SumGeek wrote:Tomi! You were at the show in Milan last night. We need to hear all from you.
I try to keep this short-ish.
BUDAPEST
So, I attended a few shows on this tour (as I did in February as well, which I never got to tell you about). The first one was at Sziget fest in Budapest, while being on vacation with my gf. While we got there quite late (about 5 mins before Sums started), we didn't get really close, but close enough to enjoy the show. After all there were like 50,000 people, so being in 50 meter radius from the stage was quite good, haha.
I didn't have any idea about the setlist beforehand, since I'd like to keep it as a surprise. So I was beyond surprised that they played With Me and Pieces at a festival. While the rest of the set was only singles, I really enjoyed the show, as did the crowd, which was probably the craziest I've ever been in. You had to watch out for all the flying beer mugs, inflatable toys and crowd surfers constantly, which made it a challenge to pay attention to the stage.
The show was great, Fake My Own Death sounded awesome (first time hearing the live version, no Youtube videos for me before that). But the most awesome thing was the catwalk. Deryck NAILED it. While it was the first time ever for him, it looked like he had done it for hundred times before. Really knew what to do there and when, and I was amazed when Deryck told me (later in Milan) that he had never done it before, and he only got to know about the catwalk couple of hours before the show, so no time for practice. Wow!
The festival grounds were awesome as well. While the main act (David Guetta) finished at 11pm, the party went on till morning. There were many dancing "clubs" (since it was outside, those clubs were built under trees) with different type of music. Of course I enjoyed the punk rock spot the most, had so much fun dancing to Green Day, blink, and of course, Sum 41, whose songs got the biggest cheers.
MILAN
After hearing them play some rare tunes in Stuttgart, I really wanted to see their headlining set on this tour. Originally I was planning to attend Prague, but got sick right before that. I was still being a bit sick, but after hearing War, I got so excited about the possibility to hear it live in Milan (didn't happen though), so I bought tickets and headed to the airport right away. I arrived in Milan airport at 7pm, while Sum 41 were about to start 10pm. I got to the hotel at 8:30, connected to the WiFi to check FB and IG, and found out from Frank Zummo's post that they would start already at 9:30. Damn, didn't have time to do anything else than to take the subway and run to the venue. I was at the venue at 9:30 sharp, and heard the TNT/JamesBrown/Metallica intro being started. I ran to the crowd, but since I was so late (again), I was at the far back. I thought, this is not the way I want to see their headlining show, so I started to fight my way to the front.
The crowd was crazy again, and super sweaty, but somehow I still got my way to the front halfway through the show. And the first song I got to hear from the front row was Grab The Devil followed by We're All To Blame. During the extended bridge, Deryck took couple of more people on stage. "One more person", he shouted, and noticed me in the front row. Can't remember if he said anything about it, but at least I could see from his eyes that he thought "Damn, you again? No way, it's someone else's turn this time!" I changed my hands from 41 salute to the begging motion, with "Ah fuck it, come on up then!" being the result.
By no means I want to brag or anything, but those of you who've been picked up on stage know what I'm talking about. That feeling when you get picked up from the crowd of thousands, and the fact that you get to share the stage with the band you've been a fan of for most of your life, you can't describe it in any way. All I can say is that I really hope all of you would get to experience that at some point. Damn!
The setlist was great, the rare ones being No Reason and Sick Of Everyone. But the best song live right now is We Will Rock You cover. It's just full awesomeness, from Deryck's crowd interaction to the guitar solo by Team Brown Surround Sound. Really gets the crowd going!
After the show I was lucky to get to chat with Deryck and Cone a bit.
-The album was finished and sent to Hopeless. A couple of days before the tour Deryck got an idea to add backing vocals to War. He got them recorded, and sent the final version to Hopeless. What happens after that is out of Sums' control. So it's up to Hopeless to do what they want with it, so who knows which version we'll get with the album.
-Next European tour is being planned to start in mid-January.
-The setlist for 13 Voices tour will include 4-5 songs from the new album per show.
PARIS
Again, a possibility to hear Little Know It All live (didn't happen though) got me to take an overnight bus (14-hour ride) from Milan to Paris to attend Rock en Seine festival, featuring Iggy pop. Their set was a bit shorter this time, so no rareties (or SBM songs
). But the crowd was super crazy (again), and it was a super fun show to attend. There was a catwalk again, though shorter than in Sziget, but Deryck rocked it again. Throwing those water balloons is a fun addition, and so are the steam cannons throughout the show, especially in the end.
Iggy Pop's show was super as well. While I'm not so familiar with all of his songs, the show was still fun to attend. The pit in the crowd was probably the craziest I've been in, and fun fact was that the average age of the pit and the front row crowd was probably 35. And Iggy, that man surely knows what he's doing. Even at 75, he was full of energy and interacted with the crowd so much, and he sounded very good. Great show!
To summarize, Sum 41's live show is the best it's ever been. You NEED to attend their show this time around. Even the "basic" songs have got so much more to them with three guitars and backing vocalists. I really hope we'll get some properly recorded audio from this tour.
Not sure if I should've made a thread for this like before. Oh well.
