Pop - Punk Is Sooooo '05, part 1

I've been up since 5am as we're doing a car boot sale. Deciding that getting up that early has to be worth something, I have a 99 Flake for breakfast (highly nutritious). I get home about 1:45pm, fall into bed, don't quite even manage to doze off before my mobile rings. A familiar American accent at the other end:

"Auntie Hannah!"

Ahh, I'd forgotten that nickname. So Cobra Starship (two fifths of whom are good friends from my time in NY) have landed. On tour with Fall Out Boy (no link necessary; unless you've been living under a rock you must know who they are) and in the UK to play some shows with them. Which I may have mentioned before in previous posts...

I force myself straight out of bed and into the shower so I have no chance of falling asleep, and head over to Brixton Academy where they're finishing up sound check. I arrive about twenty past five. The line to get in starts at the main Academy doors and stretches down most of one side of the building, which surprises me that early (doors don't open till 7). I hang outside reading until sound check is over and Alex Suarez comes out and gives me a huge hug. We go to find a phonebox so he can call home, and I'm more shocked to see the line has actually started stretching round the second side of the Academy. Phone booth No.1 doesn't seem to work. We go for a walk, I point out the highlights of Brixton on a Sunday evening ("That's the tube station... off licence... Sainsburys....") We get back to the Academy and the line has now gone round all four sides of the block and has started on past the entrance. We consider going for a drink, find another phonebox first that actually works this time. While I'm waiting for him to finish his phone call, the line slowly snakes past us.... it's spiralling outwards from the Academy entrance round the block then round another block. I can't quite get my mind around this, it's INSANE. I've never seen anything like it. I've also never seen so many teenagers in hoodies and too much eyeliner...

We head back and go in to the Academy - Suarez wants his dinner. I go to the VIP bar, get a drink, halfheartedly watch Shiny Toy Guns. Head down into the fray to watch Cobra. Suddenly feel horrendously old as realise that I am totally surrounded by aforementioned teenagers that were in line. Hoodies, eyeliner (girls and boys) and braces (metal ones on teeth) abound. And they all seem to be making out with each other. GROSS.

Cobra play a good set - there seem to be a few technical issues, strings breaking and so on, and Gabe stumbles on stage fucking up his ankle at one point - but he's a good front man, and Ryland is great at the banter and they keep the show going and everyone around me seems to be getting into it, which makes me happy.

There's a Cobra Starship tradition of getting a kid up on stage during 'Bring It (Snakes On A Plane)' to do the rap that Travis from Gym Class Heroes usually does, so after much combing the crowd, he pulls some girl up on stage.... who turns out to not even remotely know the rap at all. Laaaaame.

I snake (haha) my way through the crowd back up to the vip bar where I run into the lovely Em. She introduces me to a couple of other people and we play 6 Degrees of Gurj, who we all have in common. Suarez comes out, I send him back to fetch Ryland who I haven't yet seen (and bring me back a vodka tonic from the bottle they have in their room...)

The evening starts to blur as the bar fills up... I talk to some guy who was interviewing Cobra pre-show and who is a little starstruck by Pete Wentz's mom. Later on he and his girlfriend start having little domestics in front of me and it gets a tad uncomfortable. I totally miss the FOB set - and the sound in the bar is terrible so I barely even notice they're playing. Much discussion occurs later about where to go... I end up jumping in the van with them (but it's so much more than a van!) and catching a ride back to West London. Half the band jump out in Knightsbridge to go to a restaurant that's open late where some friends are - my eyes are barely staying open so I pass on it and head home for some immediate and serious shut eye...