Last week, my hubby and I went to Edinburgh City, the most magical city in the world. It has a castle on top of an extinct volcano, a haunted graveyard with a famous dog and is the birthplace of the Harry Potter books. There is no other city like it in the world.
I had already fallen in love with the city when I first visited it with my family. I remember going to the castle and looking down at the streets below, realising I was standing atop of so much history; I also got traumatised for life at Edinburgh Dungeon and saw the African wild hunting dogs at Edinburgh zoo.
But this time I was going to go with the hubby, not just for sight-seeing but to see Ninja Sex Party live for the first time. For those few who don't know who they are, NSP (if you are too embarrassed to say the name out loud) is a comedy band consisting of Ninja Brian (Brian Wecht) and Danny Sex bang(Dan Avidan). I had never heard of them until my husband introduced me to their music over four years ago when we started dating. I would never have thought my favourite songs to cheer me up would ever be about laser dinosaurs and unicorn wizards; but that's life for you, I suppose, full of surprises.
But we had time to kill before checking into our hotel room and time to spare before the concert. There was one place I wanted to see that I had never been to before; Greyfriars Kirkyard.
You may be wondering what's so fascinating about an old graveyard, but like the rest of Edinburgh, it is enveloped in history and is said to be one of the most haunted places in the world. It was the home of a devoted Skye terrier called Bobby who stood by his master's grave for fourteen years and is even buried within the grounds. A statue dedicated to the loyal dog stands outside the graveyard where a crowd of people come to pay their respects to him by patting him on the nose; His nose has been patted so much that it has turned from grey to bronze!
The southern side was a prison to over one thousand supporters of the National Covenant after they lost against government forces at the Battle of Bothwell Brigg on the 22nd June 1679. For four months, the prisoners died either by exposure to the elements or were executed. Some were released after pledging loyalty to the crown, some escaped but the remaining 257 were sentenced to work on American colonies, only to drown when their ship capsized by the Orkney Islands; only 48 survived.
On a cheerier note, it's where J.k Rowling got inspiration for many of her characters from the gravestones; such as Tom Riddle, McGonagall and Moody.
After that, we headed to the Scottish National Museum and met the taxidermied body of Dolly the sheep; the first-ever cloned mammal from an adult somatic cell. Saw the skeletal remains of a giant sloth that towered over us, making me slightly thankful they were extinct (or else the memes of them would never cease) and saw the millennial clock in action as it struck the hour and performed a magical treat for us. There was so much to see and do that we had to go back the next day just to see more!
Around six in the evening, we headed to the concert and dear god, had I wished we headed off sooner! It became clear that the majority of the people we shared the train with were heading to the same concert and we formed a huge, bustling crowd as we headed towards Edinburgh Corn Exchange. Remember that old game on the Nokia phones called Snake where the more you eat the longer the snake gets and the snake couldn't touch any part of its own body or else it was game over? That's what the queue felt like! It snaked around the side the building all the way up to the retail park behind it where the queue eventually ended inside the car park. I think it could of taken nearly an hour until we eventually got inside the building but still manage to find a space with a good view of the stage.
It was a fun night with Planet Booty as the opening act, who got the whole crowd chanting "Booty" and jumping up and down. They had to be one of the best opening acts ever to grace a stage with the amazing and electric energy they gave off and TWRP (The backing band of NSP) wowed the crowd with their musical numbers before the main event.
Ninja Sex Party is probably one of the most imaginative bands out there for when it comes to presentation, getting the crowd giggling and roaring with a cartoon segment of their nemesis "Lasersaurus" before entering the stage. It was probably one of the best live performances I've ever been to as the crowd sang along to every word, got a performance from a cheery Kraken and even witnessed the defeat of Lasersaurus ourselves. We even got to say hi to Danny's nephews via video-call and waved to his parents up in the balcony.
NSP is one of those rare bands who are forever grateful to their fans for helping them get them where they are today. They started out making their own music videos on YouTube ten years ago, building up their audiences and their careers ever since. Dan Avidan now hosts Game Grumps with Arin Hanson and Brian used to be a theoretical physicist before retiring in 2015 to focus more on his new career, working along with Game Grumps and other projects.
The great message that these two men share is that nobody knows what they are doing with their life ; nobody has got it all figured out but that's OK, do the things you love and keep doing them and live your life the best you can.
*side-note*
I wish I got some better photos of the show but I HATE taking photos and videos at concerts; the time you start getting decent enough photos it feels like you've missed half the songs.
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