A week ago today, on March 18th 2012, which also happened to be my 29th birthday, Kylie Minogue performed her first 2 Anti Tour shows back to back at The Palace in Melbourne. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the Anti Tour concept, Kylie did not perform any of her big hits. This was a show for the super fans where she performed B-sides, rarities and unreleased tracks. An original concept that I haven't heard of anyone else doing before, to celebrate her 25th year in the industry, which is referred to as K25.
A group of us who now refer to ourselves as the Kylie Krew, went crazy over the idea, as did many others with the first show selling out in only a few minutes. A second show was announced shortly after that was to be performed on the same night, Kylie came on stage for the first show at 8:30 and around midnight for show 2.
Some of the Kylie Krew had organised to arrive at The Palace at 8am so we could have breakfast at a nearby cafe and determine our plan of attack for the day. When we arrived we noticed a small group of people were already lining up so we decided to do the same and skipped breakfast. You may call us crazy, coz we kind of are :P If you regularly peruse any Kylie forums you'll probably be able to guess who was at the front of the queue.
We pottered around in the queue until the doors opened at 11am so we could collect our wristbands for each show. By this time the queue had grown quite significantly. This is where our day took an unexpected turn.
The venue only holds approximately 1800 people, and Kylie normally performs in venues that hold around 10000 people. This smaller venue was all general admin, meaning first in best dressed, so you would assume that they would cater for people wanting to lineup early to make sure they can get a spot close to the front. We were wrong. Wristband collection could be done between 11am & 5pm however once your wristband was collected, you were told to move away from the venue. At first we were told to rejoin the queue for wristbands and once we got back to the front, they would ask us to stand against the wall so others who still needed wristbands could pass. Half an hour later we were told we had to leave. Security threatened to call the police and also refuse anyone entry if they didn't leave. They were completely unprepared and unnecessarily aggressive which did put a bit of a downer on our day but we weren't going to let it ruin it!
Since our plans to queue up were stifled, what did we do you may ask? Well we did what Australians do... we went up the street to the pub.
Prior to that day, I had no idea who a few of the people in this photo were, nor did I know they existed. However by the end of the nomfest and after a few drinks they were referred to as Kylie Krew peeps! It continues to grow! Re: The Kylie Krew, theres about 25 of us, not just from Melbourne but from Adelaide & Sydney and all over really, that have all met each other at various Kylie concerts and we now all attend Kylie gigs together. Unfortunately we couldn't all get to the same spot for the first show but most of us were in the room! A few of us went to the second show too! NEVER ENOUGH KYLIE!
During our nomfest above, we indulged in a few tasty drinks, a few glasses did smash whilst I was singing again. We thought it was the wind blowing them over but maybe the gods got sick of hearing my whiny voice ;) I'mmm high uppppppppppp on a tightroppppppppe *smash*
It was kind of hilarious how many people walked past and stopped at our tables. It was like Kylie fans are just one big family that know each other, or maybe it's just our table was full of trashbags that get around a bit, who knows really ;) One of the Krew was getting his wave on to a bunch of random passing cars, the Krew joined in when the lovely Kylie Martin, also a Kylie Krew member, was stopped in a car right behind us. I'm certain the rest of the van she was traveling in thought we were a bunch of nutjobs, which would probably be accurate. For those of you unfamiliar with KM #2, she's Kylie's wonderful publicist, you can find her on twitter by following @MartiniMediaAus :)
So 5:30 rolled around and it was time to get our lineup on again, or so we thought as thats the time we were told to come back. After more aggressiveness from the security at The Palace telling everyone they had no rights and that it didn't matter where we were in the venue as we would see from everywhere, we finally got to queue at about 5:45. By this time a bunch of shoe-ins that had definitely not been there as early as the rest of us, managed to get in front of us in the queue, which was annoying however we were just happy to be finally queuing up and we were close enough to the front of the line to get a good spot.
The level of fun increased from here.
While we waited patiently for the doors to open a camera crew appeared and began filming the queue and also asking some of the fans questions. Two of those people were myself and my partner in crime for most of the day, @gianniborrelli , a fly in from Radelaide ;) At the time we were interviewed we were told that it was for a DVD & were each asked to sign a release form. When we woke up the next day, we were on Kylie.com, YouTube, Kylie had tweeted the video and it was also shown on multiple news channels around the country & overseas. Watch from 0:25 in the video below to spot us:
So we FINALLY got inside and we were front and centre, about 3 people back from the railing. My oh my what a view!
