I was at the opening show of Paganfest USA in Toronto a week and a day ago, on April 25th. To all [viking] metalheads who may read this... let me tell you that it was incredible.

Firstly, on the subject of hair... I couldn't even attempt a headbang or windmill this show because of the insane crowd, and because my hair was in mortal peril... it kept getting pinned between people and I could feel it half ripping out of my skull constantly. That was the only horrible thing about that night.

The bands Tyr, Turisas and Ensiferum played... unfortunately Eluveitie couldn't show and had to cancel because they couldn't get some sort of papers to enter Canada or something... it was complicated, but they were replaced by some local band called O'Faolain.

Tyr was up for a mere 30 mins, I reckon... they had the shortest time, save for O'Faolain. But Tyr was amazing live (okay, so all the bands were), and I suppose the tamest band as well.

Turisas was wild... I didn't suppose they would have as many fans as Tyr and Ensiferum especially, but the hardcore fans were absolutely wild... they dressed themselves up as Turisas, facepaint and armour and everything... and they were completely mental in the mosh pit. I wanted to kick those fans for being so annoying, but I admit that Turisas does sound better live than they normally do.

Ensiferum... they were just great. Petri was of course beautiful as usual, and they played my three favourite songs... Ahti, One More Magic Potion and Lai Lai Hei. Petri's growls were crazy as usual and he certainly knows how to charm a crowd Apparently, where my friend was standing... she could see up Pete's kilt... "it was pretty". *snicker*

My friends and I snuck around to the back doors at the end of the concert where the tour buses were (and where nobody else thought to look after the show) and we got a hold of Tyr and Turisas... I got Ragnarok signed by three of the Tyr members and photos with Turisas and Tyr. Unfortunately we couldn't stay long enough to catch Ensiferum... I wanted to cry, because I REALLY wanted a photo with Pete!

We had to leave though, because the LOVELY TTC decided to go on strike at midnight without prior warning... the show ended 1 or 2 hours after that, so everyone who went to the show was obviously enraged and we were all taking taxis home and whatnot... ours costed an outrageous $40, which could have bought us more Paganfest merchandise. Bah.

It was amazing though, I wish they'd tour again... Toronto sold out really quickly.