The time I finally saw Sevendust

Or should I say the time I finally saw an entire set of theirs?

This post has been like 14 years in the making.

It's taken that long for me to finally get to see one of my favorite rock bands play an entire set live.

It all started back in the fall of 1999, my freshman year in high school. Sevendust was bringing their headlining tour with Kittie, Powerman5000 and newcomers Staind (back in their heavy days) to my hometown's annual labor day festival On the Waterfront. Only problem though was that my aunt and uncle had gotten my best friend and I tickets to see either Fastball with Blessid Union of Souls or The Wallflowers (I forget which band was the big festival headliner that year, as one played this year and one played a different year that we went) and the shows were both at the same time, on opposite sides of the festival/river. Needless to say, we were obliged to go to the one we had paid extra for for tickets but the plan was that as soon as it was over we'd run across the river to catch whatever we could of Sevendust. Sadly, we got there during the last song.

Something that would become a running joke for me.

Fast forward a few years to 2003. Sevendust is co-headlining a tour with Staind and playing the Aragon in Chicago. Me and lazyass ex were big concert goers at the time and both liked Sevendust and Staind's older stuff so we decided to go. Only problem though - I had class til a certain time and couldn't leave any earlier than we did. And we hit some traffic on our way into the city, getting there about an hour late. We figured we'd be fine though as there was at least 1 opening band... well as we park and rush into the theater we hear Sevendust playing their encore! WTF??? Apparently the opening band canceled or something or went on earlier and we literally caught the tail end of Sevendust. I wasn't too happy... especially by this point Staind was in lite mode, only playing their heavier songs here and there (much to the displeasure of the majority of the crowd). I paid to see Sevendust, but got stuck only seeing Staind lite.

A few years later (circa 2008 I believe) I got a notice that Sevendust was coming to Chicago again, this time to my favorite venue, the HoB (House of Blues). I *really* wanted to go but sadly it just wasn't in the cards financially. Plus with my luck, I'd make it just into to catch the last song again.

Which brings us to now.

I found out a few weeks ago via the app BandsInTown that Sevendust was playing a show at the nightclub in my college town 30 miles away. Hubby and I both had the night off from work and if it wasn't on my bucketlist, seeing a full Sevendust set should have been cuz I was determined to see a set of theirs live at least once in my life. There was some confusion over the start time - 1 site said 7pm, the tickets said doors at 8 show at 9, the venue when we called said 8... we got there about 845 and the 1st band was just finishing so it was definitely happening!

They did a few new songs, including the latest single Decay, as well as a slew of their old hits (Bitch, Waffle, Too Close to Hate) as they made the point this was more of a fan reunion for them since they've been doing it so long and the majority of the crowd was people my own age or older that had been following the band for years (we stopped at one of my favorite local joints for food down there and the chick making our pitas/gyros had never heard of them while the chick that was working there since before I graduated 6 years ago teased her about being young).

I was down in the crowd for the first half of their set before moving back to where hubby stayed, eventually getting up on the board covered pool table he was sitting on. It got a bit rowdy too - considering how security was there when I saw Papa Roach and Nonpoint 10 years ago there, they pretty much didn't care - people started crowd surfing, moshing... saw a fight break out at the end, other girls and a drunk guy on one of the other board covered pool tables... it was pretty fun! They opened with Denial, closed it out with Face to Face (one of my favorites!). I also heard Xmas Day and Praise... only ones I wish they had played that they didn't were Crucified, Live Again, Enemy, and Broken Down (can you tell I liked the albums Animosity and Seasons? Glad they did Face to Face though, as that's one of my favorites from those 2!).

While the sound wasn't the best, considering the venue it wasn't terrible. (Another reason why I love the HoB - the sound there is amazing!). Night club shows rock though as it's such a small intimate setting, you really aren't far no matter where you're watching from!

So I can cross seeing a full Sevendust set live off my list now! Woot!