It was a fantastic long weekend.
WED:
It was great to see mindcrime on wed night and fun to go up and sing a song with them. I was really tired though and looking forward to the next day, so as soon as I got off stage I headed right back to the room.
THURS:
We got to centerstage so early for sound check, but it was cool to just hang out there for awhile. After sound check and food I got to head over to Crimson Glory's hotel room for some rehersals. Jon and Danae were so freakin nice and it was fun to rehearse in that setting with so many awesome musicians just hanging around. After a couple run throughs I headed back to the hotel to kind of chill out before the show, but started freaking out when I had forgotten all my shirts at the other hotel. Thank god they put them aside and some of the guys were about to grab them. Having a dressing room to ourselves was awesome (unlike Europe when we got kicked out because Wolverine decided they could go in early and lock us out). Future's End was fun and Fred was fantastic after the show to drink some beer with. I'm pretty sure I pissed about 30 times in the 30 minutes before the show. I felt like the show went really well...I was more comfortable on stage than I've ever been, but that's probably why people said I was obnoxious. I'm not used to feeling that good on stage, but I guess that's what being prepared feels like. I'll work on my stage show so I'm not such an ass next time...
After the show we pounded some beer and enjoyed the hell out of Primal Fear! They were incredible and certainly my favorite band of the weekend. More beer...and then bed eventually that night.
FRI:
Hung out with the folks during the day and just kind of waited until things got going that night. Watched most of the bands in and out and just chilled out until Crimson time. While Royal Hunt was on hung out backstage with Chris Salinas and Kelly Sundown Carpenter. I felt very out of place back there...especially when Nils Rue came downstairs. I don't know if I'll ever stop being a fanboy when certain people come around. Anyways...first crimson song wnet off pretty well. I was just getting my real groove on when the second song had a glitch. I won't get into it, but we got back on track and finished the song strong. I like that I read a review about that song that it was a highlight, but they only mentioned the other guy who was singing. I guess I'm easy to forget
Partied until 6:30 in the morning...enough said.
SAT:
Stumbled out of bed to meet up with a friend for lunch. April hurt her back at this time so as soon as we finished we headed over to the hospital. Made sure we got April back home and hung out in the room a bit at that point. My throat started hurting because the steroids wore off, but I didn't care and went to see Pagan's Mind. They weren't quite as good as their PP Europe show, but they still kicked ass. Went and got food during a set I didn't care to see and made it back for Fates Warning. I expected a little more upbeat set from them, but they were still awsome. I think my body wore out at this point and even though I wanted to go back to the Artmore and party, my body had other plans. We ended up hanging out in the room playing cards and a wonderful game of throw shit into the corner (best game of the weekend).
SUN:
got up (somehow) and made it to the airport. Landed in Newark after a bumpy flight and felt sad that people didn't know who I was when I was walking aorund anymore...
Summary:
IT ROCKED...wish every weekend was like that. thanks to everyone who made it so special.
Clay
