***stardust

*bouncing and spazzing and ears ringing*
Nooooothing beat a good live concert.
^______^

So, Laur will have a more coherent and probably better overall account of things, but here's my late-night-sleepy-but-spastic version. *giggles*
Headed out about 4, 4.30, got to Darien Lake (excuse me, Six Flags at Darien Lake 9_____9 *gags*) ehm.. sometime later..*giggles* Eventually found Holly, then promptly split up to go do stuff. Wandered a bit, then Laur and I decided to check the arcade to see if they, by some lucky chance, might happen to have DDR.
THEY DID.
^__________________^
So, dropped a good few bucks in there, figuring out how to make the silly thing work right (I accidentally set it on like, beginner or something dreadfully simple..we couldn't get it to go into two-player mode..y'know). There were lots of songs that I don't know or even *have*, tho, which bothers me somewhat. (And probably more than it *should*! *laughs*) But there were enough that I knew, "Look To the Sky" and "Butterfly" and "Dam Dariram" and "Drop the Bomb" and otherstuff so I was like whee. ^___^ And it took awhile to get used to the way it's set-up - I'd never played the arcade version before. I dunno, it's nice that the thing doesn't slide away under your feet *laughs*, but I had to jump down on it a lot harder'n I'm used to, and due to the metal seperator-bits I couldn't slide across from one arrow to the next like I'm used to doing. But I caught on and it was good. *G* Went on the sleighride thing, which's always mad fun, then met up with Holl at the ferris wheel. And then didn't see her again the rest of the night! *laughs* But she was with people so it was all good. And we played more DDR. And it rocked, cos we figured out to play against each other finally. *giggles* And I died once cos I tried.. something on standard (PS-version equivalent: trick), I'm not sure which it was, and it was sad cos then I couldn't play a third song. *pouts* So I learned to save the one I'm not sure of passing for last *giggles*. Did that awhile, then got lemonade and lemon-ice stuff, met up with Laur's mom and Mrs. Bou..yeah I'm not even gonna try that. *laughs* Sat about for a bit, then wandered around some more and went on, like, the swings, and..was that *it*?? *laughs* Think it was. But I really hadn't even expected that we'd be going on any rides, and goodness knows I've been on them countless times before..plus Laur doesn't like roller coasters and it's no fun going alone and I'd've felt bad leaving her alone anyway. *giggles* But yeah. At two of the characture booths, there were SO drawings of BONO!!!!!! *spazzes* I literally squeeled at the first we say. *giggles like mad* I'm such an obsessive freak. But it really made me happy!!! Then from the swings we spotted the second, and afterwards we went over to look closer..and realised that the drawing beneath it was of the main cast of Whose Line!!! So *Laur* spazzed and I spazzed and it was good. *G*
Then we realised we had a bit of time left before meeting up with her mom again, so we went for ONE MORE ROUND of DDR. ^___^ And ohhh my gooodness, it was AWESOME!!! *spazzes* Like.. we felt kinda bad cos we were watching these guys play and then this kid (with long blue hair..I was like oooo... *giggles*) set his quarters up on the machine - proper arcade ddr etiquette - set your money there marks that you've got it next. Only Laur and I weren't doing that cos we didn't know that anyone else would, and anyway we weren't quite sure on it cos we'd heard it second- or third-hand or something. Or at least I did. But we only had a bit of time so we nicely asked the kid if he'd mind, and he said no, so we were like YAY and we played - Laur set it on light, I set it on standard cos I'm insane. (but also cos I *can* manage 5s now cos I play so much here at home.) And we played, and it was good. ^__^ Something that I can't remember the title of but had a heart in the middle *g*, "White Love".. and then "Dam Dariram". Which was a 4 for Laur, and a 6 for me. I have tried to beat that on standard SOOOO many times, and have NEVER succeeded.
Today?
I DID IT.
^___________^
*spazzes* It was insane! I was like *THIS* close to dying at one point but I didn't and it was awesome and then Laur got an A!!! and I got a C but IT'S A FRICKIN' 6 AND I *PASSED* IT!!!!! and then we were done and we were laughing and blown away and spastic and got off the pad, letting blue-haired boy and this girl on.. and the guys who had gone before us had apparently stuck around to watch... cos they shook our hands and told us we were awesome. Well, rather, they told Laur that, then she pointed out that *I* was the one who'd been doing a 6, and they told me I was awesome and shook my hand too. *giggles* Cos I'd heard them saying as I was playing, all in awe that I was playing on standard... *laughs*
You've NO idea how.. I don't even know. We felt empowered. It rocked. ^____^

