DragonForce at the Astoria.

[K]

I just went to see Dragonforce

Dragonforce pwn.

Dragonforce are better than your favorite band.

Dragonforce make your favorite band look gay.

You wish you were at Dragonforce

Be jealous.

Also Reily is a dude.

[Turbo Yannis]

I was meant to go see Dragonforce in Glasgow earlier in the week but I decided not to. Wish I had now

[Liam]

Is there new album any good? You've saved me from starting up another topic, Keith, thanks

And I wish I'd have seen them in Brighton now last year when I had the chance.

[John Stones' Paint Trophy]

Their new album is brilliant. Hunt it down now.

And I knew about the Newcastle gig too late. My loss, I guess.

[K]

Inhuman Rampage is freaking awesome.

You neeeeeed it.

It was a quality event.

[Liam]

Yeah, I was going to buy the album today, but realised I didn't know if it was any good.

Who supported, Keith?

[K]

EdGuy

German and Camp. Bit like Matzat.

[K]

Just woke up... there is something wrong with my toes...

They feel broken... only they're not. They don't hurt... but.. I dunno it's wierd.

[Farmer Reil]

London is big :|

We finally get to the coach station at about 12:05. Get to the tube station, go to King's Cross. Find our hotel. Then we just sleep or read or chat and stuff, not wishing to get lost before we have to. We set out for the Astoria at 5pm. We follow our map, and end up in a kebab shop. Bemused, we ask random customers where the Astoria is.

They've never even heard of it.

A SEVEN POUND taxi fare later, we arrive at the Astoria. SEVEN POUNDS. That must've been the single most incorrect map in history. Anyway, we're here now, and in the queue (which at this point has sprawled down the side of the Astoria, around the corner, down that street. We join it at the corner. An hour later, and it's at least twice as long (it was hilarious watching the expression on people's faces as they rounded the corner to find that they still couldn't see the end of the queue ).

We start moving forwards at about 6:50. Sabaton are playing now, but nobody cares because nobody has ever heard of them. I spot Keith just as we enter the barricaded bit (just before you actually get into the Astoria. I.e, the bit where it's too late to jump into the queue). Keith fails to hear me (I assumed at this point that there was someone else in a leather jacket and a Fozzy shirt who looked just like Keith, but found that Keith is just deaf ).

7:15 and we finally get in after a bit of fuss over the cash machine (which we turned out not to need due to completely missing the merchandise stand, which was ON THE BALCONY ffs). Sabaton have just finished, to our relief, and we head for the front of the stage. At this point we're just slightly to the right of the center, about five "rows" back. Beer has been forgotten about at this point, erroneously, as five seconds later the Astoria was fucking packed, and getting to the bar would've been hard enough, getting back almost impossible.

Edguy come on, and most people chant for them, as do I. They play a fucking awesome set, including four of my five favourites (the fifth was teased, when Tobi asked if we wanted to hear "an emotional ballad? Do ya? Well fuck off then, because here's Babylon!", but that was cool with me because I love Babylon too ). Just before the end of Babylon they quite randomly played the first verse of The Trooper to get a cheap pop . Then they destroyed my vocal chords by playing Lavatory Love Machine. Then, after 45mins or so (Tobi had far too much energy to expend it all in 45mins ) they left, after the awesome anti-chav anthem () King Of Fools. Edguy 2 - 0 Reily's throat.

Then I met Keef in the interval and held up a sign that I think said EWB, while he took a photo in which I probably look completely stoned because that seems to be my natural expression when I'm not paying attention, despite never having actually smoked anything in my life . Then Keith sorta drifted away (although I can't remember conciously moving, I somehow did. I hate it when that happens ).

Then Dragonforce came out and the place went fucking nuts. They started (as they pretty much have to, due to the awesomeness of it's intro) with My Spirit Will Go On. At this point there was a huge charge to the front, and I somehow ended up crushed against the far-right railing. This suited me fine though, as now I couldn't fall over, and was pretty much touching the stage.

Then... other stuff happened, I dunno, it was all a blur of awesomeness from there on out. I do remember Vadim's fucking awesome keyboard solo, which included the Simpsons theme tune, among other things . Dave spilled his drink all over the stage, so we had another short interval of ZP and Sam talking bullshit to pass the time, which is always funny p

They also did a cool little interlude during one of the songs (Through The Fire And Flames I think), where they played the Pacman game music and the bassist (who unbelievably was only a session bassist up until this gig - he felt like he'd been there forever ) was running around doing a Pacman impression, which was awesome.

Then they ruined my vocal chords again with Heart of a Dragon, in which I accidentally punched someone in the face. Not my fault though. He was sitting on the rail in front of me (which he shouldn't have been doing in the first place). I threw the horns up, caught him sweetly under the chin and he went flying over the rail. A bouncer guy came over and helped him back over, but he was obviously fucking stoned. He could hardly stand up, which explained the sitting on the rail I guess. He proceeded try to do again, fell off, then the bouncer guy came over again and kicked him out

Then DF finished with Valley of the Damned, and announced that they'd be "at a major UK festival this year". Download? w00t. About time.

Then some annoying tape on loop started telling us to get the fuck out of the Astoria, so we did... eventually. The queue for the cloakroom was huge (this gave Keith an opportunity to do another run-in to say bye, and fall down the steps ¬_¬).

Then we got a taxi and went home.

The end.

Conclusion: Edguy own you, Dragonforce own Edguy, the (sold out) Astoria owns all.

Edit: Oh yeah, and someone gave ZP a flag at some point, and he and Sam went to all the effort of hanging it up (trust me, when you're trying to sing/play guitar, and hang up a flag on a piece of set you can barely reach, it was an epic effort ), only to reveal the flag said "Dragonfagz" on it I'm not sure if they realised, but most of the crowd did. It was funny, but at the same time harsh.

Edited February 4, 2006 by TheReilDeal27

[Summers]

Holy shit. Dragonforce at Download? I really hope so.

[Guest muddatrucker]

£7 is an expensive taxi?

[Farmer Reil]

Not an expensive taxi, no. What I was getting at was, the map we had, and followed perfectly, told us we were there. But the actual Astoria was a seven pound taxi ride away. Seven pounds = pretty far, that was my point.

It was £7.20 back to the hotel, too. So that means we went very, very wrong. Stupid map.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Dragonfagz.

That's very uninspired, but at the same time, amusing.

[Thomas]

coheed

[K]

That definately wasn't me you saw. I didn't get into the Astoria until Lavatory Love Machine.