Intro

Although the temperature was already beginning to drop, it was still an exceptionally hot day at Wembley Stadium. The closer one got to the stage, the more it begun to stink of sweat. However, those at the very edge of the gap between the stadium’s floor and the stage simply didn’t care. These are the die-hard fans of Infinite, the band who would be arriving onstage in just under thirty minutes, and they had been waiting in their spots since the crack of dawn.

A wide variety of bands opened as support, none of them particularly memorable. As well connected as frontman Eric Quillington was with the musical landscape, there wasn’t an appearance from any of his celebrity friends. Not even Jason Smith, whom Eric has mentioned as his closest friend on numerous occasions, performed. However, none of this seems to phase the audience, as they were all there for the main event; the less distractions from other familiar bands, the better.
Classical music could be heard over the sound system, giving everyone in the audience a chance to realize that this won’t be a typical rock concert. Five minutes to showtime.

A Town Called Insomnia

The noise of strings from a nameless song slowly becomes warped, and distorts itself. Fragments of lyrics can be heard, but it’s difficult to understand what’s being said. Then, suddenly, a breakthrough; carnival noises become present, an organized form of chaos. The voice of Eric Quillington can be heard;

“Welcome, one and all, to a town called Insomnia
Step on up and you will see your dreams realized
Pay nothing more than a shiny penny
And your life with be filled with endless days and nights
For living in Insomnia grants you eternal youth

All the skeptics in the audience need merely to ask themselves;
“Is simple human cynicism worth losing the gift of a lifetime?”
I am but a simple salesman, yet my words speak loud and true
Mostly the former, but you won’t notice after I give these gifts to you
For living in Insomnia places your face towards the sun

Wave goodbye, one and all, to your possessions of this world
In its place will be a world unspeakable in its beauty
Basking in eternal light will give you proof you made the right choice
Although this world is priceless, all deals are final
For living in Insomnia gives me all my hopes and desires”

As the recorded song reaches its conclusion, Matt Roberts is the first to be seen. In a plain black shirt and jeans, he had always come off as the ‘gritty’ and ‘normal’ member of Infinite. This feeling of normalcy is, however, relative, as a massive audience roared in approval at the mere sight of him. For a man who has always claimed to be indifferent to his widespread recognition, this night still registers with him as a truly special occasion. Instead of merely shrugging off the attention, Matt simply smiles briefly at the audience with a wave of hello, and makes his way to his designated area of the stage.

Greg Oldson appears next. Always one of the more elusive characters in rock, he is also the member of Infinite who is difficult to pigeon-hole into a certain stereotype; while Matt is the quiet and calm (but still egotistical and drug-abusive) bassist, and Eric is the eccentric and sporadically behaved frontman, Greg’s overall offstage-behavior remains a mystery with fans. The only knowledge of him commonly accepted as fact is the bickering and feuding relationship he shares with Eric.

The man widely acknowledged as the leader of Infinite is the last to arrive. Standing at just over 5 and a half feet, Eric Quillington initially seems like an unassuming figure in comparison to the more intimidating appearance of Matt. Despite how small he is in stature, his enigma and recognition has grown to superhuman levels; the loudest cheers and applause have been reserved for him alone. Eric stands at the front of the stage for several seconds, taking in the massive spectacle. While Infinite have played at this stadium before (as a support act for Reckoner), and Eric even stood alone on this stage (as support for Miss Vanity), they have never been the main attraction. This time, the audience was here for Eric. For Matt. For Greg.

For Infinite.

How to Disturb and Alienate Others

Smiling widely, Eric turns his back to the crowd for several seconds and does a merry little walk over to his guitar. “Bit of a funny story behind this song,” he says, picking an odd collection of words to be his first to the audience, “Wrote it as something of an insult to Greg. Y’know, the guy behind me. Poor fellow didn’t even realize it until after it was released with Midnight Skies. Say hello, Mr. Oldson!”

Going slightly bug-eyed at this outburst, Greg simply manages a weak wave of recognition, all the while silently praying that Eric wouldn’t have any further off-the-script outbursts. Laughing to himself at his drummer’s unwanted moment of attention, Infinite's guitarist begins strumming out the opening riff for ‘How to Disturb and Alienate Others’.

Although this song is somewhat misleading in comparison with what’s to come (as Infinite’s usual repertoire is much more experimental compared to this straightforward rock song), it still introduces Infinite perfectly to the audience. Many of those in the crowd are die-hard fans, and are exuberant to hear one of Infinite’s more obscure songs. The stadium seems to be electrified by the performance, as members of the audience are soon jumping with excitement.

