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mad_andyWell, last night I went and saw Lordi...
And this morning, I have bruises on my bruises, a headache and a gravelled throat, very little voice and my joints ache. Why?
Got to the venue just before three, didn't see anyone I knew so joined the end of the queue - and found myself in Emo Hell. Teenagers with lank hair and lip rings - what is it with emos and lip rings? Anyway. Two boys standing in front of me; one of them has a mostly-full bottle of vodka, and is haranguing the other one to drink some.
"Come on, have a drink."
"No."
"Come onnnnnnnnn."
"No."
"Go and buy a can of coke, it'll make it taste better."
"No."
I was feeling a bit cold and fed up by this point, so I shuffled a little closer and held out my hand to the lad wielding the bottle of Smirnoff. He blinked at me in surprise, so I wiggled my fingers a la the Matrix and he handed me the bottle. I took a swig (and didn't flinch, looks like the wednesday night sessions are working), handed it back and winked.
"Now you're not drinking alone."
Well, as you might imagine that broke the ice somewhat! So we chatted a bit, then Ara turned up. She looked...interesting. A load of her friends arrived too and they seemed really quite pleasant; it seemed that Emo Hell was going to be fairly bearable, although I caught myself thinking more than once 'what's a sensible metalhead doing in the middle of all these kids and bloody Emos?!'
I settled for in for a long wait of taking the piss and stealing the emo's booze. It passed the time.
Then, to my utter joy, I spotted one of the Usual Suspects scoot past, obviously looking for someone. He didn't spot me, so with a quick 'see you later' to the crowd I was with I shot off to find him and say hello.
Now, the Usual Suspects are a gang of about a dozen guys that Slay and I bump into at gigs in London. Not always all of them are there, but Nick (who I'd just spotted trotting past) is pretty much at the core of the gang. They're all young, and they're a laugh to hang out with; they're into decent music (as you might imagine, considering how we got to know them) and it was a real relief to see some decent metalheads.
To my surprise, they were right at the front; I got chatting, and when I said I'd better go back to my place they said nah, stay here, you're with us!
Bless 'em.
Tony and his girlfriend (whose name I can never remember but she's very nice) had been there since nine that morning, and were getting very cold and bored, I think. A couple more people joined us, one of whom was the forum mod for the PowerQuest board; they were talking about a member of that band who was due to come to the gig later. I quite like PowerQuest, even though I wasn't that impressed with them when we saw them supporting Helloween. They're growing on me.
Anyway. Door opening time was fast approaching, and Slay turned up. He wasn't in the mood for wrestling his way to the front, so he buggered off further back while those of up the sharp end began the jockeying for position.
This was when Steve, bassist for PowerQuest turned up. A very affable chap, he handed round his bottle of Jagermeister (decanted into a plastic bottle with a sports cap!) and chatted until security opened the doors. I found myself wedged between him and Tony...not a bad position to be in!
And oh my God, the Forum security have it figured out how to let people in so there isn't a stampede. Hallelujah. They let the first few in slowly so that the people who'd been waiting longest got in and got to the front without any fuss. Hurrah!
It wasn't until I was settled on the barrier next to Tony and the rest of the US that I realised that I was just a couple of feet to the left of centre stage. Oh dear, I thought, this could be painful....
Steve joined us for a bit, and I took a picture of Tony and his girlfriend with him; I forgot that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rdyfrde loves the band, or I would have got a picture for her. Sorry Fred - next time, I promise!
Usual hanging about, and then the support band came on.
Oh. Wow.
Turisas. Finnish Battle Metal.
They are... how to describe them? Metal, yes. very. Power-ish in that it has keyboards...but oh my goodness. It also has accordions and a violin. And blood and sweaty men wearing furs and swords and holy crap they were good. Oh, and--
But a brief digression to discuss my outfit. You need to know this or the next bit won't make sense. Anyway.
Boots of Doom, jeans, bodice with Powers Of Uplift, strappy little Iron Maiden shirt.
The barrier was just the right height for me to rest my chest on, so there was plenty of cleavage on show. And I may not have been dressed up as much as some of the girls there were, but by gum I got noticed.
