Of all the concerts I’ve been to in my life, this one comes out at NUMBER ONE. The music was, of course, so FREKKIN’ awesome, but this one gets pushed to the top for “the incident” and what was to follow.

sidenote: Make sure to read Daniel’s post too! He talks more about the music and has all the pictures we took PLUS the vids!

Let me first say lay down a little background. I loved Chickenfoot before I even heard their music! I heard that Sammy Hagar had put together a new band and was going to release an album, which was enough to get me excited, but when I heard who his band members were, my excitement soared to new heights. Michael Anthony of Van Halen on bass, Joe Satriani on guitar and Chad Smith of RHCP on drums! I don’t think I’d been this excited about an album for a very long time. I got it a few weeks ago and have been listening to it non-stop. Sammy NEVER disappoints, and the band-member combination is AMAZING. (check out the first single, “Oh Yeah” if you haven’t heard it yet!)

Anyway, onto the good part…

Last night was the Chickenfoot concert in Kilafors, Sweden. It was actually a part of the 3-day long rock festival called Rockweekend. But we went up only for Chickenfoot. It was a muddy mess, but it worked out well. They had two stages and they alternated stages for each band. We figured out which stage Chickenfoot would play on, and we were able to secure spots FRONT and CENTER against the fence. I was so excited I could barely contain myself as we watched them set up the stage. And once they came on stage and started playing I knew already that this was going to top anything else I’d seen this year so far (7 concerts, I think).

Of course they were AMAZING. I knew they’d be good. I’ve seen Sammy before (Michael Anthony joined him on stage the time I saw him too), and it was by far one of the BEST shows I ever went to. I’ve seen RHCP live twice. Those were two INCREDIBLE shows. I never saw Joe Satriani before, but my GOD can that man play. And I saw him play close up too!

Anyway, about halfway through the show is where it gets GOOD. Chad is very generous with his drumsticks. He tosses them out to the crowd often, grabbing new ones to play all the time and then chuck them out at his leisure. Every time one came out into the crowd it became a frenzy to try to grab it. A few fell onto the ground in front of the fence where I stood, but when security guards would pick them up to hand them into the crowd, I never got a chance.

One of those that landed on the ground landed about 2 feet from me. I watched as the security guard picked it up to hand it to someone. I reached for it but he handed it off somewhere else. At that very moment something whacked me HARD in the head. It HURT! I thought it was a beer bottle (which wouldn’t make sense since they weren’t selling beer in glass bottles there). But I couldn’t see what it was that hit me. I could feel the welt immediately, and I asked Daniel if it was bleeding. It wasn’t. That’s when I looked up at the stage and looked at Chad Smith. He was pointing at me and then at his head and mouthed “Are You OK?” I smiled and nodded and then he mouthed “I’m so sorry!” and then gestured about how he just threw it and it hit me. That’s when I realized it was a drumstick that hit me! I was so thrilled that Chad Smith was actually speaking right to me that I forgot about the pain on my forehead and got right back into the show. Little did I know that it was about to get about a THOUSAND times COOLER!

Chad continued to toss a couple of sticks in my direction which never made it to me. At the end of the song he got up and walked to Sammy’s mic. He told the crowd that he had thrown a drumstick that hit me in the head. Then he asked me if I was OK. I nodded. He asked if I was bleeding. I shook my head. He asked if I had a bump, I nodded and said “a little!” And then he said “Do you want me to some down and kiss it?” And I said YES!

Of course, I did!!!

So he jumped down off stage (with help from security since it was about 6 feet high), walked over to me, handed me a drumstick, kissed my forehead and asked if I was OK. OF COURSE I was OK, Chad! You just kissed me! Then I asked him how his arm was (because Chickenfoot had been canceling a bunch of shows before this one due to an arm injury of his). He said it was fine and explained how he just threw that drumstick and saw it hit me. I can’t quite remember everything that was said. It’s a bit of a blur! I was flying at that moment, and he was holding onto me and grabbing my hand for the whole short convo. When he left to go back to the stage I could barely keep myself standing from the shock of it all. People around me were asking if he really did hit me and all I had to do to answer them was show them the welt on my head. After that many people expressed to me that they wished it was THEM who had been hit (all guys though, since I was the only girl is a sea of guys in the front. Somehow I don’t think the same thing would have happened for them LOL). For the rest of the show Chad would point at me and acknowledge me, which was very cool.

But wait! There’s more!

At the end, right before the encore song, they all came to the front of the stage to bow and wave to everyone. I was screaming and hopping up and down. Then Sammy pointed to me and made a gesture with his hands symbolizing bouncing boobs. HA! I got embarrassed and started laughing, but then he did “thumbs up” and a “naughty” sign. You can see it in this video here, if you scroll forward to 5:45 you’ll see Sammy do it, then point to me, bow, and to the “naughty” gesture! Hysterical!!! A shame you can’t see me though!

Acknowledged by two members of the band! And possible even three! I noticed Michael Anthony grinning at me a few times when I SCREAMED at the top of my lungs. And near the end he screamed back at me! Possible. I could have just been imagining that one. But the other two were for real! Made my day! My weekend… MY YEAR!

Besides all of that, the concert was just KICKASS. My 2nd fav concert of all time was when I saw Sammy and the Waboritas at the Irving Plaza in NYC 7 years ago. Sammy makes his shows into parties, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that him and the band interact SO MUCH with the crowd. They always tear down that wall between us and really pull you in as part of the show. That, if you ask me, is what really separates a good concert from a GREAT one. When you feel like they are there for the fans, because they appreciate you.

I’m not going to write anymore about the music because I’m going to leave that to Daniel. He’s posted all about it RIGHT HERE! He has the rock blog and he can really express the music better than I can. He also has the pictures. Oh! Except for these… There was a professional photographer there taking pictures for a local paper. She took the ones with Chad coming down to give me the drum stick and kiss me!

EDITED to add: I found a COOL video! At 2:50 in the following video the guy zooms into Chad where he is apologizing to me while still playing the drums. SO COOL! Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtlTMyiRlfg

Chad climbing down to me (© Anna Alverhag)

Right before (or after) he kissed me. He’s holding my head LOL (© Anna Alverhag)

Afterwards! The welt on my forehead (left side of my head…right side in pic) somewhat visible (© Anna Alverhag)

Chad Smith’s Funk Blaster!

Jag vill att den här sidan dyker upp när folk söker på svenska. Då skriver jag den här delen på svenska, och ni får läsa resten av inlägget på engleska I fredags var jag på Rockweeeknd i Kilafors. Jag åkte ditt bara för att se Chickenfoot. Jag stod precis framför scenen, och under uppspelningen av “Give it Up” kastade Chad Smith en trumpinne som slog mig i huvudet! Efter låten hoppade han ner av scenen, gav mig en trumpinne och kysste mig på huvudet där trumpinnen slog mig. Det var SKITHÄFTIGT!

Written by Irma | Posted in Music

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