So after a day out with Kristina prior to the concert we met up with two of her friends right before out went out for supper. Both of her friends, Garett (I might be spelling that wrong) and Travis were really nice and very welcoming; although we didn’t have much in common other than Kristina.
We went out to a local cafe on the same block (I’d been before; it’s a nice place – kinda styled to be like an old fashioned Diner). Kristina got stew, Garett got Fish & Chips, Travis went with fries and a coke, and I couldn’t resist breakfast for supper; so toast, eggs, hash browns, and a cup of EG. Obviously this was not the most quality EG blend – but it was good enough for the situation, and I wasn’t expecting top class from the restaurant anyway. I’ve learned not to do that.
Kristina’s friend Garett very kindly paid for all of our food, which just blew me away. It was a really, really nice gesture. And then, after that we headed off to the show. We got there at about 7:30PM, but the band didn’t actually start playing until like 9:30 – so for a while we just kinda hung out and talked, and everyone checked out the band merchandise.
Travis actually ended up paying for my ticket to the show since he hadn’t had to pay for his supper (I felt like everyone was being really nice ‘cause I was so uncomfortable and out of my depth just being there), but then because he’d done that he didn’t have the cash to get the band shirt he wanted – so I paid for that since I hadn’t had to pay for a thing all night at this point. I didn’t mind doing it ‘cause even if I didn’t enjoy the style of music we were seeing so much, everyone else did – and only a cut of ticket sales goes to the band; but merch. goes straight to them so probably the best way to support ’em.
We met up later with Kristina’s cousin; he seemed nice and really intellectual. He’s from Regina, like Kristina and I, but just recently moved to Saskatoon. Once the music really got going they all migrated up to the front of the stage, but I stayed and hung out at the back – and proceeded to drink, a lot. From about 10:00PM to 2:00AM when the concert ended, I had a constant stream of Fuzzy Navels in front of me. Kristina originally offered to hang out with me sitting down, but I know that’s not her thing so I insisted she go head bang right up at the front of the stage like I knew she wanted to do.
That’s just not me; even if this hadn’t of been a Metal Concert I’ve never been that person who wants to get up close and personal with the band; I much prefer to sit back and do my own thing. But as it was, the concert was a Metal one and most of it just sounded very loud and like screaming to me, but with a pretty good beat overall. It got better the more alcohol was in my system, that’s for sure.
For a while there was a moshpit going; basically everyone I was with was in it. It was small, but intense. Kristina ended up bruised pretty well everywhere from the waist down (like deep, intense bruises), Garett had this MASSIVE red bruise right between his eyes, and Travis wound up with this huge gouge under his right eyes and a killer black eye as well (it was already starting to go super purple and look swollen at the end of the night). Plus it was of course very, very loud. There would be moments between songs or when bands were switching over (five people played) where no music was going, and everything had that half/deaf tunnel sound – if I could hear at all. Some moments I was pretty much totally deaf (and I was at the very far back of the club); can’t imagine what it was like up front. And they were all just so happy about it.
I have to say though, out of everything last night there was a pretty awesome moment when the headlining band played something I recognized! Here’s the link to it on Youtube, so you can all enjoy it too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeRZ7fqUp9g
Again, nothing against Metal music AT ALL but man that’s not my kind of thing. Though if I learned anything, it was that Metal Heads are super, super welcoming to Newbs like me, and really nice people. Lots of people can get snobby or protective about their music, but they were all like “Hey, Welcome! Come on in – here’s what’s going down tonight! Get involved and love it!”.
… And after all that we went home to my place where we promptly fell asleep ’cause Kristina was coming off her Adrenaline rush and I had to be at work in six hours. Blah.
Sounds like a blast!! well except for the bruising part. You have good friends :)
**Under his right eye; he does not have multiple right eyes.