So then we went over to where the concert was, and *oh* my goodness, it was GREAT. Darien, as a venue, is normally the worst EVER, with secruity shite and seating and no water bottles or cameras allowed and just.. it sucks. But for Kingdom Bound all that shite is GONE and it's awesome!!! They didn't even check our bags when we went in, it was open seating, people had cameras... gah. wonderfulwonderful. I'm so going again next year, ESPECIALLY if Newsboys are there again, as is likely. ^___^ So we get in there about ten to 8 and there's a band onstage.. and it was Audio Adrenaline, already started!!! which was sad. But not devestating, cos it was Newsboys we were *really* there to see. *g* Laur and I worked our way about halfway to the front, a few hundred feet back (actually kinda-near where I'd been for Nickleback alst summer, I think), and it was very cool. I knew one or two of the songs, having heard them in the van on the way *there*.. *laughs* They're fairly good live, it was cool. The bassist had MAD FRICKIN' AWESOME HAIR... you don't usually expect someone in a Christian rock band to have giant near-foot-long orange-yellow spikes in a line for hair. *mad giggles* It was sweet. And the singer bounced all around the stage and got the audience to sing and all, which was good and as it should be. ^_^ (I really think this was half of my problem with seeing Nickleback live - the singer was behind a guitar and motionless a good deal of the time. And just facial expressions don't make it over a distance of a good 300+ feet.) Hey Laur? you by chance remember which song it was they did..it was kinda towards the end I think and the lights were all dark blue and purple, it was an angstier, heavier song... also, title of the one about being His hands and feet? I have downloading to do. *g*
So, yeah. Eventually they finished, a guy from Compassion, the child-sponsery-thing that Newsboys are quite fond of, came up to talk, and Laur and I made a run for the merchandise table. And bought Newsboys shirts. Both, oddly enough, of which are green. *g* (Only hers has Thrive and stuff on it, and mine has this funky 70s-ish flowery-design on the back.. I'd've liked one with at least the date or something on it, but they were big and I don't like big shirts *giggles*. and this one's mad cool anyway. ^_^) Prices were very, very friendly for once, as well - shirts were $15 and $20! ^___^
Dropped our stuff with Laur's mom, made our way down towards the front so we'd be cloooose for Newsboys. And eventually we found a rather nice spot about..goodness, 100 feet or less from the stage (tho Laurel and I're both bad with estimating distances so who knows! *laughs), where there weren't *really* seats but space for them so we kinda crouched there and half-sat on the metal poles that divided the area off - turns out it was one of the VIP boxes. (--The very things that pissed the hell outta me when we went to see Creed, cos the whole front seciton is this VIP shite or whatever and so despite the fact that I'd bought my tickets in the first two minutes they were onsale and paid 60-freaking-bucks, we were mad far away and Scott Stapp was like half an inch tall. *grrrrr*)
9pm, Newsboys came onstage, and everyone FLIPPED cos they're awesome and they opened with "Shine" which I've known and loved for quite awhile. ^___^
And I'll let Laur cover all the specific details, cos goodness knows she's gotta remember better'n I, but... It was a very simple stage set-up, two large screens to the sides of the stage and two smaller at the corners of the stage itself, platforms for the drummer and keyboardist, and the bleacher-like things and ramp that ran behind - same as for Creed, so I'm assuming that's a permanent feature of the stage there. No backdrops, for a few songs their music videos played on the screens but mostly it was just views from the cameras situated around (mostly about by where we were *g*). Volume overall was.. can't have been too far off from the U2-concerts, judging by the fac that I had to YELL into Laur's ear as she stood right next to me to be heard.. but it was somewhat less, cos I didn't have to yell as *loud*. And my ears are still ringing but that might be gone by morning, it's not too bad. The lights were quite well-done, though, they also did the smoke-effect thing a few times and the strobe-thing. So it was cool, but not overdone, so yay. (They also did this really neat thing with the lights, which I'd never seen before.. like, the outer rim of the circle of light was a different colour than the rest of the beam - shining downwards, it looked like a purple beam with bright green edges, on the stage it was a purple circle surrouded by a green ring. Ok it doesn't sound so great here, but it looked really cool and I'd never seen that done and *I* was impressed. *giggles*)
I knew all the songs but one or two.. admitedly, didn't know most of the words, but I knew the choruses anyway. *g* And... wow. The singer was running all over the stage and everything like a singer should (tho he was behind guitar for one song, but that worked too), engaging the audience and all. Traded off vocals a few times with the guitarists, which was also cool.. I saw the drummer singing but I don't know if he was miked. I... *smiles, shakes head* I haven't the words tonight to even try to describe, so only those of you who've *been* to a concert like that, up close, the sound washing through your whole body and self, heartbeat replaced by the drums, bass and guitar resonating in your gut... and then the song *hits*, just, *that*, and your soul's flying higher'n anything and you sing with all you have though you can't be heard and "we lift up our hands and we call on Your name"...
