LANY in Adventures in paradise

I went to the LANY concert last night. They’re an indie band from LA (LANY is an acronym for ‘Los Angeles New York’.)
I caught the bus there and had to walk a short distance to the venue, which I hadn’t been to before, The Trifford. Turns out it’s right near where I used to live for about a year haha, whoops, had no idea.

Anyway, I was self conscious when I arrived because the line to get in was huge (it was sold out) and every single person IN the line looked like they were no older than 18 years old. Ergh. So I played on my phone whilst people in their groups laughed and mingled, whilst I looked like a sore loser in the line by myself and at least double the age of all these children lol.

I did feel better when I got to the front of the line and the bouncer still checked my ID. I had my ticket scanned and got a huge pink ‘The Trifford” stamp on my wrist. Ergh, why do venues still use these stamps? I was then conscious of not holding my left wrist against the white shirt I was wearing in case it transferred. I did pretty well, surprisingly.

Anyway, the support act was a Sydney band called Glades, whom I hadn’t heard of. But they were bloody amazing. A chick lead singer and two guys as the musicians. The crowd were really into them also. With all the music I listen to and charts I make each week, I’m still finding artists I’ve never heard of. Anyway, I made a mental note to check out their stuff.

I grabbed one drink from the bar, a cidar, to calm myself down a little. It also gave me a glass to hold onto. For some reason, that made me feel better.
The Trifford is a pretty small venue. It’s almost like a big greenhouse but built like a tin shed. It had great air conditioning though (something The New Globe Theater needed to look into, where I just about died at the Kate Voegele concert because it was that HOT in there - a lady actually passed out ON that stage during her support act).
Anyway, the lights went out and LANY took to the stage.

Now, I’ve seen a lot of concerts over the years - big names from Mariah to Celine to Kelly Clarkson to P!nk to Cher to Adele to Bieber… you get the picture… but this was something else. I’ve always said to myself that Garbage’s 2005 tour that I attended was my favourite concert, but after last night, I think it has been trumped. I was there by myself, I knew no-one, but fuck. me. They put on a hell of a good show.

I started to wonder if the lead singer was on something. He had so much energy throughout. He was quite good looking too, with his shorter hair. I’d only seen him with his long locks in the “Super Far” music video. I also only knew a few of their songs, but everyone around me were full-on Stans. Turns out I wasn’t even close to a fan of these guys compared to the youngin’s around me.
But the show was like a story and with each song that passed and the build up to the next, even more well-known song, made it exciting to watch. Their only real lighting effects were a screen behind them that changed a different fluro colour with each track, but it totally worked. Maybe it was the intimate venue. It kind of reminded me of when I saw Taylor Swift live. “Love Story” had only just been released and she was performing at ‘The Tivoli’ here in Brisbane (an also small venue). She was so excited that she’d sold it out LOL. Fast forward to now and the bitch is doing stadiums. Maybe now was the start of bigger things for LANY. Given their huge fan base already, I wouldn’t be surprised.

It was the encore that sealed the deal for me. The entire show was great. The lead singer even WALKED OUT ONTO THE CROWD. Like, it wasn’t a big deal that the fans could drop him and he’d break a leg or something. He walked out onto the outstretched hands and kept on singing the damn song he was doing at the time. I was amazed.
Then during another song, he jumped down from the stage INTO the crowd, took someone’s phone, jumped back onto the stage, snapped a selfie with it with them in the background, and threw the phone back into roughly the area he’d taken it from. This guy was insane. I found myself wondering if he was on something lol, but his energy just brought in the entire room and we were all on a journey with LANY.
I knew they hadn’t performed ‘Super Far’ when the lights went out, and sure enough that was up next. Incredible.
But what I hadn’t counted on was a song I’d forgotten about. “ILYSB”, which stands for “I Love You So Bad.”
Something happened during that last encore song. I’m not sure what, but something did. When it finished, the roar from the crowd was insane. We’d definitely gotten our money’s worth.
And I’d only had the one drink. I’m still on a high from the concert 24 hours later.

I was meant to go to work drinks that night at The Stock Exchange in the city, so even though it was midnight, I made my way there. It looked pretty dead. The Victory (across the street) looked way more happening than The Stock Exchange was. I tried to peer in through the window but it was a bit dark. My workmates probably weren’t even still in there and might’ve gone to the valley by now instead. Anyway, I lined up with my ID (well, there was no lineup except one guy in front of me lol) and the bouncer took one look at my outfit and said, “No shorts.”

I had to laugh to myself. “Okay mate,” were the only words I said. I wasn’t mad. I couldn’t be, not after that concert. And I just laughed because it was a warm night, their club was DEAD, this is fucking Queensland for God’s sake, and I wasn’t allowed in because I was wearing shorts. Well I sure as fuck wasn’t wearing slacks to the concert, nor was I going home to change. It was a good excuse to go home to bed. I had work in 6 hours anyway. I had attempted to go out at least, even if my workmates didn’t believe me.

And I got to work on time. One of the guys turned up two hours late for his shift lol. Surprise surprise. I was surprised he turned up at all. That probably would’ve been me had I managed to find where they were.

Anyway, I haven’t written in ages. A lot’s happened but I just haven’t been bothered. I just wanted to write about last night and how cool it was to have a concert be that damn good.