This wasn’t a show I was expecting to attend this year. I have seen “In This Moment” a few times and they always put on a great show but trying to save money for these festivals has limited the local shows I have been able to attend. So why did I go you ask? Well the Friday before the concert I was listening to the radio station and all day I was trying to win Skillet tickets. They were giving those away as well as other random stuff throughout the day. I was sitting at my desk talking to Jessica when I heard the DJ say caller 9 is in. I thought maybe it was Skillet tickets so I started calling. After a few attempts and getting a busy signal on the 3rd or 4th time it started ringing, a few seconds later the DJ answers and says who is this? I knew I had won but honestly I wasn’t sure what I had won. Was it Skillet tickets or something else? The DJ tells me I won and tickets will be emailed to me so he asked for all my information then I had to ask him, which I really didn’t want to do but I had to ask what did I win tickets for? That is when he told me to “In This Moment” that Monday. I got to say they weren’t the Skillet tickets I was trying to win all day but I wasn’t disappointed.
The day of the concert Jess and I had to get another covid test done like we did for Twenty One Pilots. It now seems like this is becoming part of the new norm, covid test or vaccination cards required to attend shows. I will save my opinion on that for another time and yes I know you all have yours (good and bad). Anyway not only did we have to get our tests done that day Jess also had to work a half day. Since this was such short notice she wasn’t able to take the whole day off work. We left Pueblo around 3:30 hoping for the best knowing we were going to have to deal with traffic and then, getting in might take longer like it did for Twenty One Pilots. We were fairly lucky with the traffic it wasn’t that bad and when we got there, the doors had already been open for over 45 mins and there was really no line to get into the venue. We got past the covid check, then security, then we were headed into the show.
When we got there, there was a lot of people already inside and on the floor. I knew it was going to be hard to get on the rail but I figured we would work to get as close as we could. We got into the crowd and worked our way up to about 8 or 9 people back which wasn’t a bad spot. While we were there I ran into a Facebook friend that I had met at Guns N’ Roses. We ended up seeing each other and hung out the rest of the night. I always say you meet some of the coolest people at concerts and become friends with a lot of them. Throughout the show we slowly worked our way up closer and by the time “In This Moment” hit the stage we were only 3 people away from the rail.
So there was supposed to be 4 bands in total that were going to play and one of the bands cancelled because of covid. I am not sure what the name of that band was but they were supposed to be the opening band. Since there was no “opener” things were delayed of course. It seem the entire night each band would have a story about how covid effected them. Of course there was the band that cancelled, I don’t think DED said anything about Covid. However Black Veil Bride had a lot to say. First of all their drummer had just come down with covid so he wasn’t able to play. The band decided instead of cancelling they would do an acoustic set without their drummer. This was something they had never done in the past or especially with just a few days notice. Then towards the end of their set the guitarist dedicated a song to his grandfather who died that day of covid. When they were playing that song you could see him break down and cry. It was a sad but touching moment. Covid also effected the main band In This Moment. I think the singer said 3 of their band members, or at least 2 of them came down with covid so they weren’t able to play. Instead of cancelling again they decided to have some of the DED band members step in and play for those who were not able to make it.
DED was the first band that played and they were really good. I have seen them before though I don’t know any of their songs. They are very heavy and the crowd was feeling it right away. Mosh pits were breaking out and the crowd was rowdy! The bank only played, I think 7 songs but they were a great way to get the show started!
Despite DED getting the crowd all hyped up it was sort of lost when Black Veil Brides came out. Since they did an acoustic set the crowd was much more calm and there was no moshing. Don’t get me wrong the crowd was totally into the acoustic set but it was a different vide and just didn’t have a moshing vibe. I am not familiar with this band either but they did a few covers that were cool which included one from Billy Idol and Bruce Springsteen. For doing an improv acoustic set, all in all the band did a great job. From what I also understand they played songs they have never played live before so that was cool. Seemed like most of the crowd knew the deep cuts and a lot of people might have been there just to see these guys.
After Black Veil Brides got off the stage, seems like a good group of people either left or moved to the back. I thought that when “In This Moment” came out the crowd was going to be even crazier than it was for DED. I was surprised to see that the crowd was really mellow. There was no real pushing, I didn’t see any mosh pits break out. I saw 1 crowd surfer and another who tried but failed. Other than that the crowd was just standing there, bobbing their heads and singing along to a lot of the songs. The set they did was short. In fact they did less songs as the headliner than the band before. However I think that might have been because most of the band had covid and they had to have others step in. Those who stepped in probably didn’t have a lot of time to learn all the songs. All in All I was glad we got to go and see the show, I was glad we got good spots despite how late we got there. We even managed to get a pick from DED.
I wish all the bands who are dealing with covid the best and a fast recovery! My thoughts go out to the guitarist who lost his grandpa that day and still came out and played.
Be sure to check out videos from this show and others on my YouTube channel!
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