Patent Pending U.K. Spring Break Tour 2017: A Review.

Oh look another Patent Pending post! This year instead of just gushing over how much I appreciate them like I did last year I'm going to actually review the tour. So here we go, a (probably majorly biased) review/recap of Patent Pending's 2017 U.K. Spring break tour!

Just like last year my boyfriend and I went to Leeds and Manchester as these are our closest shows, however this year I bought myself a VIP ticket to Leeds. Here I will be reviewing and gushing over the VIP experience, the support acts, the set list, and the show overall!

Leeds VIP:
I know its easy enough to meet and talk to the band without it but honestly, I highly recommend getting VIP if you can. we were let into the venue just over an hour before everyone else, which in itself is great since its often pretty gosh darn cold outside! Now I was on my own and I was pretty anxious, I had so much going through my head and for some reason I had convinced myself that the band would hate me and I would be so upset (the reality is far from this but anxiety sucks). While we were standing around waiting for the band to come out the loveliest girl in the world started talking to me and introduced me to the lovely people she was with, and honestly I have never been so grateful, they were all so nice! Joe said he was proud of us for making friends and reminded me that "you're never alone at a Patent Pending show", something I will never forget for the rest of my life. If I had to review the Second Family they would get a 10/10 from me!
Then came the acoustic performance, they performed 3 songs, Spin Me Around, Stacey, and Second Family. All 3 were great and filled with the usual level of Patent Pending brand banter that you would expect from any other show. Including the introduction to Wonderwall (I can't help shouting "Do Wonderwall!"at literally anyone with a guitar...).
After that we all got to take group photos with the band! Anyone who has ever tried to take a photo of or with me will know I'm really bad at this and usually just do something stupid but since this was my first VIP I wanted to have at least one nice full band photo before I inevitably get VIP to the next tour and take a bunch of stupid photos! I think its pretty cute!

While waiting for everyone to take their group photos we were all given a free signed tour poster and a Patent Pending key ring (which was just a badge in a key ring, I thought this was hilarious to be honest!). There was a little wait before we could have a chat with the band members so I ended up talking to the lead singer of Eternal Boy who was so sweet and easy to talk to! So were the rest of the band, I wrote them all "Thank you" cards and they were so happy with them.
I would highly recommend paying for the VIP even though it is easy enough to meet the band anyway, it is just a truly a unique experience that you should have at least once!

Support acts:
At the two concerts I went to the support acts were Sweet Little Machine followed by Eternal Boy.
Sweet Little Machine were great but I personally didn't feel much of a connection with their music, even though they are from Yorkshire and they played pop punk! They played a good set with lots of parts where the crowd could pick up the words and also gave away free downloads of their EP which is always great!
I have to admit that Eternal Boy were my favorite out of the two! They played very generic pop punk, think Blink-182 and Sum 41. I felt a huge connection with their music which is one of the main things I love in a band, if I don't like them live it really puts me off them. They also played a cover of Whats My Age Again, we all love a good pop punk sing along! Their jokes and banter were similar to that of Patent Pending which is also something I love in a band, I like bad jokes!
Set list and show:
Set lists are so important to a good show and as always Patent Pending NAILED IT! Part of the reason for this is that their set lists are different every show. Obviously there are somethings that don't change such as their encore of Brighter and Douchebag, and always including songs like One Less Heart To Break and Hey Mario.
Another thing that should never be taken out of a Patent Pending show is my favourite sport in the world, Crowd Swimming! For anyone who has never been to a show I will explain what this is, it takes place during Psycho In Love and is basically a competition between Joe and someone else, either from the band or one of the support acts, to see who can "swim" on the crowd from the back of the venue to the front. First person with both feet on the stage wins! Now I'm not a sporty person but honestly the rush I get from this event is crazy! It's always a good feeling when whoever was on your side wins! And also quite hilarious when Joe loses!
A great addition to the set was the songs from their new album Other People's Greatest Hits, which is exactly what it sounds like, an album of other peoples hits! They also did a little medley of old songs which was really nice since it included the first Patent Pending song I ever heard, The Way You Make Me Shake.
As always there were lots of bad jokes, hand gestures, pirate hooks, and crowd surfing and of course it was very hot. But big shout out to the key club in Leeds for fitting fans! You really saved our lives! Manchester was as sweaty as ever and honestly it really adds to the experience, the amount of sweat is a measurement of the amount of fun you had! Or something...
The only issue I had with the show was the lack of Anti-everything. I know they don't do it every date but come on guys! Do it for at least one of those two shows! Its mine and my boyfriend's favourite!
But really, I had the best time and I have nothing but love for this band.

Overall I would say this years tour was even better than last, if that's even possible! Everything about it was amazing and I would highly recommend anyone reading this should see this band live at least once, trust me, you'll want to do it a million times! Even if you have no one else to go with, go on your own because you're never alone at a Patent Pending show.

We’ve all been living life in fear of doing something that we believe in. 
The time has come to believe in yourself. believe in your friends. 
Find something that you love and spread it like wildfire. 
There is such a thing as a perfect world but without each other it does not exist. 
There is such a thing as happiness and this is it. 

Make sure you check out all of the bands mentioned here if you haven't already; Eternal Boy, Sweet Little Machine, and of course Patent Pending.

Thank you so much for reading! Make sure you check out my other posts and share this one with your friends!

