¤ Please note, reviews are submitted by readers. They are left as-is and unedited by us.

¤ November the eighteenth, two-thousand four. The Pittsburgh HIM show

¤ The day all started around 9:30am when I arrived at The Rock Club. I noticed I was the 5th person there and the only guy. After the first 20 minutes of waiting outside three really cool guys from Ohio showed up. They pointed out to me that the tour buses were parked across station square at the Marriott. We traveled through station square to see the buses and to see if we could catch the band at breakfast at one of the many cafes or bars.

¤ At the mid point of Station Square we noticed that one of the tour buses were traveling towards The Rock Club, so we ran back to our spots in line. The bus took about an hour navigating through the small streets of Station Square. Two buses and an equipment truck pulled up, but none of the vehicles contained HIM or Melissa.

¤ Soon crew and important people started showing their faces. Tom, HIM's tour manager and Sean "McFuck" McCarthy, the tour's stage manager, were the two most recognized faces. McFuck and other stage crew members unloaded the rental equipment truck along with a $16,000 13ft metal heartagram. Unfortunately McFuck said the venue's stage was too small to house the metal icon, but he said "You'll only see this type of shit at the Finland shows."

¤ We asked McFuck if he could assemble the heartagram before they packed it back into the truck, so that the fans could have a photo op with it. He agreed, but he did have trouble assembling it. If It wasn't for the very few fans directing him how to piece the large six pieces of metal together, that crazy Englander would still be outside scratching his head. Once the hearagram was pieced together I and a few other exclusive fans got to lay down/stand inside of the center of the heartagram. After a few pictures and a bit video shot the lovely $16k heap of metal was put back on the truck.

¤ Not many fans were there yet and I explained to the elite fans there that we should get Ville Valo a carton of cigarettes for his birthday. We all pitched in some money and ran to the Exxon an dropped 40 some dollars on Ville's cancer sticks of choice. Once we brought the present back to the line all of us guys signed the box and one of the other guys made very cool designs on the box.

¤ In the boredom I had in line I tried to pass out left over doughnuts (that one of the Ohio guys bought) out to tour people. Surprisingly some crew people accepted one or two. The next few hours outside were followed up by many HIM fans and people looking for Bam Margera *laughs* Also during our waiting time McFuck and Tom gave the first few people in line promotional material from Jagermeister and some HIM stuff such as the October Europe tour list and two NYC set lists, one that I personally got.

¤ One other thing a few select fans in the front of the line was some left over fries from Hooters that the roadies didn't finish for lunch...I got some of those too!

¤ Eventually the tour bus housing all of Melissa and HIM pulled up. Melissa was the first of the people off the bus. Once she exited the bus, one of the guys in the same group of people I was in with handed her some gifts and took a few pictures before she headed inside. Following her leaving the bus all of HIM, except Ville quickly scurried off the bus and into the venue. The Rock Club's manager came out to thank the fans for staying in line and not crowding the band.

¤ We still saw no Ville, but from information received from Tom and McFuck, he was still on the bus, and sure enough those in the very front of the line (and some HIM stalker kid) got to see Ville for a second or two. Ville never exited the bus until everyone was inside of the club, but people though he sunk inside since HIM was doing a sound check after the other band members went inside.

¤ Before the doors opened more things were given out to the first few fans in line (bottled water) and Seppo made a quick appearance. During the last hour in line dumber and dumber people arrived in line, such as more people wanting to see "Bam and his band" and people who thought the front of the line was the end.

¤ Doors opened and people rushed inside. At the security/ticket check I was held up because they had to check the carton of cigarettes to see if I was smuggling weapons inside. Once I was released I sprinted to the stage and luckily the Ohio guys saved me a front and center place.

¤ Auf Der Maur got on stage and kicked ass. I loved how during each song each band member (besides Melissa) would change places on stage and play a different instrument. It was really cool when Melissa asked Scott (probably the biggest Auf Der Maur fan at the concert) if the band has been through Pittsburgh before. For the 1st opening band, Auf Der Maur kicked ass, considering 18 Visions was pretty crappy in the last US HIM tour. At the end of their set Melissa threw a ton of guitar (or should I say Bass) picks.

¤ Monster Magnet go on stage. They sucked. The band is a metal/acid rock band that has no real talent and out dated stage moves. After their set was over, a lot of people were in pain and some lost their places upfront. Luckily I was still dead center.

¤ Finally the time came for HIM. McFuck and other crew members tuned instruments and placed out set lists (that those upfront could read). The set list was basically the same as the NYC set with a different song here and there. Around the 5th or 6th song I threw Ville's birthday present up on stage after another respectable fan threw a crap load of roses.

¤ We all know Ville was going to get better use out of the present I threw up on stage though. Ville said he was going to leave the stage for a smoke, but he and the rest of the band would come back to play an encore if we cheered and clapped, and the louder we did so, the sooner they would return.

¤ Soul on fire ended HIM's set and the concert. At the half way point of the song I pulled myself over the crowd control barriers stood up at Ville's level and then dropped down to run past the huge speakers where "We are like the leaving dead" was embedded into my ear drum and I ran back to the merch table to get stuff before the rush after HIM finished.....The concert was over, but the night wasn't. There still was the journey outside where security bullied all the fans around.

¤ All in all the day and night kicked ass. I rate the entire concert a 9 out of 10. Its not a perfect 10 mainly because of Monster Magnet, but if it was just Auf Der Maur and HIM the concert would have been a 30 out of 10.

¤ I'd like to thank Scott, Cory, Doug, Jim, Tim (who likes poop), all of the other cool elite fans in the front of the line, McFuck, Tom, Auf Der Maur, and the HIM for such the great time.