General discussion thread

http://www.formspring.me/Ktsunami

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While the show I saw wasn't quite as good of quality as the show that streamed online tonight, I'll post my thoughts anyway.

The show was at this little, semi run-down venue in an old building in the north side of Chicago. I'm from the south side so I wasn't that thrilled about going to the north side. But I had to! Epica requires sacrifices! (like missing four classes). We got to the venue a bit after the doors opened, but we still had to wait in a line inside. I think it took like 40 minutes to get inside. We were pretty near the end of the line so a lot of people got in before us. Then you had the people who spent 50 dollars to meet Epica, which I think is ridiculous! Maybe I'm just poor, but hell, how can you charge to let people meet you. Who do you think you are? nvm. Anyway, I did get a The Divine Conspiracy t-shirt!!! Now I can wear semi-nude Simone around<3

We got three opening bands. I'm assuming the first one was local but the other two are traveling with Epica, I think, or at least, they played tonight in WI with Epica too. The one good thing about metal opening acts is you can just headbang along with them and rock out without evening knowing their songs. I usually find opening acts annoying, but these weren't so bad. My mom really likes grunting so she was thrilled! She liked the second band Blackguard. I told her I pirate their cd...

One thing that really pisses me off is when two tall people stand in front of you. Like one was to my left and the other diagonally in front of me. I could not see anything. I was so pissed. I came to gawk at my sexy Dutch woman and GRRRR!!! I wanted to punch those tall people. It's not my fault I'm short. But anyway, the wait wasn't that painful. Usually, I hate going to concerts because it is sooo terrible waiting for your band to come on. It's not that I dislike opening acts....I just really like certain female singers.

Epica came on around 9ish. It all happened so quickly. They appeared one by one, and I just thought WHERE IS SIMONE<3? Then Simone appeared and I had to stand on my tippy toes to see her. Like the WI show they started with Resign to Surrender. I think Epica sounds a lot heavier live. Like all I heard was the noise of the instruments. Simone had to like scream to be heard over and even then, sometimes I couldn't tell if she was singing. I think our venue just sucked. But I should mention (like Epica says in the online stream) that we did have a mosh pit. My mom thought the people were fighting and she wanted to run. I was like HELLO, SEXY SIMONE<3 Beat each other up later!!! I think the moshing broke out at least three times...

Like I said earlier I didn't get that good of a view even though I was no further than like two people back. I did get ahead of one of the tall guys when Epica came on so I wasn't staring at heading, and toward the end, I did just stop rocking and just started staring at Simone. That woman is so amazing. She has this like golden red hair and perfect complexion. Like I have fucked up skin. I'm jealous. Plus she is like kinda tiny; I could just imagine huggling her. And I could just stare into her eyes all night...like I tried to. I couldn't hear what she was singing most of the time and I actually had trouble identifying a lot of their songs (a couple of lines gave most away though) They played Unleashed though so I was happy about that. Unleashed is like my third favorite. They played Sancta Terra is WI. That upset me. We did get Blank Infinity, which I love equally but still...ST comes right after my fav song on the album so I'm bias. It all happened so fast, I'll say again. I was just watching them, thinking about how awesome it was to see this band I've loved quite a bit for not that long of a time. For me that is usually what makes a concert--the amount seeing these people are real means to me. Seeing Simone...this woman that I dream about. I wrote a story about, okay. I love her. And there she was just singing, being adored by all the fans.

I was thinking, toward the end of the show that I want to be like Simone so much. Just imagine having all those adoring fans and living your dream. I'm hugely inspired. Simone had to start somewhere and I know it wasn't easy for her to get where she was. It gives me great hope that I can be a famous writer one day. I want to make people happy like that, make them cheer. It's a great feeling. I was so numb after we saw Epica. After it ended I just left and drove home...without my coat on. I just thought that I just saw Epica. I saw Simone. I heard their music and watched them headbang andscream for the audience to go crazy. but time passes so quickly, and I had to drive back into reality. I couldn't bring myself to listen to Epica until this morning because I didn't want to shatter this perfect image I had of them. Because despite the fact that the venue was rotten so the sound was bad and I wasn't front row, I saw perfection.

