Symphonic Shades - My trip to Germany

[Akumu]

So in August, me and my best buddy decided to attend the Chris Hulsbeck symphonic tribute show, Symphonic Shades. It was quite an epic journey with probably the tightest time schedule i ever been on, and hours and hours of traveling.

So i started out going to the airport at 2 in the afternoon, as my plane left at 5pm. The airport i was heading to, Frankfurt, is approx. 2-3 hours away from the concert venue, located on Köln (Cologne). The concert itself, starts at 11pm.

Anyways, we land in Frankfurt at 7pm, looking for the bus that goes to Köln. Sadly the bus we planned on taking had left, and we were forced to take a bus that would arrive in Köln at 10:45pm, leaving us with less than 15 minutes to locate the venue in a city we had absolutely no knowledge or experience with. To make things worse, there was heavy rain making the road slippery, making the bus go at even lower speeds and delaying us even further.

After shitting our pants and boxers 6 times over and fear and nervousness of missing the concert making us reveal disturbing homosexual secrets to eachother, me and my buddy finally arrive in Köln and just ran full speed towards the dome, as it was supposedly close to it. After another minute or so with girlish crying and sobbing, we finally decided to ask a lady closing up her pub for directions. Well turns out the venue was RIGHT BEHIND OUR BACK, and all we had to do was pretty much cross the street.

So we finally arrive at 10:59:28 (i timed it). I got to meet my all time favorite composer, Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, touch his bottom and get a hug. We also met Hulsbeck and VGMdb's Teioh, who is one of the funniest guys i ever met.

some pictures:
an extremely sleep deprived me and Mitsuyoshi
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/AkumuHau/P1010230.jpg

Me, Teioh and Andreas
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/AkumuHau/P1010244.jpg

Me, Teioh and Andreas outside the Dome
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/AkumuHau/P1010252.jpg

Also, a week ago, Winfried Fechner, the head of the WDR, sent me a letter thanking me for attending, and gave me chocolate, and 2 cd set of the live recordings from the show, fully mastered!

[Rimo]

Heh, that was pretty close, but it's good you've arrived in time and attended the concert. Wish I'd been there too, yet Germany is a little far and I wasn't ready to cross the Atlantic with the sole purpose of seeing a VGM concert. Still, I'd like to visit some parts of Europe one day and I might try to organize the trip to coincide with a future concert.

Mitsuyoshi is always extremely expressive on the pics of him I've seen. Must have been cool to meet him!

And wow, that's a nice gift. Was this given to everyone who went to the concert? The CDs you've got have a different recording than what will be on the official release I guess?

[Gaia]

Köln isn't that far away. Somewhat about 190km. Sadly, I didn't knew about this event. I hope Umeatsu or Sakuraba will make his way to germany, someday. ;)

[Akumu]

And wow, that's a nice gift. Was this given to everyone who went to the concert? The CDs you've got have a different recording than what will be on the official release I guess?

Not as far as i know, I think it's because me and my friend were the only international guests, atleast the one that traveled the greatest distance. Hulsbeck recognized me in the hallway and was amazed to see me at the concert so he might have tipped Fechner.

[Carl]

Ahh, it's the tension and struggles that make for a good story!!
The journey was worth it, glad you guys could enjoy the experience =)

[Akumu]

I forgot to mention that Mitsuyoshi signed my copies of From Loud 2 Low (http://vgmdb.net/album/2427) and Daytona USA (http://vgmdb.net/album/318). He also sang can you become rent-a-hero for mankind's sake for me cause it's my favorite song of his.

Mitsuyoshi was the nicest and funniest guy i ever met, his english is also suprisingly good. He took a good 15 to 20 minutes aside just to talk to me and was laughing and joking the entire time.