songs.  

Unfortunately, there weren't many people there by the time Alive Like Me opened, but that didn't impress the boys much. They kicked the show off with a bang and I really encourage you to check them out, especially if you like Sleeping With Sirens in their beginnings. Alive Like Me didn't have much time, but they used it to heat things up and to convince the audience (me at least). 

Up next were dangerkids, and from their current album I had quite some expectations. I really like how they mix genres and their energy is crazy. Also their drummer is a girl and girls in bands deserve extra support because there aren't enough girls in bands in general. 

After we had met them, I was even more excited to see Set It Off play because they're such genuine, lovely people and I had only heard good things about their performances. They didn't disappoint me either: All five of them played their set like it was the last they'd ever play, Cody was all over the place - at one point he climbed on the bar and performed from there, and their energy was just wild. Set It Off blew the place away and Cody's vocals absolutely amazed me; it's been a while since I saw such a talented band live. 

Last but not least, Crown The Empire took their spots on stage and a few more people were standing in the front of it as well. It was clear that CTE didn't come here to have a relaxed night, but to tear the club apart and that's what they did. Finally the crowd seemed to be awake enough for mosh pits as well, so things became really wild.

All in all, all four bands are definitely worth checking out and seeing live, but I feel like I have to mention Set If Off another ten million times because they're really damn good. Big thanks to them for taking so much time for the interview as well, it was a pleasure to talk to them and I can't wait to see them again!

Alive Like Me

dangerkids

Set It Off

Crown The Empire

New Discovery: Monday's Mona Lisa

I've been back on twitter for roughly two days, and I already discovered a handful of amazing bands. I'd like to talk about one of them today: Monday's Mona Lisa from Florida.

Their debut EP Who I Want To Be contains five songs which definitely deserve your attention.

Start, the first song on the record, immediately convinces with a catchy tune and well-worked lyrics; it's the kind of song you listen to when you're in a good mood and want to celebrate that.
Up next is Demon, a slower, more thoughtful track which reminds me of Twin Atlantic (who are amazing, so there's that.) What's so great about this song is that you can identify with the lyrics so easily, and the vocals deliver the emotions of the song very clearly.
Want To Be is up next and with this guitar part we're already off to a great start. Apart from that, we get meaningful lyrics again and you get so caught up in the song that you only notice that it's over when What's He Got On Me is on with some fresh, faster tunes and the potential of staying in your head for a while.
Last but not least, there's Hurt. The title probably speaks for itself, so you can expect a stripped down song with acoustic guitars and a piano; you can expect sad lyrics with sad vocals and you can expect wanting to hear more than these five songs.
Monday's Mona Lisa definitely have everything a band needs to make it big, now they only need more people to appreciate and support them. Go and download their EP on their website (it's free so) and give them a follow/thumbs up/subscribe on/to their social networks! Supporting upcoming bands is super important, especially when they're this talented!

ALSO if you really want to help these guys out, do the following: 

• comment as often as possible on the following videos: [x] & [x]
• like their facebook page (link is up there)
• tell your friends to join the game!

How girls are still degraded for their taste in music

Hey everyone, I know it's been forever and I'm really sorry for that. I hope I'll get back on track very soon and post regularly again. Anyway, I had to write an article for my journalism class and I decided on this topic. Feel free to leave comments so we can discuss!


This isn’t an issue people usually think about, but that doesn’t make it less of a problem to deal with. In the process of writing this article, I received experiences and opinions from girls all over the world who were or still are degraded and judged for their taste in music.

“Last summer, I went to an Awolnation concert with two female friends and there were four guys who just walked around specifically asking girls if they even knew the band members’ names,” Laura told me.
Of course one could argue that she should just shrug it off because they were strangers, but then Caelan told me about how her own brother regularly tells her that her taste in music is “revolting and disgusting”, hence it makes her feel like she’s revolting and disgusting as well. It seems like there are no boundaries for people, mostly men in this case, to put down girls for something they don’t really have much control over. Music is such a wide form of art, and we connect to certain genres because we can either identify with the artists themselves or with the music they create. None of the girls I talked to actually made the conscious choice to like the artists they do and yet they have to defend themselves on a daily basis. Nicola has to justify her taste even more than usual because she enjoys kpop which is an Asian type of boybands and girlbands. She has to handle questions like “why do you like it it’s not English”, or “so you only fancy Asian boys then?”
People even go that far to tell her that she can’t like this type of music because she doesn’t know what they’re saying. This shouldn’t even be considered to be a criteria to like music in the first place and yet it appears to be one.
One might still think that it’s not that bad because they’re usually just teenage boys who still need to make up their minds about how equality works, but that’s were Syd and her story come in.
“I do the music in the gym for when we run, and I’ve had several times when my gym teacher who’s a guy has said some really sexist stuff. This one time my CD was in the middle of playing when suddenly he took it out and said that he’s tired of this girl music and that we need stuff for real men who’ll actually put in some work.”
Teachers are authorities, they’re supposed to be role models to a certain extent, so if this is what boys get taught we shouldn’t be surprised that the way to equality is still so long.

To get a different perspective on this issue, I asked a teenage boy for his opinion. Kelvin is a 16-year old British boy and claiming that his response surprised me would be an understatement.
“It’s so weird to me, it’s so alien to me that people can be against a whole genre of music in general, and then to have to second guess a person just because they like it. Not necessarily girls and not necessarily by boys, just anyone to anyone,“ Kelvin explains, “but girls are constantly degraded for pretty much everything they do, as we all know whether we admit it or not. Clothes, hair, make-up, general appearance, mannerisms, how they act and pretty much everything else in their general being and existence so it’s unsurprising that they are judged, degraded and insulted for the music they like. If they like pop music, rock music, punk music, it’s all the same.” He goes on by giving examples for the genres mentioned above: “It’s like ‘pop music? It’s probably because of the looks, and the boys and all the girls are fake and none of them can sing and its all autotune. Rock music? Yeah, you’re just pretending so you can be adventurous and fit in with us and pretend you’re deep and meaningful go back to your precious boybands and boys.”
While reading this, you might think that he’s exaggerating, but unfortunately he’s not. This is exactly the reaction we get whenever we talk about the music we like; I’ve experienced this myself more than enough. Laura seconds this by mentioning how usually boys think she’s a cool girl, but as soon as she mentions that she likes One Direction, they start reconfiguring the world in their head because there’s no way a cool girl could ever like a boyband.
Kelvin goes on by trying to explain why boys actually do measure a girl’s validity by her taste in music, but both him and me come to the conclusion that it can only be their idea of the popular genre ruining music itself and giving it a bad name. They probably think pop music causes a loss of integrity in the name of the Arts.

After all, music is an art that still struggles a lot with any kind of social issues and sexism is just one of them. There are still way too many people who are either unconscious of this issue or don’t bother changing it because they’re not directly involved. We’re so used to it by now that it barely catches our attention and it really shouldn’t be this way.