Chains, Flames and Automobiles: Part III The Conclusion

During the change over from Gojira to In Flames, the crowd started to chant in anticipation. For as bad of a rap that In Flames has gotten recently, the concert goers didn't seem to pay much mind. When I turned to look at R, there was a guy standing next to her. I had noticed him during the Gojira set; he looked young and looked like he was right up against her. I only recalled him as he had joined in our conversation about the guitar that was being used during Gojira's set.

My son was looking forward to seeing a band that he has played many times on Guitar Hero III. Tired during the change over, he sat on the stoop by the rails and rested his head for a few minutes. I took the Momma Bear stance and stood over him protecting him in case anyone tried to fly into that spot at the last minute.

R was in the mood for a drink, but didn't get her wrist band. Our friend Jacques from Belgium offered to get her a drink with his wrist band. He asked if I wanted one as well. When I have my son with me and I am driving, I refuse to drink. But the thought of a beer toyed in my head. I weighed my options and declined. He asked if Joey Sky wanted anything to drink, and my son declined as well.

A few minutes later, he returned and handed R her drink. I could smell the Jack Daniels from where I was and was glad I had declined anything. She sipped on her drink as the 3 of us chatted. After finishing his coke, our friend excused himself for a smoke.

R and I talked about what a cool guy he was, "And he smells sooo good!" she commented. I had to agree. He held our spots, gave us insider information and even got us drinks (or offered to in the least). When we turned back to the stage in anticipation, our friend approached from the back of the venue. "How is it that they don't allow smoking in here, but they won't let people out to have one? That's bullshit..." R and I agreed and mentioned we had just been talking about the lack of control on the underage drinking at that venue.

You see, most show I go to have a separate area for those 21 and over. And you can't bring drinks in or out of that area. Our friend agreed that that was odd as well.

The dimming lights and the noise of the people packed into the venue interrupted our conversation. I turned around to see In Flames coming out on stage. The crowd went wild... Hands were thrown in the air and started clapping in unison. Joey Sky remained seated, which I thought was a little sad.

I watched as Anders Fridén took the stage. He is the former singer of Dark Tranquillity. (Who is another band that performs flawlessly live, even if I did see them with Mikael Stanne. How I ended up calling Mikael on the phone is a story for a different day.) In Flames performed wonderfully live. I could hear Jacques behind me singing word for word. Since he was on key I didn't mind.

A few songs in Joey Sky stood up and starting throwing the horns. Between throwing the horns and banging his head, he asked, "Can we go home now?" I knew he was tired and could tell he was coming down with a cold. I wanted to stay until the end, but also wanted to look at merch. I knew that since the headliner was on, there would be no lines at the merch table and also realized that with 1300 other people trying to get out of the venue, it would be a night mare.

Sadly, it was time to go. I turned to Jacques and told him it was nice meeting him. I made sure he had my email address for when he travelled in the states again. He shook my hand and told my son, "Make sure you only listen to good music. No rap, no country..." My son nodded his head in agreement. I told him to take care and turned to R to tell her that we were going to head to the merch table. She decided to join along.

Joey Sky found an In Flames shirt he wanted and I saw the Gojira table. Checking the cash I had in my pocket, I noticed we could only buy one shirt... but then salvation- The In Flames table had a credit card machine! I told Joey Sky he could pick one shirt and as I paid for that one, I asked the guy at the merch table which Gojira shirt would look the hottest on me. "The blue one" he said. I bought it as we chatted about the tour. After that, we decided to call it a night.

In the parking lot, R made a comment about her "boyfriend" as we passed a car with a "parent" waiting. The drive home was uneventful except for the light dusting of snow. We talked about the concert, the people and R's Underage Make A Wish Boyfriend as he kept coughing on her all night.

