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Best concert ever?
Shit, that’s a tough one to narrow down!
Okay, I’ll say that the best concert I have attended to date was Atreyu at King Tut’s Wah-Wah Hut in Glasgow on 15th December 2004:
It was a clear night but fucking freezing. I got the number 23 bus into the city and got to the venue quite early. I was one of the first people in the queue.
The gig was sold-out and the place was packed. This was the first time I had ever been to King Tut’s. The events that took place that evening have ensured that the tiny St. Vincent Street venue will always hold a special significance for me.
I spent the first hour or so fleeting back and forth between the main hall, the merch stand and the bar. By the time support bands Black Maria and Bullet For My Valentine (the latter of whom started a fucking violent circle pit at the back of the room!) had been and gone I was already pretty drunk.
I was stood at the back of the room shortly before Atreyu took to the stage. One of their roadies walked by me and made his way to the stage. Everyone got out of his way to allow him to pass so I thought “Hang on a minute..!” and I followed right behind him. In doing so I wound up right at the front of the crowd, at the foot of the stage.
I can’t stress enough how small King Tut’s actually is (300 maximum capacity). There weren’t even any barriers separating the crowd from the stage - just a few small blocks about 12cm high placed around the bottom of it!
When Atreyu walked on, the place fucking exploded! The volume and intensity of the music and the crowd threatened to tear the roof right off the building! Fuelled by cider and adrenaline, I screamed my lungs out. Atreyu’s brutal metalcore sound tore strips off everyone present - bodies were flying through the air, pits were opening up all over the place, everyone was yelling the lyrics back at frontman Alex Varkatzas like their lives depended on it.
I was at the right side of the stage, in front of guitarist Travis Miguel, who spent the entire duration of the gig with a smug grin on his face. I can’t say I blamed him - if I were in a room full of people who were so clearly devoted to me and my music I’d be a fucking smug bastard too!
Bassist Chris Thomson regularly made his way over from the opposite end of the stage to mouth the lyrics and yell at my section of the crowd. He even took over lead vocal duties mid-set while Alex had a time-out to rest his shredded vocal chords.
But it was main man Alex Varkatzas who stole the show. He regularly leaned over into the crowd so he was less than 5 inches away from the people in the front row. When he came right over to my side and almost jumped on top of us I couldn’t believe it. I grabbed onto him and had my arm around his neck. He looked me right in the eyes as he screamed the lyrics to ‘Bleeding Mascara’. It was so fucking intense - there were stacks of amps in front and to the left of me blasting out Christ-knows how many decibels, I had Alex screaming in my face and everyone else in the crowd around me screaming right back at him! Right at that moment, nothing else mattered.
Atreyu proceeded to rip through all the best loved tracks from both their albums - ‘Suicide Notes & Butterfly Kisses’ and ‘The Curse’ - throwing in a face-shredding cover of Bon Jovi’s ‘You Give Love A Bad Name’ in the process. They finally vacated the stage only to be coaxed back on by the deafening chant “At-Rey-U, At-Rey-U” from the crowd. They obliged with a brutal rendition of ‘The Crimson’ before bidding us a final farewell.
I left the venue and stumbled back out onto St. Vincent Street just after 11pm, the cold night air acting as somewhat of a wake-up call. And I felt fucking proud that I had been witness to one of Atreyu’s first UK headline shows. I knew that these guys were destined for big things and knowing that I was one of the first people to catch onto them made me feel pretty damn proud.
Less than a few days after the gig, I found out that Atreyu would be returning to these shores in April ’05 for another headline tour. They are again playing Glasgow, however this time at the slightly larger capacity Garage on Sauchiehall Street.
I bought my ticket immediately! To say I’m excited about seeing them again would be the understatement of the century! In fact, I’m almost nervous about seeing them again - how can anything possibly live-up to that night at Tut’s??!
Music and going to gigs is what I live for and I have a mini-novel inside my head to accompany each and every single show I’ve been to. I don’t want to bore anyone with tales of bands that none of you have ever heard of or even give a toss about, but if you really wanna know, I’ll happily spill it.
It’s only February but I’ve already been to one gig (Taking Back Sunday/My Chemical Romance) and have 5 others lined-up (Simple Plan, The*Ga*Ga*s, 36 Crazyfists/From First To Last, My Chemical Romance and Atreyu) so far this year.
I’m gonna make 2005 memorable!
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