AFI / Circle

There I was.. stepping out of the bus at 16:00 in Amsterdam.

First of course I went to the venue to see if any of the band members were outside. To my surprise the entire band was walking outside. Some fans took a couple of pictures with Davey, then he took off and I didn't see him again until the actual show.

After realizing I didn't have a pen or a camera with me, I went to the nearest book store to buy a pen. So I went back, walked to Jade and asked "could you sign this?".
He pulled a pen out of his pants and signed a piece of paper. A couple of minutes later I got the chance to ask Adam to sign something. He didn't have a pen on him so my newly bought pen came in handy after all.

*skip to 21:00*

The support band "Circle" started. It was kind of a punky Papa Roach. I personally thought they were quite dull. The music was pretty repetitive and they didn't move around at all. When they were finally done I tried to push my way to the front. I finally ended up at the "third row" of people, if you know what I mean.

The soundcheck seemed to last forever. It was about 30-35 minutes. But when Miseria Cantare started playing, the entire crowd erupted with joy. They dimmed the lights and the dark orchestral sounds of Miseria Cantare started to burst from the speakers.

When the song reached "Nothing from nowhere.." the entire band came on stage.
Davey in a tight leather suit, Jade with a small blondish mohawk and the rest of the band as you would expect them to be.
Miseria Cantare was followed by 10 seconds of pure silence but when Hunter started the bass of The Lost Souls the entire venue started shaking. The band was jumping up and down, doing high kicks in the air, etc. The energy was incredible.

After 14 enthralling songs, the band dropped their instruments and left the stage.
The crowd instantly started to shout "AFI! AFI! AFI!" with the hope that they would return for an encore.
Their prayers were granted and they came back.

During the entire show there were loads of people shouting and begging for Death Of Seasons. By the time the encore was about to start most of them gave up hope.
But when Hunter, after about 20 seconds of silence, started the bass intro to Death Of Seasons the entire venue went nuts with excitement.
It's truly spectacular to watch Davey go absolutely insane during that particular song.
At the end of the song Davey kneeled down and, while the entire crowd was watching in silence and amazement, he started screaming the last lines. Just breathtaking..

But it wasn't over yet, their final song was God Called In Sick Today.
During the last chorus Davey walked right into the crowd whereupon everyone started to keep him up so he was literally standing ON the crowd. After the last note the band thanked everyone and went offstage.

A great ending to a great evening.
Good songs, good crowd.
I was also surprised by the large amount of British AFI fans that were present at the show.
Well.. now I'm sitting here with 2 new AFI shirts on my lap and I just found out I can hardly move my legs. In other words, a successful evening.

Setlist (order is 99% accurate):

Miseria Cantare
The Lost Souls
The Prayer Position
Girl's Not Grey
Sacrifice Theory
Ever And A Day
Perfect Fit
Total Immortal
Morningstar
A Single Second
Dancing Through Sunday
This Time Imperfect
The Leaving Song Pt.2
Days Of The Phoenix
Death Of Seasons
God Called In Sick Today