Loud Park 2013

Last weekend was probably the most exhausting weekend I’ve ever had in my life, but it was really fun!! My friend, Akira, and I went on a little road trip up to Saitama to see a two day heavy metal concert. It’s called “Loud Park,” and it’s at the Saitama Super Arena every year. Akira and I have been friends basically since I moved to Japan. He is the only Japanese person I know who likes the same music as I do. I remember when I asked him over a year ago if he knew my favorite band, Asking Alexandria, and when he said, “yes,” I about crapped my pants and thought he was awesome right away!!

Actually, although I like metal, I didn’t know many of the bands at the concert, just a few songs from a few bands. Akira was planning on driving up to the concert and watching it alone. I thought that was a little sad. Plus, he was planning on leaving after work and driving through the night with no sleep. After going to the concert all day on Sunday, he was planning on driving back without sleep as well. I thought that was super dangerous, and I was worried, so because I like metal as well and like hanging with Akira, I told him I’d go with.

As planned, we left around 8:30 pm from my town. We listened to his Loud Park playlist he had made on the way up. That way we could familiarize ourselves with some of the songs. I knew some of the bands already like Bring Me the Horizon, Behemoth, Stone Temple Pilots, Trivium, and Crossfaith. Crossfaith is a metalcore band from Osaka! They sing in English though. I had been getting into them ever since Akira introduced them to me not too long ago. Therefore, I was most excited to see them.

On our way up, we stopped at rest stops a few times, but overall, we drove there pretty quickly. It took us around 7 hours. We just talked and listened to music. It was nice. I think I took like a 20 minute nap when we were almost there, but other than that, we stayed awake without much trouble.

When we got there, we went to a 7-11 to buy a snack and then brush our teeth. After that, we found parking near the stadium. We slept in his car there. However, we only slept from like 4 am to 6 am. It was hardly a restful night of sleep after working all day and then driving 7 hours. We got up early because we wanted to get in line to buy T-shirts. Before going to the stadium to get in line, we went back to 7-11 to get a light breakfast, change clothes (well at least I did lol), brush our teeth, wash my face, etc. The doors for buying shirts opened at 8 am. When we got there around 7:00, the line was ridiculous! I will never understand why things have to be so strict and complicated in Japan when it comes to stuff like this. I mean seriously, do you really need to form lines hours in advance to buy a T-shirt? They were only selling them before the concert from 8 am to 9am. After that, you could buy them during the concert, but you’d miss a lot of bands while waiting, and many of the shirts would sell out. So in any case, we waited in line, but ended up not getting in by the deadline. What a waste… :/

Next, we got in line to get into the stadium. We were so tired from not really sleeping and waiting in lines. When we got in, we checked the T-shirt line, and it was crazy. So, we got drinks and went to the stages. We watched all the bands both days with the exception of missing a few songs now and then to use the bathroom, get food and drinks, and so on. About half way through, we checked the T-shirt line again and it was short. However, most of the shirts were sold out. I decided to just get my third choice of Loud Park T-shirt. Akira was able to get some of the shirts he wanted, but not all of them, so we decided that we’d get up even earlier the next day and try to get in line again so he could get the other shirts he wanted (he was buying shirts for himself and his family).

Day 1 of Loud Park.

On the first day I got to see Crossfaith which was super fun! I got to do moshing and the wall of death. I will write a complete list of the bands that were there at the end of the post. Our bodies were so tired from standing a ton and moshing. I got really tired, but we made it until the end. After, we went to a public bath house where we had dinner and took baths. That was super nice and relaxing. I got into a really cold bath after soaking in warm ones in order to help my muscles. I felt like I was going to die and pass out or something. It felt really weird. I wasn’t sure if it was due to exhaustion, the change from hot to cold, or both. I was like wobbling as I walked. After the baths, we were so tired. I felt loopy. We went back to the parking lot and slept in his car again. This time I went to bed at 2 am, but Akira couldn’t sleep (because he’s freaking crazy), and apparently he fell asleep at about 4 am again. We got up at 6 am again (we meant to get up at 5am). Instead of going to 7-11 though, we went straight to the line (at like 6:15 am). This time we were close to the front thankfully! Since they didn’t start letting people in until 8:00 am, while Akira held our place in line, I went into a parking garage bathroom to change, wash my face, and brush my teeth. This time Akira was able to get the other shirts he wanted.

