OOC: You know what, fuck it. It's shit and not in time, but I'll post it now anyway.
After the previous performance, the crowd are extremely pumped at the prospect of Mind returning. This one had been coming for a while. After weeks of preparation, a magnificent selection of bands from many different genres and a crowd of over 130,000 people, the night has been a success thus far. Jason is behind the scenes, about to go onto the stage with the other members of Mind. He hadn’t performed live in ages, especially not with this band. There was a lot of pressure on his shoulders to succeed. It was time. This had to be done.
The stage darkens and the interval music completely turns off. The sound of thunder and lightning is heard, complete with the appropriate pyrotechnics. On the screen in the background, an image of Mind looking up to the stars is shown and Knights March by Hans Zimmer plays. The crowd is in hysterics by this point, since they are ever closer to seeing Mind again. A slideshow of epic Mind moments plays for two minutes until the song is finished, when an iconic opening riff from Aaron erupts from the depths of his guitar. The spotlight is on him, which leaves the audience in a craze, until the drums and rhythm guitar start kicking in, in which the whole band is now shown. It is the first song on their first album, and it is entitled
Free Your Mind. The thunder and lightning can still be heard at moments. Jasons first scream is heard which sends the audience into an absolute frenzy, before he goes back into the normal vocals of the song. This is one of their punkier numbers, reminiscent of the more simplistic band Mind used to be. During the solo, Jason goes practically into the crowd and hi-5s them, before returning on stage and completing the song. “Thank you!” he shouts, happy that he had managed to perform a song without completely breaking down. “It feels so good to be back... and I couldn’t think of anywhere better than here, in Hyde Park. Let’s fuck shit up, London!”. On that note, a fast drum solo and synths pave a path for
Amphigory Abyss. Jason then proceeds to play its strange main riff, with Aaron acting as the rhythmic guitarist this time. The song is one of the later ones by Mind, on Dream Serpent. Jason marches around the stage as it turns dark purple and Aaron goes into the bluesy solo. As things speed up again, an amalgamation of colours burst from the stage as well as a massive wall of sound, before continuing with the song.
After the rapturous applause from the crowd, the extended note from Jason lets them know that
Divine Usurper is on the way. Since this is one of their biggest songs, it provokes the audience to go mental again. The “1-2-3-4!” from Stevie then triggers the massive rig and screams to come out and play. The crowd are singing along perfectly with this, since it is obviously a song that thrives in the live environment, with the chanting of “divine!”. The final few moments of the song are the most intense though, with the gargantuan blastbeats and high pitched screaming coming to the forefront, as well as flickering lights and the sound of a glass breaking to go alongside it. The song then ends. “Righty then... you guys are amazing. How about
Cascade of Blood, yeah?” Jason says calmly as they then proceed to erupt their way into the first hit that Mind ever had, a new heavy metal masterpiece. The crowd are singing along with it as expected, as visuals of the early days of Mind are shown up on the screen, as well as a banner saying “Mind Are Eternal” being dropped down the speakers, to the delight of Jason who can be seen laughing as a cartoon of him with his formerly massive hair is visible on it.
Cascade of Blood finishes and the pop sensibilities of
The Aeronaut, which is basically an electronic progressive pop song, come into play. Although this may not be as moshable as the previous songs, it is still a fan favourite and remains their most successful single to date, with many weeks at the top of the charts. The singing of the crowd is significantly louder than Jasons relaxed, cool vocals and this obviously pleases him. A whoosh sound, similar to a spaceship, marks the end of the song and the stage darkens again as a couple of spacey notes are played on the Theremin. Some guitar notes come alongside it and the stage is getting slightly lighter. Once the stage returns to normal, Jason is armed with an acoustic guitar, and starts to play the intro of
Solar Ghost, a 9 minute prog rock epic. After the smooth acoustic tones are finished, Stevie plays a slight drum bit and the stage darkens again. All is quiet until two massive power chords comes in from Jason, back with his electric, and Aaron, as well as Harry wanking away on his bass. They proceed to go through with the song as it was intended, with a spacey backdrop appearing and various different sound effects. The song finishes to massive applause and then they go back into their punk roots again by playing
Amber is the New Red, another single. It is a fast paced, but not particularly metallic song, which gets people pumped up and a large mosh pit starts to develop. The song is received well by the fans, since it is rarely performed live.
A small spacey jam session with the bass and Theremin in the forefront occurs whilst Aaron changes his guitar to a heavier 7-string. Jason then changes his to an 8-stringed one and after a massive explosion effect, they proceed to play
Bludgeoned into Submission, one of their heavier songs and one that is very popular. The crowd chant along as Jason prompts them to. In the middle of the song, Stevie performs a drum roll as all the other instruments drop out. This turns into a small solo, before Jason and Aaron proceed to duel with their instruments. This duel goes on for about 5 minutes, much longer than the original, before they proceed with the song and end it with the crowd going ballistic by this point. “Now...” says Jason in a sinister tone “This is our first performance in ages... you guys are in for a bumpy ride... FUCKING
SUMMERS EDGE!” and then they play the song, a newer one which takes the heaviness of Bludgeoned into Submission and the prog traits of The Aeronaut and combines them. It is their last single released before they broke up and quite a significant song in their catalogue. It’s also heavy as fuck, if I haven’t mentioned that. For some reason, dozens of mimes flood the stage and the edge of the stage as the orchestral tones start, creating a nightmarish effect. By the end of the song, they have gone into the crowd deliberately going up to people and scaring the shit out of them. They then go into a new song,
Jungle 55, a weird, convulted, unusual number which has elements of Mathcore and Jungle Music, surprisingly enough. The crowd respond very well, even though none of them know the song, and Mind play it as normal, so no one gets the wrong idea of what the song will sound like.
