Listening Party Thread - Pawns & Kings

[Schulzy]

Holiday: there were some sections that reminded me of Coming Home.

Season of Promise: Tremendous song. I like it even better than Fable of the Silent Son. Feels like a much fleshed out version of Never Say Die. Very positive vibes with this one.

Last Man Standing: I think this had even a longer solo sections than Fable of the Silent Song.

Based on your review of these I'm VERY excited to hear them. Thanks!

[Dan Dando]

Season of Promise: Tremendous song. I like it even better than Fable of the Silent Son. Feels like a much fleshed out version of Never Say Die. Very positive vibes with this one.

[ToNsOFuN88]

My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined.

[Whitebird]

My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined.

Same

[Mr.Vlado]

My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined.

Same

For a second you guys shocked me a lot. I wasn't sure whether you went to the listening party and I thought you might be saying that about the album lol. I think you're referring to the lack of reviews from the listening party?

[Timotheus]

Software Developer

Legitimately what I was thinking

<the meme>

There's a lot to say about developers, but we definitely know how to meme

Thanks for writing down your thoughts, Kev!!

[Ubik]

It doesn't really feel like a listening party thread until Kev's given us a very detailed appraisal of the food and abw's waved his bees in everyone's face.

[Timotheus]

It doesn't really feel like a listening party thread until Kev's given us a very detailed appraisal of the food and abw's waved his bees in everyone's face.

Yea, I understand TonsOfFun's disappointment. Kev only mentioned food once....

[anguyen92]

You want food appraisal posts? I’m in Miami right now waiting to connect to LAX. I’m eating a Cuban sandwich with plantain chips. Costed $13.50.

[Ubik]

Is that like a sandwich of cigars?

[anguyen92]

No. It’s a sandwich with ham, cheese, mustard, pickles, and it’s pressed.

[maximzub]

Nobody's been talking about the acoustic set. How was it? Was Watch Over You a full band version or just Myles?

[anguyen92]

I’ll type more when I get home. It was full band on every song.

[zazthespaz]

abw's waved his bees in everyone's face.

Is this a UK phrase? ABW didn't make it this year since the show got delayed so no honey for you. (?)

I'm expecting another 5 part write up from Kev. Maybe 6 since he had to rearrange all his plans.

[Whitebird]

My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined.

Same

For a second you guys shocked me a lot. I wasn't sure whether you went to the listening party and I thought you might be saying that about the album lol. I think you're referring to the lack of reviews from the listening party?

Yeah it's only because of the lack of reviews

[Ubik]

abw's waved his bees in everyone's face.

Is this a UK phrase? ABW didn't make it this year since the show got delayed so no honey for you. (?)

I'm expecting another 5 part write up from Kev. Maybe 6 since he had to rearrange all his plans.

No just an abw-specific one, his Losing Patience review is the pinnacle that all others strive to reach. But yeah gah I keep forgetting it got delayed, that must've ruined a lot of people's trip so we're pretty lucky to get the reviews we've had.

[zazthespaz]

abw's waved his bees in everyone's face.

Is this a UK phrase? ABW didn't make it this year since the show got delayed so no honey for you. (?)

I'm expecting another 5 part write up from Kev. Maybe 6 since he had to rearrange all his plans.

No just an abw-specific one, his Losing Patience review is the pinnacle that all others strive to reach. But yeah gah I keep forgetting it got delayed, that must've ruined a lot of people's trip so we're pretty lucky to get the reviews we've had.

Oh right, Island of Fools, right? forgot about that one! Yeah I know he and Ryan were going but the hurricane screwed up both their plans.

[anguyen92]

All right, here we go Part I of probably three parts to this trip.

Part I: Setting the stage for going to my 2nd AB Listening party and a lot of setbacks along the way.

All right, where do I want to begin with all of this? With a very long and incoherent post, of course. Well, going back to the start of 2022 when we were near the height of the pandemic restrictions, I had presumed that an AB VII Listening Party may have been a bit ambitious for them to hold given where the pandemic was going. Then a few months later, Mark held his Tremonti Sings Sinatra listening party, and I presume that went smoothly for those that went, and that was probably enough for AB to go ahead and announced their Listening Party for Pawns & Kings late June. The morning of the announcement, I woke up, pulled up Twitter, saw the announcement, and I bought the pass on their site right then and there, no questions. I felt like there was a score that needs to be settled. While the event in 2019 was really great, the concert of the year in 2019 for me (against some really good competition like Iron Maiden, Within Temptation, Switchfoot, and Zac Brown Band), there was one thing that really irked me which was this thing that caused me to lose out on a guarantee rail spot. Quoted from my previous posts from the other listening party (that people actually do read, surprisingly enough).

Then 4:00 PM and that’s when that idea went down the tubes. For some reason, the venue insisted on having a second line and decided to keep the first 20-30 people in the original line and then let everyone else behind us get on the new line and they told us that they were letting both lines in at the same time. Now that was a BS thing for the venue to pull as we got people in line since 7:00 AM – 1:00 PM, but the venue security wasn’t having it. In fact, they honestly thought that this was a free event or something with regular GA or something like that and we were like no, everyone here paid the same price ($250.00) and therefore the people that got here early should get first priority of getting in first. Venue security would not give a f*** about that. In all fairness, if they had to do a second line, I would have it set up where it’s like first five people stay in this line, next five people get in this new line, following five stay in line, next five get in the other line and so on until a certain point, just to make things fair for the people standing in line for hours hoping for a rail spot. It was just so dumb for the venue to pull something like that and not reward the people that got there early to get a better chance at the rail.

