Krisper, thanks so much for those awesome stories, pics and video's.
You say things don't excite us seasoned fans, but stories from chemical virgins excite me most!

And that pic with the robot is epic indeed. I might print it out and hang it on my livingroom wall!

Lots of love to you all

x

Glad you got the Don't Think T-shirt! How was sydney? They talked about it on JJJ for a bit in the morning.

mikl, on 10 March 2011 - 7:52 PM, said:

New Shirt!!!
Post pic please!

I'm trying not to look at the set cause I want to be surprised when I see them, but could anyone tell me if there still playing that snow/surface to air mix in their show???

mikl, on 11 March 2011 - 1:52 PM, said:

Sydney was massive, a whole different experience again. Finish to my story to come when I can get my brain working again.

inchemwetrust, on 11 March 2011 - 8:39 PM, said:

Pics to come, just relearning how to write at the moment, small steps ....

jamalchang, on 11 March 2011 - 11:45 PM, said:

Yes and it is amazing, one of many highlights for me.

Phase 3 - Rod Laver Arena Melbourne

OK, Wednesday the 9th, almost 100% recovered from the weekend before, up early and a 1.5 hour drive to Sydney airport for the 9:15am flight to Melbourne. Taxi to the hotel, more sleep to build energy for tonight, that's what happens when you get older. Around 6pm we head off to the arena, about 800m from the hotel, massively excited again. Half way there I realise doors open at 7pm, not 6. Oh well. We kill a bit of time sitting and watching all of the different types of people coming to see the Chems. We meet up with Mikl and Kwiddle, which was really great. Sorry we didn't have more time to spend with them. We went in pretty early as the plan for this show was to get up the front. Ended up 3 people from the front, and fuck me, what a way to see the show. If anyone hasn't seen them up close, it is a must. It can't possibly get better, but it does, complete assault on all senses and watching Tom and Ed do there stuff is amazing. We came out of there partially blind, partially deaf, totally numb and completely blown away. We could hardly talk and Glenda and I just kept looking at each other, the only words that were uttered were "WOW". There isn't much more that could be said to describe watching Tom and Ed from 6 metres away.

Wish we could have hung around longer with Mikl and Kwiddle after the show, but our flight was changed and we had to checkout at 6:30am the next day so we only had a few minutes to chat before Glenda and I had to leave. A big thanks to Mikl and Kwiddle for meeting us and being so welcoming.

I wasn't going to bother filming much but I took a few movie snippets and a heap of stills. I know this will slow the forum page loading so I have reduced the size of the images, and only put some of the better ones. I have made a zip file of all of my photos full size http://www.onlinepc....msMelbourne.zip here. Also below each image is a link to the full size image if anyone wants them.

A different perspective, the start of the show up close. I had to cheat a bit with these, the film is from Melbourne and the crowd sound in the start is Melbourne but once the music kicks in I had to use audio from Sydney. The video camera audio was shite.


The beginning of Don't Think, again video from Melbourne, audio from Sydney

Part of Believe, I love this clip, especially Tom and Ed flying through the buildings.


Superflash (full clip) - I think this clip is pretty damn good, love the track!

And a 320kbs mp3 SuperFlash

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Phase 4 - Sydney Entertainment Center Back to Sydney nice and early, a couple of hours delayed in Melbourne so it was good we weren't on a later flight. Straight to the hotel room right across the road from the Entertainment Center. More sleep to rejuvenate again for tonights show. Headed over about 7pm, met up with my niece and nephew who were also going. Split up after that has they had seats, we were on the floor again. The plan this time was to go a bit further back and to one side so we could get a better view of Ed when he comes out the front. But we find a spot right on the front barrier in exactly the right spot. Fuck me, front row intensity again!! Not to put the Melbourne show down at all, and the Entertainment Center is similar to Rod Laver Arena, but the feel was different again, they were stricter on where you could go so the floor was not as packed and the vibe was electric, but you could also take drinks into the arena so the crowd was much louder, and the whole place partied just like it did in 08. At one point Ed came right in front of us, crouched down and waved right at Glenda from about 3 metres away (might have been someone behind but not as far as we're concerned), she nearly melted. That was a highlight that she'll never forget. It is so good to see how much the brothers love their audience.

