then we had the mission of getting to the hotel, there was apparently a shuttle bus but everyone we asked seemed to know nothing about it so we got a taxi instead. eventually we got there, checked in and collapsed in relief. a bed! granted we were only going to be using the room for about 5 hours by this point but it was still a luxury for us. cups of tea/coffee/hot chocolate, running through the hallway in our pjs and attempting to print out our gig tickets. cue the printer breaking and having to get the nice receptionist man to help (and probably terrorising him) by letting us into his little office bit to use his computer... then FINALLY we could get into bed. but not before a few laughing fits and watching the video i got of the stolen dance cover in hamburg.
3 hours of sleep later we got up to catch the shuttle bus back to dublin airport to make our way to belfast. two words: soggy socks. went to ask for a hairdryer and the same bloke was on the front desk, he must have thought we were insane.
we got to the airport in plenty of time for our coach and had a freezing cold wait once we purchased tickets but we made friends with the ticket man. eventually our coach pulled up and we got ourselves comfy. it took less time than we expected to get into belfast! we had a 15 minute or so walk through town to get to the venue and we passed a boots so thankfully i could pick up some tights as my outfit for that day didn't take into consideration bitter winds...
eventually we stumbled across the venue so we had a little wander and scoped it out before taking refuge at the front of the queue with two other girls who were there and ended up making friends with! we ended up doing our make up whilst sat on the pavement because we kept panicking that all these blacked out people carriers were the band... haha.
the day passed fairly quickly, it started getting very cold and a little rainy though so we took a trip to primark to buy blankets and an umbrella, with a quick stop in mcdonalds to get changed and get a hot drink to warm us up a little. when we got back martha was there which was lovely as we hadn't seen her since bournemouth! tina came along eventually too, and martha offered to let us keep our bags in her hostel room so we got a taxi over there and sorted our stuff out. a fairly big queue was beginning to form by this point and people weren't really sitting in any specific order so we decided to do the numbering system - surprisingly it went down really well and everyone got really into it and excited by it?! security got on our side about it too which was incredible because that rarely happens. belfast was so well organised.
with the number system firmly in place and security arranging us into an actual queue formation with barriers, we had the freedom to walk around and stretch our legs and keep ourselves occupied. food runs, nosing round at the back etc. we bumped into a few of the tech/roadies round the back (jared, peaches and eric) who were trying to hail a cab... oh, bless. we explained to them that it doesn't work like that in ireland/the uk, you have to phone for one. so we phoned for a taxi for them and got talking. we told them about how we'd been to so many shows and that belfast was our 15th and 16th shows and how we'd missed out on drumsticks and plectrums etc because people would steal them off us and they were like 'oh well i guess we'll have to give you something for that tonight then' - so lovely!
eventually the time comes for us to get ready for the gates to open, meaning we all have to stand up and psyche ourselves up.
eventually we're let past the first gate and file into lanes. marnie was a lane over from me but thankfully the girl in the lane between us agreed to swap so we could be next to each other. the staff at the end of each lane were so lovely and we had some nice conversations with them which was great at keeping our minds off what was about to come. not that we had any reason to stress...
ticket scanners eventually come out, but they appear to have completely missed our end three lanes and just as they're about to start letting in the lanes we have to protest and i started crying (tiredness and stress, my god i am an embarrassment) but thankfully the security here actually listen to the people they're dealing with and the main guy got the stewards to hold up the lanes until we got scanned and even then let us get a little bit of a sneaky head start once we were in the clear.
it was a nice smooth run (well, speed walk) to barrier, we had first pick of where to be so of course ended up slap bang in the middle. there was such an incredible atmosphere once we all made it to the barrier - everyone knew each other and we were all just so happy! there was even enough space to do a quick bar run and get drinks for people and get back into my space without a problem - incredible.
eventually the show is about to start and we saw a local talent (whose name i forget right now). the lead singer and i shared an awkward moment where he sang at me and i knew literally none of the words - nor could i even try and understand what he was saying down the microphone. after those came soul sister dance revolution - a band from the netherlands - who were SO good. incredible energy and the whole crowd around us was enjoying it.
after ssdr, the dragons were up next. it was taking ages for them to come on stage though so we were all getting really antsy then eventually the intro music started up and the lights came on and the atmosphere was buzzing with energy. i don't think i've ever been so excited to hear that opening melody as i was right then. we laughed, we cried, we rocked out harder than we ever have before. it hurt, but it was worth it.
so much happened during the show but i can't even find the words for it all. there was a moment during one of the earlier songs where ryan bent down behind his keyboard and put his hand up to his head like a shark fin and we just lost our shit and waved around this ridiculous stuffed shark that we'd bought as a gift for him. every single person around us was enjoying themselves to the max, whether they knew the lyrics or not. people were jumping and having fun which is all that matters in the end!
then it was time for the cover song. i don't know what myself and marnie we were expecting, we were desperately wishing for stolen dance again but had given up all hope with it being a song by a german artist. then as soon as the first notes of it started we just went mental, you should've seen the smirk on dan's face when he saw us look at each other in disbelief! special moments during their cover of with or without you, marnie's regular breakdown during the river and mine during it's time. i promise, we're normal.
i swear, we could not have asked for a better end to the run of shows we've done this summer. all the stress and sleepless nights were made more than worth it in that hour and a half.
once the boys went off stage, jared jumped down and appeared in front of us with a drumstick each for myself, marnie and martha. another of the roadies tried to give us a setlist but some idiot behind us ripped it out of the hands of the security guard. we headed round to the back where we found out they'd all left except ryan so we stuck around a while longer, we wanted to say thank you to the crew and stuff anyway. eventually he came out, stopped the car he was in and jumped out to say hello to us. we finally gave him his little shark which we'd attached a little thank you note to, had hugs and said our goodbyes until the next time. :(
there's no telling when the next time will be, it could be in four months or it could be in a year. we're holding out hope for as soon as possible, not knowing when one of your favourite bands is going to be touring next is an awful feeling, especially when you've gotten so accustomed to seeing them so often.
but now they're away to work on album two, and from what we've heard so far (battle cry, warriors, all for you) it sounds absolutely amazing. hopefully it won't be too long until it's finished and released and they're back on the road for another tour! we're ready and waiting, whether our bank accounts are or not!
until next time,
the wolfpack
xo
p.s. keep an eye out for tales of adventures past from the night visions tour!
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