Turisas' lead singer may not have done much by way of interaction with individuals in the crowd, but I did keep having to retrieve his eyeballs from the cleavage. *Snicker*
Awesome music - made you want to go out and paint yourself blue and rape and pillage. Really. The crowd was wild - I got squashed, bashed, went througgh phases where I couldn't breathe, banged my head like a nutter, waved my fists and yelled YARRRR a lot and holy crap, the violin solo!
At one point the lead singer - Warrior, no, really - had the women screaming against the men; the crowd makeup was probably 60/40 female/male, which I've never seen at a metal gig before. Warrior hadn't either, and when he made a comment about seeing lots of lovely ladies he was leching at my boobs, I swear.
*Teehee*
I was especially enamoured of the accordion player, who was wearing naught but a bit of fur around his hips (and wild makeup and blood, natch) and kept putting one foot up on the monitors so I could see right up his loincloth... he had great thighs.
After they'd gone I realised that I was actually pretty well blood-spattered - they'd been so active that the fake blood they'd been sweating off had come as far as the barrier! And it was a bloody deep pit, six feet across at least. So that's some heft.
Well, during Turisas the crowd had surged and shoved and we'd gone about three feet to the right - which put me bang in front of stage centre. I'll admit, I was a bit worried - things were starting to get rather painful, and I wondered if the crush during Lordi might not be too much. It was a wee bit daunting, I tell you.
But to my surprise the crowd wasn't as bad - whether that was because there wasn't that much desire to get too close to the pyros (and it was no Rammstein show but bloody hell, I'm amazed I still have eyebrows) or what I have no idea. But the pressure was steadier and just from behind so although it was tight it was OK.
Tight? Christ. This morning I'm sporting a lovely set of bruises on elbows, knees and lower sternum! Oh, and a lump on my head where I got kicked by a crowd surfer. Wanker. Security nearly broke my neck - he came over and this lad came down on my head, forcing my neck down - but my knees were wedged against the barrier, my boobs wedged over the top of it so I couldn't go anywhere. Couldn't go down and couldn't go sideways and I was half expecting to hear the sharp *crack* that signals the end of everything when security got him over. Which is when he kicked me in the head.
Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Lordi!
Bloody hell!
Apart from the fact that a security guard stood right in front of me so I was looking at his chest the beginning was bloody awesome - lots of lights and effects and shit, Lordi himself in that suit? Fucking incredible! I was wiggling from side to side to see and Lordi himself clocked that - bless him - and gave me a stare over the goons head. *Grin* Wow.
Once the first few songs were over and the photographers cleared the pit the secutiry goon moved - thank fuck - and I had *the* most amazing view.
I tell you, how that band manage to perform under all that gear? Shit, Kita especially. He never stopped, thrashing away at the drums, standing up and waving the crowd to greater effort - he was awesome. Instead of a standard drum solo he had 'Kita's Jukebox', (OK, a painted prop *snicker*) and drummed along to several different tunes. It was amazing.
Each of them had their own time with the crowd - Ox let off a shoulder mounted missile, Kita had the jukebox bit, Awa had a burning parasol, Amen played up to the mummy theme.
Ox, I might add, noticed the Deadly Cleavage. He tried Sascha's trick of throwing picks into it - and almost succeeded. I managed to get a pick on the second attempt - and it's going right here on my monitor with the rest! He was awesome, and he's a delightful old pervert.
Awa was great - and I got a wink and a blown kiss, too. Unexpected but delightful!
Lordi himself was incredible. Playing with the crowd, winding everyone up, belting out the songs - oh, and he was not immune to the cleavage either. When they did the ballad 'It Snows In Hell' (complete with foam snow sprayed over the audience!) I had the first couple of lines sung to me by The Man...on his knees, looking right into my eyes....
*Squee*!
They saved the best to last - Kalma, their original bassist, came on stage for the last two numbers. The affection the band feel for him was obvious - much touching and hugging and bumping in evidence! And Lordi gave him a great big kiss which had me hollering, I can tell you.
The music was incredible, the stage show was awesome - pyros and a castle and snow and glitter fired from cannons, roman candles on guitars and parasols and water-squirting sparking circular saws, axes that spat fire and skulls that glowed and a baby doll that fired sparks from its eyes...