Stepping up to the microphone, Eric sings with a casual, almost conversational, tone in his voice;

"All of my past is quite a haze
Stuck in my thoughts; it’s all one big maze
The look in your eyes was quite a sight
Staring at the crowd seemed to spark a light
You took a bow, fucked their wives
Everybody was having a good time
You said it was like all your dreams had come true"

In between the verses, the distorted guitar, almost heavy metal, from the intro of the song comes back into play. The audience wordlessly sings along to the riff, giving the song a bizarre anthemic feeling that is somewhat uncommon for an Infinite show. But, naturally, at a venue seating over 90,000 people, everything is blown slightly out of proportion.

While Matt exudes the collected cool he is typically known for, Eric and Greg revel their moment in the spotlight. The eccentric frontman has always been flamboyant onstage, but he takes it to another level during this song; spinning around stage, holding his guitar as if it’s on fire, Quillington is a true spectacle to behold. He never, however, appears to be egotistical or gloating; there is a simple aura of happiness surrounding him, having finally arrived at the pinnacle of his goals in life.

Which is slightly ironic, considering the bitter tone of his lyrics;

"We took their money, we scammed them all
Something was wrong from the very start
Injecting my veins with beautiful liquid
Friends laughed in my face when I asked for help
You told me to wake up from my dream

Nothing now even seems slightly familiar
Can’t go anywhere without someone chanting my name
Always hounding me, always hunting me
I bitterly asked you why there was nothing left
You simply replied that the dream was dead"

Failed Expectations

Following an extended improvised instrumental, the first song of the evening reached its conclusion. Without wasting so much as a moment, Quillington transitions into the next. His strumming is now chord-dominated, rather than focusing on notes, with all distortion replaced with a very clean sound. This chord melody continues for several seconds before Matt and Greg join the fray. Greg plays simple drum fills, while Matt’s relaxed bass rhythm gives the song a very calm feel.

Ambient collages of color appear on the stage’s screen, as a very chilled-out vibe fills the stadium, giving a striking contrast to the energized opening number. Eric’s stage persona is also markedly less erratic than earlier; he simply stands behind the microphone, lost in the musical soundscape. His singing on this song is, unlike on ‘How to Disturb and Alienate Others’ much more representative of his soaring vocals. The first verse is sung in a soft, semi-falsetto way of singing;

“The colors and the spectrum collide to make pretty designs inside our eyes
Orbits can give out beneath my feet, yet I’ll still be standing
I’m your guide as we softly fall away from the expected
And when we’re finished drifting upwards, there’s nowhere to go but down”

Infinite dips back into the instrumental of earlier, but with a shift in tone. Feelings of peace have evaporated into the air, replaced by something far more ill at ease. Matt’s thundering bass takes a much stronger prominence, giving off the feeling of a song gaining momentum. The on-screen paintings seem to become much more forcibly drawn and messy, making it seem as though things are going to hell. When Quillington resumes singing, it’s with much less emotion, and the words are very mumbled and indiscernible.

“I can’t communicate my feelings, but everything’s alright
I’ll simply float away and say goodbye to the night”

Ciel

For a band always known to stray from predictability, there had been nothing overly shocking so far. No experimentation, just standard music. While that was in no way a disappointment, as even Infinite’s more straightforward tracks had twinges of genuine creativity, but many of the band’s diehard fans had been left unsatisfied. Although those here to hear the more accessible chart-hits had gotten their wish thus far, fans longing for Infinite’s more obscure tracks had been left waiting.

Regardless of what differentiating directions the audience was hoping for, there was a general acceptance that something was beginning to brew, something much different than ‘How to Disturb and Alienate Others’. White noise had filled the speakers of the stadium, occasionally intersected with random blips of radio transmissions. No one in the audience, however, was put off by this oddity of noise. As the mixture of white noise and audio blips continued, excitement had reached fever pitch.

Just as thoughts of Infinite pushing this on for too long begin to form in the collective mind of the audience, Eric’s guitar can finally be heard. It is the first familiar noise of the song, but only just; the riff is weird, almost alien in its tone. Heavily layered on with reverb and other distortions, the instrument no longer sounds like a guitar.

As this song is a B-Side (to Infinite’s most famous single, ‘Problems with Pluto’, no less), many in the crowd have never heard of it before. Those who are familiar with it know what to expect, along with who wrote and sung this song on record. The rest are in for something of a shock to hear a voice other than Eric’s come through the speakers. Greg’s voice has similar levels of unfamiliarity as the guitar; sung through levels of echo, the vocals take on a form more akin to something robotic than a human voice.

"Ciel, Liebe wird Frieden.
Ciel, Städte von Gold
Be a winner, come live forever"

Greg sings with head titled to the right, so as to face the microphone, all the while continuing to play drums. It is the type of impressive multi-instrumentalism that Infinite’s frontman is traditionally known for, although Eric has instead focused on guitar for this performance.