I'm rambling, but really it was a great experience. Totally worth missing class! My mom finally mastered (kinda sorta) how to make the metal horns. She was trying the whole night so she too could rock out! She made a lot of comments about how those guys were going to hurt their necks headbanging though...I'm proud. It was her second metal concert (Tarja being the first) I have some pictures, but they're cellphone and not that good. The important thing is I took them. I think I'm going to start a wall of pictures of my favorite people that I took--not that I just copied from the net. I'd have Tarja, Sharon and Simone<3 My heroes!!!

Here are the pictures! Like I said...not that good...











I TOOK PICTURES OF SIMONE<3 YIPPEEEEEE!!! Look how perfect she is<3 Just stunning

That's a very great review,Amy!I'm so happy for you! You had the chance to see Epica live<33.The only time thay came here was on 24th August 2008,but I couldn't go .I can only hope for 2011 thought.

And the pictures are pretty cool.They look great!

Congrats,Amy!

Sounds like you had a great time

Amy I'm so happy for you, it all sounds so amazing. And like I said it doesn;t matter how bad your pictures are they're still your memories And you got to see SIMONE <3333

It sounds like you had the most amazing time EVER! I'm so happy for you!

God I'm crying for the second time this day because of Epica. The love for them is becoming stronger and stronger!
Amy, I'm so happy for you that you saw them live! And Simone... She truly is perfect, I'm also in love with her so I know how you feel.
Well, I'm jealous too, I have to be honest. Still I truly don't know how I'd manage seeing them myself...

THANKS GUYS!!!

You will see them, Gosia!!! I share your love for Simone and seeing her will be worth your wait!!!

Did you watch the stream of them online? I saw it even though I saw them the day before! It was fun ^_^

Thank you <3
Of course I did watch it! The stream was blocking for me at some points, but still it was epic! Gonna watch the re-broadcast tonight as well, hopefully it'll be better as I get a faster internet connection on this computer.

I'm going to re-watch it too .It kept blocking for me at times too so I re-newed my browser,so hepefully,I will catch up everything.

I'm really happy you guys got to see the stream!!!

I just set up a formspring account http://www.formspring.me/LadyDraconian

So! I am in my hotel room--no, apartment. The place is HUGE. It's a 'resort', apparently...whatever that means. I am on my cousin Garrison's MacBook (thank GOD he's a Mac), using the free WiFi, and I'm feeling much better than I was in the car earlier.

The trip here was more eventful than I had hoped it would be. We almost got into three accidents. All of which were clearly the other drivers' faults...*cough* I was already finding myself having a continuous panic attack simply by -being- in a car, but it got worse every time I was sure I was going to end up in a hospital.

Garrison is playing his guitar on the couch a few feet from me, and I'm finding myself desperate to request he play Utopia. So, I'm gonna go join him in singing Beatles songs. But I wanted to check in with you guys.

With love and moldy muffins,
Andy

*huggles you up* Oh no , I've been huggling Andy Sheep trying to make sure you are ok. Have a good time there and a safe trip back <3 I miss you! and I love you <333

I hope you'll have a better journey back and that you enjoy the rest of your time there Andy! It's great to here from you!

Aww have a great time Andy! And a safe journey back! I actually miss you a lot on here!

