Tonight I went with Hamish to the free Lorde concert at Vector Arena. I managed to get free tickets for two people a week ago when I signed up to that new iHeartRadio thing (this whole free concert is their promotion after all!), but I forgot to get Hamish and Aonghas to sign up. I was going to ask a friend if they could take one of my brothers and we could all go together, but unfortunately they missed out on tickets, so I was left with a dilemma - just forget about the concert or go with one brother. Aonghas said he didn't mind missing it though, so I ended up taking Hamish.
We arrived half an hour before the doors were set to open. Aonghas initially was wondering where everyone was, as there were hardly anyone outside the arena. It was only when Hamish and I got a little closer there that we realised the queue stretched right down the road, around a corner, all the way to the next corner where we lined up! The weather wasn't the greatest either, so it was going to be a long wait! We were surrounded by these high school girls all talking about high school things like school balls, boys, etc.
Once the line started moving though, it kept on moving, and soon enough we were inside!
We were tossing up between going down onto the floor and standing, or just sitting on the seats. In the end, we decided that since Lorde doesn't really sing the kind of music you can dance to, we'd just sit on the seats, and we managed to find the seats right at the back of the arena, giving us a straight-on view of the stage.
Lorde wasn't due to come on till 9.30ish, so we had another two hours. There were a few radio personalities who came onto stage to talk, and then DJ General Lee played some music which was pretty cool.
Finally the warm-up act, Mt Eden came on stage. They're a dub-step group, and I have to admit when I saw Mt Eden on the tickets, it got me confused. I was thinking...I'm pretty sure Vector Arena isn't in Mt Eden?!
Anyway, they had a string quartet on stage, and had some pretty cool beats!
They went on for an hour, and I did feel like grooving a bit in the seats at the back.
It was a short while before it was Lorde's time. A light shone behind a white screen, and you could see Lorde's silhouette, before the screen was lifted, revealing the star of the show. I didn't really know her first song, but it did sound like most of the other songs she sung...which I had never heard of!
At that point I didn't actually regret sitting in the seats, as her music really wasn't the sort of music I'd feel like dancing to, or getting into! I only really knew two of her songs - Tennis Court and Royals. Once she had sung those two songs, I was hoping there would be some upbeat song.
The show was eventually over and we made our way out. We bumped into Grace who was with some other friends.
We were going to wait in the foyer for our parents to arrive but the security guards kicked us all out. We were standing outside the arena, surrounded by all these people with lanyards (I'm assuming they were guests of the sponsor), all smoking. There was even a well-known person from TV who was smoking. Nothing against the person, just disappointed in the smoking!
Overall I guess it was a good concert experience, but maybe it just reconfirmed that Lorde isn't really my type of muisc! I hope she continue to do well though and become big!
