So yesterday I went to the Download Festival. I only caught a total of two bands, all on the second stage, Mindless Self Indulgence and, of course, HIM. MSI was the last band before HIM. They were, ummm, interesting… I guess they are considered punk, although I heard a little bit of a Beastie Boys influence in there. But then, maybe that was just me. This is a band that would be great to hire for a party. Their song Shut Me Up was kind of catchy. They are comprised of a girl drummer and a girl bassist (she was dressed like some Goth school girl, very cute), with a whacked out, very skinny guy singing and a guy on guitar. The lead singer guy had on some neon pink nylons with some sort of skirt thing that looked like they were a pair of long shorts with the inseams let out, I think he had a black shirt on underneath his black jacket that said, if I remember correctly CAN YOU SMELL MY BREATH on the back of it, along with a long neon pink tie, and his hair was all spiked out. When they were done with their set, everyone left the stage except the lead singer guy, he picks up this hella old 80’s style boombox and starts playing Betty Davis Eyes. I shit you not. He’s got the mike up to the speaker so we can all hear it, and you can see him singing along with it. Next thing you know he walks off the stage and into the crowd, walking all around the second stage area, the whole time carrying the boombox on top his shoulders that is still blaring Betty Davis Eyes, and people are following him around. Then he disappears through an opening at the back of the place that is restricted to everyone who doesn’t have the pass to get past that point. Like I said, an interesting band, with a few catchy tunes.
Then after all that, this marching band came out called the Extra Action Marching Band. All I gotta say, is you had to be there! This marching band took Goth to a whole new level. I wish I was able to get some good pictures of them, but they are not what you call your ‘normal’ marching band. Taken off their website:“No one has ever seen Oakland/San Francisco's Extra Action Marching Band actually march…at least not in a straight line and in the same direction. Instead, the fifteen-to-thirty-five inebriated troubadours ooze, shuffle, loiter, charge, and crawl around embracing their environment and quite frequently their audience. Defying categorization, this mutant lovechild of traditional peripatetic music and ecstatic turmoil consists of a hypnotic drum corps, a heady horn section, and a provocative, uplifting flag squadron that dazzles crowds with their dizzying dances. An Extra Action performance is a bacchanalian, infectiously celebratory, inappropriate, transcendent, freaky spectacle that amuses, arouses, and intoxicates the audience. The flag team alone can stop traffic and often does.”
They were too all over the place to get a good picture. They were a sight to behold though, let me tell you! This is a marching band that you’d definitely see being a part of the Gay Pride Parade. They were outrageous!After they left the second stage area and headed over into the main part of the amphitheater, the stage area cleared out quite a bit. So my brother and I took our chance to get as close to the stage as we could for HIM. This wasn’t as close as I’d have liked, but I could see Ville pretty damn good so that was good enough for me.
Ville was quite charming the whole time he was performing. He was flirting quite a bit with the girls. I can’t say that I was one of them damn it! One of the girls he was flirting with was over to our left and then another girl that was just in front of us a bit to the right. He is quite the charmer and such a flirt, smiling a lot at those lucky girls. Ville doesn’t just smile, he smiles with a look in his eyes that gives him a look of wickedness. (Oh yeah, I do love them guys that can give you that smile that looks like they would be nothing but trouble!) The girl that was to our left posted a few pictures on the HIM message forum, she was actually lucky enough to meet Ville and had a picture taken with Ville and with the whole band. All I gotta say…Lucky Bitch! Yeah, like I thought I’d ever get the chance to meet Ville. But hey, I can still dream! So, the pictures that you are seeing are of Ville and the guys. Linde is the one with the blonde dreads, Burton is on keyboards, Mige is on bass, and Gas is on drums. All the pictures that I got of Ville suck ass because the fucking sun was shinning on him. So his face has a lot of glare. I’ve tried to touch them up the best I could, but not good enough. So I stole one of the pictures from the chick that got to meet Ville, she had one that was pretty good.
I can’t remember the damned set list in order or remember all of the songs they played. I do remember that they opened the set with Vampire Heart and closed the set with Rip The Wings Of A Butterfly and also played my two favorite songs Under The Rose and Soul On Fire. What songs I do remember them playing too is: Buried Alive By Love, Your Sweet Six Six Six, Wicked Game, The Sacrament, Endless Dark, It’s All Tears, Right Here In My Arms, and it pisses me off that I can’t remember the rest of them! I hate having a block of Swiss cheese for a memory! Can I have some crackers to go with that?! Oh, and don't for get the wine!Oh, and I can't forget the nice little souvenir I walked away with, beside both versions of their Fall Tour 2005 t-shirts... A nice fat headache by the time that I got home. And YES, it was worth it!
1. Vampire Heart
2. Right Here In My Arms
3. Buried Alive By Love
4. Join Me
5. Under The Rose
6. Funeral Of Hearts
7. Your Sweet 666
8. Killing Loneliness
9. Soul On Fire
10. Wicked Game
11. The Sacrament
12. It's All Tears
13. Rip The Wings Of A Butterfly
13 song set list...I love it! LUCKY 13!
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