That's it. After today, you won't see me until the 21st. If I manage to arrange internet connections in my hotel I will try my best to keep you updated on my shenanigans in lovely Greece.

Also, yesterday I went to a Lily Allen concert, she was headline of the last day of Sudoeste 2009. Her voice isn't nearly as powerful as I'd expect but she gave a good show, nonetheless. I must emphasize the last song, **** *** **** **** (oh you moderators, silly beans) where she gladly told us to raise our middle fingers up in the air while she sang and smoke a spliff.

Needless to say, she was good.

Just got 4 stitches.

The process was not pretty

I feel like a rag doll

I'm legal now

Sweet

*off to dye hair purple*

Boy, it's been about 1 year since I've posted my last blog and I wasn't planning on restarting it until I went to Greece later later this month but hey, since I had so much fun in a music festival last night entitled "Super Bock Super Rock", I decided to share the experience with you guys (to some extent, of course).

This music festival is relatively small as it is to endorse a beer called Super Bock and so the main thing really is the concerts. I went yesterday, July 18th, where the following bands played: Bettershell, The Walkmen, Brandi Carlile, Mando Diao, Duffy and The Killers.

Now, I had some surprises and some disappointments in regards to this year's line up. Firstly, the objective of this festival is to listen to Rock, which this line up relatively lacks but I'm alright with that, I had just as much fun as I had in the Placebo concert last week.

The food, as always, terrible. I ate a burger that left my stomach in a wreck. What compensated for the lousy food was the excellent beer that we drank on during the shows.

Band wise, I didn't come early enough to take a look at Bettershell or The Walkmen but that's alright, I wasn't really interested in them. I did come early enough to see not a weird sight in my country, but a common entertainer at this point, Brandi Carlile. She gave out a great show, singing plenty of her songs including her immense hit The Story and spawning some covers such as Hallelujah from Leonard Cohen. What was surprising was her after show interview, in which she admitted that she was more popular and demanded in Portugal than in the United States, where she and her band relatively small. Why is this ? I couldn't really figure it out, she has a fantastic voice, decent song writer and a good entertainer. What more could you ask for ?

Brandi Carlile, a familiar presence

Moving on, after Brandi, Mando Diao took up the stage. I'm going to be honest, I never heard of that band in my life up until that point. So I wasn't expecting much of the band. And you know what ? I was dead wrong. They gave a memorable show, the crowd was completely into it even though I can guarantee no one understood anything they were saying. Their music was unique, a very strange mix up of pop, indie, rock. I wouldn't mind seeing them again live.

And now the more known artists were to take the stage. The fifth artist to take the stage was none other than the Welsh singer, Duffy. I'm a fan of Duffy, albeit not a hardcore fan. And what I was expecting from this show was a good performance from Duffy and poor support from the crowd. I was half right. She opened her show with the song Rockferry, receiving applause from the Portuguese fans. She sang some more songs such as Distant Dreamer and Hanging on Too Long, relatively unknown songs but the fans continued to cheer and give more applause. Even though she was giving a fantastic show, with her powerful voice, she wasn't quite conquering us. That changed when she spoke the following sentence: Eu gosto de Portugal (I like Portugal). The public was in shock and immediately reacted, positively, leaving the singer with a smile. As she was singing Warwick Avenue, she tried to make the public sing along, which resulted in absolute failure, leaving the singer to laugh in embarrassment but she nonetheless continued to sing until she got to her more known song and the finale of her show, Mercy. This was the song where the crowd finally sang along from beginning to end. Needless to say, her performance was a mild success, though I seriously doubt she'll be returning in the next few years.

Duffy, with her small stature and frail aspect, proved to have quite a voice

After Duffy, we expected an immediate entrance from The Killers but, no. The fans waited for 45 minutes, upset and grumpy (at least that was how I was feeling). After a long wait, The Killers finally entered the stage. Before starting the show, here's what they said: "We are The Killers and tonight, we're all yours". They opened the show with their hit "Human". The crowd sang along during the whole song, proving to know the lyrics to all of the songs (honestly, I never knew there were so many hardcore fans in my country, seeing that this was their first show here). They sang more known songs such as Mr. Brightside, Losing Touch and Read My Mind. When they got to one of their latest singles, Spaceman, the crowd was completely supportive, singing both the chorus and the rest of the song, which left the band in a very enthusiastic state, which resulted in them repeating the song, right after they finished it (?). I've never seen something of this kind, and I've been going to concerts for more than 10 years. Have any of you witnessed something of this kind ? If so, which band was it ?

The show continued, and I was losing hope as I was expecting them to play When You Were Young, my favourite song from the group. That's when I received a big surprise. After we demanded an encore, they returned for one more song: When You Were Young. I was completely ecstatic as I rushed through the many fans to see them face to face, extremely close to the stage. I had the most fun in their show, my first Killers show. They said something important in the finale, they apologised for taking so long to come to Portugal and they promised to return soon. This statement was left echoing in my mind. They better stay true to it because no matter how much I love Metallica, they've been coming here every year and I've already seen them way too much, we need some other bands.

We are The Killers and tonight, we are all yours

Well, this was my venture to yet another festival this year and I'll probably write something about the Black Eyed Peas concert next time.

Thanks for the attention,

Flor