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.

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: 5 Seconds Of Summer & their self-titled

To be honest this isn't just my album of this week, it's been my album of every week since it's been released, which was on June 27th (sidenote: I had to look the date up and it slightly shocked me because it feels like the album just dropped two days ago).
It also slightly annoys me how people mock this band just because they're four teenage boys who are currently opening for One Direction. First: Who cares and second: why does that bother you so much? I could rant about this for the next ten years, so let's move on to the actual album.

The band's most popular song, She Looks So Perfect, opens the record with a nice riff and  the story of a girl wearing American Apparel underwear - the lyrics might not be the deepest you'll ever come across, but it's most likely not the goal of this song to make you question all of your life choices.

Don't Stop, song number two, picks up the atmosphere of SLSP and convinces with catchy tunes and a good mood. 

Apologies to whoever cares, but I usually skip song munber three: Good Girls. I'm just not really feeling the sound of it and the story behind it doesn't really impress me either (I mean, good girls are bad girls that haven't been caught might be an existing thing, but in my opinion it's not something that delivers a good base for a song.)

What I'm extremely happy about is the fact that Alex Gaskarth from All Time Low helped the boys with a few songs (if you want to play a game called "guess the Alex songs", I highly encourage you to do so, you'll definitely hear it): Kiss Me Kiss Me is one of them. I don't know what it is, but Alex has this musical fingerprint so to speak which he leaves in every song he writes, and he didn't miss this one either. It kind of reminds me of All Time Low's Nothing Personal era.

When I first got into 5sos, I already knew they were probably young (aka younger than me), but I hadn't expected their vocalist to be 17 (he's 18 in the meantime, but still), and their oldest member is their drummer who's 20 now. Obviously this age thing brings a few difficulties sometimes, so the boys wrote a song about it: 18. I don't think I have to say much about this one, just pay some attention to the lyrics and you'll see the difficulties I'm talking about.
After a handful of rather fast and loud songs, the guys show that they can be quiet as well: Everything I Didn't Say and Beside You deal with the flip side of being a touring musician. I can only imagine what it feels like to drop off your special one at the airport and let him travel the world while you sit at home and wait for him (mad respect for all the couples who actually manage this).
End Up Here puts an end to the sad mood: it's fast, it's catchy and it contains fantastic vocals. The story behind it makes me chuckle every single time because it's basically about the loser boy who gets to be with the fantastic girl who is so out of his league that his friends suggest he should lock her down before she can run. I'm pretty sure that it's the other way around in the meanwhile.
Another Alex-song is coming up and I definitely see and hear All Time Low perform this one as well: Long Way Home comes with a mental music video right away (at least I immediately see a couple driving around aimlessly for hours just so they can be together. So, if anybody connected to 5sos is reading this right now, I'll gladly play a role in this video if you ever decide to make one). 

Heartbreak Girl was the very first song of 5sos I ever heard and it's one of my favourites ever since. I'm not gonna start a feminist rant about the ridiculous concept of being "friendzoned" now, so let's just say that the song is good regardless of the topic.

English Love Affair might be the song that made the fandom speculate the most. Who is this English love affair? And who is the lucky boy who got involved? I heard a few rumours concerning these questions, but I won't discuss them here. If you'd like to share your opinions, hit me up!

Their current single Amnesia was written by the Madden brothers and I just love it. Y'all know that I'm a sucker for acoustic songs, so this song is super important. Both Luke and Calum are really talented vocalists, and I think their voices can shine even more than usual in this song (another sidenote: Michael and Ashton have amazing voices as well and sometimes it makes me sad that they don't get to sing more often).

Michael does some vocals in Social Casualty but this one and the next song (Never Be) are unfortunately filed under: songs I skip. I don't know what's my problem with Social Casualty, but Never Be is too slow for my taste, it lacks a little energy. The chorus is amazing actually, but I'm not feeling the rest.

However, Voodoo Doll is one of my favourites as well. When I got into this band it was like this: my best friend introduced me to them, I had no idea who was who and kept mixing up Luke and Ashton, I listened to Out Of My Limit and I was sold. Since then I feel like there's some higher force keeping me here even though I sometimes wish I didn't know them (my bank account would definitely be happier).

Kudos to you if you read all of this, but I just really like this album, so I thought every song deserved a little something. In all honesty, it makes me angry when people are all mean and mock this band because this is their first full-length album and it's already pretty amazing, so I'm quite excited to see where this whole thing is going. Also it's lame to say that only teenage girls enjoy this album because boys can like this just as much and it's not very punk rock to keep yourself from listening to a certain band because some people associate them with One Direction.