Found out Disturbed was playing their Take Back Your Life tour “near me”, near enough that I could justify the travel expenses, so I decided to go! They’re one of my three most favourite bands that I can’t get tired of (along with Dire Straits and Big Country).

Mount Baker lookin’ good! ^ It pretty much looms over Abbotsford, really, where the concert was, so that gives you an idea of how far I travelled. I forgot to take a picture of it while I was actually there. Actually once I got off the ferry, Google said it was only an hour’s drive away, but there were many sections of the highway where traffic reduced speed to like 20km/h, which really did a number on my gas tank. : P It was also pretty hot and humid for May (it was a heat wave) which didn’t help.

My hotel was a budget option; shabby but clean, (and not really that budget price-wise tbh) and for some reason they gave me, travelling alone, this room with three double beds??? (I had my iPad along because I had choir concerts the next day, and it has some of my music.) Then I had a nap because I had an extra 90 minutes and I was so tired.

I thought out my outfit thoroughly before going, of course – my Delain shirt, which was the only metal shirt I owned, black jeans, black leather boots, my leather necklace and bracelet, eyeliner, let my hair down literally for once… and of course my Disturbed mask. When I bought it, there were a whole bunch of reviews saying “this mask was too small for my big beardy face” so I figured it would fit my small feminine face okay, but it didn’t fit me either! I had to cut the ear loops and make my own from elastic. Worth it. My dad was apparently worried that I’d get spotted by an anti-masker and get punched in the face, so I stayed in my hotel room and ate dry sushi that I bought on the ferry. Which was probably cheaper in the long run, but ugh. I’m just being fashionable! …and avoiding breathing people’s face air. And I hermetically sealed my little face spaceship (faceship?), taped it down with medical tape for good measure (no alcohol for me, but I don’t need booze to have a good time, you know that! and I was driving anyway). I was certainly the only person wearing a mask at the event.

After all that I forgot to paint my nails. : P (It’s been a tiring time recently)

I went down to the venue, got parked, paid for parking (I parked a bit further away because the closer lots appeared full, but that worked out since it was only $3 instead of $12 for parking : D ), stood in line to get inside, then stood in line again for like 20 minutes to get merch. They weren’t selling CDs! I’m disappointed. I’ll have to order one through my local record shop. But I got the tour shirt, which I’m also a bit disappointed with? Why did they pick orange???

Like if you compare it to the official tour poster art… which I’m sure is the album art… I wanted something shinier, that’s all. For the exorbitant prices they charge for these shirts, too.

I saw a TON of people wearing band shirts while I was in line, passing by. A who’s who of bands so well-known even I’ve heard of them – Metallica, Megadeth, Mötley Crüe, Rammstein, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, Five Finger Death Punch, and literally dozens more that I only dimly remember since I only caught quick glimpses of them. I also saw someone wearing a shirt saying “How to produce sarcasm: Step 1: Ask me a question” which I thought was pretty funny.

And then I went and found my seat! This was still like 20 minutes before the warm-up act began at 9. The arena floor got pretty full, though it didn’t get stuffed to the gills (which is probably good lol).

I was sat between two couples; the one on my left had a very quiet girl who only vibed very quietly; I wasn’t sure if she was into the show or not, honestly. I hope she wasn’t disturbed by me being very enthusiastic lol. The girl on my other side was a VERY friendly woman from Penticton named Caitlyn (real spelling unknown) and she was there with her boyfriend Tony. She kind of knew the warm-up band, but of Disturbed she only knew 2-3 songs and was only there because Tony wanted to come. She drank a lot, every time she got up for a pee break she’d come back with more beer (and water, so she was staying hydrated!) but then the beer would mean she’d have to pee again after an hour. She was a bit annoyed with the paper straws provided because they’d get soggy in the first drink and then she couldn’t reuse it for the next drink. Also the remnants of her drinks got rather trampled under her chair. : P

Really, she was super sweet and friendly, just it’s hard to converse through rock music (I resorted to texting) and after I established myself as “someone who knows a thing or two about Disturbed” she kept asking me for context even on the things I didn’t know.

The opener band was Theory of a Deadman, who… I liked their sound, but their second song was so horrifically misogynistic it completely killed my enjoyment of the rest of their hour-long performance. I also didn’t care much for their singer’s stage persona; I know they’re supposed to have confidence but after the misogynistic song it came across more like arrogant swaggering. Like, grow up and have some class. Caitlyn liked them, and said I should listen to them, but… I think I’m going to pass. I didn’t tell her I hated that song. I clapped politely for them and she thought it was cute, hahaha. I told her I was saving my energy.

Also I forgot my earplugs so I kept my left ear (the one close to the stage) plugged with my hand, I wasn’t going to ruin my ears for a band I didn’t even like. : P

Crowd getting fuller. This was a slower song so people had their cellphone flashlights out.

I will say I liked their smoke machines, they lit them with a purple glow that looked pretty cool.

The band tried to get people to sing along, and Caitlyn said “nobody goes to concerts for the opening bands”, and in defence of opener bands (even if I didn’t like this one) I pointed out my Delain shirt and told her how the very first concert I went to I was only there for the opening band, Delain, when they were opening for Nightwish (along with Sonata Arctica) – I was all like “Nightwish who?” …To which she responded she’d never heard of Nightwish. I was surprised, because they’re the #1 symphonic metal band in the world, but I guess Tharash is right – symphonic metal is just weirdly niche. So I told her to try listening to Ghost Love Score. She made sure that it wasn’t screaming metal (she dislikes Megadeth, for instance), and was surprised to learn that the vocalist was female. I hope she liked it. : )

Okay so then they totally took down the entire stage and lights and replaced everything for the main event!

