Top 5 Live Songs (out of bands I have seen)

My list of live acts is a short one. I have not been to heeeaps of concerts - have been to a shit tonne of gigs but concerts are different - but in every act there's one song that I am dying to hear. And it always gets played. And when it does, it's an astounding moment for me and a little piece of me is given angel wings. The following songs are examples of this: songs that I was dying to hear, and then I did, and life was good.

5. QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE - "NO ONE KNOWS"

I saw QotSA open for Smashing Pumpkins in '08 and they ultimately blew the pumpkins out of the water. It's since been very disappointing to me that I hadn't really heard much Queens before this - I was going solely for Smashing Pumpkins - but the concert was more amazing than I was expecting and I came out a bit of a fan.

4. MUSE - "PLUG IN BABY"

Muse was the first really big band that I saw live. It was in November 2007 when I was 18, and my mate Maelie and I flew down to Christchurch to see what was at the time our absolute favourite band. While The Checks were opening, Maelie and I were in the mosh pit being pummelled and battered by larger men with dreads. Ultimately, Maelie fainted before Muse took the stage and I dragged her out to get some water (punched a bitch on the way out too). We watched the whole show from the back of the arena, but magically we managed to see more from there than we could from armpit-height in the mosh pit.

3. SHIHAD - "RUN"

Something that I love about concerts is the fact that it's just thousands of people, thousands of people, coming together for one shared love of music. It is for that reason that I love songs like "Run"; it's like Shihad common ground - every fan loves this song. So when it's playing live, thousands of people are singing, screaming the chorus, it's all perfect, it's all in time, and it's awesome to be a part of.

2. GREEN DAY - "KING FOR A DAY/SHOUT"

Of course, because I'm such a diehard Green Day fan, I had Bullet in a Bible, so when I went to see them live in December 2009 I was expecting them to play this crossover song. Still, pretty amazing to hear live. Billie Joe Armstrong has such an amazing stage presence, he sings with such vigour that seeing him prance around and hearding him singing about being a crossdresser, before launching into a pretty fucking fantastic cover of a way-too-covered song - it was quite sensational.

1. FAITH NO MORE - "WE CARE A LOT"

Faith No More in Christchurch, February 2010, was undoubtedly the best live act I have ever seen. I was never further than five metres from the stage. I could see individual bits of stubble on Mike Patton's face. This song is my favourite by FNM, so that's largely why it's ranked as number one here. Hearing thousands of people singing this song in unison was phenomenal. And I didn't get trampled in this mosh pit. Nope, there was not a thing wrong with this performance, and especially, this song.