At this point I was way past excited. I seem to work myself up so much for these things that my brain doesn't function properly. As an example, I previously posted about where my name comes from and my love for BPM, however when she started playing the song during show 1, I was singing along to every word but had a complete mental blank as to what the song was until the chorus. This happened most of the night and has happened to me at other gigs where I get overwhelmed with sheer joy and excitement!
Admittedly there were songs she performed that I had not heard before, or not enough times for me to remember them anyway. I've listened to Kylie's music since childhood, there is no way to escape it when you live in Australia, Melbourne in particular. However my fandom didn't skyrocket until Did It Again was released. I adore that video and I adore the song. My first Kylie concert, which was also my first concert ever, was the On A Night Like This Tour. Since then I could identify most of the album tracks and rarities/b-sides, anything before that I haven't delved into too much. I get so caught up listening to new music, not just Kylie but other music interests too, to find time to listen to old stuff.
I can not find the right words to explain how incredible the two Anti Tour shows were. The energy in the room, and also on stage, from Kylie and her band (backing singers in particular) was off the charts.
Kylie always looks comfortable on stage, which is no shock considering she's been doing it for so long. This was different though. The reaction she got to each of the songs was insane. The insanity reached amazing levels when fan favourites such as Disco Down & Tightrope were performed, along with Always Find The Time.
Kylie was performing these songs with what appeared to be absolute joy. On recent tours she has been hindered by choreography that is timed by the millisecond. There was none of that this time and she was better for it.
There was fist pumping, daggy dancing, jumping, booty shaking and whatever she felt like doing based on how she was feeling right there and then. Not what she had been told in rehearsals for months prior. She was also freely involved with banter with the crowd and the band. One of my favourite song introductions of hers was "This one slipped through the net, and then you found it on the net *wiggles finger* ". Now most artists get all gripey when this happens, Kylie goes and performs it for her fans. How lucky are we?
I'm so thankful that Kylie threw these two awesome parties for me on my birthday ;) haha. BEST BIRTHDAY EVER! I got to share something truly special with an amazing group of people. I won't name everyone because I'm likely to miss someone out, but every single person in what we call our Kylie Krew makes every Kylie experience that much more enjoyable. See the video below as an example of how much fun we had together :)
If we hadn't all run out of phone or camera battery by the time the second show was finished, I would have liked for someone to film the looks on our faces as we left the venue. We looked like a bunch of 80 year olds. For most of the second show I couldn't feel my feet and the back of my legs were burning in pain, most of the Krew that stayed for show 2 were feeling pretty much the same. It still didn't stop us from enjoying it though. We gave Steve Anderson quite a fright when we all screamed with delight when Kylie said at the beginning of show 2 'I believe it's Welcome Back to some of you!"
We spent show two just behind the sound desk towards the back of the room. This gave us a bit of a hindered view but it also gave us dance space and access to the bar ;) We lost ourselves in her beats per minute, this is for sure!
At this stage she has only performed 4 Anti Tour shows, 2 of which were in Melbourne and the other 2 in Sydney. No other dates have been announced and there is uncertainty as to whether there will be or not. I hope for the sake of other fans around the world that she does do more shows. It really is a completely different experience that you just have to see at least once in your life. I can not imagine that she would spend the time rehearsing those songs & learning all the lyrics again, just to do 4 shows. The fan reaction was that intense that it would be crazy for her not to take the shows elsewhere.
My non-Kylie loving friends continuously ask me how I can get so into the music of one artist. I don't know the answer, I just know how the music makes me feel. That feeling of overwhelming happiness and joy is something I hope everyone experiences in one way or another. For me I get that feeling when I see/hear Kylie perform my favourite songs live. In fact I get that feeling with music in general but Kylie concerts are just a whole new level.
The pics I've posted in this blog were all taken on a new digicam I bought myself a few days before the Anti Tour shows. I discovered that if I hold down the shutter button, it will continuously take pictures.... I ended up with 1400 photos from the two shows and most of them were from the first one! Thats an insane amount of photos but I've posted some more of my favourite ones below.
So now a week has passed since the shows and my Kangover has subsided quite a bit, it's not gone but it's not as bad as the day after the show! In saying that I would still give anything to go back and do it again. Last years Splash Zone experience (with the Kylie Krew) was incredible and I was convinced that it could not be outdone. I was wrong.
