Last week, I got the best birthday present to date. My brother and I drove to Philadelphia so that we could see Sabaton perform live. We left Tuesday morning a little after 10:00 and started our drive to Philadelphia. My brother drove for most of it, but we switched when we were almost to the city. It was almost ironic fate as I hate driving in cities. The roads are too narrow, the turns too weird, and the idiots too numerous. But, we made it to our hotel on the banks of the Delaware river and crashed.
We brought our bags in, cleaned up and went looking for the venue. The GPS was a little confused, as were we, but we did find it and checked out the parking. Once we gauged everything, we returned to our hotel because we still had two and half hours before the start of the concert. In all honesty, we probably could have stayed in our room till about 10:00. There were two cover bands before Sabaton: Cyhra and Kreator, and they took about that long. But… we went around 6:30, and stood in the cold for an hour, and were let through the doors around 7:30. We went out onto the floor, had a hard time deciding if we wanted our coats off, finally made the decision, and then stood in line to get some Sabaton shirts. Well, he got a hoodie, and I got a tank top.
We listened to a bit of Cyhra and Kreator after getting our paraphernalia, but Kreator almost blew my eardrums out and we stepped into a quieter area to recoup. There, we waited for Sabaton to start. When we saw the sound guys taking out and testing their guitars and mikes and drums, we started getting twitchy excited. Then, they announced the band and they came out on stage. The screaming was thunderous and people started crying, “Sabaton! Sabaton! Sabaton!” We joined in. These are the songs they played:
- Cliffs of Gallipoli
- The Final Solution
- Primo Victoria
- Sparta
- The Last Stand
- Winged Hussars
- Resist & Bite
- Uprising
- Carolus Rex
- Gustavus Adolphus
- Night Witches
- Swedish Pagans
- Screaming Eagles
They played till almost midnight and my brother and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. He crowd surfed three times, filming for the last one. There was a ‘mosh pit’ (friendly rough housing at a rock concert) that was going on beside us at one point, and I was smacked by somebody who got pushed. I went flying in a complete 360 degrees, but many helpful hands saved me from landing on the floor. My brother tried to put himself between me and the ‘violence’ but sometimes, he partook of it.
When we finally made it back to our hotel room, it was after midnight, and my brother just crawled into bed. I took the time to remove my makeup, get changed and brushed my teeth before I went to sleep. Of course, the alarm went off all too soon, but the breakfast and coffee was worth it, and then it was the long trek home.
I was sad to leave, almost hoping for an encore performance, but I will remember that concert and the fact that I did get to see Sabaton live. It will probably be years before they come back and when they do, I hope to be waiting for them.
And on that note, it’s been real!
It's Been Real! 