Hi Voltaire,
I brought my lovely Deady not bootleg figure (attached to my bag) to see rage against the machine last night. Somehow, through the magic of mosh pits, I elbowed some dude in the face (or rather, he jumped into my elbow..), I sprained my finger and Deady disappeared. I am sorry to say he was probably trampled to death A fitting way to go, sure, but I mourn his passing.

While no Deady can replace the one you sold me in person in Oslo, I do really want a new one. But merchdirect is lame and has none of your stuff on it. Where can I go to replace my poor lost (trampled, sniff) Deady? My bag looks all wrong without Deady.

Help?

Last night was really cool. We got there late because I am trying to revise after all, and only caught the end of Gogol Bordello. But Rage Against The Machine was so much fun! And yes, I at one point could not resist any longer, I thrust my handbag into Mr Pharmacist’s arms and hurled myself into a circle pit, where I pushed and showed like the rest of them. AWESOME. Of course, I hurt my finger in the first jump in, someone fell on me, on my finger, and it was Holy Owwie. But I satisfied myself that it was not broken, and went back in. I’m surprised I’m not covered in bruises, and that the finger was the full extent of my injuries. I’m pretty sure someone else lost a tooth.

It feels highly appropriate to have a minor injury after seeing Rage Against The Machine. Afterwards I felt knackered, with a sore throat from all the shouting and I was drenched in sweat. It felt amazing. I feel like I’ve gotten in touch with my Inner Badass again. And while my finger hurts, and I have to cover it in cold patches to try to reduce the swelling, every second of ache is absolutely worth it. I felt so alive last night, like something in me resurfaced that’s been buried for a long time.

Pixies and Rage Against The Machine in one weekend. Man, I feel so alive. I needed this kick in the face (no actual kicks in the face ocurred) to shake me out of my funk.

This Thursday and Friday, the mighty Pixies played two fan exclusive shows at The Troxy in London, a venue I’d never even heard of before. It’s in Limehouse, which is surprisingly close to where I’m living and quite easy to get to from here, thanks to the magic of the new London Overground service.

The venue was a cute, old fashioned style theatre. We were upstairs in unassigned seating, and though we arrived before the support came on, it was fairly full already. There was a section of reserved seats in front of us, which had tables. I wonder how you got those seats, they weren’t on sale on the pixies website.It was warm in there. I was sitting, like everyone else (the upstairs crowd only got to their feet at the encore) and I was drenched from just dance-bouncing in my seat. And I wasn’t really expecting all that much, but I was blown away. Hit after hit, and then they played Caribou, by far my favourite Pixies song. It was just like I dreamed it would be live, intense and powerful. I was beside myself with joy. I loved every second of the gig.

On my way home, @nikki randomly came up behind me and said hello, I turned to face her and had a “oh shit this person seems to know who I am and I have forgotten them who is it come on brain come on brain” moment before she revealed her identity and I blurted out “you look nothing like your picture!” – that came out wrong Nikki, so sorry! You know what it’s like with people you know online sometimes, you have an idea in your head of what someone looks like, and some times these ideas are utterly wrong. Case in point – this time! And those seconds before nikki revealed who she was, I was racing through my mind trying to find something that fit the person in front of me. Funnily enough, her boyfriend looked entirely like what I thought he would.

All in all, a pretty good night!!

Setlist
1. Cecilia Ann
2. Rock Music [aborted]
3. Bone Machine
4. Monkey Gone to Heaven
5. Gouge Away
6. Hey
7. Velouria
8. Dig for Fire
9. Allison
10. Debaser
11. Planet Of Sound
12. Alec Eiffel
13. Caribou
14. River Euphrates
15. Cactus
16. Is She Weird?
17. Break My Body
18. The Sad Punk
19. Head On [The Jesus and Mary Chain]
20. U-Mass
21. Tame
22. Isla de Encanta
23. Broken Face
24. Wave of Mutilation
25. Nimrod’s Son
26. Holiday Song
27. Gigantic

Encore
1. Where is my Mind?
2. Here Comes Your Man

See this guy? This is Vincent Frank, aka Frankmusik, and he released his debut album Complete Me earlier this year, a delightful piece of electronic music that never fails to put me in a good mood. Very recently he also release the entire album as an acoustic work, named Completely Me, just him and piano, and it’s still pretty damn good. The beats are infectious, the hooks addictive and the voice impressive. I saw him live in December and his voice is as strong live as on record – what you get on the record is what you get live.

But don’t take my word for it internets, here’s some songs for you to check out.

Also available on YouTube but not embeddable: Three little Words, Better off as two.

I want to know what you think I might have missed out on this year. Is there an album that will always be the album that reminds you of 2009? Did you fall in love with a new artist? Did you re-discover an old love? Did an artist surprise you by knocking you sideways with a new album when you’d given up on them? What was your musical 2009 like?

Dear Johanne

Thank you for your email.

Please do not worry as you can have your tickets printed from the Box Office at the O2 on the day of the event. The Box Office shares the same system as Seetickets and Ticketmaster as they are recognised reputable sellers, therefore duplicate tickets can be printed off on the night.

You will have to bring proof of I.D, the card that you used for initial payment and you reference number as proof of your purchase.

I am unsure of why you were offered a refund form Seetickets and not given the option to have the tickets re-printed at the Box Office. I would advise that you call Seetickets to confirm your options.

I hope this helps.

Kind Regards

Customer Services

The O2

\o/
They got back to me in less than an hour. I still haven’t heard from Seetickets customer service. Guess who I won’t be using to buy my tickets ever again?? If you guessed Seetickets, you can have a cookie.

I love Nine Inch Nails. I also love Mew, a Danish band. Both bands, along with Jane’s Addiction, are playing at the O2 arena next Wednesday. I ordered and paid for my tickets ages ago, and found out today they’ve gotten lost in the mail.

I think my tweets from this morning say it all:

Royal Mail have lost my tickets for Nine Inch Nails and O2 might not be able to issue replacements. SO gutted. Cried openly at work.#
It’s with customer services now but they can’t promise new tickets. I’ll get a refund of course if they can’t get me new tickets but still.#
I was looking forward to this gig so much that I took that day off work to make sure I don’t miss the support. Which is Mew. Who I adore.#
Already talked to seetickets, and they’ll start the claim process. Customer services will call me back by end of tomorrow to update me.#
I hope, hope, hope they’ll be able to get me replacement tickets. I’m never having stuff shipped to my house again, royal mail loses so much#

So I might not get new tickets. But! I found a way to win new tickets. Please help me, fandom_lounge, you’re my greatest hope. Vote for my submission at fanshake. My entry is surprisingly enough by ‘krazycat’ and is titled “Catacombs of Paris”.

Make my day! Please – it’s a big deal for me to go to this gig.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH PIXIES PLAYING DOOLITTLE EXCUSE ME WHILE I FLAIL MADLY, JUMP FOR JOY AND FAINT FROM EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION!

Pixies. Damn. I didn’t think I’d ever get the chance.