Nightwish~!
So I finally finished the grading on Friday morning, then went to Orlando for a metal concert, as one does.
So I <3 Nightwish a lot, and they were at the House of Blues at Downtown Disney, so naturally I had to go, since I'd never seen them in concert before.
Step one was getting to the hotel. This is the view from the balcony. Yes, that is Epcot in the distance.
And donning appropriate attire:
If you do not comprehend why a Scrooge McDuck t-shirt is appropriate Nightwish attire, get ye learned.
I later wound up standing by a dude who was also wearing a Scrooge shirt, and got complimented on it by another concert-goer with whom I usurped space from some tall dudes. More on that later.
Then I was off to Downtown Disney! DTD is hella under construction right now, but there's still a bunch of stuff open. I grabbed dinner @ the Wolfgang Puck place (there are multiple vegan dishes there, so it's sort of my go-to) and had this delicious drink with my dinner, a giant and delicious kale + quinoa salad:
It was super-tasty and also expensive, but the deliciousness made up for the expense.
Then I wandered around for a bit. With the refurbishing, they're putting in new stuff, including a restaurant called The Boathouse. Importantly, they also put in amphicars, which are exactly what they sound like: cars you can drive into the lake. There are propellers on the back and rubber duckies on the dashboard.
Someday, I will take a ride in one.
They also put in a new superhero-themed store, and there was a dearth of Black Widow stuff despite her display in the window and some other store displays. Also I took a bad selfie with the window display b/c I have no shame:
And then wandered around to check to see if the vegan bakery was open again. To my delight, it was! More on that later. Also, here is a pic of the balloon you can go up in, which Sam and I did last year:
Then it was time for the line b/c I noticed how huge it was getting!
The line started around the front of the building and then wrapped around the back and kept going. For a really long way. Such a long way, in fact, that it became extremely entertaining watching people's O_o;; faces as they saw it. According to a passing cast member, the only other time they'd seen a line that huge was when Britney Spears was doing a show.
Our demographic was just a little different looking. It was v. easy to spot the concert-goers in the DTD crowd: many concert t-shirts, much black and brightly colored hair, many ladies and some dudes in cute goth clothes.
I stood in line for about an hour, but it was worth it: when I got inside, I headed upstairs, where it was less packed and much cooler. Wound up partially behind a pillar, but directly under the a/c, and the placing slowly changed over the course of the night, but more on that later.
The openers were Delain and Sabaton, who I had never heard before. I missed a lot of Delain's performance, since my part of the line didn't get in until after they started, but she seems to be made entirely of bouncy metal energy, and was super-fun to watch. I will be investigating her music more later.
Then was Sabaton, which seems to be entirely composed of puppies in the form of big Swedish guys with permanent 8D faces. They were super-hilarious, awesome music-wise, and utterly delightful. The lead singer was super-delighted by the crowd (we were extremely bouncy and happy) and by the seven-year old in the audience, who not only got to go on stage, but got to jam with the guitarist on the last song and make off with the lead singer's sunglasses.
I am absolutely investigating their music more later, b/c it was fantastic.
Then Nightwish came on, and I sort of totally lost my shit, b/c they are basically my favorite band ever and Tuomas Holopainen is a genius and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. Ahem.
It was amazing.
Stuff that happened, in no particular order (with links!):
The Islander sing-along with Marco! He lead, we sang, and the rest of the band gradually joined in until everyone there was singing. It was magical.
Floor fucking killing Stargazers, holy shit. And then transitioning beautifully into Sleeping Sun and THEN to Greatest Show on Earth.
Floor and Tuomas sometimes headbang in unison, and it is weirdly adorable. Floor also air guitars on occasion.
In addition to the aforementioned headbanging, Tuomas often sings along and/or plays imaginary instruments when he's not keyboarding. What a dork. <3
A tiny girl in a cute dress and I slowly edged out the three tall dudes who were in front of us to get front balcony space through a combination of being small, judicious use of our elbows, and rocking out way harder than the dudes were. There was a lot of bouncing involved. And some modest headbanging. And banging on the balcony. And a bit of dancing, as much as we could in the cramped space.
