Well, Rock 2 Wellington review anyway...So after a week of enjoying the strangely warm, sunny and not as windy as usual Wellington weather, and cursing those evil evil hills, we rocked on out to the main reason for our trip. Hooray for huge rock concert RCK2WGTN!
We painted our faces, the bf with the traditional White face with black star, and I with the much more subdued plain black star. Its amazing the comradeship the painted faces evoked among others of the painted face gild. Even if the white paint does mix with said bf's beard to create some sort of Plato looking statue man.... I did warn him that it would look silly, I think he was the only bearded Paul Stanley out there, possibly the only bearded KISS member.... Ohwell, he had fun, just needed a lot of help removing said paint after 7 hours of rocking out.
But, I am getting ahead of myself. Many hooted and hollered at us as we walked down the Terrace towards the Westpac Stadium on the warm easter Saturday evening, this only intensified the closer we got to our destination. With children, sticking out their tongues in Gene Simmons style while loitering outside the government buildings, and then adults alike at the gates to the stadium.
Once inside we were pleasantly surprised that lines to the rest rooms were minimal (as we had been drinking most of the week) and that there was plenty on sitting room in the pit for the in between acts. We were greeted by lengthy guitar solos by apparently the best unsigned solo guitarists in NZ, some where good, some not so much, but it did do well to set the scene and keep us entertained.
The first act Lordi were really good and surprisingly well accepted for a band that is only recent on the more popular rock scene. I only knew one of their songs, and do not think many in the crowd knew more than two or maybe three. The stage and costuming was spectacular as expected, Weta can do no wrong.
After half an hour of Sonic Altar the crowd started to merge forward for what has been widely accepted as the best performance of the weekend, the man himself, Alice Cooper. The bf believes that this could be because of his less 'drugfucked' life. He still appeared in his prime, his performance came off as a musical, full of drama and impressive acting, props included, a baby, a straight jacket, a chick and other such things that should be tied in. He sang all of his hits (except Frankenstein, which the bf has only stopped moaning about due to the fact he was driving me mad). I was in awe, as was most of the crowd.
After such an amazing performance, the NZ filler band was forgettable, and even the headline act KISS was a bit of a let down. The performance, light show and fireworks were awesome... but the music just wasn't right. They started with a song that I only knew from watching C4 that day, then followed to play music that most of the audience didn't know, they seemed disappointed that the crowd wasn't warming as they should normally, but honestly what did they expect. I had been hanging out for Strutter all week, but alas no :( Even Simmons trademark blood vomit went without much cheer. It wasn't till their encore that they attempted to regain a standing. They played 2 of their biggest hits, then left us to make our ways back up those terrible hills to our place of stay.
After sleeping all day we got ready for day 2. With much more toned down outfits, we walked on down again. The crowd was much bigger and quite different. The Valves kicked off the night. They are always a good thing, pity that they were way off on a side stage. They were followed by Poison, who were doing their cowboy thing, of course. Bret Michaels seemed genuinely happy to be there, more so than any of the other acts, he said thank you heaps. The whole band were impressive, especially seeing as the crowd only knew some of their stuff.
Sonic Altar had their second go at being background music, no one was really paying attention, I felt sorry for them in a way, but at the same jealous of this big opportunity they had been given. I only know 2 or 3 Whitesnake songs, but they were enjoyable, just not as much as Poison. I am actually somewhat surprised that they were given a better time slot. My God tho, David Coverdale is a dodge old English man! He complimented a young lady near the front on her "lovely bosom" and then proceeded to tell the man next to her to "get into it" Lol!
The Symphony of Screams were given the job of keeping the crowd entertained while Ozzy found his way to the stage. The excitement was high and people started pushing to the front. Screams set finished, and there was still no Ozzy. "Wheres Sharon?" I can imagine him saying backstage, "Where am I?", "Wellington" would come the reply. "Where in fucking Australia is that?" The bf and I were discussing the possible conversations going on back stage, and how much we would actually be able to understand, for the 10mins or so it took Ozzy to finally turn up. The crowd went wild, the loudest it had been all weekend. But Ozzy couldn't hear us, the screams and yells only got louder, still Ozzy was deaf to it "I cant hear you" says he. I partly wish I had a loud billowing voice so that I could yell in return "Turn your hearing aid on". It wasn't all bad tho, we could actually understand more than we thought we might, he sang good songs, even Bark at the Moon & Warpigs! We all forgave him mucking up the lyrics and us hearing the backing. We forgave his drugged stupor, from many parties past. The fireworks were spectacular. The 15min guitar solo was extensive, but hey Ozzy is an old man now, and needed a rest. I think the most disappointing was that Ozzy didn't seem to like the crowd, didn't seem like he wanted to be there. That rubs off on a crowd and ruins the buzz.
We were far to tired to attend the after party, so back up the hill we trekked.
So just to tie up a few loose ends...
While we were in Wellington, what does our soccer team do? Win a game! Grats to them sure, but it sure made us feel stink.
I arrived home, half expecting the kitties to ignore me. But no, quite the opposite, only now, 2weeks later have they started to lay off on all the love.
One of the bf's good mates, thought that all that time alone together would kill the relationship. I admit, I too had those doubts. However, quite the opposite occurred, I'm ecstatic about that :)
The reason I have taken so long to write this thing up happens to be that, my first day back home was also my first day at my new job. Its awesome, I'm learning lots of new stuff and everyone is being super nice. Got my first pay check today, and it will suffice :)
This post has gone on far to long, I shall leave it now.
Til next time, Eli :)