Different camera, different aspect:-

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And here we are


mp3 of Snow/Surface To Air/Hoops/EBW6

One crazy part of our our overall plan was at some point to try and catch Tom and Ed leaving a venue to get an autograph. I had given up on that after the first show as it seemed like an impossible task. But before the Sydney show we cased out the Entertainment Center and found that there was a single boom gate they had to leave by, and the security guard was really nice and didn't mind a chat. So as soon as the show finished we raced around there, had my copy of Further and a white pen ready. How embarrassing, but we just had to try. But there was an after party inside so who knows how long we would have had to wait. We stayed for about 45 minutes in the rain ... lol. Nevermind.

We had huge expectations when we planned this trip to see the 4 shows. Planned every detail and were so excited for months leading up to it. And what was amazing was that no matter how big our expectations, each show blew us away, it was better than what we expected by 100x. And after seeing the first show we knew what was coming each time, but it just got better and better, every single time blowing us away even more. Sensory overload is a massive understatement when you view the Chems from only a few metres away.

A big thank you to my darling wife Glenda, I dragged her around the country to see 4 Chemical Brothers shows, that could kill a relationship but she loved everyone of them as much as I did. This experience has enhanced our relationship in a big way, we will be talking about this till the next time the brothers come to Aus. And a super big thank you to Tom and Ed for filling us with so much enjoyment and making us feel super human for a week. You've touched us in ways that I can't put into words.

Phase 5 - SeeSounds Cinema event

To wrap up our journey I managed to get a 4pm checkout in our hotel so slept from 6am till about 3pm ready to see the Chems video clips on the big screen. What a perfect ending to our week. Simon did an amazing job of organising this in such a short time. And we got free gifts! A copy of Further in vinyl, a poster and a couple of CD's. Thank you so much Simon. And Whitenoise, your name came up on the credits, and mine was up there too!! What I did to deserve that I don't know, but what a thrill to see your name on a big screen.

The Chemical Cocktail


And the new shirts

Oh Krisper, you and your wife are so adorable! It makes me all melty and warm inside to read about how much you both got out of the shows, and how these experiences have strengthened your bonds. You 2 are just the cutest, I mean. Really!

I love you pictures (I'm hiding off on the vids

Oh Krisper, you and your wife are so adorable! It makes me all melty and warm inside to read about how much you both got out of the shows, and how these experiences have strengthened your bonds. You 2 are just the cutest, I mean. Really!

I love your pictures (I'm hiding off on the vids) and I have been tailing your every word. The brothers do love their fans and its so great that energy can be felt during their shows and when the communicate with their audience.

What an adventure for you and Glenda. Thank you SO much for sharing this. Chems fans are the best. It is stories like this and the experiences that continue to breathe so much life into this old forum, and reinforce our love of the music. You guys are awesome!

Well that was a heartwarming read.
And I'm not usually like this, but if they put that Don't Think shirt up in the merch store I'm doing all I can to get it. It's nice to see "my song" getting so much coverage! From a DJ set bootleg on my iPod all the way to Black Swan and a T-Shirt!

Krisper, on 11 March 2011 - 8:47 PM, said:

That is really cool, I wish I could've been there! Sounds like it was a great night.

3 questions:

• What's the poster look like?
  
• What were the CD's?
  
• How were the Chemical Cocktails?

Anyway, congrats on the Further vinyl. Great tee's too, Glenda's HBHG shirt rocks. I want one...

WhiteNoise, on 12 March 2011 - 1:37 PM, said:

• The poster is a 2' x 2' Further promo.
• The CD's were Further and Push The Button, I felt a bit guilty taking them and wanted to give them back so someone else could get them, but I didn't want to sound ungrateful.
• The Chemical Cocktail was mighty powerful. It was made around Creme de Menthe, I am not a huge fan of mint so I only drank 2 of them

Forgot to mention, we got some Chemical Brothers glow sticks too.

Nice score on the vinyl! Bet it looks sweet inside. You 2 are addicts for sure its awesome! it Was so good again to meet people that really love there music, I always felt a bit of black duck (or swan) amongst friends and people I know. They like the bros and some of there more popular stuff, but werent as admirable as I were for them. It would have been nice to grab a drink a talk all things chemical afterwards Krisper but like you said, theres always the next tour!!