kalpurna

My adventures in St. Louis: worth the trip. And it was quite a journey, although I cannot complain too much because I was deposited into the warm arms of my very own helleboredoll, who took me home and fed me and got me to the venue early the next day.

After standing in line for a bit, Allison and I went to check out what the comics place down the street from the venue had for Free Comic Book Day. The store turned out to be actually really cool, with lots of merch and an awesome indie section, so we stayed to look around more. As we're wrapping up, Allison's phone rings. It's strobelighted and notfummy, reporting that BOYS ARE ON THE MOVE, REPEAT, BOYS HAVE BEEN SIGHTED BY GAS STATION! Concluding that in this universe, the chances that they're headed for the comics store are not too shabby, we decide to browse for a few more minutes. Which we do.

So I'm standing there talking to Allison about God knows what, and suddenly I look over her shoulder and catch sight of some greasy hair peeking around of a bright red sweatshirt and giant lady sunglasses. OH YES. Gerard and Mikey and Dewees and some security dudes have come to check out the comic book store. Not casually, either. This was an intense and srs bsns comic browsing experience. Gerard scoured the art section, which was great given that there was a giant print of James Jean's Umbrella Academy art propped on the top of the bookshelf he was perusing. Mikey crouched down in the superhero section and started reading something.

I made an effort to be talking loudly about comic books any time they were remotely close by, out of a desire to look less sketchy than I really am. This was interesting because I don't actually know that much about comic books? Uhm. "HEY WOW CHECK OUT THIS UM THIS UMMMM THE SANDMAN?????" Mikey looked mostly dead and yet still adorable. Gerard looked like a cartoon character. It was everything I'd dreamed of and more, trufax. As the minutes ticked by the percentage of people in the store wearing MCR merch kept stealthily increasing, so we decided to beat it back to the line.

Later on I realized I was wearing my New Jersey Doesn't Love You shirt and had a purple tentacle drawn on one arm. Whatever, if I didn't know who those dudes were I would have thought they were standard skulking comics nerds, I am not that torn up about looking like a dork.

ANYWAY then we went and got back in line. I typed up a whole thing here about how horrifying and cruel the venue's line arrangements were, and about how entropical87 and I spent a lot of time being Bitter and Angry and ignoring our cell phones spitefully after all the over-21s got in early, but wow, was it boring. The only thing you need to know is that at some point I turned to her and seriously wondered aloud if it was going to be worth it.

Ahahahahahaha.

That was easily the best show I've ever been to in my life. To be fair, I really haven't attended a lot of shows - but this one was pretty special. Drive-By was great, Billy Talent was fucking INSANE and won me over in a heartbeat. The energy in the audience and in the band was electric. Very early on in the night, Gerard said that even before they started their set he had a feeling this was going to be the best show of the tour.

We found our fellow-fangirls in about three seconds, right at the front of the first raised tier on Frank's side. The view was phenomenal, we were feet from the stage, and we had room to dance and jump and flail (all of which I did in abundance).

strobelighted typed up all of the marvelous and ridiculous things that happened during the set, which was quite a task, so I won't bother repeating it. Check out her recap for the full list. My personal favorite moments were probably Gerard's flower and Frank shouting "Ray Toro!" during I'm Not Okay and Frank fucking a tech with his guitar and Bob making shadow animals during Desert Song.

All I really wanted to say about the set was that it was abundantly, transparently, incandescently obvious that this was a band who loved each other. Gerard mentioned the two-year hiatus, and said something about their bodies not being able to handle it, they're getting old - oh, and he also said that "this motherfucker [Frank] naps until six pm every day." And hearing that at this show, where every single band member was wearing their massive love for every other band member right on their sleeves, made it impossible for me to worry that their hiatus is any kind of cover-up for any dissatisfaction with the band or each other. It's not fucking possible.

That's pretty much all I have that wasn't already covered in strobelighted's recap, so I'll shut up now. Darling 'dello residents - picture me wearing my ood as I type this. Thank you for helping make my weekend as phenomenal as it was. ♥

P.S. I am horrendously behind on comments and my flist, aaaaahhhhhh, sorry! D:

ETA: On Friday night we showed civilbloodshed and notfummy Hard Core Logo. Neither of them had seen it before, and neither of them had been spoiled for it, and both of them are in bandom. I felt like I had just bombed civilians.