† I arrived about 6, a little late. The line was incredible. It wrapped around one end of the venue and curled around the other. Unreal. I figured it didn't matter now, so I went to piss at the gas station instead of getting in line.

I'm almost immediately assaulted by two teenage girls. One tells me I have on "the sexiest shirt" she's ever seen. I was wearing my Konterfei shirt (The one with a white Ville face with eyes that glow in the dark...) and she begins to rub it...kinda strange.

She says she'll be back with a camera to take a picture. That's fine, I'm in line to piss, I'm not going anywhere. She comes back with a friend. Now I have two underage girls rubbing on me. If I was in high school again, it'd be great, I'd have a field day. Unfortunately I'm 24 and we're causing a scene.

Now I'm going to get in line. This crowd was a bit stranger than Houston's crowd. I call up Jenne, from HIMUS.com and meet with her and her crew. They're maybe 4th or 5th in line, I'll probably be 436th. I don't want people to think I'm gonna pull a stunt and cut, so I go take my place in line.

Finally the doors open. I check in with the red-haired woman in the front and receive the precious gift of the backstage pass! So far, so good. I end up with a great position on the floor.

Skindred
† I skipped the merch booth this time and waited for Skindred to come out and rock the house. They were decent and grew on the crowd towards the end. Kinda reminded me of a Rastafarian Korn. They ended their set with a Casio Keyboard outro. Really.

Finch
† Fucking ew. Same story as last night's show. I opted to drink a few beers at the bar instead of being blasted with "RARRFFTHEGOVERNMENTRAAWAFFFTAKESRARYOURFAAMONEYWAFF" again.

HIM
† Again, not sure of the order, but I know the first two and last two are right.

Vampire Heart
Right Here In My Arms
Soul on Fire
Under the Rose
It's All Tears
Your Sweet Six Six Six
Wicked Game
Join Me
Poison Girl
Razorblade Kiss
Behind the Crimson Door
Play Dead
Killing Loneliness
Buried Alive By Love
The Sacrament
Wings of a Butterfly
Funeral of Hearts (Encore)
Solitary Man (Encore)

The venue is much smaller, and so it is crazy packed. Not to mention there was NO airflow whatsoever. HIM come out and the house goes insane. Again, HIM tore through their set with little banter. A guy in front of me was taping the show on his video camera, he got "Vampire Heart" before security caught him. During "Wicked Game" Ville stopped singing twice to let the overheated Goth kids get carried off the floor. Ville was such a gentleman. He began to pass out water to the fans. He even grabbed a crowd surfer once and helped pull him down. Ville told everyone that they need to calm down and enjoy the show.

It was amazing once again. My favorite song remained "Under the Rose" and this time I got to hear two new tracks for the encore. "Poison Girl" seemed to get everyone rocking the most. After the encore, the show is over.

But now for the good stuff!

The Aftershow

† We were invited to the upstairs bar in the Ridglea. Again I meet up with Jenne from HIMUS.com and we sit around and chat about a few things. If you ever meet up with her, she's a true sweetheart and it was a pleasure meeting her. She was kind enough to take pictures for me because my batteries were dead. Now if that isn't interagency cooperation, I don't know what is.

We were talking when Mige and Burton arrive in the bar. We introduce ourselves and whatnot, they were very gracious. When Ville arrives, I introduce myself and he introduces himself to me with a hand shake. That's the kind of class we're talking about.

I can't say enough about all the guys in the band. I chatted with Burton and Mige the most. I asked Mige about strip clubs in Finland. He said "Well, the clubs in Finland are all sort of raunchy....if you like that sort of thing." I jokingly asked "You don't?" And he just smiled and laughed. He said his favorite Americanized beer so far is Lone Star. We talked about Coronas, but I can't remember what was said about them.

Burton and I chatted about the site a bit. Linde really doesn't talk much, but he's not unapproachable by any means. I did hear him say a few words, though. He and Mige were laughing at some of the pictures in the Daniel Lioneye CD booklet. Gas said he had been to Dallas 2 other times before and that he loves Texas.

The band were in the bar for about 30 minutes or so, and it was really pleasant. Nobody there was a groupie type, so nobody was screaming their heads off when the band came in. Everyone was respectful, and the band was outstandingly gracious with requests for autographs and photos.

I hope I can do it all again next year. I have to thank Tom, Taina and the band for all that they did for us. My respect for the band has risen that much more.

And yes, I of course have pictures of it all. Note that I rock the same pose for every picture. Why? Because I lack creativity, I guess.

Autographs: Gas and Burton † Linde and Mige † Ville

HIM and I: Burton† Gas † Ville † Linde & Mige

There is another photo of me with Jenne and Tom, but I don't have it at the moment. There is also another with me, Mige an Ville, but it came out awkward due to my friend's poor timing. Ville said "Oh, that's absolutely terrible...it's all Mige's fault."