bon iver at manchester arena (support from the staves)

our first night in Manchester, getting lost trying to find our way from Victoria to the hotel, getting ready in excitement, eating pot noodles in a hurry, getting the doors opening time wrong, getting there late but finding no-one was there, hipster kids sitting on the concrete floor, being 8 rows from the front in a huge space, being surrounded by lots of PDA'ing couples, wearing ear plugs to a gig for the very first time, being amazed at how great they are even with my tinnitus/slightly deaf ear, support from The Staves - three girls singing country/folk/harmony type music, Moose from Bon Iver joining them to play violin, being glad it wasn't Kathleen supporting again this year, waiting and getting tired feet, being ridiculously overjoyed when Bon Iver came on stage and started playing Perth, the beautiful set and lighting effects, an awesome 11 piece band, hearing a rare B-Side, hearing the most beautiful and haunting song live - Woods (go check out my Youtube video here), being the happiest girl alive when hearing Blood Bank and singing every single word with Justin (again, video here), the ninja song (when Justin told us he had a new song for us, played about 5 seconds of impromptu awesomeness, ending with the phrase 'ninja'), Justin telling us much to my utter sadness and despair that Bon Iver "won't be coming back for a while..." :( skipping back to the hotel oblivious to the freezing cold and utterly happy, keeping my starry Bon Iver wristband on for bed :)