The road from Wyoming was beautiful
this fine summer day! We took some advice and drove a more scenic
route (and supposedly more speedy, we were cutting it a hair too
close for comfort), and before long we were passing through rolling
mountains with fields of green too breathtaking to capture accurately
on camera. We felt significantly more folk metal by just existing
there, and it only got more intense while entering Colorado. The
route lead us through Fort Collins and before long we hit traffic
outside of Denver. Oh, how I did not miss traffic! It was hardly as
bad as traffic in Los Angeles but realistically, I would prefer
surviving the rest of my non-living existence without being stuck
looking at a bumper that seems to lead you like a carrot on a
stick...a very slow, disgusting carrot...oh, how we missed the
simplicity of Laramie!
Load in was at 6pm, and it was starting
to look like we might be late, but by this point we had been through
enough that we, to be rather blunt, just didn't care. Well, we care,
but we knew that load-in is always well before the show actually
starts, so we simply brushed the stress right off our shoulders and
let Captain Wuldor Blaakhart lead us to Colorado Springs. Before we
got there, we had a brief glimpse into the horror that was the
wildfire destroying homes and lives in the Black Forest. A tall, dark
cloud of smoke was in the distance above the pines, and having heard
the stories through friends in the area, we hoped that the rescue
team could help anyone and everyone who was losing everything they
owned. “The Black Forest Burns Red” sounds like an amazing black
metal album though.
And there it was. “Colorado Springs
City Limit.” The Black Sheep was so close, and we all began feeling
anticipation, excitement, and anxiety as we approached. Running off
of very little sleep, poor nourishment, and an excess of booze, we
navigated through the city streets and into the parking lot of the
venue only a few minutes late. Clearly we were in the right place,
there were a bunch of metalheads standing around chain smoking
cigarettes. Feels like home! After a quick stretch, we introduced
ourselves to the other bands and shared some laughs. All the gentlemen
from Restore All Vengeance were very helpful and nice. They were the dudes who actually set up the show, and what a way to meet a band, by
playing their final show before they breakup! They had all their
merch set up for free and we made sure to steal some of it before the
hordes arrived and looted the table.
The venue itself was rather deceiving.
The stage was risen several feet above the crowd and from the center
of it, the capacity seemed on the smaller end (it got packed, they can fit a ton of heads in there, I almost didn't know where to rest mine). The bar was certainly
the biggest disappointment, they had NO idea what an AMF was and were
rather rude about it too. However, they gave two drink tickets to
each member, so we quickly unloaded all the gear, set up our booth,
and assigned Dr. Bruce as designated driver (drink tickets being handed over to yours truly) before indulging in the
finest of beverages, specifically many, many beers and a few long
islands. The other bands had a bunch of their friends set up camp
selling merch at their tables, and although I have no idea how it
actually started, Clan Valensorow was waging an all-out war against
the followers of Restore All Vengeance. Wristbands were being
launched with amazing accuracy at ungodly speeds across the room,
with many nearby concert-goers falling victim to the fray. The fight
ended with a truce and many laughs as the bystanders had no idea what
to do with us strange warriors in kilts.
The first band of the evening was
Forsake It All. I didn't listen too much to any of the bands
beforehand, I got a little preoccupied with, well, being a deer. Forsake It
All was pretty good, christian hardcore (which shocked me that
everyone there loves hardcore/metalcore, definitely made things much
more like home, it might as well have been a show at the Refuge).
Next up was Vital Malice, who Tommy Noble was really impressed by
and tried to give them a huge shoutout during the Valensorow set but
ended up screaming “give it up for VITAL REMAINS!” Definitely not
one of his finest moments. Then Valensorow performed while I watched
the merch with Menicucci. They acted like they were home, it probably
helped a lot that Wuldor and Dr. Bruce had some friends in the
audience (Wuldor's old bandmates from Winterforge showed up and Dr.
Bruce's friends from ages ago, including his friend who was getting
married, were in attendance). The lighting was great, the crowd was awesome, the sound guys were dicks but they ran a good show. A certain
one-armed scallywag ended up destroying everyone in the pit, he went nuts! He could
teach Captain Blaakhart a thing or two about what it means to live “a
pirates life for me!” Following Valensorow and closing up the night
was Restore All Vengeance, they definitely seemed to be having a ton
of fun up there. After the show, we loaded the van, finished our
beer, said our goodbyes and thank yous to everyone, then headed off
to Conner's buddy's place to get some well deserved sleep.
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