"Ciel, it's all you'll ever need
Ciel, it's all waiting for you
If we are lying, there's a money-back guarantee"

Faust

The audience cheers in response to the end of the song, many of them suitably impressed with Infinite’s confidence in playing such an inaccessible song to such a large audience. Without wasting much time for silence, the noise of a string ensemble can be heard through the stadium’s speakers. There is a classical influence to them, shifting the atmosphere into something closer to a Mozart concerto than a full-blown rock spectacle.

“We wanted to get a live orchestra for this,” Eric explains to the crowd, as Greg steps down from his drums and grabs an acoustic guitar, “And I tried explaining that to some of them. I was like, ‘listen! We won’t pay you anything, but it’ll be for the music!’ You’d think the latter is all that would matter to them. But, no.”

While the sound of the strings is the dominant force, the delicacy of Greg’s acoustic strumming helps carry the song into a more recognizable form. Matt, who has never been known to have too strong of a hand in these more ambient tracks, is seen noodling away on his bass with a slightly bored expression on his face. His emotions, however, aren’t apparent anywhere else in the stadium. The audience seems transfixed by this strange, mesmerizing blend of music.

No longer filtered through echo, Greg’s voice is now on full display. Although he doesn’t possess the same range and emotion in his voice as Eric, there is still undeniable talent evident.

“And there was only ever you and I
A pair of lights at the end of the tunnel, blurring all the shadows
And you’re already gone
Another missed opportunity waiting to be declined

But you truthfully never had a chance
Before the rough landing you will always slip and slide
But still you want to feel the push
Beginnings are always the sudden drop, it’s the middle that drags on”

As the song reaches it’s conclusion, Eric steps up to a second microphone to sing a back-up melody. In a rather strange and bizarre sight, there is no guitar draped around his shoulders. He is merely, as uncharacteristic as it may sound, there as support; for once, the show is entirely focused around Greg, and there is no attempt made to change that.

“Love, jump from the burning bridge to become one with the stars”

The Infinity Delusion

The sound of strings continue, though it now resembles something in the vein of an instrumental interlude. The ones with the strongest familiarity to Infinite’s catalogue of songs become increasingly aware of what direction the set is taking, while others are simply content to bask in the sonic reverbs of the beautiful classical music. Any who previously assumed that Infinite’s concert would take a dive into territory far less straightforward than their opening number have been proven correct; here lies a band willing to experiment with traditional expectations for a rock concert.

A roar of approval is let out as the strings finally morph into the opening of ‘The Infinity Delusion’. For a song sometimes seen as an inferior follow-up single to the Number One charting ‘Problems With Pluto’, it is met with an enormously positive reaction. After the rarity of ‘Ciel’ and uncharted territory found in ‘Faust’, there is a sense of joy in being presented with an undisputed Infinite classic. Matt and Greg also seem to be back in the groove of things, pumping out their slickest rhythm track of the night thus far. Greg is back to his position of drums, while Matt’s almost club-like bass riff provides a striking contrast to the classical background instrumentals.

Eric steps up to the microphone, reclaiming his traditional position of lead singer. Despite the continued uncommonness of not playing guitar, he performs as if nothing is out of the ordinary. No longer restricted to standing stationary through the duality of both strumming and singing, Eric is free to move around the stage wherever he wishes. For the majority, he is kneeling in front of the audience, as close as he can possibly be. While those in attendance react ecstatically upon seeing the frontman of Infinite in such a close proximity, Eric sings in a very haunting falsetto, one of his most emotionally powerful performances.

“Infinity lies before me like a void
Yet I stare, always asking myself why
I’ll figure it out before it drives me mad

I feel like I’m slowly drifting away

Forever- something so elusive, so pure
Always one way or another
I’ll never figure it out, but that’s never stopping me”

Eric steps away from the tip of the stage and back towards the microphone stand, while Matt and Greg perform a duet that makes up the chorus of ‘The Infinity Delusion’. The audience sings also sings to it, giving off the same anthemic feeling on display during ‘How to Disturb and Alienate Others’.

“Man dreams of numbers, plots and equations
With the endless drawings, he can see the light of god
Man declares war, all to just defend beliefs
With the endless bloodshed, he can see the light of god”

Now standing immobile, Eric sings into the microphone with both hands clenched on it. In his characteristic fashion, he seems to be lost in the music, with his gentle swaying from left to right being his only major motion. His voice is no less haunting than earlier, and seems to have reached new depths of dischord.

"Infinity lies before me like a void
And in the end, I don’t care why
I’ll never figure it out, and it’s driving me mad"

None of the members of Infinite sing the refrain, instead bestowing the job to the audience. Eric stares at Greg and smiles, both stunned at the reception they’ve been receiving. All the while, the chanting of the crowd is loud enough to drown out even the mournful noise of a recorded violin playing through the speakers, creating a truly unforgettable noise.

“Man dreams of numbers, plots and equations
With the endless drawings, he can see the light of god
Man declares war, all to just defend beliefs
With the endless bloodshed, he can see the light of god”