Fortress Tour 2013 - 22/10/13

I think it was obvious to anyone who saw me in person or that had some visibility of my online presence that I was over the top excited for the Fortress Tour 2013. I don’t see how you couldn’t be excited: first off there was Halestorm – I have the biggest girl crush on Lzzy Hale, I think she is pure perfection and I would give anything for a day with her. Second – Alter Bridge were headlining, this meant amazing people, amazing music and let’s be honest, Mark Tremonti’s guitar skills are enough to do strange things to a girls ovaries. But the best thing for me, the thing that really did make my heart flutter was that I was finally going to see my all-time favourite band – Shinedown.

I didn’t want to miss out on anything so I took a few days off work, and myself and a friend travelled to Manchester on Monday night and stopped in the Holiday Inn Express until early Wednesday morning – the first mistake was letting me be in control of the map, I’m not very good at navigating around Manchester in the dark. But after a 15 minute walk we made it. The hotel was super lovely and the people that worked there were amazing, they really couldn’t have been more helpful and the rooms were gorgeous. I was in love with my walk in shower, the shower was awesome. But anyway, let’s not get into too much detail about my hotel room – not the time (though I do recommend The Holiday Inn Express in Manchester Centre if you ever want a cheap little get away / somewhere to stop over)

            After a day wondering around shops and being reunited with my beloved bobo tea, it finally hit the time to go and get to the arena. Being lazy and looking at the weather forecast, I suggested a taxi (even the guy behind the front desk was a little taken aback when I asked for a taxi number, he replied with ‘oh…it’s…um…really not that far’). Though it was a good call because it absolutely chucked it down just after we left. We bumped into a couple in the lobby who were wearing Tremonti/Alter Bridge merch, so offered them a taxi share after over hearing their talk on walking. It’s such a nice thing to experience people that have such close interests and have similar tastes, so much so that getting into a taxi with complete strangers didn’t feel awkward at all. The female even offered to pay the £3 taxi fare for our kind offer for the lift – see this is one of the reasons I’m into the music that I am, it’s a weird connection between fans that you just don’t get with mainstream music.

            When we got into the arena, I went absolutely crazy on the merch stalls. I bought myself an Alter Bride long sleeve sweater, a Shinedown shirt, guitar picks, a shirt for my friend – gig’s all in all put you ridiculously out of pocket! But I don’t care, I treasure them completely.

            A family (mum, dad and son) were in front of us and we instantly got chatting. They asked if we knew anything about the supporting bands – they had obviously come just for Alter Bridge. After expressing my love for Shinedown, we waited for the verdict after each set. After Halestorm played, they turned to us and gave an appreciative head nod and a ‘not bad, not bad’ kind of response. But after Shinedown: ‘THEY WERE FUCKING AWESOME. I DON’T KNOW HOW I’VE NOT LISTENED TO THEM BEFORE. YOU WERE RIGHT, I CAN SEE WHY THEY’RE YOUR FAVOURITE. THAT FRONT MAN IS A PROPPER SHOWMAN ISN’T HE’. It was like a sense of pride just washed over me. Its so lively when people appreciate your favourite things. And yes, Mr Smith is one heck of a Showman and one hell of an inspirational speaker.

            Jumping back a little here, but to Halestorm’s set, they started off with ‘love bites-so do I’ which was fantastic. I’d been singing it all day around the shopping centres so it was such an unreal experience to go from mumbling it to myself then to having Lzzy Hale screaming it back at me. As amazing as Halestorm was, with an incredible drum solo mid performance, nothing made me more excited that when they started the set up for Shinedown to come on. I was practically buzzing and I couldn’t stay still.

couldn't get over the amount of people
who share the same passion

            Then it happened. On they came. My heart could have imploded there and then. The best thing is that they sound the exact same live as they do on a recording. One of my unfeasible wishes is to have Brent Smith sing me to sleep every night, because golly gosh is that man’s voice a thing of the gods, but after hear him speak…it’s now a dream to have him just talk to me…all day. I felt so inspired. Everything he said had so much meaning and heart…I found part of his speech on tumblr, he changed it a little from venue to venue but here’s the gist:

So, why are we all here tonight? For the music, for the songs. See, the way we look at it is there are so many different genres of music all over the world, so many different styles. But, you see, it’s never gonna stray too far from drums, bass, guitar, badass vocals and a killer song, am I right? You see, what I’m talking about is the beauty of rock and roll.

Think about how many times rock and roll has been there for you when you needed it most; when the world and everything in it, and everyone in it, didn’t just quite understand who you were and where you were coming from. What were those songs that lifted you up? That made you feel alive again? What were those songs that made you want to fight?

Now, you see, when someone tells you that rock and roll is just a genre of music, you say, ‘No, my friend, no. Rock and roll is a way of life.’ ”

I remember him adding: there’s something in the room right now. You can’t touch it, see it, you can’t smell it or even hear it. But it’s there, and it’s in each one of us. Its love my friends. It’s pride. It’s strength, it’s hope, IT’S HONOR! IT’S ROCK AND ROLL. AND IT’S A WAY OF LIFE. Every one of us has this, you are never alone.’ And it was so god damn passionate that you couldn’t do anything but cheer and I swear to god I almost cried. It’s that kind of emotion that I’m talking about right there.

                I was incredibly jealous of the girls at the barriers for when Brent decided to hand out roses. With special little comments like ‘oh I do love a red head, here you go sweet heart’ and ‘you, don’t be shy, come closer. Has anyone told you that you look beautiful tonight? I think you look absolutely stunning. Would you like a rose?’. His way with words is phenomenal. It’s gotten to the point where I think I should stop because I’ve rambled on so much about complete nonsense because I just can’t articulate the way I felt that night.

