9/21/2003 - Moore - Seattle
Wakeup call at 8:30. Renda says she's in line and I need to get my ass down there. I get down there at 10:30 and there's exactly 4 people in line. Renda & Phil at the front and 2 other girls from Pullman.
And for hours we waited. To pass the time we played us some Simpsons Monoploy (I was Mr Plow) and just had a good time hanging out. While we were playing Revis came by, I didn't know what they looked like so I found out it was them ex post facto but they were taking pictures and talking to some people father down in line.
Later in the afternoon a taxi pulls up and I see Will & John get out. As they're walking up to the venue Renda told them "welcome back to Seattle" and I managed to catch John's attention and talk to him for a minute. I got him to sign my Mindrage liner notes and talked to him about Kill System a bit. That was the highlight of my night right there!
About an hour before doors I see Josh walk outside, he was pretty buzy(when isn't he?!) but I got to ask him what the plans for the night were... basically after the show they would get whisked away, no backstage anything. blah
We also met up with Colin from the board. He had been in line for a few hours before we saw him. lol But it all worked out so no harm.
When it came time for doors, it was handled VERY POORLY! The line for entrance crossed the longass Will Call & VIP lines. So even tho Renda, Phil & I were at the front of the line, we were not the first ones in. But once we did get in we all headed up to the balcony. And luckily we managed to grab the best center seats in the first public row in the balcony so I was quite happy! Couldn't ask for better seats!
At 7pm sharp the lights go down and Finger 11 takes the stage. The was exactly 3 things that made this an entertaining set. 1) During one of the songs Amy came out and sang background vocals! It added a lot to the song and it sounded amazing. 2) The guitarist for Finger 11 is a reminder to us all not to do drugs! I'm pretty sure he was on LSD or some other hallucinogen, I don't even think they had his guitar plugged in, they just let him swing it around and pretend he was playing. 3) The biggest Finger 11 fan on earth was at the show tonight, this twitchy teenage dude was thrashing and grooving to every song every note. He was quite a spectacle to watch!
Next Revis came out. I really like these guys! The times he talked to the crowd sounded pretty rehearsed, like he's been doing it every night for 2 months now.... but for the actual show, they did an excellent job! I've had the album for a while so I knew all the songs and that really helped a lot. I can see why Ben was such a fan of these guys.
And then it came time for Evanescence. Jennifer White a DJ for The End came out to introduce them, Ben came out with her and was rather friendly with her. Then he left and she introduced them. The lights went out and the music for "Haunted" started. The black drape was pulled away and the band could be seen playing in the forefront, and there was an elevated stage behind the band that Amy was standing on there at the start. The then came running down during the first line and completed the show down below. Then came "Going Under", "Taking Over Me", "Everybody's Fool" and then "My Last Breath" in which Will went back up onto the elevated stage area for a short time.
Next they played "Farther Away" which is quite a production. I love how at the end of the song Amy gets a chance to run off stage and the band is left killing it with the drum beats including Ben on the tribal drums! After that they go into another song not on the CD, "Even In Death" which leads straight into the cover of "Zero".
After Zero Amy gives a little speech about how everyone should know the words to the next song and it would help her if everyone sang along. The lights go down and there's some short guitar sounds, lights come up and the band rips into a Metallica medley Amy didn't know was coming (so she claimed). Instrumental "Master Of Puppets"(I think it was) then "Enter Sandman" Amy comes back on stage and sings the first verse and chorus of. At which time the band goes into "One" and Amy gets Ben to sing a couple lines from it while ripping away at the song. It really kicks ass. At the end of One Ben is just on the ground front center of the stage just shredding away.
A quick side note, that was the last I remember the soundsystem being good. After that, static and feedback started getting louder with each song.
Finally they get to the song Amy was talking about before the Metallica medley and they play "Bring Me To Life" which leads into "Tourniquet" which leads into their supposed last song "Imaginary".
The lights go out and the crew brings a keyboard on stage. The audience has lighters lifted high. Finally its time for the encore. Amy comes out and sits at the keyboard. She says that today is the first time she has ever performed this song live. We got a beautiful piano/vocal of "Breathe No More". After that song Ben comes out and grabs the mic, and says normally they would do a couple more songs but because of the soundsystem issues there would only be one more song, "My Immortal" also done piano/vocal only. No band.
After the song was over Ben had everyone come on stage that had been part of the tour. All the other bands, the crew and threatened anyone that didn't come on stage saying he was fuckin bigger than they were. I think he said "fuck" about a good 20 times in that little speech. haha It was a great end to the tour.
A few more notes about the show. The fog machine was set way too high. There was times it was hard to see the band, and it was really effecting Amy's voice. She did not sound 100% tonight! Almost like she had a higher pitched squeaking voice. Hard to explain, and it wasn't BAD, it just wasn't as clean as previous shows.
Also Cold's official web site lied, because it said they would be there but they skipped this show, which I can understand since they did Bumbershoot, but I would have liked to see them too. However Ben was sporting a COLD shirt during the show so there was still love for Cold there tonight.
So... great show. If it wasn't for the sound issues it would have been the perfect show.
