OKAY SO I HAVE TO TALK/GIVE A RUN DOWN ON LAST NIGHT (17th APRIL 2013)
So, my band Devilskin won a competition where we got to open for Coheed And Cambria (who, everyone should know, is my sdfgsdfg favourite band in the galaxy). I was nearly in tears when I found out that I’d get to share the stage with my heroes as well as see them live.
So we headed up to The Powerstation (Auckland, NZ) and arrived at about 5:30pm, half an hour before our sound-check.
As the second support act (Heavy Metal Ninjas) were sound-checking, I decided to set up my drums on the dance floor so there was no fluffing around ON stage during sound check, anyway, once I had all my drum kit set up. I turned around and spotted Travis Stever walking to his dressing room, which I unintentionally placed my cymbals in front of. He walked by and said “Hey, how ya goin’?” to me and I just froze, he was talking to ME YUBHSDFGJNIDFG.
A few minutes later, Josh Eppard did a similar thing - walking around the room, touching base with his managers and such. My Dad (who had interviewed him over the phone a week ago) made me go and say Hi, because he apparently was looking forward to meeting me. So I did so, and shook his hand, he said he was really looking forward to watching my band’s set.
As we walked back into his room, I was jumping with glee, I’d just talked to one of my absolute heroes.
A few hours later, about half an hour before my band’s set, I was making sure no one walked in on our singer getting changed in the bathroom, and as I stood there. I saw Josh and his Tour Manager having a cigarette, 2 metres from where I was standing. We talked about random shit, he and I made fun of their TM because he didn’t know how close Australia was to NZ or anything.
I finally ballsed up and said “Hey, I hate to be THAT guy, but do you mind if I get a photo with you?”
HENCE PHOTO ONE
My had been made WEEKS before it, now I was just damn lucky.
Josh then sat right behind me during my band’s set, watching me play, I didn’t find out until afterwards.
Fast forward 2 hours~
Coheed were going on in 10 minutes. I was in our dressing room (upstairs, stage left) - which had a little window that looked out to the stage, and you could see the walkway to get from each side of the stage, behind the back drops - Coheed’s dressing room was downstairs, stage right, so I could see their door from the window. I saw it open and looked to see if I could spot Claudio.
Then the big mane of magic emerged from the room, and was walking right towards our side, downstairs. Me and my singer were waving frantically at him, he looked up and gave us a smile and waved back. We squealed like little girls, we could tell he was totally in the zone for the show - quiet, really reserved.
About 5 minutes later, I was DESPERATE for the toilet, and I decided to make my way down the 3 flights of stairs to go pee NOW so I didn’t miss Coheed’s opener.
So as I walked down the stairs, I heard someone else walking up around the corner.
As I turned, I saw that hair again. I stopped and froze. I was completely caught off guard. He looked up and said “Hey man”
I somehow managed to spit out the goofiest sentence ever:
“Hey, sorry, I’m the drummer of the first support band. And like, your hugest fan. I’m freaking out right now. Would you mind if I got a photo with you?”
I felt a bit bad because he was still really quiet and in the zone, but once I mentioned that I was in the support act, he smiled, shook my hand and said “You guys were awesome, sure man!”
HENCE PHOTO TWO
Fast forward to Coheed’s 4th song~
My band’s sound tech came up to me and said “Where’s your snare drum? Can we use it?”
I was confused and too busy watching Coheed to question him. I just grabbed my spare snare drum and handed it to him.
Then I started to think..why did he need it?
I ran downstairs to the side of the stage and asked the other sound tech’s why they needed it.
Coheed’s sound tech came behind me and said “Hey thanks man, Josh just broke the bottom skin of his snare, is it okay for him to use yours?”
I just agreed STRAIGHT away.
Joshua, freaking, Eppard, was playing the majority of Coheed’s set with MY snare drum.
As soon as they’d finished Welcome Home, I sprinted to the other side of the stage, where their room was, just before they closed the door I yelled out to Josh and asked if my snare was alright for him. He came up to me and wouldn’t stop thanking me for letting him use it. He handed it back to me and I said “Would it be too much to ask you to sign it?” he grabbed my pen and started his signature with a huge grin on his face. He stopped and said “Actually man, I’ll get the other guys to sign it too, is that okay?”
My jaw dropped as he took the drum to their room and the rest of the guys smiled and signed it.
HENCE PHOTO THREE
Fast forward to the load out~
As we were taking our gear from downstairs to outside. All of the members were leaving their room to go back to their hotel, they were in a bit of a rush, but they took the time to come and meet me and my band. They all said they really really enjoyed our set and were thrilled to share the stage with us.
I simply told them all “You’ve seriously defined ‘Dream come true’ for me, thank you so much.”
AND THAT IS THE STORY OF THE NIGHT I WILL NEVER EVER FORGET.
(Sorry if this takes up a lot of your dash, I just NEEDED to post this..for my sake)