A letter for Patent Pending

This is kinda gonna be a bit of a mess if I'm honest, I haven't really planned much past the point of "I'm gonna write a thing". I don't expect them to read this, (but if they do, rad as heck and they will also understand what was going on with me at the gigs) I'm writing this to get it out more than anything. I'm not usually the guy who goes full fangirl and gets emotional over bands, but Patent Pending are one of the few exceptions to this rule and they're certainly the only exception that have made me cry quite as much as they have. If you know the band you probably think I'm crazy for saying that (and if you don't you should defiantly listen to them, they're great.) they're a super upbeat pop punk band whose whole aesthetic is about having fun and being yourself. Although they do have one song that gets me pretty badly. Also I should add a trigger warning for suicide. It gets kinda heavy.

This whole thing started in Leeds last year when I saw them supporting Zebrahead, my boyfriend loves both bands and he's spent most of our relationship getting me into Patent Pending so it was a win for us both when they announced the tour. I was pretty down anyway after losing my friend to cancer a few days before hand so I was crying when they came on. Not long after I'd calmed down they started introducing a song I hadn't listened to before, One Less Heart To Break, a song about suicide and how it's not the way out. As I listened to Joe talk about the song I burst into tears again and as I listened to the lyrics of the song I couldn't stop myself. I related so much to that song. This was about 3 months after my first suicide attempt which was the worst time of my life, and it brought back so many memories of that. The rest of their set was amazing and I ended up having a pretty great night despite everything.

Now fast forward to the beginning of this month (April) my boyfriend once again asks me if I want to see patent pending, I of course say yes and we decide to do Leeds and Manchester (he did a few more but I had other gigs and work so I couldn't). So I start listening to them a bit more to get myself super hyped and One less heart to break comes on, once again I find myself in tears over how much I relate to it. Then Monday before the gigs I had a huge breakdown which resulted in my second suicide attempt. I know I shouldn't have done it but at the time I couldn't see any other way to make all of my problems go away. I won't go into too much h detail though, I don't want this to be too sad.

I was feeling a lot better by the time the first gig (Leeds) came around and by the time the band came on I was super excited. The whole concert was amazing and we had somehow made our way to about 3 rows from the front. Then, as always, as Joe started introducing One less heart to break I found myself bursting into tears again. The whole way through the song I cried my eyes out while trying to sing along, during his speech in the middle of the song Joe pointed it me, obviously noticing I was crying, which made me realise just how much of a connection I had with this band, they get me. I managed to stop crying not long into the next song and really enjoyed the rest of the gig despite being covered in a mix of my own sweat and tears.

The rest of the week went by in a pretty quick blur of work and telling people how great (and sweaty) the gigs was, and soon it was time for round two in Manchester. I'd had a sore throat all day and a few people had asked if I was sure I still wanted to go to the gig, but I wasn't going to pass on the opportunity to see a band I connected with so well. We once again started stood at the back of the venue but between the mosh pits and us just generally jumping a lot we eventually made it to the barrier. This time however they had decided to do their song Spin Me Around (which is a bonus track from their album, Brighter so I wasn't expecting them to do it) I had listened to it quite a bit but up until that moment I hadn't really felt a major connection with it. That was until I started thinking, with my boyfriends arms around me I just started crying thinking about how lucky I was to have found such an amazingly supportive person after having so many toxic, abusive relationships and being raped by the only person I had trusted before now. A few songs later Joe goes into his speech about suicide prevention and right on queue the water works start. A few people give me weird looks but I wasn't embarrassed, this was my song. I felt such a connection with the girl who's story is told in the first verse (even down to the fact that I live in a small town just north of the city) that I didn't care what other people thought about me crying my eyes out at a punk gig. Half way through the song Joe jumped down from the stage to walk along the barrier, as he had done through most of the songs to get people to sing into the mic, and he spots me. I'm crying so much at this point that I can't even sing, but he pulls me closer to him and puts his forehead to mine as he sings, as if to tell me it's all going to be okay. It was the best moment I've ever had at a gig. The person in front of me however was very jealous and spent the rest of the gig making sure his head was directly in front of mine any time Joe came anywhere near us. The second to last song of the gig was Brighter, a song about how everything is going to get better. I have a pretty big connection with this song too but it had never made me cry, until that night. Although I didn't cry quite as much as I had with the other two songs there were still tears trickling down my face as I screamed out the chorus.

Once the band had left the stage the boyfriend and I went to get merch as it was the last date we were going to. When we got to the merch table Joe was stood behind it, getting selfies and selling shirts. We walked over to his side and as soon as he saw me he asked me if I was okay and shook my hand. I just stuttered out a yes as I'm not the best at talking to people. Then we had a pretty hilarious conversation about where I got my shirt from and we left. Me still shaking due to how much I'd cried.

So I guess guys if you're reading this. Thank you. The moments I've spoken about here are truly life changing. You saved my life. Whenever I think I don't deserve to be alive I think of Joe putting his forehead against mine, you are my hero man. Thank you so much for making amazing music that makes me happy to be alive, thank you for such an amazing time at your gigs, heck thank you for making me cry! I promise you, I promise you all, I'll never go away, I won't give you one less heart to break.

Thank you so much for reading.

I'm not gonna be that guy who begs you to send this to the band, but I would be super rad if anyone does. Them reading this would mean the world to me.

And totally check out Patent Pending if you haven't already, I promise it's worth it. I mean they have a song called NSFW (.) (.) which is literally 3 minutes of them singing about sending nudes, how great is that!