I just need to write about the best weekend of my life....Because this Tuesday, it will be a month since I had one of my biggest dreams come true.
It all started in early January, when my mother showed me a tiny notice in our newspaper. "Kiss to play in Stockholm in May" it said, with a little picture of Gene Simmons beside it. Just rumours, and this kind of rumours have been around ever since I became a Kissfan in 2003. To be honest, I had almost given up ever seeing them live, if I couldn't go to the States to see them.
This time, however, there actually seemed to be reason behind the rumours. It looked like Kiss were planning a big tour of Europe. Tour dates started popping up on the web, with gigs like the Download Festival in England one of the first to be announced. Would they actually come to Norway? It seemed like forever before the day I had lunch at work, and saw I had received a text message from Ulrikke.
"Kiss is playing Oslo and Bergen, you know that right?"
I didn't, and so Ulrikke, who is all but a Kissfan, was the one to tell me the news. Kiss was coming to Norway! Not only for one gig, but two!
A couple of weeks later, and I had my tickets. Kiss @ Valhall Arena, Oslo, 31.05.08 and Kiss @ Bergenshus Festning, Koengen, Bergen, 01.06.08. I couldn't believe it.
A few weeks later, I heard about the "Meet&Greet" tickets Kiss put for sale for each show. 1050 euro, and you would get to meet the band, and be there at the soundcheck. The price was insane. I debated with myself for a couple of days; Is it worth the price? Can I afford it, even if it is? I guess the solution I came up with shows just how insane Kissfans are. I made the decision not to go to Roskilde Festival, and buy a Meet&Greet ticket instead. It was a somewhat hard decision to make, because I love that Festival. I bought the ticket, and freaked out after realizing just how much money I had spent on it, but calmed down after a moment. I just got excited, because I was going to meet my heroes, in full makeup! Yes, I had met Gene before, but in a completely different situation. And to be honest, I was most excited that I was going to see Paul Stanley!
I planned everything after that.
Bought train and plane tickets, got my vacation time at work, and had a countdown.
The day when I was leaving for Oslo finally came, even if I still couldn't believe it. Friday night, and tomorrow was the big day! Summer had finally arrived, and Oslo was warm even when we arrived early Saturday morning. Me, Floyd, Pingo and his girlfriend ate breakfast in a park, looking at all the Kiss t-shirts walking around the town. It was a wonderful day. I met up with Ulrikke too, who couldn't really understand all the crazy fans. We also met up with many cool fans, including Erika, a lovely girl:)
Time flew by, and we soon had to take the subway to the arena, where I left the guys to go wait with the other crazy fans who had Meet&Greet tickets. The Soundcheck was cancelled, due to time issues and Paul having to rest as much as possible. That meant we had much more time to kill before meeting the Band, and it was a long wait in the hot sun! I met up with a couple of guys from the KissArmyNorway.com forum, all nice people:)
We were around 50 people there, about 3 of us were girls, hehe. The latter was obvious when we were given our t-shirts that were part of the M&G package. The smallest size was medium, and a rather large medium at that. With the t-shirts, we got our "special vip M&G laminate", a sort of backstage pass. It felt nice to wear it around my neck as i walked by all the people waiting in the "regular" line to the show!
7.30, it was finally time. we were let in, and everything felt somewhat chaotic for a few minutes. Dean Snowden, the guy arranging the M&G's, said a few things about how things would be done, and then Kiss walked in.
I still couldn't quite comprehend it, the entire situation was completely surreal! And then, ït was finally my turn to take a photo with them. I walked over, and Gene patted my head, as if to say, "gee, your'e small!", something that made the surrounding crowd laugh. The only thing I managed to get out was "Hi Paul", as I got to him, to which he replied "Hi Sweetheart", and put his arms around me. I think my smile on the picture shows just how happy I was!
After everybody had their photo taken, it was time to "mingle", aka get autographs and try to get more pictures. Total Chaos!
I first got to Eric, who signed my "Rock the Nation" dvd, and I did get a photo with him! I then got to Gene, who seemed in a good mood that day! He signed the painting had done of him, complemented it (yay!), and willingly took a picture with me. He also put his pen down the front of my dress, saying something like "this is where you put it when you're done with it", pulled my ears and drew a silver dot on my nose.
After that it was Tommy, who signed the dvd also, and took a picture with me. He is very nice! It seems he's been a part of the circus for such a short time that he still really appreciates every single fan:)
Then there was Paul. I got completely star-struck close to him! But he signed my painting of him, and said "Did you paint this? It's really good". That was enough to make me giddy! I did get a picture with him too:)
I also got to say hello to Doc McGhee, their manager, and Dean Snowden.
Everything went so fast, and the whole thing didn't last much more than 30 minutes. It was surreal, wonderful and insane. After the entire band had left, we were let out a side door into the arena, were the crowd already filled up the floor. I had some trouble finding Floyd and the other guys, including a rather creepy guy with the most horrible pick-up line ever, but I did find them, luckily!
Nothing can describe the feeling I had when The intro started humming out over us. "Alllllllriiiiight Oslooo! You wanted the Best, You Got the Best! The Hottest Band in the World....KISS!!!!!!!!!!"
Amazing, amazing, amazing! I was close to tears when the confetti started raining down on us during Rock and Roll all Nite, even if we didn't have front row places, it was insanely amazing and lovely.
After the show, we couldn't bother taking the subway back, so me and Erika (who was nice enough to let me borrow a little place on the floor to curl up on:)), ended up walking for over an hour to get to her place. I walked in my socks, because my shoes were killing my feet! I couldn't have been happier.
I had met Kiss, seen them live, and I had another show tomorrow!
I fell asleep on the matress Erika had on her floor, but couldn't sleep for more than a couple of hours. My flight was early, so I had to get up at 7, getting the subway at 7.30. SO tired. SO happy.
The flight was somewhat uneventful, besides meeting up with a few fellow Kissfans. I got Sigrid to meet me in Bergen, and we walked to her new place, an AMAZING house. By now, the only thing that kept me on my feet was the excitement of one more Kiss concert. I went to the arena by myself around 1.30, where I met up with a couple of guys I went to school with (one of them is the reason I am a Kissfan:P), and a guy and a girl I randomly met at an Alice Cooper show 2 years ago! It was a fun day. A long, hot, wait! At one point, guards came and soaked us with water, it was so hot. But it was fun, and we did get front row places! :D
It was a bit of a kick to be at the front of 20 000 excited people. By this point, again, my feet were killing me. I seemed to forget that, however, as soon as the show started. It was absolutely wonderful seeing another show, and this time all the way up front! Paul and Gene both seemed to recognize me from the M&G, I got Paul's guitar pick, Gene's towel with a tiny bit of "blood" on it, a set list from one of the guards, and my cleavage filled with confetti:P Wonderful night!!!!
When I got back to Sigrid's a while later, I said to her something that seems to sum up the weekend:
"I am on the verge of collapse because I'm so exhausted, but I'm hyper, and completely and utterly HAPPY"
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I would do it all again witohut hesitation!
