Update from Noctis

Sep 25, 2010 11:00

So far it's been a great trip.

Plane was delayed a bit but it was a quick 90 minutes once we were in the air.

Hung around the hotel a bit during the day and then met up with friends that night at hit Vern's, a bar down the street. It was open mic night, and yeah, some of the musicians were eh, but one, White Lightning I think it was was actually quite good. They did two sets, first was originals, the second being covers. They covered Iron Maiden, The Ramones and AC/DC. We closed out the bar and I ended up crashing a bit after 3am.

Yesterday I was up bright and early to walk to McDonald's for breakfast. At 10am went to get my photopass and wristband and ended up going to the conference. The conference was great. Sam Dunn, the fellow who made A Headbanger's Journey was there, so was Martin Atkins who is an amazing speaker (and is dizzy88's doppleganger). I hit a few of the panels, they fed us tasty food and even gave us beer at the end. Then, it was off to catch a shuttle to the venue.

Missed the first band, a local.

Second band, Viathyn, also locals were great musically but I couldn't dig on the vocals.

Then there was Root who totally blew me away. If you haven't heard of them, check them out!

Månegarm were absolutely amazing as I expected them to be. I had a blast in the photopit shooting and singing along. After I got out of the photopit I found a spot upfront at the barrier on the side and proceeded to continue singing along but with much added headbanging and horn throwing.

Incantation were alright, not really my thing though.

After I got out of the photopit for Incantation I headed down to the beer garden to grab a drink.

Then I went to hit Månegarm's meet and greet thing. While in the photopit for Incantation I was able to grab one of the left over setlists from Månegarm's set, so I went up and asked them to sign it. I also thanked them for coming back to North America and that their set was great. After they signed my setlist, Jan put out his hand for what I thought was me to shake, but instead he kissed the back of my hand. I know I must have blushed 3,000 shades of red since I could see it from the look on Jakob's face. Then I asked to get a photo with them, which they were kind enough to do. I think I literally bounced away from their table at the end of it all.

Then I killed time until Rotten Sound.

While waiting a friend said that a guy we met at Vern's Friday night was going to propose to his g/f from the stage during Rotten Sound's set. I made a quick beeline for the photopit to wait.

And sure enough, Rotten Sound took the stage, played one song, and then called Chris on stage. He called out Lindy in the crowd, had her come on stage, he pulled out the ringbox, kneeled and asked her to marry him. She did in fact say yes. It was most awesome.

I finished shooting the next two songs for Rotten Sound and went to catch the 11:30 shuttle back to the hotel. Unfortunately it was full with Månegarm and their gear and a couple other peeps. There was one empty seat but it was blocked by a guitar case. Jan offered to move it for me, but I said it was okay. It would have been a real pain for them to do so.

I ended up taking the train back to the hotel. Met up with friends, hit Vern's for a bit. I had one drink and was almost falling asleep to headed back to the hotel. Hit a hotdog vendor on the way, damn good food. Crashed out about 2am and am now awake and debating on breakfast.

Still a bit tired. Body totally sore. Can't wait to go back tonight.

I picked up two Månegarm shirts, short sleeve for me and a longsleeve for my friend Zach back home in Seattle. I also got their newest album. I was bad and downloaded it when it came out because I was too broke to buy it, so I was good and bought it here.

I think I might try and sleep a bit and turn that breakfast idea into lunch.

Oh, and just for good measure, me being a grinning idiot with Månegarm...


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