Which started like this. First one light would flash, then the next, and then they got faster and faster (there was one for the drummer too but I didn’t catch that one). Then the beat dropped, and so did the curtain, so fast I’m pretty sure it was weighted.

I wrote the setlist on my phone:
Hey You
Take Back Your Life?
Prayer
Are You Ready
Bad Man
Reason to Fight
Remnants
Land of Confusion
???
Sound of Silence
Indestructible
The Light
Stricken
Unstoppable
Down with the Sickness
Inside the Fire

Man the sound was shaking the whole concrete building and thundering in bones, lungs, hearts – actually kind of too loud to hear pitches, I’m surprised my phone caught as much as it did for the short clips I made later. But anyway now I was sitting up and screaming, howling all the lyrics I knew (and a few I didn’t), but apparently my attempts to clap without elbowing either of the people on either side of me was hilarious to Caitlyn. “I thought you were just saving your energy, but you’re still clapping the same!” I mean, there was way more energy behind it?? XD Later she teased me by ‘imitating’ me, hahaha.

The band’s blurry but I had to get a selfie of me with the stage! I’m not totally sure if the second song really was Take Back Your Life, but there were only two songs I didn’t know, and it’s called the Take Back Your Life Tour so one of them had to be that one.

Band’s more in focus but I’m almost shaded out. They look kickass though.

Loved the lightshow!

I’m not sure which part this was…? It might have been the part where he called out the dudes on the floor, “Men, protect the women around you. If I see any pushing or shoving or groping, I will not hesitate to have Security come and kick your ass.” Or it might have been part of his intro to Bad Man, which since it touches on politics, inspired some jackass a few rows behind me to yell “F-ck Trudeau!” at least twice during the concert. But after the part where David told his audience to respect each other, Caitlyn started telling me how much she appreciated that, because she’d heard about a rap concert where people literally died because the mosh pit got too rough and the rapper just kept performing. Which meant I missed a whole bunch of what David was saying, I can only take in one source of input at a time. : P

For the intro to Reason to Fight, David asked who in the audience had ever struggled with addiction or depression, and I put up my hand – Caitlyn was very surprised and laughingly asked what my drug of choice was – I’m amused that I come across as so much a goody two-shoes from such a brief acquaintance, though it’s completely accurate, but I’m sure my answer of “depression” made sense! That was definitely a song to get out the cellphone flashlight and hold it up like an oldschool lighter. Tony actually had a real lighter, lol.

I figured they were setting up for Sound of Silence when I saw the timpani coming out. They had a couple string players, but really I’m pretty sure those were there for show, the soundtrack doesn’t sound like a single violin/cello duo haha. Caitlyn was shocked to learn that Disturbed actually did not write Sound of Silence.

During Indestructible (I think) – I stood up to jump up and down, but because I’m old and tired, I more just bobbed up and down on my toes. Caitlyn was also up and was like “c’mon, jump for real!” and I’m like “I’m too old” and she was like “wait how old are you?” and I told her (mid-thirties) – she was like “no way, I thought you were younger than me (late 20’s)! You do not look thirty-f*cking-(___) years old.” So that was a nice compliment. : ) Thanks, genetics!

For the intro to The Light, David called up a particular audience member who had bought the Meet-n-Greet package (and his family, looked like wife and son) because the audience member had shared with him in the meeting that he’d been diagnosed with PTSD and listening to Disturbed helped him get through it. They took a few pictures, David joked that (since both men were bald) “if you put our heads together it looks like a butt haha”. Then they were given chairs to chill out on stage while the band played The Light.

I took a short clip from The Light – we were all supposed to hold up our phone lights, but only when he sang “the light”, so that was neat. I’m really surprised how well my cell mic picked up the sound. Actually I didn’t intend to do a recording, just a photo of the stage lights, but once I pushed the button and realized it had been on the wrong mode, I was like “screw it, I’ll do a verse and a chorus”.

I think you can hear me singing along faintly behind? When the chorus kicks in, the screen starts shaking because I can’t not headbang haha. Although I let myself get even more wild with that for the last few songs.

Check out the ridiculous light show for Unstoppable! (You can hear Caitlyn at the end, “I’m going to guess this song is called Unstoppable” lol)

I don’t even like Down with the Sickness, it’s like my least favourite song of theirs (the domestic violence rap bit near the end makes me very uncomfortable) but everyone got on their feet, even the quiet girl beside me. Which helped because the final song in the concert was Inside the Fire which is also not my favourite for subject matter but dang if it isn’t a powerful one that’s worth being on your feet for!

They somehow ended the concert in a way that people didn’t even ask for an encore; I think partly because they took a quick break a few songs back, and people thought it was the end and started chanting “one more song!” and then they came back and David said “You didn’t think we were done yet, did you?” so that fulfilled people’s encore itch without actually doing an encore, which is pretty clever. And they put all their instruments away before they did their final bow, so it was very final.

Caitlyn had to pee again after Down with the Sickness, so she missed out on the last song, and I wasn’t waiting for her and Tony to come back, so I didn’t get to say goodbye when I went out to my car. And yes, my hearing was a little bit dim for an hour or so, but as long as I only do this every couple years I’m sure it’s fine.

Aftermath – slightly more frazzled!

Traffic was so much better on the way back the next morning, it only used like 25% of the amount of gas the previous trip used. And it was nice and cool in the morning.