Smashing queens of the stone age

Although this week was jam-packed full of uni-assignment fun (and even though my life continues to be), I had one of the best weeks I've had in a long time with many thanks to the Smashing Pumpkins and the events at V festival '08.

It all started with the Smashing Pumpkins show at the Hordern Pavilion on Thursday night, where Billy Corgan graced the stage with his space-alien like stature. They warmed the crowd with 'Porcelina (of the vast oceans)' and then hammered through a montage of songs from the new 'Zeitgeist' album. 'Tonight, Tonight' had me up in arms, as did 'Mayonaise', 'Everlasting Gaze, the' and 'Bullet with butterfly wings'. Once again, the feeling of being 10 feet away from one of your rock idols is perpetually mind-blowing. It was an awesome re-union and I'll definitely be seeing them again in future.

V festival was the most fun I've had in a long time... It started at central, where me and Laura met up with Tay who was drinking a bottle of Jimmy alone in the middle of the park across from Eddy Avenue. We talked for a while, watched Tay get drunk of his tits until Squeak and Baana showed up with a bunch of lager-louts who I'd never met before in my life. Before we set about on our travels my intention was to load up on Dutch-courage at a Sydney pub before we boarded the bus in order to save some money (it costs $8.50 for one shot of jagermeister at the festival...) but those efforts were in vain because the lager-louts took off without me, Laura, Squeak and his woman Amy.

By the time we got to centennial park my senses were ablaze, and to top it off I decided to meet with half-of a friend named 'pill' who created this incendiary buzz throughout my veins about 3 hours into the fun. At the festival I met Griggsy and gang, but we all decided to go our separate ways to see our bands of preference. 'Modest Mouse' sucked, I must say... And so did 'AIR'. Queens of the Stone Age came on at 6 to blow everyone's minds, except the only let down was the acoustics. A brief stint watching Duran Duran and then I was ready to see the Pumpkins in all of their godly glory again. I missed Presets, though I'll probably see them eventually.

Upon walking through the dark, shadowy crowd I tripped on this stupid girl who was sitting in the middle of the masses. She looked at me in disgust as I said "Oh my god man I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there I hope you're ok!!" Even though she accepted my apology with a hi-five her friends were yelling shit at me as if I'd done something wrong. Well, sorry ladies, I'm afraid sitting on the ground in the swaying masses of the mosh pit ain't the wisest move.

The train ride home sucked though, seeing as the night trains stop at EVERY stop along the line on the way home. Oh yeah and to top it all off someone had urinated in the carriage and there was a young couple having sex a few rows behind where we were sitting. Yeah, HAVING SEX ON A TRAIN AFTER SOMEONE HAD CLEARLY BAPTIZED THE CARRIAGE WITH THEIR GOLDEN GOOSE FLUID. Some people, hey? Gross.

Oh yeah, and I'm going to join the NIN front-line finally (meaning I'm paying to become a member of 'the spiral' fan club). I came about this revelation after my liasison with a guy who met Trent Reznor through the fan club, not bad eh?



Mark.