Takin a Ride With My Best Friend: My Trip to See My Bestie and Avatar

There are very few bands I'd travel 15+hrs to go see. But when my best friend Lukas asked me to go see Avatar with him down in Maryland, I absolutely couldn't say no. Getting to hang with my bestie was the icing on the Swedish metal proverbial cake. We had such a good time. If you're just here to read about the show, skip down to the asterisks. It'll be awhile before I get to it.

     Do you wonder why I don’t go out much? In order to go literally anywhere, I've got to wake up at 6am or earlier. This time of year the sun isn't even up yet. By 6:30 I have to be on a boat that takes an hour and fifteen minutes to get to the mainland. Then I take a two plus hour bus ride to get to my parents’ house. Any idea how screwy that is? I'm fortunate that my parents live about five minutes away from a train station, without which this trip and all my trips would be significantly more complicated.  I took the train to DC where my bestie picked me up and we drove the couple hours back to his house. After sitting on a train since like 5am, by 6pm when he found me in the station I was exhausted, but overjoyed. I hadn't seen him since Dark Force Fest back in May. Yes there were many hugs and tears. 

     After a trip for groceries and going feral over Grinch merch we made it to his house. One of his cats quickly curled up in my lap. The other one was not seen for the rest of the entire visit. (Sorry for invading your home Sunflower.) His air mattress was surprisingly comfortable, and I slept like a rock. 

     The first day we went to a historical national park, Harper's Ferry. It was absolutely GORGEOUS! It's this really neat historical town with many shops and cafés. A big ornate 1800s church overlooks the town, giving it a gothy vibe. It’s on a river and has elevated train tracks running along the bank. The shops had mostly overpriced touristy stuff, but we found a few treasures. Sadly all the museums were closed for renovations history altering, so I had to do some research on the area on my own. Lukas was also a great tour guide and told me lots of local facts, since he's been there many a time. We hung out by the river for awhile, it was really calm and peaceful despite the nearby traffic. Leave it to the two goth boys to find red roses floating in the river. We don’t know if they were from some sort of memorial or something, but it was very aesthetic.

The next day we went to a Christmas craft fair, a record store, and a few other shops. We were very surprised to find crocheted horror plushes at the craft fair. So of course I got Pennywise, and he got Leatherface. How could we not? There was also some uranium glass jewelry and metal sculptures that caught our eyes. We were happy that it was more  than wreaths and X-mas ornaments. The record store had some cool stuff, but nothing I couldn’t live without. Though the Saw VII soundtrack on vinyl was a temptation.

     We then went to an indoor flea market. There were some really interesting things, but none of it came home with me. The most memorable item I saw was an antique commemorative stuffed elephant from the Barnum and Baileys circus. Since anything circus/sideshow/carnival is one of my recent hyperfixations, I was tempted but afraid to ask how much it was. We walked around in there for a couple hours, it was huge!

     My sense of time is all messed up, the trip was a total whirlwind few days. Getting sick as soon as I got home hasn't helped any. But one of the days we had a picnic of sorts in an old cemetery. What else are a couple of goth boys supposed to do? I had a cheeseburger and an iced mocha with marshmallow cold foam. The coffee was delicious! We hung out, took photos of some of the more interesting stones, and did our best impression of a Depeche Mode album cover.

Another thing we did was watch most of Midnight Mass. If you haven't seen that show, I definitely recommend it. Apart from drooling over Hamish Linklater, it's overall a really fascinating concept for a show and has some absolutely beautiful scenes. We finished watching it over a call the other night. What a powerful ending. If you've seen it, you understand. 

     Throughout the weekend, apart from a brief listen to The Legendary Pink Dots, every time we were in the car was Depeche Mode sing-a-long time. Speaking of Depeche Mode, they just dropped a new live album, which is absolutely fantastic. I'm seeing some flack about it online, but I truly don't understand what anyone has to gripe about. Lukas and I decided that “Never Let Me Down Again” is our song. Since he's my best friend and was my chauffeur for the trip, it's only appropriate. 

****AVATAR TIME*****

The openers were great! I wasn't familiar with Spiritworld, but I'd seen Alien Weaponry once a few years ago. But Avatar was who I was there for. This was my fourth or fifth time seeing them. Without a doubt they put on my favorite live show, and every time I see them it gets even better. They set the stage with fog and blue lighting and thunder and emerged from the mist with a lantern and sang (what was) our favorite song off the album, “Captain Goat”. (My favorite has evolved since then to being Death and Glitz.) It was such an epic entrance! 

The setlist was a well balanced mix of new and old songs. The only one that I was sad didn’t make the cut was “Puppet Show”. They’ve played that one every time I’ve seen them. But the set was otherwise phenomenal. I was especially excited that “Blod” off of the “Black Waltz” album was played on this tour. The inclusion of not one but two songs with Johannes on the piano were lovely. “Tower” has always been one of my favorites to see played live. I was happy that one of the encores was “Smells Like A Freakshow”, another of my favorites.

     We were sadly about half a dozen people back and had a rather tall person blocking our view for a majority of the show. But it was enjoyable nonetheless. Said large person let us go in front of him towards the end, which was nice. We were then one back from the barrier and finally able to see well enough to get some decent photos. There was much screaming and jumping and headbanging and a few tears. 

      I also just about died. Near the end of the show I locked eyes with Johannes for a solid couple seconds. It was one of those rare moments of acknowledgement at shows where the band truly makes you feel special. I then squealed in Lukas's ear like a schoolgirl. Sorry about your eardrums buddy! 

That's what I truly love about Avatar. Sure their music is wonderful. But they have a way of interacting with their fans when they're on stage and keeping us engaged that a lot of bands lack. Their frontman Johannes has such high energy and says a perfect mix of silly and erotic things to the crowd between songs. 

Once the show was over of course we had to hit the merch booth for Avatar trading cards and apparel. I got a hat, Lukas got sweatpants. I was super stoked that I got the “Golden God” shiny gold Johannes card. 

     Honestly the drive back from the venue was one of the best parts of the trip. Lukas had walked in being a casual fan, and left loving them as much as I do, so we had plenty to discuss. 

It was such a great weekend, and I can’t wait to do it again. Avatar has hinted at coming back next year. We’re definitely going together again and getting meet and greet tix. We might spontaneously combust, but what a great way to die. Nobody else I’d rather burn with. On that note, thanks for reading this long winded adventure! If you haven’t listened to Avatar’s new album Don’t Go In the Forest yet, go do it! To see the rest of my pics from the show, go here.