Hope vs Experience

This is not about tomorrow's US election, despite the concepts of the title being rather hijacked in recent months. I don't really want to blog about politics, particularly those of a country not my own - in many ways it's none of my damn business. Which isn't to say I don't have an opinion or indeed a strong preference; I just doubt my blog will be well served by discussing it. All I will say to any US readers is: please go out and vote. Not only did people die to give you a vote, not only is it your civic duty, not only do you have no right to complain if you don't bother, but it would just be nice this time if whoever does get in has a proper, undisputed mandate to lead. Don't worry, I'll be saying exactly the same thing whenever we get round to having an election over here. Sermon over.

What prompted the title was actually this rather touching piece of graffiti in the loos of London's Astoria II music venue:

If you can't read it, and there wasn't much I could do to make it clearer, it says "Florence *heart* LIAM 4 EVA (HOPEFULLY)". Doesn't that just speak volumes? Florence, poor girl, clearly likes Liam very much, but she's so painfully aware that these things don't always work out. Perhaps things haven't gone so well so far.  I don't even want to dive into the psychological depths of why she's done her name in lowercase.  Fingers crossed for you, unknown lovers.

We were at the Astoria to see a band with rather a lot of experience: Kill Hannah. They've been around since the early 90's, but really only got famous on the recent emo bandwagon. I'd never heard of them until the boyfriend got tickets, but it's always fun to go along to something completely different, if only for crowd watching. Emo kids are so funny, after all. And kids it was - they were all so young! I mean, seriously, even the lead singer referred to them needing fake IDs to get in, which makes them mid teens, it's not just me feeling my age. Given he, underneath his Robert Smith-style hair and makeup, is 34, it was rather disturbing to watch the teen girls who could easily have been his daughters scream and squeal, desperately wanting to be the "crazy angel" or the "girl with lips like morphine" of the best-received tracks. Apparently knicker-throwing is not uncommon. The tour (and the album they're plugging) is called "Hope for the Hopeless" and I really do hope that's the case with those groupies. Many of their parents were waiting patiently outside in the cold to collect them, and I doubt they'd want their daughters breaking their hearts over him.

In case you're wondering, and it seems this the most common question they get, Hannah was a girl who the singer briefly dated who then dumped him. He retaliated by naming his then-new band "Kill Hannah". Apparently she knows and doesn't mind. The boyfriend and I have several possibilities between us over the years for a popular beat combo to be named "______ _______ is a Fucking Bitch", but sadly we both lack the musical talent to make it to the big time, and it really would only be a decent riposte if we managed to get to the top of the charts. The second most frequent question for Kill Hannah is, he said, "What's your proudest moment?" He claimed it was playing the Astoria that night. We were sceptical. It was a cold Wednesday night in a tiny venue by Tottenham Court Road. But that and the other over-emotional hyperbole from the stage seemed to go down well with the kids. Shame his speaking voice is so much like Michael Jackson's...

They were very good, though. I'm not dissing their music. I had a great time!

Oh, and it seems black fingerless gloves are absolutely de rigeur for an emo. Must knit some, because whilst I'm not an emo, I do think they look wicked cool.