Crossfaith. They were awesome!

Bring Me the Horizon. I like them. :)

We went to Lawson’s to get some breakfast and then chilled in his car for like an hour before going to day 2 of the concert. Even though I slept for about 4 hours, sleeping a total of 6 hours in like 2 days is not enough, not to mention the car isn’t that comfortable. So, pretty early into the concert, I was feeling messed up. I was completely exhausted. The 10 am alcohol probably didn’t help either (although that was the only drink I had that day). :P During the third band, I started hallucinating and falling asleep standing up. I saw a grapefruit floating in the sky, and I saw Akira run away from me even though he was standing right there. I also remember waking up because I was about to fall over. It was super weird. So after the third band, we sat down to watch the next one. That helped. I felt much better after that. I was able to make it the rest of the time without sleeping even though I was still tired.

10 am alcohol. :S

Taking a sitting break because we're dying. Haha!

The concert was really cool! I enjoyed listening to the songs and bands I did know, and I also got to learn some new bands. After the concert, we made our way to the same bath house again. We had dinner and baths again. I got scolded by a worker because I tried to charge my phone in one of their electrical outlets. My phone had been dead for like a day… Oops.

Trivium. They are always good.

Akira got one of Trivium's picks!

Babymetal...only in Japan haha! 14 year old girls in dresses
dancing and sing to heavy metal music.

Yngwie Malmsteen smashed up a guitar
and threw it into the crowd. Cool!

After that, we began the drive home. I wasn’t sure if we’d be able to make it all the way back without sleeping. I know I for sure couldn’t! I decided it would be better if I took a little nap right at the beginning since I knew I couldn’t stay awake the whole time. That way, if Akira became too tired towards the end of the trip, I’d be awake to notice and tell him to take a break. I slept for about 20 minutes (I think I had another accidental 20 minute nap towards the end too…damn). We drank tons of energy drinks. On the way home we talked more and listened to the Loud Park playlist again. It was fun to hear a lot of the songs that we had just heard live. We made it pretty close to Osaka, but at about 6:30 am when the sun had already risen, Akira said he had double vision, so we decided to sleep for little bit. It was weird because the rest stop was crowded, and it was bright. I wondered how many people starred at us during the 4 hours we slept lol! We woke up to the loud voices of elementary school students getting off of charter busses. It was really hot in the car compared to when we stayed in Saitama. We decided to go ahead and leave. We made it to my town around 11:30 am on Monday (I had taken the day off…it was my first time to ever take a day off when I had classes except for sickness).

I thanked Akira for the awesome time. He lives about a half hour away from me, so I told him to tell me when he made it back safely, which he did. I didn’t want to mess up my sleep schedule for work too much, so after doing some laundry, I took like a three hour nap. I went back to bed at 10:00 pm and slept until it was time to get up for work at 6:20 am. I think my body has recovered now. I saw really violent dreams that night though. I can’t help but wonder if it was because all of the death metal bands I watched haha!

Here’s a list of the bands that were there:

·         Lost Society

·         Crossfaith

·         Bring Me the Horizon

·         Devin Townsend Project

·         Therion

·         Lordi

·         Lynch

·         Behemoth

·         Carcass

·         Angra

·         Europe

·         Stone Temple Pilots with Chester Bennington

·         Metal Clone X

·         Breaking Arrows

·         Enforcer

·         Mokoma

·         Amorphis

·         Babymetal

·         Trivium

·         Spititual Beggars

·         Stratovarious

·         Last in Line

·         Yngwie Malmsteen