Rock Out With Your - Well, You Know.

I would like you to meet my new boyfriend(s).

I figured I needed to earn back some cred after all the Donny Osmond/Barry Manilow gushings of late. Enter: DragonForce.


Liv has loved DragonForce from the moment they were introduced to her. We would listen with her and watch her eyes glaze over a little bit. Liv is a drummer and she likes her some speed metal. This band filled that need for her. They are fast! She liked to imagine what it would be like to play that fast and she thought it would be awesome to watch them play. We agreed, and left her with the vague, "well, if they ever come to town..."

They came to town last night.

But first? The warm up bands.

First out was a band called Daath. They were every metal stereotype you can think of. Maybe more. There was smoke, there were angry voiceovers, there were synchronized long-haired headbanging guitarists, there were mystic references, the lead singer did eeeeeevil things with his voice which couldn't have been healthy. It was silly. It was more Spinal Tap than Spinal Tap. I was giggling. The lead singer kept asking us to show him our horns.

He wanted to see our middle fingers. And then, the request that had me completely dissolved in a giggle fit - he wanted to see our lighters. About 3 people obliged him. No-one does the concert hall lighter thing anymore, right? I'm not sure why he wanted us to flip him off. And the horns and the lighters (hee! lighters! shakes head and giggles again) need to be organic and offered freely, not requested. So silly.

Now a little side note about the horns: If you'll remember, Liv dubbed the folks in the mosh pit at the MSI concert 'penguins' because they all sort of moved together. She said the crowd at this show reminded her more of llamas, because the rhythmic waving of 'the horns' resembles the sign for 'Happy Llama'.

So silly.

And yet. And yet. My body was moving of it's own volition, like some sort of whacked out heavy metal bobble head. My mind thought it was silly - KNEW it was silly, but my head was a-bangin' anyway...

During the second bands set, though, the guys from Daath were working the crowd and handing out cards. I met a couple of them and they were very nice. Then I felt a little bad about giggling during their set. But not bad enough to not blog about it.

Second band up was Cynic. I just thought they were sort of weak. They didn't move me with their music and they didn't amuse me with their antics. Be gone, silly boys.

The roadies for Dragonforce started to set up the stage. This involved not only instrumentation, but trampolines. TRAMPOLINE'S, YA'LL!!! I was getting a good feeling about where this was going...

They took the stage, and it was fast and furious from there on out. The guitars, the drums, the vocals, did I mention the guitars? Power metal, speed metal, prog metal - whatever label you want to attach, it was amazing. The energy level was through the roof. Liv told me more than once, "Mommy , this is INSANE! I keep forgetting to BREATHE!"

She said at one point, "Why is that guy licking his guitar?"

"I guess that's supposed to be sexy."

"Well, it's not. And it can't taste very good."

"Nope."

"Besides, it's not licking the guitar - it's the hair."

Ladies and gentlemen, if there was any doubt that perhaps they sent me home from the hospital with the wrong baby, you can extinguish it right here and now. Pretty sure this one is mine...

Ok. So we've established that these boys are cute with the above picture. Well, we've established that their looks are right up my alley, anyway. I guess cute is subjective. But anyway. They are inarguably massively talented. Again, the way they choose to express their talent may or may not be your cup of tea, but the presence of said talent is indisputable. And there was HUMOR! Through all of this really intense music and JUMPING and - just ALL this STUFF, they were mugging and pantomining and - just not taking themselves too seriously. They were the polar opposite of the first warm up band. They were the anti-Spinal Tap.

So this middle-aged squealy fangirl is madly in love and thinking, "but they've got to be jerks, right? Because anyone so talented and so cute has got to have massive ego issues and just be a really rotten person." I wanted to believe this, because I thought perhaps it would serve to squelch my completely inappropriate crush(es). And then they bring a LITTLE KID out on the stage! A fan! A little, big fan! He had to be around 8, maybe younger. And this hot wild sexy crazy lead singer gets down to his level and helps him live out a rock star fantasy, turning over the mike, letting him throw pics out into the crowd, and finishing up with a little bounce on the trampoline. Nice to KIDS, TOO?!? I was in full on squealy fangirl meltdown mode.

When I got home, I looked them up on MetalSludge - a tell-all metal fansite that is usually able to dig up the dirty ugly side. On my new boyfriends? They had nothing. I was really hoping to find something to disillusion me, but nothing was forthcoming.

I guess I'm gonna have to go ahead and love them.

And here's something else I'm gonna go ahead and love, for as long as I can: getting to experience this with my kids. Watching the girls just bliss out at a show - sharing their passion - is amazing. I know the day will one day come when they'll go to concerts without us. I am not looking forward to that day.

But I can't imagine a time in the future when rock and roll devil horns aren't going to make me think of llamas.

So I've got that.