1. Fontaines D.C. // 27.03. 2022 // Roxy, Prague

I bought the tickets for this in 2020, the gig was scheduled for March ’21 and got postponed until 2022. The pandemic now seems so long ago, but back then, while I waited for this show to be rescheduled, for a long time I did not know if the gig would ever happen, or if concerts would ever happen again. So when I was finally standing amidst the crowd at Roxy and almost broke my nose and got beer spilled all over my clothes in the moshpit and watched the band, everything about live music that felt special before, felt even more special. I had missed this so much.
You know that feeling, when you’re having a nightmare and you wake up before you die? It was like that, just the other way round. I finally felt alive again.

2. Fontaines D.C. // 27.05.2022 // Foundry, Sheffield

This gig was really special for me as well. First, because Fontaines D.C. are one of my favourite bands and because the Foundry is an amazing and intimate venue and I am not sure if I will ever see Fontaines in a small venue again, because they are becoming so big now. And also because this was the first time I was able to return back to the UK after two years of absence because of the pandemic and it made me so, so happy.
That evening at the Foundry will stay for me for a long time.
I arrived at the venue very early, found a little corner in the back where I sat down and watched the people arrive, I had a beer by myself and wrote stuff in my notebook and felt really inspired. Then the gig happened and it was magical.
The crowd was so into it, they were playing all their best songs, they played „I don’t belong“ which, sadly, is a very relatable song for me lyrics-wise, and yet I could not stop thinking about how it is in places like this, during gigs like this, where I feel like I most belong. I met Grian after the show and he was so incredibly nice and we talked about John William’s „Stoner“ which is one of my favourite books and apparently it’s his too.

3. Kate Nash // 28.05.2022 // Academy, Manchester

„Manchester, you gorgeous bastards“, Kate Nash said when she entered the stage that night. And the crowd was very gorgeous indeed.

Support came from Revenge Wife, who was visibly delighted to playing in front of a Mancunian crowd. She tells a story about how she grew up with Britpop and bands from this town and bursts out into a „Don’t Look Back In Anger“ cover and immediatly the crowd joins her. The moment is so perfect, that even Kate Nash comes on stage, clad in trekkies and chants along.
Between the two sets the DJ plays a 00s playlists and again, literally everyone is singing along and screaming their lungs out to the choruses of „Just Like A Pill“, „Hit Me Baby One More Time“ etc. and smoothly picks up the conversation they were in during the verses and pauses between the songs.

During Kate’s set, someone in the crowd suddenly starts proposing to his girlfriend. I can’t really see what’s happening, but after a minute Kate, who’s attention they caught instantly, screams „SHE SAID YES!“ Everyone is clapping and immeditately bursts into „All You Need Is Love“ and people start hugging each other.
There was so much love in the room. Everyone in Manchester breathes music.

4. Adam Green // 29.05.2022 // Deaf Institute, Manchester

When I was at his gig at the Gorilla in 2016 Adam asked the crowd „How can you live in this city your whole life and not realize that it’s called ‚man chest hair'“?
Apparently half of tonight’s crowd was there too and remembers, because everyone is chanting „MAN CHEST HAIR, MAN CHEST HAIR“ when Adam enters the stage. It’s still funny.
It was his birthday yesterday and Adam still seems a little knackered from partying last night, but still puts on a great show.
Even tough Adam’s from Brooklyn, he makes me feel a lot of apprecation for Manchester tonight, because of the stories he tells on stage, like the one about the man in a business suit he encountered today, who casually walked down the street peeing. „Things like that only happen in Manchester“. (<3)
Adam also says a lot of relatable things on stage, like how he didn’t want to get his hopes up for this tour, because it would probably get cancelled again anyway because of Covid and only in the middle of it he realized that it was really happening. And how sad he is, because it’s the last night of the tour. It is also my last evening of the trip, and what he said about not wanting to get his hopes up, is something I experienced too. I told everyone during the weeks before embarking on my UK trip, that I’m not really excited for it and that I will only start to believe it is happening, when I exit Manchester airport. While sitting at the docks in Liverpool on my second day in the UK was when I realized „Hey! You made it back“.

5. The Libertines // 07.11.2022 // Gasometer, Wien

I actually didn’t expect anything from that gig, as Gasometer is probably my least favourite venue in the world, but the concert was actually quite good.
The setlist was great, the sound was good, the band was in a good mood and super into it and the vibe in the crowd was ok even though there could have been more… I don’t know, energy? Not sure why, but it seems that people don’t dance/mosh as much anymore, but rather just stand there or film the gig on their phone. Which always tends to happen at bigger shows at larger venues, but I feel like more recently it also happens at smaller gigs and gigs where you’d think the crowd would be a little more engaged.

6. Angel Olsen // 05.10.2022 // WUK, Wien
7. Bright Eyes // 25.08.2022 // Arena Open Air, Wien
That night was so sad. Conor was visibly drunk and not in a good place, but he still tried to put on a good show, which he did, in my opinion. But some of the comments and reactions you could hear in the crowd were extremely unempathetic, vile and immature. People were calling him out for being drunk, yelling that they feel sorry for his bandmates; when Conor talked about his dying brother on stage people were laughing at him and cheering… I’m honestly so fed up with thoughtless and shitty people, why can’t people be more kind?
8. Kae Tempest // 25.11.2022 // Flex, Wien
9. Ezra Furman // 08.11.2022 // Arena, Wien
10. La Femme // 25.02.2022 // Oasis, Le Mans