So now I can get online I'll tell you all about London and HIM

First off I hate trains forever more so if I rant about them please understand. I've also been on 4 today So we get to Tamworth train station, this time we dont have to run to the train because we got there well in time There was quite a lot of people and these shitty London Midland trains didn't have 4 seaters with tables, or any seats with tables with pissed me off. I dont care if I only paid £5 and then you feel more uncomfortable talking when there's someone sitting with you. The journey's just over 2 hours and I got to see lots of sheep which made me smile. So we arrive at Euston and then try to direct ourselves to Kings Cross. Google maps are just shit though, they really are, for one I have no idea where is east or west and they take you the long way round. So luckily Dave has a Sat Nav on his phone so we decided to use that instead and it turns out Kings Cross is only 5 minutes away. Entering Kings Cross though we start to see that it is an absolute shithole and we may get stabbed loads of shops are just boarded up and it looks so run down. Then we spot our hotel but it took us a minute to realise it was a Travelodge and we we're like Please tell me thats not where we're staying! Anyways the rooms weren't too bad, but then again to me anything is better than EasyHotel that has no window! So yep I had a window, a kingsize bed, a good sized room, a chair, a goodsized bathroom but unlike described NO BATH and then I look at my view and realise I'm backed onto the train tracks and every 10 minutes you can hear the fucking trains go by. The view (as you will see) was not nice. But yeah I should stop complaining because it's way better than easyHotel.

As I was leaving to go down to Haz and Dave's room, Haz texts asking if I want chocolate so I run down she had chocolate and really cheap Champagne as it was Valentine's Day to share. Once we'd finnished that me and Dave decided to go get some drinks in and went out to go look in the Off Licsenses and little shops which we're all pretty grim and dismal. So I buy this bottle of wine because it £2.99 and about 15 minutes after we got back to the hotel I realise it has a cork in. And we have no corkscrew. So we asked at reception and they said ask at the bar and they didn't have a corkskrew. What hotel doesn't have a corkscrew!!! So after trying many ways, Dave got the corner of a wooden coat hanger and basked the cork down into the bottle and wine flew everywhere and Dave's there running around trying to find the towel because it blinded him and when he does get the towel Haz robs it off him to clean up and he's still squirming because he's blind whilst I'm just like Yay wine Poor Dave never gets our sympathy, we just laugh at him. So it gets to like half 5ish and we put out HIM tops on, which are the tickets, and head out to go to the gig. We went to look how much a single to Highbury and Islington was and you couldn't get one! You had to buy the day pass for £5.70. Now considering it's 1 stop away and a 3 minute journey, that is ridiculous! So we try to follow the google maps directions but it was raining so much and we just have no clue so we gave up and bought the ticket and got on the tube.

We had to queue up for over an hour because there really wasn’t much else to do. When we went to go in Linde and Mige were in the bar and you could see them through the windows and some crazy woman infront of us was hammering on the window and they ignored her and she just kept hammering on the window and then 2 boys were taking pictures and failing due to the flash We ended up like 7 or 8 rows back and got our picture taken by some HIM photographers and our pictures will end up on the website Only after the gig did Haz and Dave tell me that some guy had been staring at me for like half an hour and then sniffed my hair I got my hair sniffed by some perv. As there was no support we had to wait half an hour for HIM to come on and they only played an hour but it was AMAZING! I’m not a huge huge HIM fan and there’s a few songs I haven’t heard but I knew every song They started with Like St Valentine which is obvious, then Right Here In My Arms which is one of my favourites and then Rip Out The Wings Of A Butterfly. Amazing start!!! They played the popular ones like Join Me In Death, Poison Girl, Wicked Game, Buried Alive By Love and some good new songs like Katherine Wheel <333 for the Encore they played Funeral Of Hearts They played incredible and I thought the setlist was amazing, could have done with my favourites and Killing Loneliness! But my theory is they didn’t play it because it’s mine and Steph’s song and she wasn’t there As good as they were, Ville didn’t really speak too much, I think it’s just his Finnish nature, they do seem shy. With the exception of Marco but he’s always drunk on stage But yeah just an amazing gig. And I got to hear Finn’s speak which always makes me VERY happy! And I got to see a very sexy Finn sing me love songs (again) I loved it. It was good to see them all the way through. I’m just happy I got to hear Finns really It really was. And then we went out and kind of realised they wouldn’t come out to meet fans really so we went and got some food, which ended up as ice cream like why get ice cream at nearly 11pm in the freezing cold.