Then we could both see much more clearly, and it was amazing, because Floor is an astonishing frontwoman. Hella stage presence, and she's so tall! And amazing! And gorgeous!
Emppu, Troy and Marco wander all over the stage making 8D faces and it is great.
The Poet and the Pendulum is eerie and powerful live, and it's easy to tell why Floor loves Ghost Love Score so much. She owns that song, it's amazing.
Alpenglow and Elan and Storytime and My Walden and Endless Forms Most Beautiful are amazing to dance to! You should try it! She Is My Sin, Weak Fantasy, Yours Is An Empty Hope, and Shudder Before the Beautiful are for rocking out to. You should try that too!
I may have gotten a little teary-eyed during Greatest Show on Earth, but when Floor is leading a concert hall full of people in a triumphant roar of "WE WERE HERE" it's sort of completely fucking amazing. The vid completely does not do it justice at all.
My face wound up hurting a bit from how hard I was smiling and how much I was singing along, and all of the screaming I did.
They ended on Last Ride of the Day, and it was ridiculous how much energy was in the room, with everybody bouncing and singing along at the top of their lungs. I exchanged many high-fives and fistbumps with both tiny girl, her companion (who was delighted by our usurpation of space) and a couple of other people, since we were all in a shared state of euphoria.
It took quite a while for the joy to settle enough to sleep last night. <3
I slept in this morning, then headed back to Downtown Disney for breakfast from the vegan bakery. Pictured: cinnamon sugar doughnut, chocolate chip banana bread, mocha chip cupcake, and cookie sandwich, with soy mocha frappachino.
I didn't get much swag, (I own too many t-shirts to be able to justify the purchase of a tour shirt) but here's what I picked up:
Signed poster (apparently a leftover from the Buffalo show, but whatever, it was five bucks), postcard, and a cute Oswald postcard I picked up at one of the stores.
In conclusion, Nightwish is amazing and my favorite and I love them all.
So I <3 Nightwish a lot, and they were at the House of Blues at Downtown Disney, so naturally I had to go, since I'd never seen them in concert before.
Step one was getting to the hotel. This is the view from the balcony. Yes, that is Epcot in the distance.
And donning appropriate attire:
If you do not comprehend why a Scrooge McDuck t-shirt is appropriate Nightwish attire, get ye learned.
I later wound up standing by a dude who was also wearing a Scrooge shirt, and got complimented on it by another concert-goer with whom I usurped space from some tall dudes. More on that later.
Then I was off to Downtown Disney! DTD is hella under construction right now, but there's still a bunch of stuff open. I grabbed dinner @ the Wolfgang Puck place (there are multiple vegan dishes there, so it's sort of my go-to) and had this delicious drink with my dinner, a giant and delicious kale + quinoa salad:
It was super-tasty and also expensive, but the deliciousness made up for the expense.
Then I wandered around for a bit. With the refurbishing, they're putting in new stuff, including a restaurant called The Boathouse. Importantly, they also put in amphicars, which are exactly what they sound like: cars you can drive into the lake. There are propellers on the back and rubber duckies on the dashboard.
Someday, I will take a ride in one.
They also put in a new superhero-themed store, and there was a dearth of Black Widow stuff despite her display in the window and some other store displays. Also I took a bad selfie with the window display b/c I have no shame:
And then wandered around to check to see if the vegan bakery was open again. To my delight, it was! More on that later. Also, here is a pic of the balloon you can go up in, which Sam and I did last year:
Then it was time for the line b/c I noticed how huge it was getting!
The line started around the front of the building and then wrapped around the back and kept going. For a really long way. Such a long way, in fact, that it became extremely entertaining watching people's O_o;; faces as they saw it. According to a passing cast member, the only other time they'd seen a line that huge was when Britney Spears was doing a show.
