100 Monkeys - They've Added a Couple!!

You may or may not have heard of 100 Monkeys. My dad has not heard of them. When I told him who I was going to see, he said "I've heard of 98 Monkeys? I guess they've added a couple?" You could probably hear my eye roll over the phone.

If you have not heard of them, then you're missing out. Go to their website. They have a jukebox playing so you can get an idea of their music and then buy their albums. They're American. Kind of  funk rock, with other bits of groovy, nutsy stuff in there, and, well... just go and listen. You'll love them.

The band is made up of (L-R above) Jerad Anderson, Lawrence "Uncle Larry" Abrams, Jackson Rathbone, Ben Graupner and Ben Johnson. Now, at first glance, you might not think Uncle Larry would fit in with this group of guys, but seriously... he's the epitome of cool and the band wouldn't be the same without him.

Anyway, they have been touring exclusively on their own side of the Pond and then all of a sudden we get this:

Excitement ABOUNDS!! (And a hell of a lot of laughter at the boys' attempts at European languages (Ben G not included), Jackson's hand gesture on every foreign word, their many and varied pronunciations of the word "Sverige" (seriously almost died laughing) and the high pitched voice shrieking "EUROPE!" every few seconds!)

I checked with BHE (that's my codename for S - it means Best Husband Ever - more on that later too!) that I could go and immediately booked my ticket. This was MONTHS ago and now suddenly... it's December and wow! What a week it has been for the UK 100 Monkeys fans!

I was originally going to go down to London on the train and stay in a hotel, but due to lack of funds from previous trips this year, I decided to drive there watch the gig and drive back. A good idea, but I'm regretting it a little these last two days *yawn*

The gig took place at the O2 Academy in Islington. A great venue, holding all of us comfortably AND it had a mezzanine level so about 20 of us hot-footed it up there and I was very pleased with the view for my first ever 100 Monkeys show. I also have a kick-ass zoom on my camera, so my pictures came out great.

First thing I did was get a picture of the set list - partly to test out my zoom and partly so we knew what was going on... Was very happy to see some of my favourite songs on the list, and also a little scared by the little man holding what we later figured out to be a guitar but at first quick glance looks rather like an enlarged and rather diseased penis o_O .

I'm not going to go into too much detail about the show because quite honestly I don't think I can do enough it even NEARLY enough justice. There were so many great moments though. For example... when Ben Johnson left his post on drums (they all play just about all the instruments and take it in turns to sing, but Ben J mostly plays the drums) to come and sing his couple of songs - The Monkey Song and Wandering Mind. The latter is a track in which Ben performed like he was a toddler having a tantrum. Sounds ridiculous, but it is sheer brilliance! Here is a shot of him singing it. He is moving so much, it blurred, but I liked it so I kept it.

There was Wings on Fire, a definite fan-favourite, but not one to listen to before or during a flight!

And then my favourite track from the current album, Liquid Zoo, sung by Uncle Larry, is a track called Invisible Monsters. It's so beautiful. I told him afterwards that it was my favourite and he said "Well thank you sweetheart." *beams* Here he is, mid-song:

Another thing to note is that at every 100 Monkeys show, they do an improv song. They take suggestions shouted out from the audience and they make up a song on the spot based on whatever they get. There have been many great ones in the past, and I think it's fair to say that this is one of the things that a Monkey-Junkie looks forward to almost as much as anything else. On this occasion, Jerad picked "Special Favour" and the improv song was The Special Favour Blues, sung by Ben G.

After the main show was over and they darted off stage, to many screams of "MORE!" they of course came back to do an encore. A few more songs, including the Thank You song, where Jackson thanks the band and the members of the audience (and on this occasion he ran out into the pit and came back wearing a Santa hat!) then they finished with Junkie - which they explained was their sort of "farewell" song.

Then they left AGAIN. Then they came back one more time to sing us a "lullaby" before we left. Better known as Keep Awake. I will explain at this point, for those who don't know, the opening lyrics to this song are "I will kill you in your sleep, so you better try, try to keep awake."

At the end of the show, the boys were doing a signing for all the people who had come to see them, which was truly the cherry on the top of a fantastic evening. Aside from saying 'hi' to them all, there was only one thing I wanted - a Ben sandwich. That sounds a lot ruder than it was (well... maybe in my head!) I just wanted a squeezy hug from the two of them at once, and luckily for me they were sat together at the end of the signing table. YES! I would get to them!!

Point to note: I don't really have any merchandise, and all my albums are just downloaded straight from iTunes so I decided I would have them sign my boot(s). Yes, I looked a little crazy shuffling along the line with just one boot on, but Jerad looked at my boot as a challenge when I plonked it down on the table in front of him and said hello!

Now... you may be wondering what's with the monkey with the boobs? Well, Jerad started off drawing JUST the eyes. Those eyes on their own didn't look like eyes so I said "WHAT the heck are you drawing?!?" and he looked up at me all innocence and said "a monkey!" Then Jackson, sitting next in line, said "he was totally gonna draw boobs!"

So I laughed and said, "But I already have my jugs!" and showed him my "Jugs" shirt that I was wearing. Jackson read it aloud, laughed and said "Ha! That is GREAT!" Jerad looked up at it too, then drew the rest of the monkey and added boobs. And that's the story of the boobied monkey.

Then I got to Ben and Ben. I said hi and said "Could I please get a Ben sandwich hug?" - yes, I almost begged. Ben G said "Of course!" and they both stood up, and me being a total spaz, I started trying to get around the table to them! Out of the corner of my eye I could see Ben J leaning over the table in mid-hug. Okay, so I'm an idiot. A one-booted idiot. But I went back and they both gave me a HUGE squeezy hug. Then I went to Uncle and told him about his song being my favourite (as I said earlier) and then it was time to go. I mean, literally. They kicked you out as soon as you had your whatevers signed.

I managed to say goodbye to the people I had spent my evening with - a fabulous group of ladies, some of whom I already knew from Twitter and some I had just met that night and bonded with through our mutual Monkey lovin'. I was very pleased that I got to see so many of my Twitter followers/followees there.

I had to walk back to my car in the dark and the rain, but apart from that it was a pretty bloody great night.