Back at the hotel we go to my room as it was at the end of the corridor and we could make more noise. We had a fair few drinks and my wine really wasn’t that bad for being £2.99. About 2am we wanted some food so me and Dave went in search and were amazed that shops were open at 2am on a SUNDAY! I know it’s London but still it’s a Sunday. I got a pain au chocolat and because it had been there all day he gave me a free doughnut!!!! NICE he should have known I was a bit too drunk to care what I was eating really. We just had a lot of fun at the hotel talking and drinking. Then when Haz and Dave left I was tidying up and just busying around for like an hour before I could sleep. Not that I got any sleep as those fucking trains were going past every 10 minutes.

First thing we do once leaving on Monday is go to Victoria Coach station to get our Megabus tickets. If you remember me telling you before we missed it back in March after Nightwish due to not getting our tickets as I thought the email was it. So we queue for half an hour and they tell us the conformation IS THE TICKET!!! WTF!!!! I HATE THE MEGABUS! Yeah so we go to Oxford Street where all the shops are. It is huge! I got a gorgeous necklace, ring and some stockings from H&M. The H&M in Sutton is pretty shit. Haz really wanted to go to the giant Primark and it took us 4 hours to find it!!!! It’s right right right at the end of the street. Past another tube station. I have never seen so many people in 1 shop in my entire life. It was chaos! Then it was time to go as we wanted to be at the Megabus real early! Pretty much all we did Monday was shop and we didn’t leave the hotel til nearly 12 so just shopping. Not much to say on that. We managed to get the 3 seater on the Megabus which was lucky. Just a long 3 hour trip back to Birmingham and then we went and sat in McDonalds til my dad came. It gave me much please to keep saying ‘fucking chicken nuggets’ ‘Have a fucking happy meal’ and ‘whopper’ I cant really explain it’s on a tv programme prank thing. It was a really great 2 days filled with Finns so I cant complain. Though I really have, I did really love it though. You know I cant go to London without some drama. Ha! No I really cant. Wow.

If you've managed to read this then I love you

My view really was grim:


A FUCKING WINDOW!






Before going:


Us and our tops:


2 and a half hours is a long time to wait:







HIM:









He later spilt beer on my top!


Mug of wine




I couldn't sleep


So I read the bible


Look how horrible my view is!


Dave got this ring stuck on his finger for 20 minutes


LOOKY

Lol, Kellie, thanks for the review/story! It's always interesting and fun to read the stuff that you do throughout like the day. And nice pictures as well, and the hotel's not that bad either.

"I couldn't sleep...so I read the Bible"

Quote :

It gave me much please to keep saying ‘fucking chicken nuggets’ ‘Have a fucking happy meal’ and ‘whopper’ I cant really explain

I know! I know! NEG from Balls Of Steel and his Urban Sports! Love it!

Gawd, it sounds like you had an amazing time and the pics are so awesome! The name of the that pub! And there's a clothes store named Utopia!

^ Yep! It was on Sunday night and Neg is my favourite

Thanks both of you I appreciate you reading it

Gods, I love reading reviews <33 You had a wonderful time! *is jealous* All them sexy Finns!!
...And the pub Hahaha!

It was fun to read it all, Kellie!
Glad you had a nice time. And the pics are simply awesome, some of them made me really laugh.

Thanks I'm so happy you guys are interested

Sounds pretty awesome except for the HIM part. I'm glad you had fun, mon cherie. <3

That looked like it was amazing Kellie! I'm glad you had so much fun <3333


On a side note, just saying goodbye for a little while to you all
I'm gonna take some time away from forums and drama and craziness, and not be on the computer as much. So I wont be around all too often posting and what not

But you should still be afraid Kellie! Because your little 'surprise" will be here soon And I'll be back when it is so I know where to send it

Love you all <3333

~ Rynne ~