Night of Steel

28/09/2009 bij 21:47 (Muziek)
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Here we are again, an English post! And once again it concerns a concert from a certain band from Germany, called Dawn of Destiny…

Last Saturday, the 26th of September 2009 we went to Dortmund, Germany for the concert. Weeks before I had asked my sister if she wanted to come, since public transportation isn’t really an option late at night, and she was willing to do so! She used to listen to metal some years ago, so she doesn’t not like the music, although she prefers other styles now.
We left at about half past two in the afternoon, and left to H’wijk, to pick up Vera. (The ‘we’ up until this point were my sister, Femke and me by the way :P) and then we left for Dortmund! On the way there we listened first to Nightwish, Dark Passion Play and after that I think Oceanborn, because my sister knew that one as well which was a bit nicer for her ofcourse. And as a last we listened to Rebellion in Heaven, to get completely in the right mood. (not that it was really neccesary, but still :P)
We decided to eat at the Burger King and were smart enough to go to the toilet áfter we bought our food, so we still have our 50 cent coupons XD We’ll just have to save them for next time!
Well, after that it wasn’t long before we arrived at the “Bahnhof Mooskamp” without our good friend TomTom we would probably still be driving around and searching 😛 It looked really nice, all kinds of old trains it really created a nice atmosphere! We had to enter the actual location through a train. Vera or Femke immediately spotted Jens (a bandmember) outside, but we had to get our tickets first! Apparently someone made a mistake because it said we still had to pay for our tickets, but I guess I was quite convincing, because we were allowed to walk on, and they would check it with someone. That someone later brought us the tickets ^^
When we stepped out of the carriage, Dirk (the keyboardplayer) was already there saying something like “Oh! The Dutch fans have arrived!” and he immediately spotted my new selfmade bandshirt 😀
After saying hello to some of the other bandmembers, Dirk lead us to the merchandise stand where they had three copies of Human Fragility, signed and ready, lying ready for us! Yay!
After looking at and in it, we payed for them, (and for a CD for a friend of mine who couldn’t come 😦 )
After that we asked if the whole band could gather in one place, so we could hand them the gift we had been working on the weeks before: a new website, with new layout, and a Dutch translation and everything. Fortunately they like it! They even linked to it on they’re own website already! 😀
Not very long after that the schoolband that won a competition started to play. It sounded quite nice, considering they were so young it sounded even better! When they finished we decided to go to the bathroom, and off course there was a waiting line 😛 We weren’t the only DOD-fans waiting anxiously though, so that was quite funny.
When we were all finished, we picked our spot in front of the stage, on the right side where there was still some free space left. During the first song (Silent Suffering) I had my camera with me and tried to take a nice photo of each bandmember, only most of them were hidden in the smoke at first, and after that I was enjoying the music too much to care about photo’s 😛 When the song was finished I handed the camera to my sister, who took loads of photo’s! They can be found here.
I sang along with all the songs I knew, (all expect for the ones from the new album) end waved with my arm quite a few times. That always feels awkward in the beginning, when there aren’t many people doing so 😛 Vera and Femke were windmilling a lot, but I don’t do that, and with my dreads I probably would have been bald by now 😛 During one song I really felt the urge to jump, like I do at almost every concert ever since I went to Within Temptation in Ahoy, but to be jumping alone is also very awkward, so I poked Vera in her arm and ‘signed’ to her that we should jump! So the next refrain we started jumping 😛 The band looked like no-one had done that before, but it felt so nice! It is a really nice way to really experience the music 😛 after a few songs Tanja (the singer of the band) even jumped a little, which was really funny 😀
(it was also funny when she accidentally sang a wrong part of the lyrics on Ending Dream 😛 First I thought I was wrong when singing along, but when I saw her face during the second verse I was quite certain 😛 Apparently no-one else noticed it, but I thought was really funny 😛 )
They played 10 songs, which was quite long but stil waaaaay to short off course 😛 After they finished we walked to the opened doors, I was completely out of breath XD Oh, wait, in the meantime we saw that a member of the fallen Angels got a playlist, and Vera spotted one that was still on the stage. So I literally stole it right from under the nose of the base player of Solar Fragment 😀
The rest of the evening was very nice as well, we spoke with some people, other fans, bandmembers and about everything and nothing. From the website to the new CD of Sonata Arctica and many other things.
Oh before I forget: They played Inquisition! The days before the concert I was repeating quite often “I hope they’ll play Inquisition!” and they did! Yeah! According to Tanja they don’t play it often, so we were lucky!
When the band that played “een na laatste’ (uhmm, first before last? XD) was almost finished, I talked to Patrick (the drummer) a little and we wanted to make a picture, but his battery was empty! So I fished out my own, and in the end it ended up as a very nice groupsphoto!
After that half of them left, as did we. We didn’t really know the last band, and CC didn’t want to listen to them because of some anti-Christianity lyrics, so we went!
We arrived in Lelystad somewhere round 2 o’clock in the night. We slept in de house of Femke’s sister. She had already made everything ready for us, that was so sweet of her!

