In a word, amazing. I got there at like 2:30 cause the website said doors open at 2:15; they didn't actually open until 3 or so. A news article later said there was some mixup about the stages or something, so pretty good I guess. I lined up in front of some gothed up people and my mom called me all worried. They were pretty nice though, so it was all cools. So I get in there and I'm pretty early and there's some band I'd never heard of (Carpenter, apparently from Vancouver or something) playing on the small stage - this is in Pacific Coliseum; the small stage was on one side of the arena and the main stage on the other. There were a bunch of people waiting by the main stage and that seemed like a smart idea so that's what I did too.
And shit, did it pay off! In a few hours, I was 10 feet from some of my favorite musicians, ever. It was a bit mind blowing, along the lines of HOLYSHITTHEYLOOKJUSTLIKEINTHEMUSICVIDEOSANDINTERVIEWSLOL.
But I'm jumping ahead of myself. So I'm standing at the opposite end of the arena from the small stage, and then I hear some guys go holy shit and point to my left. And who else is there, but Corey motherfuckin Taylor, rocking out to the band playing (at this point Hail the Villain I think. A pretty great band, even with the small crowd (people hadn't arrived yet), they definitely got people moving and jumping and moshing).
And my god did I spazz. At first I wasn't sure what to do; I didn't want to bother the dude! But fuck that, I wanted to get shit signed, and get shit signed I did. He signed "S T N" though, so idk what's that sposed to be. The S could also kinda look like a C so "Corey Taylor...nig? noob?" LOL I don't know. But yeah, I got him to sign a tee I brought, and then other fans started noticing and getting him to sign shit. And then people started talking pictures with him and I was like, shit, I brought a camera for a reason! So I got some random dude to take a picture of me and him and my god it was epic. It's a shame that I was too starstruck cause otherwise I would've talked more to him or something. Ask about the upcoming music video, I dunno. I think I kinda annoyed him cause I yelled his name a few times cause the band was loud and he was turned away from me, but oh well. Oops. Here's the shot:
I know, I look retarded.
So that was mildly amazing. And if you don't know, Corey Taylor is like my favorite musician, ever, hands down, period. Well, favorite single person musician, anyways, favorite band has to go to Avenged Sevenfold. Anyways, the small stage bands came and went, and then before I knew it, Hellyeah took the main stage. I don't know much about them besides that they're a kind of mix between southern/Country ish sound, and heavy screaming metal. And that they're a supergroup of like 5 different ubermusicians from famous bands, like Pantera and whatever. Famously, Vinnie Paul, whose brother was Dimebag Darrell, the guitarist for Pantera, which was one of those legendary metal bands. Dimebag Darrell was shot by an insane (medically, I think) fan a few years ago during a concert. But yeah, they were pretty kickass and got the whole crowd whipped up in a frenzy for the other bands. I didn't really know any of their songs but it's hard not to get moving when they're on stage. Actually, they were like, "this is a fucking party, and all you people not on the floor, just cause they put a chair under your ass, doesn't mean you fucking sit at a party!". So, yeah, got people up and moving. This is them:
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So after about 40 minutes of kickass, Hellyeah left the stage and Halestorm took over. The main interesting thing about them is that their singer is the only chick on the entire tour. That, and they were pretty damn awesome - she had a huge voice and had the crowd around her finger the entire time. And their drummer was totally insane, he was dressed in some pirate/skull kinda outfit, which he took off after their first song. And the entire set, he was just full of caffeinated energy, putting his feet up on his cymbals and playing like that, smashing cymbal stands, using three-foot-long drum sticks, drum soloing, everything. So while not quite the same brand of kick ass metal as Hellyeah, definitely they were tons of fun as well:  |
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| I really, really, really fucking hate this guy's head. Why does he have to be 7 feet tall?!?!?!?! |
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| MOTHERFUCKING TALL HEADPIECEOFSHITASDSAIDJALAJDNERDRAGE |
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| oh yes, this was pretty cool. They all got out trash cans and did a group drum thing, it was pretty cool. |
So, while Halestorm was tons of fun, there was just one thing holding me back from really being able to enjoy them: the entire time, I could only think of one thing. After this song, or the one after that, it'd be time for Corey motherfucking Taylor to take the stage with Stone Sour. And christ, did they take the stage when they got up there. Their set can be summed up by Corey's first words to the crowd: "GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS IN THE AIR". Corey and company were full of energy, probably the most of any band up there that night, and shit was it infectious. Nobody stopped bouncing or fist pumping, and everybody was singing alongside Corey Taylor on just about every song. It was fucking awesome.