As the sustained final note of Jungle 55 is played on Aarons guitar, Jason then goes into the extremely heavy main riff of
Anthema Sanctuary. Jasons opening scream in this song tonight is arguably the best he’s ever done, lasting for an incredible 20 seconds. The actual screams that are supposed to be in the song also sound more violent and aggressive than usual. Jason runs across the stage and does a power slide as he comes to the solo towards the end. At the very end of the song, Stevie and Harry do solos of their own as Jason and Aaron switch guitars and start an impromptu jam session. It starts off pretty heavy, with a basic riff being played by both the guitarists, but as the drums get faster, Jason starts to play extreme arpeggios on one end of the board as Aaron does it on the other and Harry turns to slap bass. It then goes into manic solos for about 4 minutes, before everything goes quiet apart from the bass. All the other instruments then join in playing in a jazzy tone and sharing the limelight at certain parts. This goes on for about another 3 minutes, before a guitar solo from Jason ends the session. A quiet, mournful riff from Jason then appears and is recognisable as that from
My Fall from Grace an 8 minute progressive ballad. Its doom laden, mournful guitar tones and vocals are in full play here. At about the 3 minute mark, it erupts as well as the pyrotechnics and orchestral moments, much to the delight of the crowd. The song continues as normal, at a tense, sad pace and the lights flicker throughout, as well as the sound of thunder and lightning returning to the forefront.
“We’re going to pretend that this is our last song of the night, but you know it isn’t...
Nothing Ever Bothers Me Now!” Jason shouts, before going into the waltzy riff and doing a funny sort of jig to it. His vocals turn absolutely epic and operatic. The song is quite new, but a lot of the fans in the audience have already become well acquainted with it, singing along and creating a huge circle pit to the heavier parts. The band then go off, pretending to wait for an encore, before returning after a few seconds with the crowd in a mass hysteria. “Okay then, a few more songs for our lovely audience! This is
TASTELESS MOTHERFUCKERS!” screams Jason, before going into the dark and brooding main riff of the fan favourite off of the debut album. Harry does the pre-chorus screams in this song, as per usual, as Jason takes a break from actually singing well by just speaking the lyrics and letting the crowd do the rest. The massive circle pit is expanding to thousands of people and, much to the delight of Jason, it’s all going amazingly well. As the song comes to the end, a small minute long sample from an old television show is played as well as a small piano interlude. This lets people know that
Lyophilisation is going to be performed. Once people start to realise this, the cheers rise to abnormal levels. This has been a favourite of the band and fans alike ever since the release of the second album. Suddenly, the sample becomes distorted and piano stops, allowing the riff to come into play, causing a massive plague of headbanging across Hyde Park. The vocals are as melodic and dramatic as always. The rain is starting to fall at this point, creating a brilliant effect as Jasons soaked hair flips back and forth between the wind since he is singing the massive, epic, arena rock chorus. The real thunder and lightning mixes with the sound effects and the pyrotechnics are in full play as the song ends and Jason looks down to the ground, soaked and laughing.
Another small sample plays the song out, as a slow tempo drum piece comes into action. It may be slow, but it is massive and emphatic. Then, the spacey, extremely distorted main riff comes along over the top of this drum part and
Dream Serpent commences. Rather than the happy go lucky Jason that we’ve seen, he looks like he’s on the verge of tears. He has said many times before that this song means a lot to him and that he has always wanted to play it live. This is the first time that it is being played. As the smooth, simple riff continues, Jasons quiet, effective vocals come over the top of it to create this brilliant layer. The song continues as it normally does for the next 11 minutes, before Jason and Aaron go into one more solo, a bluesy one this time without any backing at all. The crowd is manically cheering as each new solo piece starts. This continues for another 5 minutes, before the drums and bass have their turn for another 3 minutes to the awe of the crowd. The night then ends with a reprise of The Aeronaut, played much slower and heavier for a few seconds with Jason letting out one massive scream and then proceeding to say “Thank you London... it’s been an amazing, surreal night. I hope to see you again very soon!” and the entire band run off of the stage with The Knights March playing again and the background consisting of highlights throughout the entire night, with all of the bands.
Behind the scenes, Jason cheers loudly with all of the other members of the tour, before starting to cry and downing a bottle of beer. After talking to everyone else for a while, he concludes the whole experience of the night, saying “that was fucking incredible.” He then goes to have a lie down on the tour bus for a few minutes in amazement. After this, he goes to join the rest of the people on the tour and proceeds to fucking partay.
