Now, I'm pretty sure I mentioned it in November, but in case you forgot, Rammstein is touring North America and one of the shows was to be in Tacoma, WA on May 14th. I had my ticket, my hotel reservation, train tickets, and time off from work, so I set out Monday morning for what was to become the greatest 24 hours EVER.
This was my first time traveling by train, MAX doesn't count, and my mom wanted lots of pictures. She made a montage of the photos I sent her, so I'll share that with you. It's pics of my trip there, a shot or two of my hotel room, and pics of my trip back. Ta da!
Once I got to Tacoma, I walked from the station to the hotel, which was about 10 minutes, and it's literally across the parking lot from the Tacoma Dome. Check-in took forever and some people were getting cranky, but there was a collective sense of excitement since we were all there for the show. For some of us, this was our first R+ concert, for some this was number 19. No joke. Oddly enough, the guy in front of me in line was from Beaverton, so that was neat. I waited for half an hour, only to be told my room wasn't ready, then after another 45 minutes I was finally given my room key. The room was way nicer than I anticipated. I settled in and then agonized over what to do about dinner. The hotel restaurant had absolutely nothing that I could eat, so I wandered outside and ended up following some other people into this deli at the corner.
The place was called Leila's Deli and it was awesome. I went up to the counter and asked the very nice lady if I could get a sandwich "with, like, all the veggies you have" and then added hummus when I saw it on the list. It came with chips and I got a soda and it was perfect.
YUM!!!! I mean, I don't plan on spending a lot of time in Tacoma in the future, but if I go up there again for an event, I'm definitely stopping in here again. After that I walked to the dome and waited in line with everyone else. After a quick body search, we all made our way in and most of us stopped at the merch table. I bought 2 t-shirts, then stopped at another table and bought a poster. :D Got to my seat, then waited.
Festivities started at 8:30. DJ Joe Letz of Combichrist did Rammstein songs as an opener, which I really liked because it made the whole evening just about them. As he finished, the lights went down and the band came in. Through the audience. Through MY SECTION. Are you kidding me?!?!
*sigh* Oh, Till, I love you so. *ahem* So they made their way to the floor, onto a platform, then they walked across a bridge over the audience to the stage. It was amazing. The whole show was amazing. It's hard to pick a favorite moment, but I really enjoyed seeing them do "Mein Teil" live. Luckily, someone was nice enough to record the whole show, so you can see it, too.
At one point, they came back over the bridge and performed on a small platform in the crowd. Why didn't I spring for a floor ticket?!
Wow. The show ended promptly at 11. Till thanked the audience in both English and in German, and each band member took a knee in gratitude. Super classy guys. That really was the best concert I've ever seen. There are no words in any language to portray just how good it was. My pics were all crap, but there are some good ones out there.
I walked back to the hotel with everyone else, snacked on some junk food I'd brought with me, and climbed into bed to watch some Law & Order SVU and drift off to sleep in total bliss. I don't sleep well in unfamiliar surroundings, so I was awake by 6:30. Made coffee, took a shower, painted my toe nails. Packed up, checked out around 10:45, went to the train station. Came back to my regular old life. I really should get out more, I had so much fun with all this.
This is going to sound weird, but it was nice to go back to work. I really like everyone there and I may have missed them a bit. Obviously I'm off today. We're getting a new roof on our apartment building and it's really noisy. I need to go run some errands. Yeah, everything's back to normal now.
If Rammstein comes back to America again, though, I'll be all over that!
