2016 UK tour (+Netherlands and Russia)

[Clear Vision]

What a weird day it was, at least weirder than any other day. Wake up late as usually, hurry up to take a shower, eat pasta with cold sauce cause you couldn’t bother to warm it up and afterward on my way to FemMe. I’m not that much of a fan of the typical symphonic metal, which is why The Birthday Massacre should someday get a regular (non-festival) show here, but that aside. On to the train, prepare for an 2 hour trip, backpack with earplugs, tickets, bottle of water and camera with me and away we go!

I arrived when the festival was already an hour on the way and as I arrived “End of the Dream was just playing their last song. Of course there where a lot more bands to check out, but also I couldn’t hide the fact I was wanting for The Birthday Massacre to start. One band for me of the line-up that caught my interest though was Ex Libris: Heavy, progressive and definitely a band I might need to check out.

Me and some fellow TBM fanatics hung out together before the start of the show and excitement was building up for sure. For me it was the first time to experience them live, so all kinds of questions would pop up: What song are they gonna start with? How would a festival crowd go with it, are they gonna like it since it’s so different from the rest? Are they gonna be excited to play on stage again? Are my feet gonna cave in before the show ends? Are they gonna play some rare songs live, or maybe some covers or anything?

It took a while as suddenly the lights dimmed, the stage turned purple and foggy and we know its gonna happen any second now. Don’t expect some time to catch a breath, TBM wasn’t into mood to take us by the hand and lure is into their fairytale, they smashed their book straight in our face as the show kicked of with “broken” with a loud: “broken heart, broken mind!” being shout by the public. Love to here those old songs and see how well they work.

Being a great musician is one thing, but what The Birthday Massacre does is something different. The songs sound fantastic live for sure will all the emotion, aggression, passion and emotional touch at the right time, but what sets them apart is the interactivity with the crowd. Not the standard “heey, how are you doing?, followed by a general joke about the Dutch or something. Not that we’re even in the Netherlands when they play, they take us someplace different. To a place where all their stories take place, a place far away, a space in the creative mind of all the bandmembers.

Their way of interactivity is through taking time to get through to the fans, wave, laugh at funny stuff happening around, posing for pictures, hopping around or when something goes different as planned. It’s a highly contagious kind of cheerfulness and openness between the band and the crowd.

I can’t complain about the songs they played either. Sure if I’m nitpicking I could name a couple dozen songs more I would love to hear. But they played some of my favourite songs like Play Dead, Shallow Grave and Diaries and I enjoyed every moment of it for sure. I did get to see Broken, Burn Away and Play Dead and in a setlist every song played, will sacrifice some other songs that can’t get played, which were Happy Birthday and Kill The Lights. Overall I really love the setlist choices with quiet some songs to rock out too!

Out of my head they played the following songs (in random order):
Broken
Leaving Tonight
Down
Alibis
Burn Away
In The Dark
Control
Shallow Grave
Midnight
Pins and Needles
Sleepwalking
Diaries
Superstition
Destroyer
Lovers End
Play Dead
Blue
Goodnight
Falling Down
Red Stars
Looking Glass

Since they had some delay on the show (20mins) and my train left not too long after the show. I sadly didn’t get the chance to wait for the bandmembers after the show but I had an amazing time. Got in the trail, my phone was about to die. So I had an 2 hour travel waiting for me to listen to music, make a playlist of the songs the band played and it’s a wonderful experience being at an almost empty train and than to relive the show. There were no distractions and I could let myself sink into all the experience and joy that was put over me that evening, at least for a bit.

Halfway around the trainride we got notified that there were unexpected constructions being done to the traintracks, so had to take the bus to get to my city. The bus on the other hand was crowded, loud with music and peoples voices. There’s nothing to make you feel wonderful a moment was, without being rudely awaken at some point, so that’s about the time.

Last stop was the city city center, where I had to get on a different bus again, which would take 30 mins (or I could walk for over an hour). Decided to get a coffee to warm up a little and kill some time too. It was a special bus to take intoxicated and drunk people home who just went out to some of the disco’s so there were a few people who passed out sleeping or wobbling on their feet. It was a bit funny actually.

Got out of the bus and on my way home. My feet were already killing me, but my body didn’t feel that sleepy yet. Got back through the pictures I took and the clips I made and I thought to myself: I might not be living the dream, but at least I’m dreaming my life. Eventually I fell asleep and woke up again only 4 hours later. I guess I had too much energy (or coffee) from that night! Already missing it, but I’m sure anyone who’s gonna see them tour around, is gonna have an amazing time. Much love around, every TBM fan deserves to experience this. Wishing the band lots of fun the coming UK tour

[Chimera Doll]

I already read this on fb but I wanted to say again how happy I am for you and that I'm really glad it finally happened for you to see TBM live in concert!!! and much thanks for the pics and video clips as well as writing out your experience (:

[AdamThing]

awesome!!! im glad you got to see them as well. thx for sharing your experience!