This Is Not A Democracy

That was the most ridiculous train journey home, ever. Middle-aged women should not have to hoist husbands who are too drunk to stand into their seats. Nor should they have to do full-on, comedy face-bloats as they puke in their own mouths in a carriage full of people. Also, dapper old guys in their sixties should not stagger sideways across a platform, fall onto the train, off of the train, and then puke red wine all over the floor.

This is England! You should not reduce groups of very sober twenty-somethings, who have never met before, to giggle fits and discussing the best form of parkour to utilise to escape the train without being covered in sick.

I am disapprove, old people.

But anyway. Tonight was genuinely awesome. We were stunned and appalled by how empty the venue was, and even more appalled by the singer of the Japanese Voyeurs, because she was obnoxious. The Damned Things more than made up for it, though.

I nearly got in a punch up in the middle of the set, again. At one point some overly-made-up bint tried to elbow us out of the way - no "excuse me, do you mind if I take a photo?" or anything, just elbows and unnecessary shoving in a really sparse crowd - so I did a derby move on her and nearly floored her sideways. Then her twiggly little hipster boyfriend started pulling (lightly) on my arms and asking what I'd done that for, so I raised my fist and told him to back the fuck off. He did. And then a security guard came over and bollocked him for touching me.

Never fuck with derby girls, my friend. Never.

But yeah. Andy has completely shaved and cut his hair really, really short. Like, The Kill Pill short. He looks about 19 again. We didn't get time to chat, but he was lurking near us, so we did that little wave-grin-mouthe-'howareyoudoing?'-nod-thumbs-up-'you?'-'good!'-grin thing. I emailed him on the way home to say sorry for not stopping to chat, but it's been so long since I contacted him I don't know how frequently he uses that address, now.

Keith is getting a bit chubby, it has to be said. When I first met them, in spring, he was much more svelte, and he was oddly attractive but I didn't fancy him. Now he's plumped up a little bit I did actually find him quite cute (bizarrely, a girl I think is his sister-in-law friended me on Twitter recently - she seems to follow tons of people).

Josh kept wandering back and forth, looking annoyed; then he tweeted that BA had lost his clothes and guitars for the second time in a week, so he was notably pissed off. We would have been too; what a bunch of knobgobblers. We offered to buy him a drink when we saw him later, but he had one from the rider already.

The other three were just themselves at that point, really. We'd seen Rob through the window of the restaurant next to the Garage on our way in and given him a wave, but didn't see him in the venue. When they came on, they played Friday Night and Ironiclast to get things going and then about a song later I caught a glimpse of something bright flying at me and a sharp pain in my arm. It turned out it was a pick. Now, I was standing three people back on stage left. In front of me from right to left, were Rob, Scott, Keith, Andy at the back, Josh and Joe. Joe was at the far, far left from the audience's POV. Guess who threw it. Yep. The full width of the stage and three rows back and it hit like someone flicking my arm - it actually stung. As Lib pointed out, he's probably used to playing arenas and having to throw it that far. But my God, I was shocked. I really thought it had been Scott as he was nearest. Good arm, Bambi.

After the set, Joe came out of the backstage door right next to us, with Josh, and we stopped and chatted to them. Pleasingly, he recognised us right away and seemed pleased that we'd shown up (I guess the fact that most FOB fans had gone to MCR had left him thinking none of the fans would be there to see them). I told him about the pick incident and he poked at my old self-harm scars and jokingly asked if he'd caused them when he threw it. (Oh, Joseph... *eyeroll*).

He and Josh stood and talked to us for quite a bit until we were interrupted, and then when the girl he knew wandered backstage, we paused to say bye and asked him to thank the other guys for us. He wanted to know why we were leaving (the staff were chucking people out) and seemed to have expected an afterparty in the venue, which he was a bit disappointed wasn't happening. There was a slightly weird and awkward moment when he said something like, "So... yeah..." and lifted up an arm. I think I just stared at him blankly, not sure if he wanted a hi-five or a handshake and then he said, "Yeah, give me a hug, man, thanks for coming out to see us."

I was taken aback and clearly everyone noticed because on the way out Lib said, "You weren't expecting that hug at all, were you?" No. Nope. Definitely not. Joe's not traditionally that huggy; in fact, I'm sure he's been quoted as saying (or maybe even tweeted) he doesn't like hugging people he doesn't know.

He's a really good dude, though, and I'm glad that even though certain members of bandom went out of their way to try to make the guy hate me, he doesn't seem to at all. Just goes to show, I guess: be genuine and people are going to be much more accepting.

One last little bit of cute: he wasn't wearing a ring, but he referred to Marie as his 'wife' so I'm guessing they married over the summer. I'm honestly so pleased for them, I've never seen the guy look as happy as he does now - both on stage and off - and that makes me so happy. It's almost like a big-sisterly fondness. I'm really proud of him. I'm proud of all of them, of course, but especially Joe, because I feel like he's come out of his shell much more and found his confidence. He spoke on stage twice tonight; he used to chicken out the second he stepped up to the mic at FOB shows. I feel like that says a lot.