Our demographic was just a little different looking. It was v. easy to spot the concert-goers in the DTD crowd: many concert t-shirts, much black and brightly colored hair, many ladies and some dudes in cute goth clothes.
I stood in line for about an hour, but it was worth it: when I got inside, I headed upstairs, where it was less packed and much cooler. Wound up partially behind a pillar, but directly under the a/c, and the placing slowly changed over the course of the night, but more on that later.
The openers were Delain and Sabaton, who I had never heard before. I missed a lot of Delain's performance, since my part of the line didn't get in until after they started, but she seems to be made entirely of bouncy metal energy, and was super-fun to watch. I will be investigating her music more later.
Then was Sabaton, which seems to be entirely composed of puppies in the form of big Swedish guys with permanent 8D faces. They were super-hilarious, awesome music-wise, and utterly delightful. The lead singer was super-delighted by the crowd (we were extremely bouncy and happy) and by the seven-year old in the audience, who not only got to go on stage, but got to jam with the guitarist on the last song and make off with the lead singer's sunglasses.
I am absolutely investigating their music more later, b/c it was fantastic.
Then Nightwish came on, and I sort of totally lost my shit, b/c they are basically my favorite band ever and Tuomas Holopainen is a genius and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. Ahem.
It was amazing.
Stuff that happened, in no particular order (with links!):
The Islander sing-along with Marco! He lead, we sang, and the rest of the band gradually joined in until everyone there was singing. It was magical.
Floor fucking killing Stargazers, holy shit. And then transitioning beautifully into Sleeping Sun and THEN to Greatest Show on Earth.
Floor and Tuomas sometimes headbang in unison, and it is weirdly adorable. Floor also air guitars on occasion.
In addition to the aforementioned headbanging, Tuomas often sings along and/or plays imaginary instruments when he's not keyboarding. What a dork. <3
A tiny girl in a cute dress and I slowly edged out the three tall dudes who were in front of us to get front balcony space through a combination of being small, judicious use of our elbows, and rocking out way harder than the dudes were. There was a lot of bouncing involved. And some modest headbanging. And banging on the balcony. And a bit of dancing, as much as we could in the cramped space.
Then we could both see much more clearly, and it was amazing, because Floor is an astonishing frontwoman. Hella stage presence, and she's so tall! And amazing! And gorgeous!
Emppu, Troy and Marco wander all over the stage making 8D faces and it is great.
The Poet and the Pendulum is eerie and powerful live, and it's easy to tell why Floor loves Ghost Love Score so much. She owns that song, it's amazing.
Alpenglow and Elan and Storytime and My Walden and Endless Forms Most Beautiful are amazing to dance to! You should try it! She Is My Sin, Weak Fantasy, Yours Is An Empty Hope, and Shudder Before the Beautiful are for rocking out to. You should try that too!
I may have gotten a little teary-eyed during Greatest Show on Earth, but when Floor is leading a concert hall full of people in a triumphant roar of "WE WERE HERE" it's sort of completely fucking amazing. The vid completely does not do it justice at all.
My face wound up hurting a bit from how hard I was smiling and how much I was singing along, and all of the screaming I did.
They ended on Last Ride of the Day, and it was ridiculous how much energy was in the room, with everybody bouncing and singing along at the top of their lungs. I exchanged many high-fives and fistbumps with both tiny girl, her companion (who was delighted by our usurpation of space) and a couple of other people, since we were all in a shared state of euphoria.
It took quite a while for the joy to settle enough to sleep last night. <3
I slept in this morning, then headed back to Downtown Disney for breakfast from the vegan bakery. Pictured: cinnamon sugar doughnut, chocolate chip banana bread, mocha chip cupcake, and cookie sandwich, with soy mocha frappachino.
I didn't get much swag, (I own too many t-shirts to be able to justify the purchase of a tour shirt) but here's what I picked up:
Signed poster (apparently a leftover from the Buffalo show, but whatever, it was five bucks), postcard, and a cute Oswald postcard I picked up at one of the stores.
In conclusion, Nightwish is amazing and my favorite and I love them all.