Your Promises, They Look Like Lies

I was at the Bristol show....the most incredible night of my life!!
I got there around 11am, and it was so cold :[ BUT I met Shannon and he signed my ticket. My friend has the photo of us two with him, so I need to get if off her. We saw Tomo and Tim wandering about too, and Jared (looking shy and ill) walked past and through the side door into the venue.
I have to say that the queue for this gig was the friendliest I've ever been in. I chatted to everyone, virtually. (I also befriended a Polish girl who was extremely obsessed & hysterical).
We were let in just after 7pm, but had to wait over an hour for the actual show to start. The support was LostAlone, and they were bloody fantastic. By the end of the first show they'd gone from support to headline!
Whilst setting up the stage for 30, there was a huge white curtain obscuring the entire stage from view. BUT when it was time to start, there were red lights from behind the curtain, the occasional strobe, and then the music from "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi" started playing. We started screaming, seeing silhouettes of microphone stands, drums, and the odd shadow of a person. As it got to the climax, the band kicked into into a euphoric version of Battle Of One, and the curtain fell. As you can guess, everyone screamed/cheered

What can I say? Jared may have been ill, but you would not have guessed it from his incredible performance! He literally seemed to sing his heart out, screaming into the mic, running around stage with a mad glint in his eye. The thrust the microphone into the air, and there were times when the crowd was louder than the music. The band sure as hell didnt' seem to be expecting that! Bristol Academy may be the "smallest venue on the tour", but probably put the rest to shame!
"Be honest, how many of you have our first CD?" was met with deafening cheers. Jared's reply was a shocked "you're a bunch of hardcore motherf*ckers"
Too right, my friend.
Tim was quite subdued for most of the gig, occasionally coming forward. I dunno, maybe it's because he's a touring member, or maybe he doesn't want to rain on Jared's parade Tomo soon got into the swing of things, however, running around, balancing on the edge of the stage and playing pitch-perfectly! It's strange, though, how this band has no physical contact with the crowd whatsoever, and yet you feel so close to them. At one point, Jared came and stood infront of the bit I was in, arms oustretched. We all reached out and my had was a breathe away from his, and you can still somehow feel his energy, like an aura. Not every frontman can do that. We had the crowd completely under his control. A cult, in every [positive] sense of the word.

His acoustic 'Capricorn' was beautiful - I have a video of it, but unfortunately you can hear the horribly off-key singing of the girls next to and behind me :[ He then went into The Story, which ended in laughter before he started singing And then, his final solo song was 'A Modern Myth' which, I admit, had me crying. That was so beautiful :]

The Kill, FY, Attack, ABL ("For everyone who wants to do something different with their lives") - each song had us in a frenzy. It was like we were all in whole different dimension to anyone outside of these walls. They played Hunter, which I would never have expected, and it was awesome! "Let's turn this into a rave!" By our lord's command, we all went weird, imitating everything that he did onstage.

The show finished with Jared getting us to chant "Do you live/die/bleed" over and over before shortening it just "live/die/bleed" holding the mic over us, then going to Tomo and back again. You guessed it, The Fantasy was the grand finale of everyone's dreams.

After the show I waited, with what seemed like the entire crowd, outside to meet the band. The show finished at 22:40, which was a bit early, but I thought it had been later than that before I checked my phone, so I didn't really mind. At about 23:10-ish, Jared made an appearance and we followed eagerly down to the tourbuses. Tomo was there for a few moments too, but he then disappeared. We had an informal Q&A/chat with him. Someone people started to shout his name and he was like "Settle down class, or I'll have to put you in detention" which was great Nice to know that this guy does actually have a sense of humour. He's softly spoken, surprisingly modest, and is so appreciative of his fans; i.e the loveliest frontman there could be. A Latvian lady gave him a box which had chocolates, and book will the photos of all of the Latvian 30STM fans, which was incredible. Anyways, Jared told us that he had a great time and was really impressed with us/the crowd and they were absolutely adamant that they'd come back to Bristol. They're also going to be working on their third album this year *WOOHOO* but aren't setting themselves a deadline. I had to run at 23:30 because I had to catch the last bus home! So I don't know what happened next.

For me, it was the most incredible experience of my life. And to top it off, I got Shannon's autograph, met Shannon and Jared, and got a drumstick and one of Jared's plecs. Next time I see them, I'm determined to get something from Tomo and Tim (if he's still there)

Fangirl moment (because I'm allowed): SQUEEE! When I handed Jared something after the show, he touched my hand! *faints* </ fangirl >