                Oh, one other thing was it inspired me to start making music again. My guitar has finally come of its corner and started to be played again. I’m even looking into getting myself a Custom PRS Tremonti - which if everything goes to plan, I will be able to order on the 15^th. 

Deaf Havana - live in Manc, CD signing

Today I met the heroes of which make up Deaf Havana. Had a brilliant time so thought, hey…what not blog.
 

                So the day started out getting up later than planned (having the day off work= instant refusal to get out of bed before 9:30am) and catching the train into Manchester Victoria. I’ve been looking forward to this day for some time but it never even registered in my head that ‘hey Carys, you don’t know Manchester at all, why not look up the address’… but luckily the extremely chatty man in Starbucks gave me wonderful directions (I don’t do directions well at all – or maps – so well done Starbucks man!)

            After getting to HMV way too early, the time between then and the acoustic set was spent buying headphones, drinking bobo tea and meeting up with people who are going to Uni in the city – all in all pretty productive, but let’s move on. We returned back to HVM at half past four to try miss the flow of traffic that would be turning up at five and queued for a half hour. One of the greatest things I found about people who listen to Deaf Havana is that they’re so friendly. I didn’t meet one rotten person in the que/inside. Everyone was lovely and helped each other out (a big thank you to Aiden who let me stand in front of him so I could see). Going in alone was the most terrifying thought but I met two other people on their own and we stuck together and chatted as though we had met before. Lovely!

                To get in, you basically used Deaf Havana’s new CD (Old Souls) sort of like a ticket, you showed that you had it on the door and went into the little staging area. It was such a cute little space so the acoustic set really did feel pretty intermit. I absolutely fell in love with James Veck-Gilodi’s stage presence just by the way he talked between songs.

                Happy to say I have a few half decent pictures and videoed a few songs. You can really tell when my arm starts to go dead in all the video’s I recorded, but the achey arm was definitely worth it to get a little memento – especially seen as they played one of my favourites (Hunstanton Pier).

                The signing was great, my cd case now looks all decorated. And talking to the guys while getting it signed was wonderful. I love when bands really interact with their fans and they really did seem so humbled by the amount of people who actually came to buy their album. It’s always refreshing to see that people still care about the music they produce and about those that listen to it.

I’m glad I didn’t say anything too awkward, though. I’ve met guys from bands before and blurted out the uttermost bollocks that has just pooped into my head. The most I said was ‘I really don’t know how to talk to you, little awkward’, in which James responded ‘HEY ME TOO! Hence my ramblings between song just now’. I politely asked to take pictures and BOOM, the day was over.

           The Ringmaster Festival of which I was going to for my birthday got cancelled this week so I’m really glad I managed to get to see Deaf Havana today (seen as they were in the line-up for next Friday). All in all, pretty happy.

Comic-con!

Seen as I’ve been a little bit slack on the posting front just lately, I thought I’d ease my way back in with something that’s a tad bit more visual (I TOOK LOTS OF PHOTOSSSSS). On Saturday the 20^th , I went to MCM Expo - Manchester Comic-con.  So yea, that means picture, upon picture, upon picture. I’ll have a wonder through my favourites and post them up here.

                This would be a good opportunity to do ‘a day in the life of’ so here’s how my day went. It started off with a 4:30am start in a friend’s apartment in Leeds  - I was stupid enough to go out the night before, forget my key, miss my train and have to end up sleeping over. Clever Carys! In order to get home in time to get showered, grab my stuff and get in my cosplay…I’d have to reach home by seven, latest. I didn’t fancy showering where I was seen as sleeping beauty (aka: friend) hadn’t been sleeping well so I didn’t want to keep him up longer than I had to.

                The journey to the train station was an interesting one. It’s a 10-15 minute walk away from the apartment building so I set off in good time to have a nice leisurely wonder through the cool early morning (it’s been roasting in England just lately, so the cool morning was much appreciated). On my way I met a few people, obviously still up from the night before with the girls in short dresses and the guys all suited and booted. I remember one set of people carrying a large bakers tray and offering me fresh bread… and another dancing in the street just outside the train station, insisting on high fiving every person that walked past. Only in Leeds, eh?

                The train ride home was un-eventful other than meeting a guy, who I think said his name was Callum from Pudsey, who gave me a red fabric flower and talked to me about tattoos all the way home. What a nice guy. I hopped in a taxi once reaching the train station and got home, only to be locked out for a further hour. I expected someone to be up and about for work at 7 but no such luck. So I sat on the doorstep, staring at my open bedroom window and fantasised about how nice it would be to be able to scale the side of buildings, or be agile enough to climb the drainpipe that was a meter or so away from my room. After contemplation, I decided to take the leap and do something that I knew would only infuriate my mother...I rang the house phone *dramatic music*

                After a passing the thunderous expression of my tired mother, I got a quick shower, gathered my stuff and shoved on my onsie – it was far too late to get my cosplay sorted out now, I’ll get ready with Axis (who I was going to comicon with). Bless the guy, he had straighteners and a mirror all set out for me, ready for me to do a quick change and sort out my make-up. And after the dash to get us both somewhat ready, off back to the trainstation where I had been a few hours earlier, to get the train to Manchester.

                Arriving at the Comic-con location was unreal. I remember sitting in Starbucks as we waited for Chibbi to get her joker cosplay together and just having all my childhood hero’s wonder in and grab a latte. First came The Doctor – doctor who, then in came Cloud  -  FFVii and past the window were ridiculous amounts of games characters that I used to play as from the ages of  5 – 17. It was fantastic! I basically spent the whole day pointing and squeaking excitedly every now and again. That’s enough writing I think, the rest of my day included a two hour queuing session to get into the hall, jumping on well-made cosplayers, and  snapping away with my camera.