Yeah, it got split up in two shows....which fucking kicked ass. "The Day at the Border" which was last Saturday, included the following:
Defaced
Soilwork
Carpathian Forest
Ministry
Hypocrisy
Children of Bodom
Nile
Dark Tranquility
Paradise Lost
H.I.M
Marylin Manson (why the fuck he was slotted, I have no idea, but he didn't play anyway cuz he was stuck in Germany...he has since rescheduled for next weekend)
The Gods of Metal were these:
Shaman
Saxon
Destruction
Queensryche
Motorhead
Whitesnake (headliner)
and a shitload of others that I missed because I was too fucked up from the day before to get out of bed to see...besides, I just wanted to see Destruction, Motorhead, Whitesnake, and Queensryche anyway.
Basically, it was a two day festival, with the first day death/black/thrash metal and the second day of 80s metal and classic metal. All in all, it was a fucking great weekend.
Yeah, so I get back to the after party at the Transylvania Pub, and who do I see? The entire band of Dark Tranquility headbanging on the dancefloor with all the rest of us to Master of Puppets. I'm drinking a beer and talking with this beautiful Italian girl I met at the show who knows the owner of this pub we're in, who also by the way got me in for free...VIP status, the works. She was so amazing, dammit...I hope everything works out. Oops, that was my outside voice/typing. I'll never date another American woman again...
Anyway, I look over after a bit and notice the entire band of Nile sitting right next to me. I go over to the bassist, shake his hand and tell him that they should have fucking headlined because they owned every band out there that night. He kinda looks at me funny and asks me if I'm an American, then of course I say yes and that I live in Italy. We talk for hours, drink beer together, talk about music, guitars, shows, just everything. The nicest, most polite, considerate, optimistic, good natured, and happy people I've ever met in my life...those guys in Nile. It just blew me away. Then I see Alexi and the rest of CoB walk in...my jaw drops to the floor, and so now I'm drinking with like three bands, headbanging with all the rest of them. Then the bassist for Dark Tranquility looks over at me when Creeping Death starts playing over the P.A., and all of us get on the dancefloor, hair going everywhere, heads banging, air guitar in hand, it was just too fucking cool. How cool is it to play air guitar with Dark Tranquility, then have the singer keep handing you free beer.
If that weren't cool enough, even MORE bands walk in. Paradise Lost, and then...my favorite...Hypocrisy. Peter Tatgtren walked right by me, started hanging out with us, drinking with us, just like it was no big deal. Everything was so relaxed. It got to the point where you didn't feel they were any different from anyone else, there was no status or fame or any of that shit there. It was just all of us hanging out with all the bands, jamming to some good music, drinking until the wee hours of the morning, shooting the shit all night long.
The next night wasn't nearly as good, but I got to hang out with Destruction and get pictures with them, drink with them, and shoot the shit with them as well. It was the best weekend of my life. I went to the coolest concert of my life...24 fucking hours of nothing but metal split over two days, then to meet all of my idols and influences who made me want to play guitar in the first place, and on top of all that, meet a gorgeous Italian beauty who I'm fucking crazy about. If I died tomorrow, I'd die the happiest man on earth. It was definitely the best night of my life.