They finished, of course, with 'Hard Rock Hallelujah'. By this time the press was so tight that I had a minor concern - the barrier was dragging my top down and the pressure was squeezing everything else up, so an escape was becoming imminent. And it was so tight that there would have been no way I could have got my arms back over the barrier to do anything about it!
Ox kept an eye on them to make sure nothing happened. As did Kita, Amen and Lordi himself... bless 'em.
Oh, and Kita was going to throw me a drumstick at the end - but spotted that Tony, next to me, was wearing a Kita tee shirt so he got it. Fair enough!
We staggered back from the stage after it was all over, me to find Slay and the boys to head for home. It was an absolutely amazing gig - plus I got a few nibbles from people about tattoos, always handy. I wiped a hand across my face and discovered it was covered in what I can only describe as cinders - that's how close we were to the pyros, I had powder char all over me!
Slept all the way home, nipped online and had a quick squee atarrys_girlie then crashed out.
Only to awake this morning with bruises on my bruises, no voice, trashed throat, eyes full of sand, a very stiff neck and hair that is, quite frankly, ewwwwww.
But the gig?
HELL YEAH!
And this morning, I have bruises on my bruises, a headache and a gravelled throat, very little voice and my joints ache. Why?
Got to the venue just before three, didn't see anyone I knew so joined the end of the queue - and found myself in Emo Hell. Teenagers with lank hair and lip rings - what is it with emos and lip rings? Anyway. Two boys standing in front of me; one of them has a mostly-full bottle of vodka, and is haranguing the other one to drink some.
"Come on, have a drink."
"No."
"Come onnnnnnnnn."
"No."
"Go and buy a can of coke, it'll make it taste better."
"No."
I was feeling a bit cold and fed up by this point, so I shuffled a little closer and held out my hand to the lad wielding the bottle of Smirnoff. He blinked at me in surprise, so I wiggled my fingers a la the Matrix and he handed me the bottle. I took a swig (and didn't flinch, looks like the wednesday night sessions are working), handed it back and winked.
"Now you're not drinking alone."
Well, as you might imagine that broke the ice somewhat! So we chatted a bit, then Ara turned up. She looked...interesting. A load of her friends arrived too and they seemed really quite pleasant; it seemed that Emo Hell was going to be fairly bearable, although I caught myself thinking more than once 'what's a sensible metalhead doing in the middle of all these kids and bloody Emos?!'
I settled for in for a long wait of taking the piss and stealing the emo's booze. It passed the time.
Then, to my utter joy, I spotted one of the Usual Suspects scoot past, obviously looking for someone. He didn't spot me, so with a quick 'see you later' to the crowd I was with I shot off to find him and say hello.
Now, the Usual Suspects are a gang of about a dozen guys that Slay and I bump into at gigs in London. Not always all of them are there, but Nick (who I'd just spotted trotting past) is pretty much at the core of the gang. They're all young, and they're a laugh to hang out with; they're into decent music (as you might imagine, considering how we got to know them) and it was a real relief to see some decent metalheads.
To my surprise, they were right at the front; I got chatting, and when I said I'd better go back to my place they said nah, stay here, you're with us!
Bless 'em.
Tony and his girlfriend (whose name I can never remember but she's very nice) had been there since nine that morning, and were getting very cold and bored, I think. A couple more people joined us, one of whom was the forum mod for the PowerQuest board; they were talking about a member of that band who was due to come to the gig later. I quite like PowerQuest, even though I wasn't that impressed with them when we saw them supporting Helloween. They're growing on me.
Anyway. Door opening time was fast approaching, and Slay turned up. He wasn't in the mood for wrestling his way to the front, so he buggered off further back while those of up the sharp end began the jockeying for position.
This was when Steve, bassist for PowerQuest turned up. A very affable chap, he handed round his bottle of Jagermeister (decanted into a plastic bottle with a sports cap!) and chatted until security opened the doors. I found myself wedged between him and Tony...not a bad position to be in!
And oh my God, the Forum security have it figured out how to let people in so there isn't a stampede. Hallelujah. They let the first few in slowly so that the people who'd been waiting longest got in and got to the front without any fuss. Hurrah!
