even you must have a crush on you.

hello there, attractive-looking people.

they = The Life of Riley, Grahamstown's favourite band of all time.

they = incredibly talented and funny and stuff.

they = moving to Cape Town.

sad face.

i met Terri - Miss Vocalist - at another musical gig in the town of G... one of those rare times, you know. granted, it was Van Coke Cartel and Zebra & Giraffe, so the vibe was a little less, um, acoustic. with a little more moshing. first thought that passed through my head upon meeting Terri? jeez, this woman is lovely. and at that stage, i didn't even know she was famous and suchlike! which made her loveliness even more incredible when i look back on that night. ha. so nice to little pleb Hannah!

Nick - the guitarist-slash-glockenspielist - has already moved to Cape Town, so i only officially met him on Saturday night (more about that coming up). and since i knew he was famous beforehand, i was Little Miss Shy. aaaaack. but he seems to be rather nice, too :)

for some reason, Terri seems to like the band i'm in... i think it's mostly cause she and le Justin are homies from Welkom days ;) in any case, Terri is leaving Grahamstown at the end of the year and so Nick came down for One Final Show in our little var-city. and this took place on Saturday evening. and since Terri has decided that The Bad Hands are cool, we got to open for them.

um. i responded like the pineapple.

yes! really. aaaah. talk about being nervous. because, hello, these people are brilliant at life, and at what they do. and they make Justin, Clarke and me look like little children messing around on stage. especially me. yikes.

nevertheless, the gig happened. and we played, and *hem hem* we weren't amazing, i won't lie. we were average ;) the sound wasn't on our side for a bit of the time, and i messed up cause it.was.a.new.venue.aaah.why.so.many.eyes.on.meeee, and not as many people laughed at our unplanned, offbeat jokes as usually do. but we had fun, and we laughed, and we felt mighty honoured to be playing before The Life of Riley.

then Dani Bowler played some of her swaggalicious music while i dined on Simba chips and Coca-Cola (yes, i'm healthy - go away.) and then it was finally time for THE LIFE OF RILEY. yaaaah.

firstly, before i talk about how epic they were - and they were, don't you worry - can we mourn the fact that this was my very first Life of Riley gig of all time? they only played one other gig this year, and i heard about it after the fact. (on the night, but after they'd played. unhappy Hannah was unhappy.) and, you know, this being my first year of varsity and all, i kind-of wasn't around for all their gigs prior to this year. sigh. i cannot believe i missed out on so many shows of goodness. but i will look on the bright side and be grateful that i was at THIS show! yeah. so grateful. so so grateful.

because, like i mentioned, they were fantabulous. i did some crazy fan-girl dancing, was right up in front, squealed like a 14-year-old and sang along as loud as i could when i remembered the lyrics to their songs. with lyrics like,

"even you must have a crush on you

cause you know all the things to say and all the right things to do..."

...well, singing along is rather dreamy. i also managed to grab the piece of paper on which was scrawled the lyrics to their New Song when Terri was done singing along to 'em, and so Cats' Eyes (which is what i deem it should be called) now has a position of pride on my cupboard door.

and then, as their last encore (as if life couldn't get any better) they played a cover of Mario's "Let Me Love You". yes, you know the one. the one we all used to jam to in our primary school uniforms. i don't even lie - i remember it well. i'd borrowed the CD from a friend who lived out of town, and i used to bring it to school. another friend would bring her CD Walkman (those things were tight back in the day, yo) and we'd jam to Mario during breaks. (the CD eventually got stolen from my bag, in case you were wondering. fond memories much?) and i'm gonna post the music video here just for kicks... because these moves used to be smooth. and i think that's hilarious.

regardless, The Life of Riley covered this song as their encore to their encore to their encore. (count the encores... THREE.) and i swear, i was 12 years old again. woah now. waaaaay better than the original? you betcha! as if the rest of the set didn't already have me weeping with delight, i was inconsolably happy after that last last song. and if that all sounds remarkably oxymoronic, it probably is, and we're going to move on now.

Dearest Life of Riley... i believe you are rather remarkable. i believe i will sorely miss your presence in beloved Grahamstown. i believe i will have to travel to Cape Town in order to get a fix of LOR-ness. if there's one thing that i still cannot believe, it's that our silly little band opened for you.

i love y'all.

and that is the truth.