After an hour I dropped her off at the hotel and headed home. The farther south I went the harder it snowed. It wasn't a blizzard by any means, but it was distracting, especially with my very dim "brights". The way they were situated it made it worse. I couldn't see the road well and the flurries were blurring the rest of my vision. With my one regular beam, I had no other choice but to go back to the dim light just to see the road. (As a disclaimer, the snow was NOT bad at all to drive in it was a matter of my lights acting wonky while driving).

With just two miles left to getting home, I passed a small strip mall. Even at 2 am, I was surprised when I passed a car in the parking lot. And then it dawned on me, the only reason the car would be there for. D'OH! Of course, the cherries went on. I flipped my blinker and pulled over. I prayed Joey Sky didn't wake up as I pulled out my license and registration.

"Where you coming from tonight?"
"Worchester, Ma."
"Oh yeah? What was going on up there tonight?"
"A concert..."
"Been drinking at all?"
"Not a drop." I was so glad I kept to my rule of no drinking if I'm driving, especially with my son in the car.
"Good. Do you know why I pulled you over?"
"No."
"Well you were driving way too slow. You need to speed it up."
"Uh, oh, really?" I said as I started blankly out my window. I bit my tongue before I said admitted I may have been speeding.
"I'm just teasing, I pulled you over because your headlight is out. Did you know that? Also, you have two break lights out and your license plate light out. Do you have any warrants for your arrest out? I'm going to run your license and I'll be right back."


-MetalRose

Chains, Flames and Automobiles Part II.

So my new foreign friend let me stand up against the rails along with Joey Sky. I kept asking R if she wanted to get closer, but she declined.

The three of us talked for a while about music. I asked our new friend if Gojira was as good live as they were on the album. His perfect teeth let one word escape, "Better." I hardly believed him as Gojira had very intricate guitar compositions.

Shortly after a few minutes of chatting, the lights went down and the first band went on. I had no idea who they were. I knew is that All That Remains had dropped off the tour, but didn't know who had replaced them. I was kind of looking forward to seeing them, but hearing they dropped off wasn't the end of the world.

I held my hand out to Joey Sky and gave him a thumbs up, a thumbs down or a thumbs in the middle sign. He looked at me shook his head and gave me a thumbs down sign. I agreed. R looked over at me and asked, "Who's playing?" I shrugged my shoulders and told her I didn't know. I asked our exotic friend behind us and he too shrugged his shoulders.

After their set ended the place cheered for them. My group decided they were horrible, flat and very generic. The only saving grace was the last song which was the best... but none of us had any intensions of running out and finding their music. My ten year old son even turned to me at one point and asked, "Who in the world would mosh to this crap? Don't they know what real music is?"

Up next was 36 Crazyfists. I can't say their music ever caught my attention, at least not in the right way. Our new friend said that the drummer always tests his own gear and motioned to the drummer on stage covered in a hoodie. While their music bored me, at least I got a chance to look at the crowd. During the middle of the set they asked if anyone knew who Killswitch Engage was and for the next song Howard Jones joined the 'Fists on stage. Aside from ProgPower (which is a truly unique festival on its own) I have not seen a concert like that in years. The entire show was packed wall to wall to wall.

I watched the crowd sway from one side to the other in a frenzied mosh pit. The cyclone in the middle of the floor swelled with guys as the perimeter of the oval shrank and grew with each song. The rules of the pit were followed. I saw kids being knocked down and others grabbing onto them and helping them right back up.

I saw the signs of "up" and saw person after person being hoisted in the air. The crowd moved as a chaotic one. Fists pumped in the air in unison. For the lack of talent for their music, at least they knew how to put on a good show.

Up next: The Band I had been waiting for: Gojira. They took the stage late and just before they walked up on the raised floor, I saw their set list. I was beyond happy. It was a mix of old and new songs. I couldn't control the movement of my neck. It started to rock faster and faster on its base. Before I knew it my neon red hair was flying in every direction. Even more young kids were raised onto the arms of the sardine people on the floor.