It wasn't until I was settled on the barrier next to Tony and the rest of the US that I realised that I was just a couple of feet to the left of centre stage. Oh dear, I thought, this could be painful....
Steve joined us for a bit, and I took a picture of Tony and his girlfriend with him; I forgot that
rdyfrde loves the band, or I would have got a picture for her. Sorry Fred - next time, I promise!Usual hanging about, and then the support band came on.
Oh. Wow.
Turisas. Finnish Battle Metal.
They are... how to describe them? Metal, yes. very. Power-ish in that it has keyboards...but oh my goodness. It also has accordions and a violin. And blood and sweaty men wearing furs and swords and holy crap they were good. Oh, and--
But a brief digression to discuss my outfit. You need to know this or the next bit won't make sense. Anyway.
Boots of Doom, jeans, bodice with Powers Of Uplift, strappy little Iron Maiden shirt.
The barrier was just the right height for me to rest my chest on, so there was plenty of cleavage on show. And I may not have been dressed up as much as some of the girls there were, but by gum I got noticed.
Turisas' lead singer may not have done much by way of interaction with individuals in the crowd, but I did keep having to retrieve his eyeballs from the cleavage. *Snicker*
Awesome music - made you want to go out and paint yourself blue and rape and pillage. Really. The crowd was wild - I got squashed, bashed, went througgh phases where I couldn't breathe, banged my head like a nutter, waved my fists and yelled YARRRR a lot and holy crap, the violin solo!
At one point the lead singer - Warrior, no, really - had the women screaming against the men; the crowd makeup was probably 60/40 female/male, which I've never seen at a metal gig before. Warrior hadn't either, and when he made a comment about seeing lots of lovely ladies he was leching at my boobs, I swear.
*Teehee*
I was especially enamoured of the accordion player, who was wearing naught but a bit of fur around his hips (and wild makeup and blood, natch) and kept putting one foot up on the monitors so I could see right up his loincloth... he had great thighs.
After they'd gone I realised that I was actually pretty well blood-spattered - they'd been so active that the fake blood they'd been sweating off had come as far as the barrier! And it was a bloody deep pit, six feet across at least. So that's some heft.
Well, during Turisas the crowd had surged and shoved and we'd gone about three feet to the right - which put me bang in front of stage centre. I'll admit, I was a bit worried - things were starting to get rather painful, and I wondered if the crush during Lordi might not be too much. It was a wee bit daunting, I tell you.
But to my surprise the crowd wasn't as bad - whether that was because there wasn't that much desire to get too close to the pyros (and it was no Rammstein show but bloody hell, I'm amazed I still have eyebrows) or what I have no idea. But the pressure was steadier and just from behind so although it was tight it was OK.
Tight? Christ. This morning I'm sporting a lovely set of bruises on elbows, knees and lower sternum! Oh, and a lump on my head where I got kicked by a crowd surfer. Wanker. Security nearly broke my neck - he came over and this lad came down on my head, forcing my neck down - but my knees were wedged against the barrier, my boobs wedged over the top of it so I couldn't go anywhere. Couldn't go down and couldn't go sideways and I was half expecting to hear the sharp *crack* that signals the end of everything when security got him over. Which is when he kicked me in the head.
Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Lordi!
Bloody hell!
Apart from the fact that a security guard stood right in front of me so I was looking at his chest the beginning was bloody awesome - lots of lights and effects and shit, Lordi himself in that suit? Fucking incredible! I was wiggling from side to side to see and Lordi himself clocked that - bless him - and gave me a stare over the goons head. *Grin* Wow.
Once the first few songs were over and the photographers cleared the pit the secutiry goon moved - thank fuck - and I had *the* most amazing view.
I tell you, how that band manage to perform under all that gear? Shit, Kita especially. He never stopped, thrashing away at the drums, standing up and waving the crowd to greater effort - he was awesome. Instead of a standard drum solo he had 'Kita's Jukebox', (OK, a painted prop *snicker*) and drummed along to several different tunes. It was amazing.
