Bringing the house down

On Friday night, my son and I went to the Webster Theater (gag) in Hartford to see Nightwish and Volbeat.

I've never been a big fan of Nightwish. Musically they are great, but I didn't like Tarja's voice and although Annette's is slightly better, she's still not great. And the down side to her... I don't know if the band took away her mirror or what, but she looks really really rough. Her extensions were horrible and her roots were showing big time.

Regardless, enough of the personal attacks.

Joey Sky and I arrived at the venue at about 8:00, give or take. Kim called me and let me know that parking was a bear. Normally I park on the other side of the parking lot on the street. It took us about 20 minutes just to find a spot. The line was wrapped around the venue and I ended up parking about 3 blocks away.

On the way into the venue it started to sprinkle and Kim was already inside with our tickets. Since Joey Sky and I didn't get a chance to stop for dinner as I promised, we were in line to get a quick bite at the venue. As we were in line, Kim tapped my back. I asked if we'd missed Volbeat and she said, "no, their stuff didn't arrive though..."

Knowing it was the first night of the tour, I freaked thinking their gear didn't arrive and they wouldn't be playing. Turns out it was their merch that didn't turn up. Right at 8:30 we heard the crowd start getting a little roudy. Joey Sky and I walked into the venue and found a good place right on the stairs. He stood on the top one so he could see above everyone's heads. I stood one stair down so I could see as well.

I don't recall the order of their songs, but they played: The Gardens Tale, Sad Man's Tounge, River Queen, Radio Girl, Soul Sweeper , We, I only Wanna Be with you, You or Them, A momnet forever and The Human Instrument. I was sad they didn't play Caroline Leaving. That was the one song I wanted to hear. *Disclaimer, I may be missing a song or two, but I was in such a state of eurphoria I'm surprised I even remembered one song.

It's been a while since I've seen a singer have such fun with the crowd. And every time I turned around Joey Sky had a huge smile on his face. It's been a long time since I've see him have that much fun at a concert.

After the last song, the crew at the Webster tore down Volbeats gear so fast. Even though the crowd was chanting their name, there was no way they'd be able to come back on and play. The speakers and amps were off the stage even before the singer said "Thank you Goodnight!"

Since their merch wasn't there I didn't think they'd be at the merch counter, but I had hoped to get a chance to talk to the band.

The change over from Volbeat to Nightwish was unreal. Even though all the gear was changed over, all the instruments were tuned, they didn't come onstage until almost 10pm. A good 30 minutes later. Now I understand there are only 2 bands and they want to fill time, but that was not the way to do it. The crowd chanted NIGHTWISH at least 4 times, and there were several false starts....

When they finally came on, they came on with an instrumental piece. While it was pretty, my patience was wearing thin. I really like the music of Nightwish, but never have been into the vocals. I wanted to give it a shot live to see if there was a difference. After Annette came out looking like she just walked off the street corner, we listened to about half a song and then decided to take off.

On my way out the door, I noticed Volbeat's guitar player by the bus chatting with some people. I nudged Joey Sky and said, "Guitarist" and we went over to talk to him. After a few minutes, the drummer came out, then the vocalist. Joey got an autograph from all the memebers of the band, but was itching to talk to the bass player. When Michael the singer asked him why, Joey said, "I'm a bass player and I want to ask him some questions."

Michael asked how old he was, Joey Sky said, "Ten." Micheal then said, "If you work really hard, when we come back, and in 5 years, we'll call you up to play on stage with us. How does that sound?" He then handed him a guitar pick and said, "Take that as our word." Joey Sky's jaw hit the ground, we then went and talked with the bass player and he confirmed the same thing. Practice hard and come play on stage with us. I think his poor little fingers were bleeding yesterday....

I spent a good deal of time chatting with the vocalist and the bassist. The bassist had us all in stitches. He was re-telling a story about their tour manager and the airport. Since the tour manager is from Puerto Rico, he's got darker skin. He said that everytime the tour manager would sneeze they would all point and yell "PIG FLU" and run away.

While he was telling this story, Joey Sky and some girl were in front of the tour bus on the side walk singing Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast and reciting Spaceballs.

At the end of the night I did invite Volbeat to hang at my house that night or the next time they were in town. I gave my phone number to the bass player and we headed home.

The next morning I spoke with my mom about Joey Sky playing with Volbeat in a few years. She pointed out, "For all the people you know, you can set this up anytime." While I agreed with her, I think it means so much more for a band to reach out to a fan and invite him on. Even though I'm a rock and roll mom, how cool would it be for him to say, "Dude I'm playing with Volbeat... yeah my mom set it up." Having your mom set up gigs for you is so not rock and roll.

-MetalRose