Getting onstage
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| "Who here tonight, this is your first ever Stone Sour concert? Well we just popped your cherry" |
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| Corey on the acoustic for the intro to Through Glass |
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| YOUFUCKINGPIECEOFSHITSECURITYGUARDGETYOURGODDAMNHEADOUTOFTHEWAYHOLYSHITJESUSCHRIST So, yeah. I took a picture or two during the course of their set. And they were so full of energy that it wasn't until their set ended that I remembered: up next, was Avenged Sevenfold. The reason I was there, the reason I even listen to metal today, my favorite band ever, in a matter of minutes, would be right in front of me. Of course, they had to take fucking forever with the set changes - their stage setup needed a lot of setting up. It started off with...well, I'll show that later, picture works out better. But my god, when that piano intro from Nightmare started playing, me and over ten thousand other people flipped the fuck out. And while they couldn't match Corey Taylor's beasting all over the stage, they definitely were the best performance of the night in my opinion. I'm a bit biased, but still. M Shadows was still pretty damn energetic and he had this sort of larger-than-life aura going on, maybe it was the way he walked or something, but hell, he owned the crowd. And nobody else's guitar solos that night, or instruments at all really, came close to the performance put out by Avenged. Their guitar solos were amazing, and the few times Synyster Gates played a solo closer to me, his fingers were moving faster than my eyes could follow. It was incredible. It was also a somber thing - it was their first (and maybe even last) tour without their original drummer, stage name: The Rev, who died last year, and so when it was time to play So Far Away, which guitarist Syn Gates wrote as an open letter (lyrically speaking) to The Rev, the backdrop changed to that of a picture of The Rev huddled with the other bandmates, while M Shadows talked about what the past 9 months had been like, and what The Rev meant to them. It was pretty somber, and also an incredible sight, seeing ten thousand cellphones and lighters in the air. Nevertheless, they still kicked ass, and followed So Far Away with Afterlife, the first metal song I'd ever heard, and the reason I listen to metal (specifically). It was amazing. Their heavy songs live were about 500x more full of asskickery than on the album, there's no comparison at all.  NIGHTMAREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! / Now your nightmare comes to liiiiifeeee (8)  Dragged ya down below, down to the devil's show |
To be his guest forever (peace of mind is less than never!)
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| Hate to twist your mind, but God ain't on your side |
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| An old acquaintance severed (burn the world your last endeavour!) |
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| Flesh is burning you can smell it in the air cause men like you have such an easy soul to steal |
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| So stand in line while they ink numbers in your head, you're now a slave until the end of time here |
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| Nothing stops the madness turning, haunting, yearning, pull the trigger! |
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You should have knownnnnnnn, the price of evillllll, and it hurts to know that you belong here, yeahhhh Oooohhh, it's your fuckin' nightmareeeee!  security guy, I know you have a job and all to do, but FUCKYOUHOLYSHITBALLS   Trademark Avenged Sevenfold guitar solo pose             Roasting a marshmellow  ...and feeding the fans        Might I add that at this point, blogspot fucking crashed (Okay, I did have about 40 tabs of pictures open, but fuckin still!), so I have to rewrite the Stone Sour blurb and repost a bunch of shit. But anyways, at this point in the concert I started feeling like how I'm feeling now - a bit feverish/headache and wanting to go home (okay, I want to go to bed right now, but same shit). But yeah, up next was Disturbed, and while I liked some of their songs okay, I wasn't a huuuuuge fan, and half the songs I didn't know. That and I didn't want to sit - stand - through another hour+ of music, and it did end up being bassfuckingHEAVY, which didn't help the headache. On the other hand though, the crowd went even crazier for Disturbed than any other band before them, so it was still pretty fun regardless. Asylum, Indestructible, Another Way to Die, Ten Thousand Fists, and most notably Down with the Sickness got people the fuck up, got fists all the way up. The latter song I'd heard before but never really liked it till I heard it life - it kicks copious amounts of ass. The only thing was, I feel like the insanity during Disturbed was more due to the crowd being insane for them than Disturbed themselves - their music playing wasn't as phenomenal as Avenged before them, and none of them had the same energy as the previous two bands - they just kinda walked around on stage. So it felt like they were kind of taking their headliner role for granted, but, meh. In the end, it was still pretty good music and tons of fun, so no real complaints I guess.              From a photography standpoint, this was a pretty educational thing for me. Basically, if you can get up close, a 40mm lens will do just fine. I was right up against the fence, so that counts as right up close to me. And basically, red light will make you want to kill yourself, and even though it's different colors of lights flashing all the time, generally speaking the actual brightness is going to be the same, so a lot of the time you don't even really have to touch the exposure settings, and just focus on getting the shot. And next time bring manheels or some bullshit in case there's FUCKING SEVEN FEET TALL GODDAMN SECURITY GUARDS in front of you. Just saying. Though, at times I do have to say that I kind of regretted bringing a camera - it was a bit too much ZOMG EPIC POSE GET THE SHOT and not quite enough ZOMG ROCK THE FUCK OUT \M/ kinda thing. But either way, the night was unforgettable, incredible, tons of fun. Rockstar Uproar 2011? Fuck yes. No matter how many times I try, blogspot refuses to use a smaller font. Live with it. |
