a fandom journey

This morning I'm recovering from going to see Epica and ReVamp at Corporation in Sheffield last night. It was absolutely INCREDIBLE.

It's hard to say whether Epica or ReVamp were the better band, but Floor Jansen is now officially the best singer in the universe. Not only can she sing hard rock, soft ballads and operatic arias, she can also scream. Seriously scream. When it got to the growling part on 'Here's My Hell' I was expecting one of the guys in the band to do it, but then she started growling and I was just like "Bloody hell!" And she was pitch perfect, of course, on every song. She had incredible stage presence and didn't miss a note. I HAVE to see her live again because she was absolutely mindblowing.

Then during the interlude between the bands a roadie gave the girl in front of us the paper with the set list written on it, and she let me get a photo of it

Then of course there was Epica, who sounded even heavier than usual. Simone was amazing and absolutely gorgeous. Her high notes were a bit quiet at first, but once she'd warmed up a bit she was spot-on. Mark was incredible with his guitar playing and his screams, and he kept teasing us by saying that it was the last song, then the band came back and they played three more. Floor dueted with Simone on Sancta Terra, and I think I can die happy now I've seen those two amazing singers perform together. Arien did an insane drum solo at the end of Unleashed that was utterly incredible and I think burst my ear drums! But I don't care that I still can't hear properly because that concert was so amazing it was worth it.

I also got winked at by Isaac Delahaye during Tides of Time, which was amazing! I was on the second row and I was videoing Simone who was off to my left, but I sort of just glanced round to see what else was happening on stage. Isaac was standing right in front of me (literally two metres away) and somehow we made eye contact and he winked at me. Best. Feeling. Ever.

Then at the end I got a drink from Mark Jansen's water bottle which he threw out to the audience. That was also rather cool.

At the end of the night I couldn't hear a bloody thing unless it was over 100 decibels, my neck ached from headbanging so much and my feet hurt from standing up for almost four hours, but it was absolutely worth it. I'm going to see them again as soon as I get the chance.

Here's a few clips from the evening. Sorry they're not great quality.