Past concerts (Nightwish)

My very first real concert. All the other concerts before were family friendly at the Houston Rodeo.
Nightwish was supposed to be in Houston around September (2008) but we got hit pretty hard by Hurricane Ike and the show was cancelled due to damages to the club.

Fortunately, later that year Nightwish returned to Houston. It was around finals, so May...ish I suppose.
I went with my older sister and our uncle drove us to the club. He sure took his time though, I could have got there in time for the meet and greet but he wanted to eat and talk (and he talks a lot). We just ate a few pieces of garlic bread. Luckily I did have gum so I didn't go the concert with garlic breath.

When we got there Volbeat was just starting. I liked them. They were described as a mix between metal and Johnny Cash and I think they did remake one of Cash's songs. I can't remember if it was after or before the opening act started but some guy wanted to take a picture of the set list (I guess to show that he was in Houston...idk) and asked me to hold up the paper for him. Then he let me keep the set list!

We were pretty close to the stage by the time Nightwish came on. Not as close as I'd have liked to been but it was still close. They started with "7 days to the wolves" and I started the crowd singing the chorus opening "howl!". I had been pretty devastated when Nightwish announced that they weren't going to be in Houston the first time so I kinda stopped listening to their music because it made me sad, so the words to the songs weren't fresh in my mind.

They interacted with the crowd enough but unfortunately I wasn't that close or noticeable. Before the last song Marco taught the crowd how to say something in Finnish. I forgot what he said by the time they started playing the last song ("Wish I had an angel"). I remember Ariel screaming out for him to teach the crowd how to say something dirty in Finnish. Heh, by then we were too far to hear all the way upstage (we moved back to buy a tee shirt).

Before we got in the club though we heard one of the guards telling this guy that he might be able to catch the band by the tour bus (he was asking to get an autograph) so after the show we ran towards the back of the club where the tour bus was parked. We got there before security so when they set the barricade we were inside it. A few minutes later Toumas came out and he waved to Ariel (I was too busy squealing like a fan girl at seeing him so close).

Ariel wanted to smoke but they took her lighter at the doors so she asked some random guy for a light and we started talking. His name was Alcatraz, a pretty cool guy. He got in the club for free because he was so late for the show. Anyways, so when Toumas finally came back out (maybe an hour or so later) we got his autograph and Alcatraz took a picture of me and Toumas with his camera for me.

Jukka came out a little later and that's when I started freaking out. I started hyperventilating and I swear I almost fainted. Alcatraz asked Jukka if he could take a picture of me kissing him on the cheek (said I was too shy to ask myself. It was also something he'd done with the singer of some other band) and Jukka agreed. So I was standing in Jukka's arms for like five minutes before the picture was taken. He actually took more than one picture. And I'll never forget the feeling of Jukka's skin. Or the feeling of Jukka playing with my hair!

Oh! What I got them to sign was the set list the man from earlier let me keep! We waited outside the club for a bit longer before we decided to call a cab and leave. Unfortunately if we had stayed longer we would have met Marco. Oh well, I'll just have to meet him next time. When I got home I was so excited. I framed the set list (and still have it framed and hanging on my wall). Like a day later Alcatraz e-mailed me the pictures he took of me and a few of the show. He even got a video of the show!

I can never forget this night! It was the highlight of my life up to then. One of the best nights of my life for sure. It is also one of the things that led to my meeting with my best friend. A year later at CU I met a huge fan of Nightwish and those autographs were something we bonded over with in an instant. It was kind of like that scene in Step Brothers, "Did we just become best friends?" And yes we did.