Each of them had their own time with the crowd - Ox let off a shoulder mounted missile, Kita had the jukebox bit, Awa had a burning parasol, Amen played up to the mummy theme.
Ox, I might add, noticed the Deadly Cleavage. He tried Sascha's trick of throwing picks into it - and almost succeeded. I managed to get a pick on the second attempt - and it's going right here on my monitor with the rest! He was awesome, and he's a delightful old pervert.
Awa was great - and I got a wink and a blown kiss, too. Unexpected but delightful!
Lordi himself was incredible. Playing with the crowd, winding everyone up, belting out the songs - oh, and he was not immune to the cleavage either. When they did the ballad 'It Snows In Hell' (complete with foam snow sprayed over the audience!) I had the first couple of lines sung to me by The Man...on his knees, looking right into my eyes....
*Squee*!
They saved the best to last - Kalma, their original bassist, came on stage for the last two numbers. The affection the band feel for him was obvious - much touching and hugging and bumping in evidence! And Lordi gave him a great big kiss which had me hollering, I can tell you.
The music was incredible, the stage show was awesome - pyros and a castle and snow and glitter fired from cannons, roman candles on guitars and parasols and water-squirting sparking circular saws, axes that spat fire and skulls that glowed and a baby doll that fired sparks from its eyes...
They finished, of course, with 'Hard Rock Hallelujah'. By this time the press was so tight that I had a minor concern - the barrier was dragging my top down and the pressure was squeezing everything else up, so an escape was becoming imminent. And it was so tight that there would have been no way I could have got my arms back over the barrier to do anything about it!
Ox kept an eye on them to make sure nothing happened. As did Kita, Amen and Lordi himself... bless 'em.
Oh, and Kita was going to throw me a drumstick at the end - but spotted that Tony, next to me, was wearing a Kita tee shirt so he got it. Fair enough!
We staggered back from the stage after it was all over, me to find Slay and the boys to head for home. It was an absolutely amazing gig - plus I got a few nibbles from people about tattoos, always handy. I wiped a hand across my face and discovered it was covered in what I can only describe as cinders - that's how close we were to the pyros, I had powder char all over me!
Slept all the way home, nipped online and had a quick squee at
arrys_girlie then crashed out.Only to awake this morning with bruises on my bruises, no voice, trashed throat, eyes full of sand, a very stiff neck and hair that is, quite frankly, ewwwwww.
But the gig?
HELL YEAH!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
hell YEAH!!!
Date: 2006-11-01 12:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-01 12:36 pm (UTC)*hugs* Oh, and after you got off the phone last night me and my mates were left gleefully making jokes about Lordi dropping his contact lens down your bodice front. Just so you know. ;)
no subject
Date: 2006-11-01 07:46 pm (UTC)Wasn't far off, I tell you! Ox was the funniest though - he must have quite restricted vision in that mask, because he wandered across the stage, happened to glance at the crowd and *BANG* he-llo...here, have a pick...
*Sporfle* It kills me when that happens. You'd think they'd never seen tits before. :D
no subject
Date: 2006-11-01 01:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-01 01:15 pm (UTC)I went to email you about the weekend, but realised I don't actually know which is your usual address...so shall I give you a ring or something? Or you can drop me a mail at klpod@hotmail.com, whatever you prefer!
no subject
Date: 2006-11-01 01:17 pm (UTC)Alas, there is a severe shortage of gigs here at the north pole, I doubt I'll be seeing them anytime soon :p
Sounds like a bloody awesome night
no subject
Date: 2006-11-01 04:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-01 08:48 pm (UTC)That being said - HOLY HELL!! Sounds like one helluva time! If I had the stamina, I'd love to see a band in that situation. But I'm a wuss sometimes...*laughs*
Instead of a standard drum solo he had 'Kita's Jukebox', (OK, a painted prop *snicker*) and drummed along to several different tunes. It was amazing.
Hey! Tommy Lee did that back in the 80's...after the tumbling drum kit. His kit would go up, circle the top seats of the arena so that the poor people in the nosebleeds got a show too. He'd play to everything from Led Zeppelin, to Joe Walsh. If he didn't annoy the living fuck out of me, I think I'd like Tommy a lot more.