I am a huge Coheed & Cambria fan. If you don’t know much about the band, pull up a chair, there’s a lot to explain. Coheed has released eight studio albums so far. Seven of those albums are part of a science fiction universe called “The Amory Wars Saga,” a graphic novel series written by Coheed & Cambria lead singer Claudio Sanchez.
If you feel like geeking out, check out this website. You can spend days going down the rabbit hole that is The Amory Wars. It’s tough knowing what the songs are truly about without reading the comic books, but this site gives a pretty decent cliffs notes version. Either way, the music is excellent, so don’t let the comics stand in your way of enjoying Coheed’s catalog.
Since each of the first seven albums follows a comic book storyline, it’s not uncommon for the band to do special tours called “Neverender” ( a reference from the graphic novels) where they play a selected album from front to back. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Coheed’s first album “The Second Stage Turbine Blade” played in its entirety. I’ve also been able to catch their third, and some would say breakthrough album “Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness.”
This is the story of that show.
I’ve seen Coheed & Cambria six times since I started following the band in late 2003 and every time I’ve seen them, they put on a fantastic show. When they announced that they would be doing a “Neverender” for “Good Apollo…..”, I was super excited. Having seen a Neverender tour before, I knew that this would be one for the books.
I secured tickets the minute they went on sale, then patiently waited for the day of the show to come. I had everything planned, driving route from Omaha to Kansas City, snacks, and road tunes. The only thing I hadn’t planned was lodging, putting it off until the day before the show. I was going back and forth trying to decide if we should stay over or just drive back.
The day of the show arrived, and I decided to do some quick googling to see if there were any options for camping close to Kansas City. It was the middle of May in the Midwest, we had an S.U.V., and the weather was perfect, what could go wrong?
We found a campsite about 30 minutes outside of Kansas City called “Crow’s Creek.” Located near a river, the landscape was absolutely stunning. I thought to myself “I’m so smart saving tons of money by going camping.” Oh, how I would come to regret those words in just a few hours.
After picking our campsite, we went into the city and attended the show. If you’ve never seen Coheed live, do yourself a favor and check them out. They are heading out on tour this summer with Taking Back Sunday. You can find the dates at the bottom of this article.
In the interest of brevity, the show was awesome. The band played the whole “Good Apollo” album without stopping. After the album was played, they briefly addressed the crowd before playing a few of their bigger hits. For me personally, it was in my top 3 shows out of the six that I’ve attended.
As we started driving back to the campgrounds, there was a crash on the interstate, and we were stuck in traffic for 45 minutes. By the time we finally made it back to our campsite I was really tired. But this is camping, you can’t go to bed without having smores! We managed to fumble together a campfire with some nearby branches and paper from a grocery bag and nestled in for a quiet evening, or so I thought.
As we sat roasting marshmallows enjoying the amazing weather and country air, I heard a rustling next to me. At first, I thought it was just the wind moving our plastic grocery bag, but I looked down to find a raccoon rustling through the marshmallows! I was so freaked out. Raccoons may seem friendly, but I did not want to get bit by this crazy wild animal. I jumped out of my chair and ran to the car, with my heart racing.
The raccoon on the other hand casually dragged the marshmallows under a picnic table and started munching. I couldn’t believe how calm it was. It was probably very used to being around humans and taking food.
After a few minutes, the raccoon dragged his bounty a few paces down the road away from our camp. I helped Virginia put the fire out, and we started getting ready for bed. We had folded the seats down in the back of the car and lined them with blankets and pillows. It wasn’t exactly a Marriott, but it would give us enough comfort for a few hours of sleep rather than heading home tired.
As I was standing outside the car, I heard a nasty, snarling sound coming from the woods. I didn’t see what was coming our way, but looking back it was probably just another camper’s dog or a small animal.
At the time, however, I assumed it was a bloodthirsty wolf zeroing in on its prey. We quickly got into the car, closing the back hatch, and rolling up all the windows.
We were too scared to open the windows or look outside for fear that the wolf would eat us, we decided to sleep with the windows rolled up. Now I mentioned earlier that the weather was amazing, but after trying to sleep with the windows rolled up it was miserable.
We tossed and turned for about an hour before deciding to drive home at 2:00 A.M. As we started to pack up our campsite, I stepped out of the car to find the raccoon was back and he was digging into our garbage bag! After our run-in with the bloodthirsty wolf and the raccoon eating our marshmallows, I was done. We quickly packed up the car and got out of there.
As we pulled into our driveway at 6 A.M. I was so glad to be home and away from nature.
At the time I was completely miserable, but looking back it was one of the greatest camping trips ever!
I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I’ll be going to AFI and Rise Against in Minneapolis this September. I’m not going to lie, I’ve googled “Camping near Minneapolis” If you’re not miserable, then you’re not really camping!
Make sure to subscribe to the blog and follow on Instagram and Facebook: @storiesfromthecrowd
06/03 CINCINNATI, OH BUNBURY FESTIVAL TICKETS
07/06 MIAMI, FL BAYFRONT PARK AMPHITHEATER TICKETS
07/07 TAMPA, FL MIDFLORIDA CREDIT UNION AMPHITHEATRE TICKETS
07/08 JACKSONVILLE, FL DAILY’S PLACE AMPHITHEATER TICKET S
07/10 ATLANTA, GA CHASTAIN PARK AMPHITHEATER TICKETS
07/11 NASHVILLE, TN ASCEND AMPHITHEATER TICKETS
07/13 RALEIGH, NC RED HAT AMPHITHEATER TICKETS
07/14 CHARLOTTE, NC CHARLOTTE METRO CREDIT UNION AMPHITHEATRE TICKETS
07/15 BALTIMORE, MD PIER SIX PAVILION TICKETS
07/17 BOSTON, MA BLUE HILLS BANK PAVILION TICKETS
07/18 PHILADELPHIA, PA PENN’S LANDING – FESTIVAL PIER TICKETS
07/19 HOLMDEL, NJ PNC BANK ARTS CENTER TICKETS
07/21 BROOKLYN, NY FORD AMPHITHEATER AT CONEY ISLAND SOLD OUT
07/22 PITTSBURGH, PA STAGE AE – OUTDOORS TICKET
07/23 COLUMBUS, OH EXPRESS LIVE! OUTDOOR AMPHITHEATRE TICKETS
07/25 MINNEAPOLIS, MN ARMORY TICKETS
07/26 CHICAGO, IL HUNTINGTON BANK PAVILION AT NORTHERLY ISLAND TICKETS
07/27 STERLING HEIGHTS, MI MICHIGAN LOTTERY AMPHITHEATRE TICKETS
07/29 CLEVELAND, OH JACOB’S PAVILION AT NAUTICA FLATS TICKETS
07/31 ROGERS, AR WALMART AMP TICKETS
08/02 SUGAR LAND, TX SMART FINANCIAL CENTRE TICKETS
08/03 AUSTIN, TX AUSTIN 360 AMPHITHEATER TICKETS
08/04 IRVING, TX THE PAVILION AT TOYOTA MUSIC FACTORY TICKETS
08/06 DENVER, CO SCULPTURE PARK TICKETS
08/07 SALT LAKE CITY, UT UNION EVENT CENTER TICKETS
08/09 BERKELEY, CA THE GREEK THEATRE TICKETS
08/10 LAS VEGAS, NV HARD ROCK HOTEL & CASINO – THE JOINT TICKETS
08/11 IRVINE, CA FIVE POINT AMPHITHEATRE TICKETS
08/12 PHOENIX, AZ COMERICA THEATRE TICKETS