So let me start out by saying "Holy Fuck"
And sorry I didn't get this up until now, it's been one hell of a week.

My experience was pretty similar to Dilluhn's.

My mom, my younger brother (my +1), and I flew in from Chicago Wednesday night and stayed in a hotel room that was way too small (I should mention that my mom works for United so we flew for free and just fucking rocks for taking me). Thursday afternoon we checked out the venue so we knew where we were going. We didn't want to get lost come crunch time. So instead we got lost on our way back to the hotel. Razz After some sight seeing I wanted to head back and get all my shit together before the show but we ended up taking way too many wrong turns and ended up in Jersey for a while. We made it back eventually and then headed back out.

At around 5 we were parked outside the venue waiting for the call to go in. It's true, the waiting is the hardest part, I was getting reeeeeeeeally nervous. I got the call from Neil around 6 and I went back for the soundcheck and all my nerves just dissolved and I was good to go. I walked in the back of the Electric Factory and the guys were setting up and practicing a little. I handed my guitar to Fish. I was pretty close to in tune already so no worries there. He set up the little amp on top of another stack and mic'ed it. I talked to Jesper for a bit about guitar stuff. I play an ESP LTD F-400 FM and he said he'd only seen it as a bass. Then some small talk about gear. He asked what part I play for the song and I said to him, "I have a question about that actually. I noticed, while I was watching the DVD that you guys don't play the solo live." and he said right away "You should take it," and I was like Shocked "Ok."

The run through went great. Bjorn, Jesper, Peter, and I were all gathered on one side of the stage in like a power quad kind of thing while Daniel fucking drummed away. After we were done Bjorn showed me the live ending really quick and I got off stage with Neil. We headed towards the line out front to grab my brother and the other meet and greet guys (quick shout out to Tony and Joana, it was cool seeing you guys there Smile ). We headed back as a group for the meet and greet. We took care of all the pictures and hung out. I introduced Kurt as "My drummer brother" to Daniel and the three of us chatted for a while; we ended up talking about a paper I did on US. economy vs Scandinavian economy. We got our pictures autographed and hung out a little more then it was show time. I found a few friends that drove out (12 hours from Chicago) to see me and we watched A Life Once Lost (wall of death and pretty sweet stage dive), and Children of Bodom (awesome solos as always) play.

During Bodom's set my nerves hit again and my stomach dropped. "I'm going to be up there soon, fuck," but that subsided quickly. After they were done I found Neil and he showed me the set list and gave me my que. Maybe 2/3 of the way into the set it went Trigger, Only for the Weak, Graveland, and Jotun. I hung out on the side near the front for IF's set so I'd be ready and not have to deal with trying to squeeze through a wall of fans. I was up maybe before the end of the first verse in Trigger. I hung out off stage before zero hour. During Graveland all the guys, save Daniel of course, walked over to stage right and looked back to where I was to make sure I was ready. Fish handed me my guitar and a pic, plugged me in, and hid me behind the backdrop for Anders's intro. He talked about the contest, introduced me, and Peter gave me the go ahead to get out there, no nerves at all, that was exactly where I wanted to be. Everyone started screaming, I threw up the horns, everyone stared chanting my name and I was ready to go. Then Anders said "You're chord is longer than that, right? Get up here, you're the rockstar now" so I whipped the cable out behind me and walked up to the front of the stage with a big smile on my face. I took a bow and everyone lost it. My ears started doing that thing where the sound cuts in and out really fast because it was so fucking loud. I didn't hear it but my friends said Anders said something like "There is something seriously wrong in here if you don't get laid tonight," and there was, it was my mom, still cock blocking me. Razz

Daniel gave the two count and we fucking brought that shit down. When I hit the solo I felt Anders grab my pant leg and put my foot on one of the monitors. I just rocked as hard as I could the whole time. From what I could see everyone on stage was smiling a lot. I don't remember much about actually playing, everything was a blur, but it was the best fucking blur EVER. We finished up and everyone was screaming their ass off. I walked off stage and back into the crowd. Everyone I passed was congratulating me and all "that fucking rocked." A few dudes crowd surfed me twice and the security dudes were so cool about it, one stopped me and pointed out that my guest pass sticker thing was falling off a bit and added that the performance rocked.

When the set ended everyone started filing out of the venue and I got a few more congratulations. A few people stopped to talk to me for a while. Someone asked what I was going to do now and I said, "Either I'm going to sleep awesome or not at all because there's no way I'm ever going to top this. In a few years it's gonna be like 'Oh hey babe, what's -- You're pregnant? Wow, that's almost as cool as that time I played with In Flames!" After a few minutes the three of us headed backstage again and talked to Neil and Bjorn for a while and then headed out. Everyone was just so cool to me, it felt great. I can't describe how much this meant to me. Afterwards my friends told me that while I was up there the band was treating me like I was a celebrity and then compared me to Jack White in that VH1 movie. The whole night was awesome until we left for the airport at 4:30 a.m.

Wow, that was a lot more than I thought I would write. Sorry for the wordiness.
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"A lone, silent warrior in a fantasy world."

"Music is the cheapest drug on the market and being able to play it is like having a meth lab you're not going to get busted for." ~Scott Agner
Unknown "Jailbait:P" Content - 16 years, 6 months, 16 days ago