!!!!YES!!!!

After 10 years, 10 YEARS of trying, I FINALLLY made it to a Sevendust concert! For those of you who don't know me well enough, or couldn't intuit it from my earlier post, they are, far and away, my favorite band.

They released their 6th album, Alpha, in March and are touring up a storm. Sevendust started out as a pretty heavy band. Lots of intense guitar and growling vocals. Over the last decade, they had gradually become more "mainstream" with less intensity and more melodic tunes. They decided it was time to get back to their roots...and that they did!

Soo......I got to the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom early and was near the front of the line to get in. I was near enough that, once the doors opened, I was able to walk right up to the front and center and lean the fence, putting me SIX FEET from the stage! After lots of waiting, the two opening bands, Invitro and Diecast, played their sets. Overall, not bad. Invitro was driving driving drums and guitar with a growling vocalist who evoked bits of Mike Patton's (of Faith No More fame) characteristic vocal stylings. Diecast was more traditional heavy music and screaming/singing front man. Up until now, everyone was suprisingly well behaved. We waited another half an hour for Sevendust, and the MOMENT the lights went out...WHAM, the wall of people behind me SLAMMED into me, pinning me against the fence. Two mosh pits opened up before the lights came back on and we could even see the band. For the next two hours, I was mashed, punched, elbowed in the spine, had my glasses knocked off twice, had my elbows deliberately hyperextended, my feet stompted on, and my hands pounded, all with the intent of hurting me badly enough that I couldn't defend my spot at the fence anymore. Well SCREW THEM! I even ended up defending some stranger's girlfriend when she was pushed my way and he couldn't reach her anymore. There were girls having panic attacks and men too injured to stay being lifted out of the crowd by the rest of us so the security could get them the hell out of there! For those of you who remember the Creed concert at the Cumberland County Civic Center, that was a cake walk. Overall, I made out OK. My back is still really sore and I've got some deep bruising in my right hand that's making it a bit tricky to use, but it was sooooooo worth it. Sevendust puts on a great show! The best part was, after waiting so long to see them, Lajon (the lead singer) and I shared a "rock moment". I reached my arm up towards him, he reached back at me, we locked gaze and both sang the lyrics for a good 5 seconds together (it was nowhere NEAR as homosexual as it sounds, I swear!) As if THAT wasn't enough, I was one of the lucky ones who got a "meet and greet" with the band as part of my ticket. After the show, I got a chance to talk to the whole band for a minute, and the first thing Lajon said to me was "Weren't you the guy up front?"
"Hell yes!"

He remembered me!!!!

Now, I'm extrememly fed up by all the celebrity-envy in our cuture, and have been known to think less of people who fawn all over hollywood actors, but damn I was such a fanboy! It took all of my self control to not gush all over them and make a fool out of myself.

Overall, I can't WAIT for the next time they come to town. Most liekly, I won't be able to go to that show either, but damnit, I'll try!!!


Here's a little mp3 player I "borrowed" from the Sevendust MySpace page. Four tunes from the new album. If you're new to the band, I reccomend you try "Driven". The player is a little buggy in my blog. If it doesn't work after a minute, click the stop button and click play again. It can take it several seconds to start the stream.