Fists pumped and hands clapped in unison for the French Metal Band Gojira. I could only watch in amazement as this baguette band amazed me. Their music had that live sound to it, but the songs were flawless. They announced it was their last song and I almost cried. I looked at the set list and saw my favorite song To Sirus. I knew they'd be back for an encore. They thanked the crowd and started off stage. I played along for a minute, and my heart sank as the roadies came out to tear down their gear. I guess I wasn't going to hear the one song I wanted to hear.

-MetalRose

Chains, Flames and Automobiles: Part I.

I called my coworker from the parking lot of the bank, “Hey I’m on my way. I just stopped by the bank and got some cash. I should be there in about 15-20 minutes.”

She replied, “So I’ll meet you in the lobby at about 25 after?”

I agreed as I hung up the phone to start the car. My muffler roared in protest as I backed out of my parking spot and headed towards the great northern sky.

At almost 5:25 on the dot, I pulled into the drop off area of the hotel. "R" was waiting in the lobby and she quickly made her way to my car. "I'm starving!" she declared. I was too. I asked if she wanted to eat at Uno's by her hotel, or if she wanted to try closer to the venue. She said Uno's was the "room service" for the restaurant and that she would rather travel a little bit.

I asked Joey Sky to hand me my iPod from my leather jacket that was laying the back seat. With in minutes, he was asleep in the backseat. It did make the ride a little bit easier and knew that he'd be wide awake through most of the concert. Even though he was using my leather jacket as pillow, I didn't wake him.

The closer we got to the venue, the more hungry we grew. We passed WOOSTA Pizza and decided that was our best bet based on the 0.1 miles to the VENUE as proclaimed by my GPS. Although we still hadn't hit the venue, we hoped for something a little closer and kept our eyes peeled.

A few blocks later we found the venue. There were a couple of parking lots in the area and as I rounded the corner to park, I saw the line for the show. The line extended past the block and had only broken to allow cars into the parking lot.

I decided to park right by the venue, I pulled in and asked the cost. "Twenty dollars" the toothless man stated. I handed him over a $20 bill along with the hopes of getting a tee-shirt. I had a few bucks on me, but if my son wanted a shirt, I was going to get one for him and I'd ask Santa for one for me.

I pulled up a few feet before the man started chasing after me. "Ten, you gave me ten!" he tried to shove the bill into my hands. "No, I gave you a $20. That's all I have in my wallet are 20's..." He protested, "Ten! You give me ten!" His thinning mullet was blowing in the breeze and he was insistent that I only gave him a $10 bill. I was damn sure that I gave him a $20. I pulled into the first open space and opened my wallet. It was one of the ONLY times I got a receipt for the transactions I did at the banks ATM. I counted out my money and felt like an idiot after I realized I did in fact give him a $10.

The wind was whipping in our faces as we walked a few blocks to the pizza joint. Starving we all ate fast and hoped we wouldn't have to wait in long line at the venue. By the time we finished eating our dinner, the line for the venue was right at the door. I got to security and the bouncer standing there points to my wallet chains, "Uh, there is no way those chains are going in..." I give him a look of amazement, "You're kidding me! Really? Can't I just put them in my pocket?" My questions are met with the shaking of a head in a horizontal direction. I pass the tickets to my coworker and son and tell them, "It's too cold for you to be outside. Here are your tickets. I'll meet you by the merch tables. I'll be right back." I took of running to my car.

When I got back to the door the girl there told me I couldn't go in with my safety pins on my jacket. She picked up her security walkie- talkie. I looked at the girl with such distain and said, "I was just told to put my wallet chains away. The guy said nothing about my pins..." She let me in.

I walked down the stairs and turned to the right. R and Joey Sky were sitting right there waiting for me. We found a good spot right behind the sound boards front and center. I saw the wings were open and asked Red why they were open. The guy standing in front of said, "The side over here to the right is for security, to the left is the fan club for Iced Earth..."

He had an accent, it wasn't thick but it was pronounced. He let us up right against the rails, he's seen In Flames at least 13 times, and he said, I was shorter than he was and he could see over my head. The night was only going to get more interesting....

-MetalRose