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Nintendo Fusion Tour: Dallas Review
Reviews: 9/9/03
Evanescence/Nintendo Fusion Tour Grand Prairie Texas:
After my dad, my oldest brothers fiancee shannon, and myself arrived at Next Stage in Grand Prairie.... we had trouble getting to where we needed to be, inside. No pay phones were outside for us to call John. So my dad and I walked down the steps to Nintendo's bus which was parked right outside the front. The nice fellas of the worlds biggest videogame company invited us onto the bus while walkie talkieing with the bandmates backstage. After pleasing us with free fusion shirts and Winterfresh gum, John walked on board. He gave us all-access passes which allowed us to do litterally anything we wanted to do. It was fun walking at my brothers side passing the hundreds and thousands of kids waiting to enter the venue and meet and greet area. We walked passed the guards into the dressing rooms area. Each member of each band had his or her own dressing room, which is pretty nice. In the same hallway was the catering/chill room. FREE DRINKS and FOOD! Two fridges filled with Corona, Heineken, Starbucks Frappucinno, Gatorade, and some foreign Ginger Ale. Tables with sandwhich meats, cheeses, breads, it was a wonderful thing. 20 or so people that were just some locals were chilling there with Ben and Will. Amy was no where in sight, probably in her dressing room singing while fitting into her wedding dress.
Soon after we walked out the backdoor to one of the many tour buses. We chatted with our friend Thad(John and Wills Guitar tech) while John went to do the meet and greet for 20 minutes. When he came back, he said Finger Eleven was playing. We made our way onstage and watched from the side. We could pretty much everything. The guitarist on the left of the stage looked very eccentric but his performance was stimulating. He was going so crazy it looked almost if he wasnt playing. Sounded very tribal and the vocals reminded me of a band called RA. They played a quick 6 song set and the crew began working quickly around us to prepare the stage for REVIS. John walked us to our seats the were directly in front center, right behind the pit section....perfect spot for viewing. I ended up walking Shannon to the merchandise table while John spent time with dad. I rushed back knowing that Revis had only 15 minutes to setup. When I got back to my seat, the acoustics of "Your Wall" broke out and everyone lifted to their feet. The vocalist walked to the edge of the stage gripping the mic, swaying his arms with emotion. He poured his voice full thrust into the crowded pit. At times his hand with the mic drifted far from his face yet you could still hear his vivid voice. The guitar work was perfect, the drum work sounded just like the cd, the whole performance sounded Better than the cd. It was a perfect and intriguing set.... can't wait to see these guys again.
I sat there stunned from what I just saw, and I looked at my dad.... He really enjoyed them as well. An Australian woman sitting in the row in front of us kept speaking to Shannon and my dad and eventually ended up sitting in Johns seat. Shannon, John, and dad went to the bus for a while, so I sat there and watched Cold. The huge white tapestry displayed behind that band was decorated with a huge spider web with lights of spiders that spun. Sam began playing on the eerie drums as Scooter and other band mates entered on stage in the dark. No one knew he was there until his voice echoed the masterpiece of a theater. The lights began to shine on the band, and they weren't dressed in gothic gear like I thought I would see, as in how they have dressed in their videos. Them being in street clothes didn't take away the affect of their sound, but you could never see Scooters face due to the baseball cap and him bending over gutting out his vocals. I noticed throughout their time, the guitarist on left stage getting pissed at his amp. Lots of static and feedback kept finding its way to mess up the full feel of guitars. He suddenly chunked his guitar 20 feet to the side of the stage (where we had been standing onstage only a couples hours earlier). The tech fixed the situation and they played a full 50 minute set. The song "Suffocate" didn't have the same feel since there wasn't a female present to harmonize. That is around the time I stopped watching them and began pacing to the dressing rooms area. When I got to the entrance, I heard a deep voice and it said "Hey boy! where you going without a laminate?" I turned around to see it was Rocky. I walked down the green room hallway with him talking about life. He directed me to the tour bus, but when I got there everyone was gone. I walked back to the Catering room and there was John, on the phone with Shelly. I stood around for a while drinking all the free drinks talking to the guitarist of Drowning Pool and the guys from Revis. Shannon paced the halls with a bunch of groupies trying to get everyones picture and autograph. I walked back out to the crowd to see the last song "Just Got Wicked". It was the song I wanted to see them play and it was pretty good. I saw a little pit spark up in the middle of it, but it didn't last long. The lights flicked back on and there was 45 minutes of setting up and preparation for Evanescence.
