So, I managed to score a ticket to The Midnight playing in Stockholm. I'm a bit of a fanboy and bought a ticket as soon as they were available, without thinking about hooking up with someone to go to the concert with. Luckily, my childhood friend Johnny was up for the task and came along to watch them with me last month.
I booked the closest hotel I could find, which was Quality Hotel Globe, situated just a stone's throw from the Globen Arena. The hotel was okay, but I liked the fact that it was somewhat video game centric. There was a pixelated heart on display in the lobby, boasting about the video game exports to have come out of Stockholm in recent years. There were also a couple of rooms dedicated as "gamer" rooms, complete with gaming rigs, RGB lights, and the like.
Johnny and I had dinner at Greken just outside Annexet, which was an experience in itself because of the hockey match taking place that same evening. A bunch of fans were occupying the entire place, drinking and chanting. We tried our best to keep a low profile.
After dinner we took a stroll down to the Slaughterhouse area where Fållan is, and got armed with awesome light stick bracelets given out by the tour crew. Mine lasted about five minutes. The concert was great, even though I wish I didn't have to endure the support act. I mean, they weren't bad, but all the songs sounded alike, and by the time The Midnight got on stage, my feet were already aching.
They played a bunch of songs from the new album, including my favourite "Summer's Ending Soon", but also classics like "Gloria", "Sunset", and "Lost Boys".
I didn't cry or anything, but boy, was I close. Especially during "Sunset", my absolute favourite.
After the concert, Johnny wanted to show me the bar N3rds. It's a gaming-themed watering hole where the patrons may rent gaming devices by the hour. Unfortunately, the rate was a bit too high for something we can experience for free at home, but nonetheless a cool place for the (adult) kids to hang out at. Even though it's a bit smelly. And sticky.
The next day, I had to take an early flight because I managed to score a cheap ticket (only 250 SEK, bargain get!). As luck would have it, I managed to miss my train and was a bit late to Arlanda, although still in time for my flight. Being a complete dumbass, I got screened at security because I forgot to leave my credit card-sized stainless steel toolkit in my wallet, which apparently looked suspicious on the X-ray. Once through security, I had to walk a thousand miles to get to my gate because of ongoing renovations.
I sat down at the gate, and once it was time to board the plane, the flight blipped out of existence on the screen! Panic ensued, and I ran to an information sign to see what had happened to my flight. Apparently, it had moved to another gate, which meant I had to sprint through the gate area so I wouldn't miss my flight (even though there were still about twenty minutes before takeoff, it was still quite stressful).
In all the panic and running, I didn't notice that I had dropped my Commodore 64 baseball cap, which I had clipped onto a belt loop on my jeans. Such a disappointment, but still, it was one of the best weekends in a long time.