Once again a very very nice concertday! The concert itself, the talking, the reaction to the website, the small applause we got for coming, everything! It is totally ‘voor herhaling vatbaar!’ which means something like ‘a good thing to repeat one day’ but nicer and better :P.

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Roadgrill

20/07/2009 bij 23:09 (Geklets, Muziek)
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Oke, dit gaat een post in het Engels worden, omdat het om een internationale band gaat voornamelijk 😛

Eerst even een korte samenvatting, want het is vooral een verslag van de hele dag voor mijzelf geworden (A)

We went to Roadgrill, a festival with seven bands and an all-you-can-eat barbecue. I actually came only for Dawn of Destiny, and just wanted to be suprised by the other bands. We arrived early and were on the terrain before we were actually allowed to. There we went to stay in a tent to be protected from the rain, and DOD stood there! They started a conversation with us because of my ownmade bandshirt. After their show (which was great!) we went to the side where we asked for drumsticks, plectrums and autographs. Later we were hanging around in the sun and they asked if they could take a picture with us for their site, well off course! Later again the German fans came to sit with us, and so did the members of DOD! When two other bands started to play we went to the stage, and after the first band was done DOD unfortunately had to go :(. We kept listening to the rest, and when it all was finished we went home, exhausted and hyperactive at the same time 😛

Saturday the 18th was one of the coolest days I ever had, I think. Fridaynight I went to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with three friends, which was really nice. We slept at the place of one of them, because the next day we would leave quite early by train, heading to Rotterdam for Roadgrill, a festival with seven bands and an all-you-can-eat barbecue. We got up around 8:45. Right before we left, I discovered I had forgotten my ticket, even though I hád put it in my bag a few times, only to take it out again and give it a better spot. Apparently I forgot to put it back in my bag the last time, because when I called my mother, she found it on the floor in my bedroom, oops (A). CC jumped on het bike to get it, and Vera, JR and me walked to the station. We easily arrived on time and took the train of 10 a.m. After switchin trains just once on Schiphol we arrived in Rotterdam round 13:00. After buying a burger we went to the bus, which brought to the stop at De Lugt, from where we walked about 15 minuten to the terrain where Roadgrill was held.

It was raining a bit when we arrived, and the terrain was open, so we slowly walked in, waiting for someone to stop us, which they didn’t. There was a tent with all kinds of bandshirts and other merchandise, so we walked there to escape from the rain. When I walked in, I saw a few people standing there and i just thought ‘wait, isn’t that the singer from DoD? and some others members?’ But being my own self I didn’t talk to them, because I simple didn’t have the guts and because I think artists have their privacy as well, and it isn’t up to me to just go talk to them when they might find it annoying.

But that dillema was quite easily solved when Tanja, the singer, started talking to me because of the Dawn of Destiny t-shirt I made. That was so nice! We talked to them for a bit (one of the others came to the tent as well, I think it was Jens, and immediately made a comment about my shirt as well :D) and then they had to leave. We decided to go looking for the place where we could show our tickets. Apparently we were on the terrain completely illegal, because when we hang around the entrance a bit they asked us to please stand behind the gates (A).

We waited there untill the gates would open, and when they finally did we also got and Promo-CD of Dawn of Destiny’s …Begins. We immediately walked to the stage to be certain of a first row spot when DOD came on, but no-one else did, so we decided to go to the merchandise stand first, because Dirk had told me they had brought ‘a few’ copies of the CD’s, and I really wanted to buy them. When we came there they weren’t quite finished with setting everyhing up, so we waited and helped a bit when the wind blew some things away. While we were waiting Jens came by to ask if he could film my shirt, because they liked it! When they were ready to sell I bought the two CD’s and a girlie shirt with the cover of …Begins on it.