I went back to the Catering room and it was just me and my bro. He started being silly by taking two sips of energy drinks and tossing the filled can across the room into this lighting fixture in the corner. Then acted like he was choking and spewing on the floor, he was just crazy. Rocky entered the room with another guy and we all started jamming out to Whitesnake, yes I did say WHITESNAKE! They mocked it with toilet humor, litterally. Shannon came back in the room with the camera after taking numerous pictures and started saying Scooter is mean. Earlier she was talking about how happy she was that she got a picture with him. Very confusing girl. I leaned against a wall in the hallway while talking to Revis and this guy in blue adidas jogging suit with a grungey hairstyle walks past me. It was Shaun from Seether heading to Amys room. Next thing I know, dude from Drowning Pool is wearing a pinhead outfit. He kept asking does it look cool, I was like "Dude, your down with the sickness!" He kept saying Am I? That's when we high fived.
Ben came into the room with a grim reaper cloak and Amy in a thrift store, bride of chucky looking wedding dress. The manager came in and said to us all, 5 minutes. I started talking to John like a boxing coach. I kept patting his back while he jogged to the stage. I opened the door for him to the orchestra room and said "your the number one contender!" while he swung his fist. I walked over to Thad who was on left stage with all of John and Wills guitars. I stood there while all these girls kept yelling that they wanted my hat and that they would do anything to get backstage. I turned my back to them and gave Rocky a thumbs up. Im sure if you were there you saw me because I was onstage in plain sight, the best view of anyone. Dad was back up in his seat while the Australian girl rattled his ear about how much she loved the bands. Then the room went black and I start hearing a sound as if metal were breaking, I looked up and the curtain was being pulled off the hooks. It almost landed on me! There standing behind it were the metallers themselves breaking into Haunted. The stage set up was the best of the night. An eerie green light rested on the E centered on the backwall tapestry surrounded by boiler room pipes that pumped smoke around the room. Amy stood high above Rocky on the steel walkway that staired down to the stage. Each guitarist had their own steel box to stand on, and all abused it with their matrix style jumping. At one point I saw John's feet touch his back, that is just insane. Amy lunged over the crowd hurling her voice into thousands of people who all loved the intensity of the show. I watched the crowd swaying to the sound of the music, and then looked at my dad. He was pretty impressed. Next thing I know Shaun from Seether takes a mic and Drowning Pools guitar play comes out with a flying V. That was so much rock on one stage during Bring Me To Life! Shaun screamed even on the part where Paul Mccoy whispers, which I found funny. Then the music stopped briefly as all the bands brought Josh the sound guy onstage. It was his birthday and they crowd all sang to him, and he even got a big cake! Finally the band began to rock again and all the players went up to the top of the steel walkway. I could tell John was putting alot into it to make dad proud. Rocky and Ben ended one of the songs like they used to before they got signed, with a tribal drumming session. We all walked offstage after Amys piano ballad. Rocky and I walked to the catering room with Ben's dad. He got great photo shots all around the stage he said. We talked about how good the show was until a few people entered the room and said the party is about to begin in the green room. We headed that way very quickly. A lot of band whores and drunks were in the room, as was my dad and John. Johns old Mindrage drummer was there even, what a great surprise! We all chatted away next to the ice filled bucket of coronas. As the room began to crowd, a rumor that was spread all night came true. Vinnie Paul of Pantera fame entered the room with many of the featured strippers of "The Clubhouse", a club run by he and Dimebag Darrel. An old crew member of his I recognized from one of their home videos. They call him Kat, and we ended up kicking it talking about music. Soon this hooker looking woman came up talking to me, but I showed no interest so she started humping kats leg. Slayer blazing the stereo to a bunch of half naked women and drunken rockstars, soon to be a silly string fight and Joshs birthday party, it was very entertaining. What sucked about the whole night, was Kat and Vinnie invited us to Vins house for a big mansion party after everyone was supposed to meetup at the Clubhouse. Scooter and other people, women, flowing from room to room, there was no telling what all way going on. I managed to meet everyone except Scooter and the Cold fellas. My dad stood there kinda drunk looking, so we went to the tour bus. We spent our last few minutes with John listening to The Temper Effect. It was all too fun..... I was exhausted. We waved our goodbyes and headed back to Arkansas. On my way out I saw an evboarder(sorry I didnt say anything) in a kilt in the parking lot. What a crazy night!
I wish I could relive that night, but until another show, thanks for the show guys
Jimmy LeCompt
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