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Friday, October 8, 2010

A Concert Review

Surfer Pirate and I are going to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary in 9 days. Shortly before we moved to North Dakota, we heard about a great concert that was going to be happening this month. It was eventually decided that since the concert was only 2 weeks before our anniversary, we would make that our gift to each other. It was also going to be our first chance to get away - just the two of us - since we've moved.

So, Sunday, we got in the truck and drove for a few hours to get to the concert venue. We picked up our tickets in Will-Call and went to check into our motel room. I changed into my concert attire: jeans, a long sleeved black t-shirt with the t-shirt shown here over the top. We went back to the venue, paid for parking, and were trying to find a good parking spot when I realized I had left the tickets in my purse - back in the motel. Thankfully, they gave us a ticket for the parking lot, so we were able to leave and come back without having to pay for parking again. But I felt pretty dumb.

There were technically two concerts going on. One was during the afternoon outside. Then the rest would be inside. We missed most of the outdoor part, but we did catch a group from Texas called Hell Yeah. Surfer Pirate and I were both pretty impressed with them. We'll have to pick up some of their music.

The first group is one that Surfer Pirate and I were both really familiar with (although he was very familiar with all the groups). Halestorm, as led by the very talented Lzzy Hale (and yes, that is how her name is spelled). I was really looking forward to seeing them live, but I was in no way prepared for how amazing that would be! Before she even stepped out on stage, Lzzy let loose with the longest notes I think I've ever heard! I knew she could sing, but holy cow! She is AMAZING!! The whole group is really good, but her brother (Arejay) is about as good as his sister. He's a very impressive drummer. I have to admit I have a little crush on him now. If you get the chance to see them perform live, I highly recommend it.

Next up was Stone Sour. I haven't really listened to them before, so I didn't know any of their songs. They were good, but I wouldn't say I'm going to be a fan of theirs anytime soon. Surfer Pirate really enjoyed them.

Avenged Sevenfold was third in line. There was quite a bit of set-up with the curtain down before they came on. Let me tell you, it was worth the wait!! They had a backdrop of an old assylum (although I thought it was a haunted house at first). There was an old Gothic looking fence with fire coming out of the pillars. To start off the drama, a guy hung himself off the scaffolding at the top of the stage (he had a safety harness on, but I was a little concerned when he jumped off because the scaffolding fell a little - he was fine). He hung there through the whole first song, which was about 5 minutes long. To start the first song, the lead singer started by playing a very creepy organ. It all made the Halloween-lover in me VERY happy! Their music was really good, the theatrics kept going, and they did a very touching tribute to their late drummer Jim Sullivan, who died last December. I would definitely see them again if I got the chance.

Last, but definitely not least was one of my very favorites - Disturbed. If you're not familiar with them, the lead singer David Draiman has one of the most interesting singing voices I've ever heard. It's very choppy, and I was really looking forward to seeing him do that in person. Their show wasn't nearly as theatric as Avenged, but it was just as interesting. They had screens up behind them, and had all kinds of different things going on with the screens. They started with a clip from one of their videos (at least I think I've seen it before in a video), and there was fire and interesting swirled graphic designs, and all kinds of things. Sadly, after a very long tour schedule (we saw the 2nd to last night), David was coming close to losing his voice. The cool sound effects and screams that he does all worked just fine, but there were a couple places where he even had to change pitch in order to get through the song when he was harmonizing. But all in all, they were amazing, and I loved every minute of it.

Surfer Pirate and I both left the concert without much of a voice from singing along to our favorite songs.

The sound system at the venue was really impressive. We were seated facing the stage straight on, in the 4th row. We made sure to be in the seating area, away from where everyone was standing (anywhere else, there probably would have been a big mosh pit, but apparently it's not a big thing to do here in ND). The sound system was so good that the seats vibrated and rattled with the music. So the question you may be wondering is how did the baby deal with the music? Apparently the baby loved it because it was ALL OVER the place! Bouncing around and kicking. It was like the baby was slam dancing, or having its own little mosh pit inside of me. It was pretty fun.

All in all, we had a wonderful time, and it was a very good choice for our anniversary celebration.

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