5:00 PM finally hits and the two lines were going to get inside and then after like 10 people each line got inside, the venue security decided to literally close the door on me and will open when the people inside have already checked in and got their photo with the band.

I figured if the venue was going to do that an hour before the doors open, I’m going to do all I can to get into that 2nd line first. I’m not missing out on an earned rail spot if I get to the venue before almost everyone else.

Anyway, looked through the usual outlets for hotels and flight and booked to stay at the Eo Inn for three nights. Same hotel I was at for the Walk the Sky listening party where it was a 15 minute walk away from the Beacham. Pawns & Kings listening party was supposed to be held at the Abbey, which was even a shorter walk from the Eo Inn, which would be fantastic for me and my legs.

In the upcoming days before the listening party, I was thinking a lot about the event, what I want to say to the band this time, how I want to balance between sitting and standing outside of the venue while waiting in line to avoid major leg soreness. Then on Monday of the week of the listening party, there were news that Hurricane Ian is going to be more of a major hurricane than people would like it to be. I read somewhere that by the time it hits Orlando on Wednesday or Thursday, it shouldn’t be too impactful in the area and I was hoping all would be fine by Friday (the day of the listening party). Nope, AB, rightfully, will not take that chance for the sake of their crew and the fans flying in, so they sent us an email and a Social Media Announcement that the listening party was going to be delayed one week and it’s going to be on a Thursday at the Beacham, not the Abbey.

I felt like wanting to cry after reading that. It was a bit harder for me to get Thursdays off of work than a Friday, but this is the event I know I cannot miss, so I send the request to my supervisor and he approved it and I’ll just catch up with stuff on work on Monday and get back into flow (which I always do). The bigger issues now lies on rescheduling flight and hotel. I spoke with Expedia, who I booked the hotel with, they told me that they aren’t able to reschedule the room at the Eo Inn, but was able to refund me the money I paid for the three night stay. So I booked another hotel, this time at a Budget Inn in the middle of nowhere in Orlando. I decided to cut the trip from three nights to a two night stay, since I just don’t feel like wanting stay in a room like that for another day.

As for the flights, I was able to reschedule a flight from United at an additional cost of $130.00, then got $85.00 back in their e-credits after correcting the day I want to fly out. I had a flight under Delta, and they decided to send the refund in the form of their e-credits as well. Which is all fine for me getting e-credits from those airlines, since I’ll just use them for another trip down the line (probably use that credit flying out to Toronto to see AB in February). Now the downside of rescheduling flights was that I had originally wanted to fly out of John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana (where I’m close to), but with the high flight costs, I decided to fly out of LAX in LA, instead, and rather park at an airport hotel in LA for three days for $50.00, I took an interesting alternative. I decided to take a train from Anaheim to Union Station (the train station in LA) and take a bus shuttle to the airport. Took two hours to get to the airport, but that’s fine with me. There were built in chargers for me anyway so I can do whatever on the phone and stuff.

Anywho, last Wednesday evening finally arrived, got to the airport smoothly and decided to get a late night snack. I got a personal-pan sized pizza from this place called Wolfgang Puck Express. The pizza tasted ok. Costed $20.00. However, I would learn that eating that pizza was going to be a big mistake for my stomach in the morning, more on that later in a couple of sentences.

Boarded the flight at 11:00 PM and it’s one way, no delays or layovers, to Orlando. Fell asleep for like 2.5 hours of the flight and I spent the last two hours of the flight playing Sudoku and being bad at it. I also learned that playing Sudoku is actually a great time killer while in an airplane.

Anyway, I arrived at Orlando at around 7:00 AM. Went to the restroom to try to alleviate any stomach issues and apparently, I felt fine for now. Then I took a bus straight to the main bus station in Orlando at around 8:00 and that’s when my stomach really started to have issues digesting that pizza. I was afraid I was going to explode in the bus. To add to the stress, my luggage handle started having issues where I was not able to raise the lever to pull the luggage. So I got to the bus station, carried my luggage with my hand, got to the nearest restroom, and thankfully, alleviated myself out of any issues from eating that pizza.

Afterwards, I went to a crepe place. Got a crepe called the Popeye which has baby spinach, tomato, mozzarella and feta cheese, tossed in feta dressing and got a sweet crepe that has caramel apples and they topped it off with a scoop of chocolate gelato. Good stuff and set me back $25.00. Needed a better form of fresh food to repair my stomach and this was fine enough.

Then around 10:30 AM, I got on a bus to my hotel room at the Budget Inn and this looks like your typical motel in the middle of nowhere. At least, the guy at the desk was pretty friendly and had no issues addressing my questions. Got checked-in, went to my room, dropped the luggage, change shirts, and posted here telling you guys that I’m going off the grid with no cell phone on hand and I’m risking assured safety for the sake of this listening party being a home run and it was. More on that probably tomorrow.

[Whitebird]

[gbruin]

Take that, Tolstoy.