Out of the Morning and Into the Night

For the third time today, we were sitting in a cab, driving down the streets of Las Vegas. The entire way to the concert, we discussed what songs they might play, what they would be wearing, where we would be sitting, and other unimportant things. There seemed to be even more traffic on the streets then there was earlier that day, and I was growing more impatient with every red light we were forced to stop at.

About twenty minutes into the drive, we could finally see the Hard Rock on the horizon. As we drove closer and close, our excitement grew, as well as the squeals that escaped our mouths.

By now, the Hard Rock was right in front of us, and we were preparing to turn into the parking lot. I turned to Rox, about to say something, but was interrupted mid sentence by my screams.

“OH MY GOD! IT’S ATREYU!” I screamed as Roxine immediately spun around in her seat and screamed, too.

“IT’S THEIR TOURBUS! I WONDER IF THAT’S AVENGED SEVENFOLD’S PARKED RIGHT NEXT TO IT!” she shouted , as the taxi driver looked in his rear view mirror, rolling his eyes as he did so.

He hadn’t even stopped the car before we opened the door and jumped out, throwing some cash on the front seat before running into the venue.

Walking through the casino, I saw many people in Avenged Sevenfold and Atreyu gear.
“I keep forgetting Atreyu is playing with them tonight. This concert’s gonna be so tight!” Roxine remembered, getting even more excited with each passing moment.

I shook my head-I could barely hear her over the blaring music in the casino. I sighed as we walked to the back of the line, pulling out my phone to check the time. As I opened my phone, I noticed I had a new txt message from my sister, Lynn.

“Bring me back a shot glass. Has the concert started yet?” the txt read.

“Sure thing,” I replied, “And no, we just got here, and we’re waiting in line.” I pressed the send button, watching the little envelope on the screen of my phone fly into the mailbox. Just then, the line began to move.

“WE’RE MOVING!” Roxine cheered, gripping my wrist and pulling me forward.

As soon as we started moving, we stopped yet again. And then we would move again, and stop.

“The anticipation is killing me!” I finally said as we stopped for about the 5th time, only halfway to the venue entrance. Roxine was jumping up and down, earning her some dirty looks from the people behind us in line. I look at them-three girls dressed in girly tops and jeans.

I said, loud enough for them to hear me, “wouldn’t it suck to be dressed up all girly? I mean, you’d stick out like a loser,” Rox looked at me and understood what I was talking about.
“Not to mention you’ll look weird in your frills at a heavy-fucking-metal concert. Only true dedicated fans come decked out, head to toe in their favorite band’s gear!” she spoke, nodding approvingly. The girls behind us shot us yet another dirty look and began talking crap about us, as if we couldn’t hear them. We busted out laughing at all the stupid remarks they were making, and they looked at us, wondering why we were laughing so hard. We had been laughing so hard that it hadn’t even dawned on us that the line had moved.

Almost instantly, an impatient security guard approached us, demanding that we move or get out of line. We quickly caught up to the people in front of us, almost at the entrance. We could see security turning people around, telling them to get out of line. I wonder what that’s about. When we reached the front of the line, a security guard stopped Roxine, telling her to remove her belt and take it to the bell desk. I looked up at the guy, who towered over me by almost a foot.

“What the hell, are you serious??” I complained.

He replied in a rude tone, “yes, now you and your friend must take her belt to the bell desk, or you won’t be allowed to enter the concert.” I lifted up my shirt, showing off my belt.
“Oh, so does that mean I have to take mine off too?” I questioned, an acidic tone backing my words.

“Ma’am, you better get out of line, or I will have you escorted out of the venue.” I walked away, quietly cursing at the stupid security guard.

Once we reached the bell desk, Rox finally spoke.

“I can’t believe that idiot, it’s just a belt. And on top of it all, this line to drop off belts is crazy long.” I could tell she was pissed, and if the guard said something to us on the way back in, he better be able to defend himself against the wrath of Roxine. I laughed a little about what I was just thinking. Huh, wrath of Roxine. Classic. The line slowly crept forward, and after what seemed like hours, we reached the front of the line.

“Last name?” the bell desk worker asked, ready to write it on an ID tag for our belts we were handing him.

“Morton,” Roxine replied as the employee quickly wrote it on the tag, attached it to our belts, and ripped the stub off the ticket and handed it to us.

“These will be available for pickup after the concert. You must have the ticket stub with you in order to redeem your belongings. Enjoy the show,” he informed, giving us a small smile. We hustled back to the venue, completely bypassing the security guard as he told yet another person to take their belt to the bell desk.

We made our way in, walking slowly as we begun getting surrounded by people. Lots of people. I pulled out my ticket, checking to see where we’d be sitting, while looking around trying to find how to get to the standing balcony.

An employee must’ve known we were confused. “Good evening ladies, can I help you with anything?”

I showed her my ticket, “how do we get to the standing balcony?” She shone her flashlight on it, examining the ticket, and pointing us in the direction of the escalators, and told us to make a left once we were on the next floor. I thanked her and grabbed Roxine by the hand, dragging her over to the escalators.

The escalators couldn’t go any slower, I swear. I was getting more and more anxious as we neared the top. As we finally stepped off, we made a quick left and walked over to the balcony.

By the time we got there, it was 7:45 pm. Only fifteen more minutes of waiting for the concert to start.

“I can’t believe it, we’re finally here!” I looked at Rox, who screamed in excitement at my statement.

“For being on a balcony, we’re pretty close, I can actually see without my glasses on,” I said, taking my glasses off and shoving them into the back pocket of my skinny jeans.

We chatted amongst ourselves as the tech’s set up all the gear for the first opening band. Talking always made the time pass quicker; before we knew it, the lights were dimming, and the curtains were opening to reveal the first band, Rev Theory.

The blaring music took me by surprise, forcing me to cover my ears, just as Rox did. “They suck!” I screamed, my voice being drowned out by the too-loud bass player.

Rox had a look of disgust on her face, “damnit, this is only their first song, they need to be done…now!” We impatiently sat through their set, boo-ing every time it got quiet.

Finally, at 8:30, they said their goodbyes as Roxine and I cheered, getting ready for Atreyu to come on stage next. It took a good fifteen, twenty minutes for the tech’s to set up the new gear, but soon enough, the band begun playing as the lead singer came running and jumping across the stage, screaming into his mic.

Sure, both Roxine and I LOVED Atreyu, but we didn’t know every song. So every time the band would begin a new song, either Roxine or I would know it, and sing along, while the other just sat there head banging along. The last song, however, we both knew-Becoming the Bull. We screamed the lyrics as loud as our voices would let us, and were saddened when they said their goodbyes and cleared off the stage.

“They’re amazing, I wish they could’ve played for longer though,” I sighed, barely able to hear myself talking. I felt as if I was going deaf, the loud music impaired my hearing a bit, but subsided a little while we waited for the tech’s to set up Avenged Sevenfold’s gear.
While waiting for the setup to be done, a few people came out to advertise local radio stations and TV programs, which didn’t apply to us because we weren’t from around here, anyways. As they exited the stage, the one tech tested out the mic that Matt would be using.

“Check, check. One, two. YEAH!” he repeated a few times, making the audience laugh. It only took about forty-five minutes for the tech’s to finish setting up, but it felt like it was taking ages.

“They’re due to go on at ten,” Roxine told me, “we only have…5 minutes left of waiting!” It was, by far, the longest five minutes of my life. I checked my phone every thirty seconds to see what time it was, and after checking it for the 5th time, I decided to give it a rest; the concert would begin soon enough.