FootballHockeyPilot

And thankfully, it didn't.

So basically, had plans to go see Shinedown, but when I learned of the pricey ticket price I backed out, opting to instead save my money for smaller, more general uses.
Well, we still wanted to hang out, so we made plans to go bowling on the day that would've been when we would've gone to the concert.
About halfway there, when we were lamenting waiting in the car, she asked if I knew what would make it worth it, and pulled out a ticket for the show, informing me that the bowling was a lie and we were gonna go see Shinedown after all!

The show itself was amazing. The opener, Beyond the Fall was surprisingly much better than I expected, and Papa Roach didn't disappoint (although I don't know enough of their music to make a serious judgement on it).

Shinedown, however, left them all in the dust, as would be anticipated. The vocals were spot-on the entire time, with little added flairs to make it a unique live show. From the opening refrains of "The Sound of Madness" to the closing reverb from "Fly From the Inside," their fourth and final encore song, there was never a dull moment. They played a nice selection of songs from their newest [frickin awesome] release Amaryllis, as well as a lot from The Sound of Madness and a couple from older albums.

It was better than I could have expected, and I know now that expensive concert tickets are expensive for a very good reason, and they're worth every penny in the end.

To it's probably gotten old, how much I've said thank you. But THANK YOUUUU! So much! That was so totally awesome

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Sure, why not?

Honestly though, as much as I wanted the Devils to win, I was still sad to see the Rangers lose like that. To come so close to playing for the Stanley Cup and then to lose that chance after one bad scramble, you could see it on their faces that they were very upset. And rightfully so.

However, as tough as that all was to watch, the pure excitement from the Devils served to make up for that.

I especially appreciated how captain Zach Parise did kind of like what Zdeno Chara did last year with the Boston Bruins, in that he called the entire team over for a picture with the Prince of Wales Trophy, rather than going it solo and then rejoining the team. I love that kind of stuff so much.

Ironically, although LA is entering as the lower seed I'd be surprised if they don't get pegged as the favorites to take it all this year. They've only lost twice in these playoffs, after going up 3 games to none on all of the top three seeds.

Obviously, I'd love to see LA win just because of that amazing Cinderella-esque Western Conference pwnage. It's like the Miracle on Ice, where USA beating USSR only got them into a position to play for the gold, not the gold itself, where had they not won that game, that historical event would be ever so slightly marred.

But of course, I have a spot in my hockey-fan-heart for the Devils, as they were one of the first teams I really started to watch since I started following the NHL coming out of the 2010 Winter Olympics, where my favorite player on USA's team had been Parise. And, they'll technically be the underdogs here, and who doesn't love to root for the underdog?

In a way, it's both a great and terrible situation. I'll be very happy to see either team win, but also sad. They both deserve it, so even knowing that one team won't win is a little sad even now.

I mean, at least watching the Bruins play for the Cup last year, there was that clear "I-only-want-Boston-to-win-and-Vancouver-doesn't-even-deserve-the-cup" distinction, so seeing Ryan Kesler in tears after the loss was sad, but not so much so to watch.

But anyways, I'm very excited for this year's finals, as neither team was really considered a "top dog" going in, so for either team to win it would be huge for their respective clubs.

I kind of wish they could just pull a King Solomon and cut the thing in half, y'know? Or just utilize the "sharing is caring" technique.