After I joined the 501st Legion, I discovered a band that has toured world-wide that plays metal versions of the John Williams Star Wars music. I said if they ever come within 2hrs I'm going, and earlier this year I saw their new tour landed in Cincinnati in August! SWMBO got me tix for my birthday and included the VIP package.
The venue was in Cheviot, like 2 miles from my high school home. We passed my mom's condo on the way there and stopped to visit a bit after dinner. The VIP meeting started about 2 minutes after we parked so no waiting outside in the heat. There were only 3 other people that did it, we were all checking out the merch table and heard "hey guys!", turned around and there's the band. I gave them all trading cards of my costumes and they loved them.
We talked for probably 10-20 minutes and each got photos. I bought some stuff & had them autograph a CD. I would have done a poster but I have like zero room left on my walls. After they left we hung out and talked to some people before the 1st opening band. We ran into a family that comes to our events in costume, the kiddo makes a really cute Leia. Plus wearing my 501st Legion "racing shirt" got some attention so I got to tell people about the group.
1st opener was basically 3 high school kids playing instrumental metal which was kinda cool. 2nd group was called Black Signal & basically 2 mid-40s guys playing hard techno metal that I really liked, so I bought a CD when they were done.
Finally it was time for GE. Their power went out 1/2 way through the show so they just acted goofy and hammed it up while it got fixed, the bass player sat right in front of me on the edge of the stage. At one point they "Force choked" one of the lady VIP's and were like "Feel the power! 1 - 2 - 3- ...ok you're dead."
Except for the drunk guy that kept spilling something on me & another guy (who pretty much chased him off the 3rd time), it was a great night. I don't think I've seen a live metal show since KISS's "going away" tour in the late 90s. I admit I brought ear plugs (my tinnitus is bad enough) but I could see I wasn't the only one. But I was still right at the stage for GE & had a blast. (See what I did there.)