After that we did go to the stage and waited (in the pouring rain) untill it all started. First Conorach played, they sounded nice, though I didn’t know them before the concert. Slowly the sun came as well, which was a good thing because the underside of my pants was totally soaked and my shoes felt like small swimmingpools. After that DOD came on stage! First they did a short (very short) soundcheck and then they started! Just luke with Conorach the microphone wasn’t loud enough, just like one guitar. The drums were a bit too loud, so it sounded a bit weard. It was really really nice nevertheless, I didn’t know the first song very well, because it was from the first album, but I did know the other songs and sang along as much as I could. When they finished we stood in front of the stage a bit longer, and then we went to the side, first to get drinks, but then we saw where the artists were able to come to the festivalterrain (which in fact was a parkinglot :P) and Jens came out so we went there. CC asked for drumsticks, because she also has some of other bands, and Jens went back to ask for it. When he came back I decided to aks for his plectrum, I mean, why not? (A) later some more members came, and I asked them if they wanted to sign my CDcase. Instead they signed the bandphoto in the booklet (Thanks Dirk!) and I also got the autograph of the new drummer. After all that we decided to buy drinks and to go get some meat to put on the BBQ.

The four huge BBQs were placed in two partytents and it was really warm there, when I put my meat on it and turned it felt like my arms were getting grilled as well 😛 We then sat down to eat, and later decided to get another round of meat. The BBQ’s on the left side were almost deserted this time (the first time there actually was a waiting line) and when I arrived I saw two bandmembers of DOD standing there. I really hoped they didn’t think we were like stalking them, but they just helped CC to get the meat on the BBQ and even gave her one of their own hamburgers when they accidentaly dropped one of hers in the coals.

When I finished eating I decided to give the neck of Vera a massage, because her neck hurt after windmilling. Some members of DOD came walking by and they had to laugh because I was giving a massage in the middle of a festivalterrain. they walked by, but later came back and asked if they could take a picture of us, because they wanted a picture of us Dutch fans sitting on the ground there, for their homepage, because they thought it was funny. We didn’t have any problem with it offcourse, so they took pictures with us, I can’t wait to see them! Later some German fans came sitting with us, and after a while DOD itself came sitting there as well.

That time I gave some more people a massage as well, starting with CC, and later Dirk (very shortly) and ending with two of the German fans 😛 later FreedomCall was about to start their show, so we went to the stage again. CC and Vera asked if we could perhaps put our bags backstage with the things of DoD so we woudn’t have to carry it around. That wasn’t a problem, so that was arranged. After two or three songs I decided to walk to the back and sit a bit, because my knees were killing me. Afer a while I decided to buy an icecream (Citron and Apple). Not long after that Freedomcall played their last song, and we decided to go looking for the DOD members because they had told us they had to leave after that show, and we didn’t want to lose our bags 😉 Luckily Jens was standing at the gates with our bags, so we said goodbye and went to listen to the last band, Ross The Boss. Again I left after two songs, because my knees were hurting more than they had done in weeks. I sat down at the side on a bench and watched from there, the sound was even better, and at least my knees got some rest. Two times a member of DoD came walking by, and at the end Dirk came to say goodbye and gave a hug. He wanted to say goodbye to Vera and CC as well, but as they were standing first row, he asked me to say goodbye to them for him, which I did offcourse. After a last wave they were gone! Nooo! 😛 When the gig of Ross The Boss almost ended CC Vera and JR came to the side too, because there was a very irritating pit near them. We waited till the concert was finished and untill the gifts were all thrown into the audience. Then we left to walk to the bus. There were quite a few people waiting for the bus already, and fortunately it came very soon. On the station we decided to buy some food on Schiphol because we had to wait for 30 minutes there. (Yay! for 24hour BurgerKings). We arrived in Lelystad ‘round 2:30 and went to JR’s house immediately. There we decided to go to sleep almost instantly because we were all exhausted.

This really was the nicest concert day I ever had, even nicer than Within Tempation with the Metropole Orchestra (better known as Black Symphony) and Nightwish. Even now I’m still getting overactive when I think about it (A)

I think this all really sounds like I’m a crazy fangirl or something like that, but what I enjoyed the most was just the normal talking with all the people, sharing opinions and talking about so many different things 🙂 They really are nice persons, and unlike some other bands they don’t they they’re more important because they stand on the stage. I hope to go to another DOD concert soon, and I just can’t wait for the new album!

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