Hoobastank at Koko, Camden, London 07.05.2015

I am so blessed! I set a goal that I wanted to see my four favourite bands of all time, The Rasmus, Placebo, Linkin Park, and Hoobastank. On Thursday I completed that goal when I went to see the last band I needed to tick off my list.

And Hoobastank were EPIC.

But let me tell you about a random occurrence that happened before the show! We’d just got off the train and were wandering into Camden when we bumped into, of all people, Doug Robb! It was pretty surreal! Doug Robb is one of my all time favourite rock stars, so you can imagine I was pretty psyched. He was super cool and stood and chatted with us and kindly posed for photos.

Amanda Winchester and Doug Robb

So as if seeing Hoobastank wasn’t awesome enough, I got to meet their lead singer!

At this show, they were preceded by P.O.D. and Alien Ant Farm. These guys were good, and all, but we were there to see Hoobastank, man! You gotta understand, I’ve been a fan of theirs for 10 years, so yeah, this was a majorly big deal for me.

After what seemed like an endless wait, Hoobastank kicked off with Crawling in the Dark. We were right at the front! They just had so much energy and enthusiasm, and everybody went completely nuts when Doug Robb got the crowd to sing along to My Turn, and jump around for Pieces! It was crazy, awesome, adrenaline pumping rock!

Doug Robb is such a charismatic showman, and he clearly loves engaging with the audience and getting everyone pumped!

They ended with The Reason, and you know what? That song is even more awesome live than it is on the record, it was just beautiful and the energy in the hall was overwhelming.

After the show (which felt like it lasted about five minutes) Dan stuck around to talk to the fans and take pictures. I can’t believe we were standing around and talking to Dan Estrin!

We waited by the backstage exit and met the whole band, one by one, and I got my CD cover signed by everyone, and we chatted to Chris, Jesse, Dan and Doug! The whole thing was so surreal! They were all such nice guys, and I really didn’t expect to be able to meet them and get photos, let alone have get my CD cover signed by the whole band!

All in all it was one of the best days of my whole life bar none, and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world! I can’t wait for the next time they’re on tour so I can see them again!

Rock on!

Amanda