This is it, the end is here. I’d been more than eager for this show, but when the time finally came, I was overcome with a deep sadness entwined with all the thrill. We often use that old cliche “all good things must come to an end” but sometimes it tastes more bittersweet than others.
It had been precisely at Hard Club – although in the old facility, in Gaia – that I’d first seen HochiminH, in 2004 (pretty sure it was written HO-CHI-MINH back then). Never heard of them again until this year, where this was already the 4th gig I was attending. They were clearly a novelty for most of the kids, who were cheerful anyway – even if singer Skatro was “complaining” about their headbanging being top but the moshing sucked, or teasing the boys about the girls screaming louder (which is more or less true – our pitch is higher, so our screams will always sound shriller, giving the impression they’re louder). “Way Of Retain” marked the beginning of a great night and other songs like “Reload”, “You Let It Flow” or DEPECHE MODE’s cover “Enjoy The Silence” set everybody in a just as great mood.
When singer Fábio first addressed the crowd, he mentioned the sad reason that brought us all there that night but it was hard to feel sad in that right moment, after the frenzy raised by “Hold Your Breath”. But that was the idea – having a huge party, not celebrating MORE THAN A THOUSAND’s goodbye but their career, what they meant to us and always will mean, and no one better than HILLS HAVE EYES to honor that; after all, there’s a couple of reasons why they’re my favorite band and their live performances, the passion they put on them, is the top one.
Fábio also mentioned how good it felt to be back in Porto, a city where HHE were always welcomed – a feeling MTAT-Vasco would later claim to share, and maybe that’s why he joined Fábio on stage for “Anyway It’s Gone”, which he hadn’t done the night before in Paços de Ferreira. As usual, “Strangers” finished their set but the title was unfit – we were all buddies that night.
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There’s been talking with my cousin about going to Lisbon to attend MORE THAN A THOUSAND’s very last show, but until things are 100% settled, this was the finale for me. Like I said, bittersweet.
Some funny things were said, like comparing the slang of the south with the one of the north, and bassist Mike complaining about the language – and swearing himself right afterwards. Guitarist Filipe also did so, and later, on a much more serious note – the aforementioned claim of Vasco of how home they felt when playing in Porto – he would admit he rarely spoke but he couldn’t let this go without thanking our support over all these years. And speaking of gratitude, Mandy Holz, the German fan who came all the way from Berlin (she also runs both the More Than A Thousand German Support and Hills Have Eyes German Support pages on Facebook) also got a special thanks from Vasco.
Before wrapping it up with “No Bad Blood”, we were told to never give up our dreams, as this wasn’t what they were doing – they were simply pursuing new ones. I wish them all the best with the fulfillment of these new dreams.
Front Row Forever 