I got that a number of times at the U2s concerts I was at, once or twice at the Smithereens one.. possibly once at a Monkees one but I'm not sure... and these are what I measure a band's quality live by, and Newsboys..hit it a number of times. *smiles broadly* Thus, they are wonderful. ^_^ "Joy"...blew me utterly away. I was so lost in that..... when it ended and I was gasping for breath, eyes wide and shining and utterly at a loss for anything, I yelled to Laurel that *this* is what you go to concerts *for*, just.... there's no way to verbalise that. Laur, what was that word, for the feeling so high above just, everything, that just.. yeah. (I know you mentioned it in a comment here ages ago, but I've forgotten it..) It's.. I think it may very well have been *that* that helped wake me up in the first place, I know it was the music that first got to me at Niagara '98..the music, then what the speakers said sunk in and smacked me and I was like wowokhi, there's a world here and God and holy crap I've not really *believed* and *known* and *lived* this before now, have I?.....it's that music which brings me that close to God.......
*smiles* On a more earthly note, there were *tons* of balloons being batted about the audience all through the thing, it was great fun. There were a few really little kids in our vicinity, who kept reaching out and calling for the balloons, but didn't always get them, so Laur and I made it our mission to pass the balloons over in the direction of said kids when we could. *g* It was just cute and fun, I was batting one back and forth with this little boy to my left for a minute or so in the midst of a song, and it was just... really cool. *smiles*
Near the end of the set, Peter, the singer whose last name I'll not even attempt, began talking, and went into a whole speech-sermon-thing kinda... which, I suppose, this being Kingdom Bound and a(n official) Christian rock band and all, I should have expected..... I don't know. It's not that I think he shouldn't've gone into the whole God is our only hope, Jesus is our way to that, thing.. cos, really, he did it quite well, only slipping into the terms so easily thrown about by so many a few times. It didn't sound dry and thoughtless and like.. it didn't sound like uninspired indoctrination, you knew he meant it. (Also, these things are somehow easier to take if the person talking doesn't sound like everyone else you know.. the Australian accent added a bit of flavour to things as well. *laughs* Dreadful as that sounds, I know, but it was just cool in general.) Maybe it was just the crowd screaming at each mention of Christ, I don't know. Again, not that it's a bad thing, that's awesome and I'm sure most-all meant it. Maybe it's just that it was odd to me a bit..or maybe it's just that I've seen too many people all "I love Jesus!! *sparkle sparkle*" and I don't feel they really know what they're saying..... I don't know. Really, it ties in to the conversation merani-chan and I had the other night about religion and all, and how so many people just..it's not that they seem fake, but it kinda is, just that things seem to come so easily to them and they're all *sparkle sparkle* and I don't even know, just something about them makes you wonder f they ever really *did* wake up to the world around them...not that they're bad people, just... *sighs* It's hard to explain.
But this is a tangent, I'm gushing about Newsboys. *G*
Anyway, I got a "Streets" vibe cos as he was talking the keyboardist was playing soft slow organ-ish chords behind him and I kept waiting for his speech to trail off and then explode into a song. *g* (Again, not that this was what was solely occupying my mind.. I was listening. ^_^)
They did a really wonderful version of "Entertaining Angels".. a song that I've had for awhile and definitely liked, but wasn't an especial favourite..but live, it was awesome and even hit one of *those* moments. *smiles* "Breakfast in Hell" was also great.. at least one person flung cereal into the air. *giggles* "Joy" was definitely the highlight for me, but so was "It is You", which the band (really) closed with... they left the stage after..ehm..I forget. something. then we all screamed and clapped and made lots and lots of noise and they came back and we were like SCORE. ^___^ And they went into "It is You", which was, again, a favourite beforehand anyway but live, it surpassed itself by infinite amounts, and it went on forever..... And the bad got the crowd to sing, then left the stage one by one..drummer leaving last..as the crowd still sang.... definitely a "40"-moment, and definitely awesome. *smiles*

So, we somehow found Laur's mom and headed back thru the park, and people were spastic and random strangers in the mass throng of people walking alone were half-playing Marco Polo and it was mad amusing. *giggles*
Aaaaaaand I got back at like 11.30 but it's past 1am now and I've written so enough, I'm going to curl up with a book and pop in my Newsbos cd and fall asleep. ^__^

*Ananda Daydream * 1:20 AM * *

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