So...I have been writing about all the wonderful things that happened in Montreal for the show, unexpected things and very happy things. The problem is - I like to go into great detail (as you might notice by some of my reviews of past shows) and make sure I don't forget the little things. So far my writings and ramblings are up to 4 pages and in a way it's really quite personal so I'm not sure if I'll be sharing them publicly - oh don't worry I'm not claiming to be in love with any of the guys, but for me I have been following these guys for a long time and when amazing things happen, my soul gets touched. I know it sounds odd even to me. Sorry.
Anyways so I'm going to do my best to give a shorter review here. As you can probably tell it was completely awesome in a personal way. All the sadness and anger I felt in Los Angeles when my camera was stolen was lifted away with the Montreal show. (Oh sure, it still pains me but I have such good memories to replace the bad ones with if you can understand that.)
Trying to make this short is not easy at ALL.
The concert - I was lucky to be up front and the stage was normal height - yay! Again, security was problematic as they wouldn't let the people stand up at the barrier until the show started - they explained it to me that it was to prevent the people who didn't have front row from making the way to the front. In their eyes it makes sense, but for the fans, we didn't understand why we should be stressed out for the show to begin. I got lucky - the security guard took pity on me. He offered to stand in the spot that I wanted to stand when the show began so that when the lights went down, we would exchange spots - and it worked! So I was in the corner of the catwalk and the main stage on Matthias' side. While not up front on the catwalk, I think it comes a close second for a connection with the band while on stage. The venue was close to being full, although the nosebleed sections seemed to be closed off.
At first the sound was a bit off for me, I thought it was my ear plugs (I always wear them) but it seemed to improve as the show went on. They had the fireworks and pyro and all that jazz. The set list was the same (I won't complain but if only they could of swapped one song! Preferably Hit Between the Eyes heh). I thought the crowd rocked - not as much as in San Francisco or Vegas but similar to France here in Quebec the Scorpions are still very popular. Lots of singing and chanting and of course screaming by me at least. All in all it was one of the best shows I've seen on this part of the tour (with this being show #6) - lots of energy and smiles for everyone.
This is where I have a hard time making this short...
Without going into all the details about how the stars aligned for me that day/night (some crazy luck I think). I found myself in the Meet & Greet line backstage in total shock. I had with me a card I bought to try and get to James, just a thank you card - but it was silly and even though he seemed really excited to get it when I handed it over, I wasn't expecting to give it to him personally and while it was just a thank you, (Lets get this straight, I'm not in love with any members of the band, I love the band and the music and it's all close to my heart though.) it still was silly.
The band recognized me! I'm not sure if it was my purple flag or just the fact I've seen them so often in the past month - but even Pawel who is always quiet actually talked! *Laughs* It was great to see recognition from these guys who meet with so many people each day. Oh I'm sure they don't know my name, but visual recognition was pretty awesome. I gave James my card and he seemed genuinely happy - even Rudolf looked at it like "Hey what about me?" well had I known I would of been there, I would of gotten everyone a card hah! It was like meeting old friends...it's very strange to say that. At the very least I was able to talk so I could be understood. I got them to sign my flag (I did that in France too, but the flag I had - in my profile picture ended up on stage around Klaus' shoulders) since I didn't have much else to sign. Then we went around in the line again for the photos. Now I've done these photos before for previous meet & greets and while it's always awesome getting a photo with the band - I never liked the "cookie cutter" photos where they do the same thing every time. I'm like that for regular photos, I find much more beauty in a photo when people aren't posing than when they all sit there and say "Cheese." So when it was my turn for the photo I gained my voice and asked them to do something unique. I was standing between Klaus and Matthias. Matthias ended up grabbing my hair and with mouth wide open, the photo was taken. And then told me "Now that was unique" James was holding my card too. So all in all it wasn't just a regular photo.
Oh man, so much for making this short and sweet. So many more details to share.
Just a bit more to say (with lots of things missing in between). During the show I had plenty of interaction with the band. Klaus threw me the first drumstick, but it bounced off my finger tips and someone else snagged it. A wave from Matthias and Rudolf handed me a black guitar pick. Then - at the end of the show, James comes down from behind his drums and hands me his black drumstick along with the set list for the night. I wasn't expecting that, heck I wasn't expecting anything - just happy to be there one more time. I don't remember seeing them hand out the set list before - but I quite honestly never really noticed either. The people next to me - their eyes grew wide and they were like "Wow they must like you."
I was just so happy when I left the venue, I held the set list tightly while tapping the drumstick on my arm. Several people stopped me to "touch" it. I kept a firm grip though, you never know what people will do to get something from the band.
So by surprise Montreal turned out to be quite an amazing show, I smiled far too much and although I felt kind of shy to meet with the guys again, and they did laugh at me but in a good way.
Okay so that wasn't short at all.