Love to you all xx
At this point I was way past excited. I seem to work myself up so much for these things that my brain doesn't function properly. As an example, I previously posted about where my name comes from and my love for BPM, however when she started playing the song during show 1, I was singing along to every word but had a complete mental blank as to what the song was until the chorus. This happened most of the night and has happened to me at other gigs where I get overwhelmed with sheer joy and excitement!
Admittedly there were songs she performed that I had not heard before, or not enough times for me to remember them anyway. I've listened to Kylie's music since childhood, there is no way to escape it when you live in Australia, Melbourne in particular. However my fandom didn't skyrocket until Did It Again was released. I adore that video and I adore the song. My first Kylie concert, which was also my first concert ever, was the On A Night Like This Tour. Since then I could identify most of the album tracks and rarities/b-sides, anything before that I haven't delved into too much. I get so caught up listening to new music, not just Kylie but other music interests too, to find time to listen to old stuff.
I can not find the right words to explain how incredible the two Anti Tour shows were. The energy in the room, and also on stage, from Kylie and her band (backing singers in particular) was off the charts.
Kylie always looks comfortable on stage, which is no shock considering she's been doing it for so long. This was different though. The reaction she got to each of the songs was insane. The insanity reached amazing levels when fan favourites such as Disco Down & Tightrope were performed, along with Always Find The Time.
Kylie was performing these songs with what appeared to be absolute joy. On recent tours she has been hindered by choreography that is timed by the millisecond. There was none of that this time and she was better for it.
There was fist pumping, daggy dancing, jumping, booty shaking and whatever she felt like doing based on how she was feeling right there and then. Not what she had been told in rehearsals for months prior. She was also freely involved with banter with the crowd and the band. One of my favourite song introductions of hers was "This one slipped through the net, and then you found it on the net *wiggles finger* ". Now most artists get all gripey when this happens, Kylie goes and performs it for her fans. How lucky are we?
I'm so thankful that Kylie threw these two awesome parties for me on my birthday ;) haha. BEST BIRTHDAY EVER! I got to share something truly special with an amazing group of people. I won't name everyone because I'm likely to miss someone out, but every single person in what we call our Kylie Krew makes every Kylie experience that much more enjoyable. See the video below as an example of how much fun we had together :)
If we hadn't all run out of phone or camera battery by the time the second show was finished, I would have liked for someone to film the looks on our faces as we left the venue. We looked like a bunch of 80 year olds. For most of the second show I couldn't feel my feet and the back of my legs were burning in pain, most of the Krew that stayed for show 2 were feeling pretty much the same. It still didn't stop us from enjoying it though. We gave Steve Anderson quite a fright when we all screamed with delight when Kylie said at the beginning of show 2 'I believe it's Welcome Back to some of you!"
We spent show two just behind the sound desk towards the back of the room. This gave us a bit of a hindered view but it also gave us dance space and access to the bar ;) We lost ourselves in her beats per minute, this is for sure!
At this stage she has only performed 4 Anti Tour shows, 2 of which were in Melbourne and the other 2 in Sydney. No other dates have been announced and there is uncertainty as to whether there will be or not. I hope for the sake of other fans around the world that she does do more shows. It really is a completely different experience that you just have to see at least once in your life. I can not imagine that she would spend the time rehearsing those songs & learning all the lyrics again, just to do 4 shows. The fan reaction was that intense that it would be crazy for her not to take the shows elsewhere.
My non-Kylie loving friends continuously ask me how I can get so into the music of one artist. I don't know the answer, I just know how the music makes me feel. That feeling of overwhelming happiness and joy is something I hope everyone experiences in one way or another. For me I get that feeling when I see/hear Kylie perform my favourite songs live. In fact I get that feeling with music in general but Kylie concerts are just a whole new level.
The pics I've posted in this blog were all taken on a new digicam I bought myself a few days before the Anti Tour shows. I discovered that if I hold down the shutter button, it will continuously take pictures.... I ended up with 1400 photos from the two shows and most of them were from the first one! Thats an insane amount of photos but I've posted some more of my favourite ones below.
So now a week has passed since the shows and my Kangover has subsided quite a bit, it's not gone but it's not as bad as the day after the show! In saying that I would still give anything to go back and do it again. Last years Splash Zone experience (with the Kylie Krew) was incredible and I was convinced that it could not be outdone. I was wrong.
Love to you all xx
2 comments:
fabulous review!
Excellent review,well written, you can really feel what it was like to be there. I hope this tour comes to Canada.
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