Wow. My blog has died.

Oh well. I'll just pretend like I didn't notice.

      This past Saturday night, a fellow classmate of mine and I had the privilege of taking a trip down to Hollywood to see our English professor perform in a stand-up comedy show. Our prof picked me up at 9:30, we picked up my classmate at her house at 10, and then we all went down to Hollywood together for the midnight show.
      None of us knew what to expect, but the show was excellent. There was a band called Common Rotation that opened and closed the show (I recommend checking them out. You can find some of their songs on YouTube). They used none of the conventional instruments you'd commonly associate with a band: they used banjo, acoustic guitar, cello, piano, trumpet, harmonica, harpsichord, and ukulele, and they were amazing. Several other acts took place, including two women with a comedic "Take Back the Earth" shpeel, a comedian who argued comically that we had to "save the elephants," and a young man who played guitar and harmonica and sang songs about the girls who had left him. There was a brief DVD presentation on Sociology, the most significant phrase I took away from that being "the allness of all." My prof performed some poems that he'd written, and they turned out to be highly amusing. All in all, it was a great show and a great experience.

  Ok, here's where I finally sit down and attempt to write something coherent that expresses the absolute thrill that was the Nightwish concert I attended this past Thursday. Although I fear words will not do it justice in any sense of the word, I shall do my best to capture the magic I experienced.
  First came the waiting in line. I don't know how many hours of his/her life a human being spends standing in line, but it didn't matter: this was a line I would have gladly stood in for days, because I knew that at the end of it was my favorite band of all time. Our little party numbered 11: Megan, Jenna, Ryan, and their dad; Jeremiah and Taylor; Shawn; Chris; Gabe; and Chris's friend (Matt, I believe his name was). Within the first half-hour of being in line my face hurt from laughing and smiling so much...Chris kept us well-entertained. In the background of the parking lot we were standing in stood a blue and white bus. I had been pre-informed that this bus belonged to the Nightwish crew. Soon we began to see feet walking around from the little space we could see between the bottom of the bus and the ground. Then came the sounds of a basketball being dribbled. We looked at each other and went "I think Nightwish is playing basketball over there!" Sure enough, this was evidenced when I saw Jukka rush out from behind the bus and toss the ball back in play. Later I saw Tuomas, and Megan and Jenna saw Emppu taking pictures. It was pretty rad. During these events a car pulled into the parking lot carrying none other than Nightwish's manager, Ewo himself. All these events were psyching out group out...and the concert hadn't even started yet!
  Once we were inside, there was a bit more waiting around while everyone else crammed inside. Jenna and I bought Dark Passion Play shirts to display our Nightwish pride. As soon as the crowd was jammed inside the little venue, the opener, Swedish melodic death metal band Sonic Syndicate, began playing. I didn't think I would much care for death metal, but Sonic Syndicate was a pleasant surprise. Not all their vocals were growling or shrieking: one of the singers had a surprisingly pleasant voice. Anyway, Sonic Syndicate played about 5 or 6 songs, and they were rad, but I was getting impatient for Nightwish to start.
  Sonic Syndicate ended, and I took the time between them and Nightwish to move as close to the front as I could manage (we were in the far back by the bar). Shawn, Ryan, and I pushed our way through the crowd. The guys stopped when we were close, but I wanted to get closer, so I pushed a little more and got a spot in the front right corner, about 10 feet from the stage. Waiting the hour for the crew to finish setting up was tense.
  Then Nightwish's intro music began to play, and the crowd went nuts as the members of Nightwish began to file out. Immediately they went into "Bye Bye Beautiful." It was so rad! Emppu played in our corner of the stage several times, and he was almost close enough to touch! I was totally into the music, throwing up the horns and headbanging like a crazy person. Frustrated with how little the people in my group had been moving to the music when Sonic Syndicate was playing, I let it all out once Nightwish began playing. I sang along with the words (screamed them more like), jumped around, and cheered at the top of my lungs whenever a song ended. And it was so loud! The bass was literally pounding through the floor, making my heart speed up hecka fast and drumming in my ears. And the crash of Jukka's drums and cymbals was deafening so close to the stage! Torn between wanting to take a million picutres and simply enjoying the show, I somehow managed to do a bit of both, although none of my pictures turned out quite as nice as I would have liked.
  I can't remember the order of the songs Nightwish played, but I remember that they played "Bye Bye Beautiful," "Amaranth," "The Poet And The Pendulum," "The Siren" (which replaced "Ever Dream"), "Last Of The Wilds," "Nemo," "Dead To The World," "Dark Chest Of Wonders," "Sleeping Sun" (which replaced "The Islander", sadly), "Whoever Brings The Night," "Sahara," and "Wish I Had An Angel." I think that's all. Someone correct me if I missed one/some.
  Oh it was a rad concert! No words have I to describe the absolute wonder that I felt at finally seeing my idols in the flesh, not 10 feet in front of me. Anette was just as sweet and charming and adorable as people, pictures, and YouTube videos say she is. Emppu is hilarious, showing off for the crowd by playing his infamous purple guitar vertically, throwing picks at people, cupping his hand to his ear as if to say "I can't hear you!" Jukka has more energy than I could ever imagine. He never seemed to tire! Marco was just...Marco. He was awesome. I never saw much of Tuomas unfortunately. I believe I captured him in my "The Poet And The Pendulum" video, but I hardly saw him during the concert :( Oh well. I'll just have to make sure I can see him next time ;)
  That's all I can say about the concert. It was epic, rad, phenomenal, life-altering, earth-shattering, unbelievably awesome, and I SO cannot wait to do it again!