We saw Ado live in Milan!
So, guys, we did it. After missing the tour last year, because I was in the recovering from an operation, my mate Lukas managed to nab us some tickets for Ado's Hibana tour. We were thinking about what tour stop we want to go to, since there were no stops in Austria (sadly), but ended up going with Milan, because Lukas and I could get there via train.
So after nearly forgetting about when it was after a couple of months of life going on, it was time, I quickly booked the train tickets and accomodation while on the bus two weeks before the concert. And after getting quite hammered with some colleagues the Friday before our trip, being hung over on Saturday and relaxing at the Wörthersee on Sunday, I quickly did some last minute preparations on Monday. That evening Lukas dropped by to stay a night on my couch, since we had a train to catch at 10 AM the next day. Extremely last minute packing aside, the journey down there was very smooth, apart from some delays which didn't end up being an issue.
After we arrived, we met up with James and made our way to the accomodation we booked for the stay. It was a really nice apartment I found on Booking, which was pretty decently priced. So after settling down a little bit, we decided to head to a restaurant across the street from our place and honestly that really hit the spot. Since we wanted to do quite a bit on Wednesday (the day of the concert), we chilled in the apartment after dinner for a little bit and then hit the hay.
Wednesday arrived and we went out to a nifty little bakery, which had some very good cold-brew coffee (always a great start to a day off). Post-breakfast, we went into the city for a bit to just roam around and vibe. Lukas and I spotted a shop that sold manga on the evening of our arrival, so we went in there for a bit so I could pick up something to read. Given the fact that my ability to read in Italian hasn't been in active use for more than half a decade, it's a bit rusty. Therefore, I thought it might not hurt to pick up something to read in Italian. We then went on to grab some bubble tea cause it was very warm, during which, we also deliberated our plans for the rest of the day. Since it was a slight bit too hot and we were a bit strapped for time, since we needed to make our way to the venue still, we decided against the default tourist-y things and just went around appreciating some good architecture before we headed back to the apartment to relax for bit.
And then it was already time to head out to the Unipol Forum! We certainly knew that we were heading the right direction, when we suddenly ended up at a metro station and waited for our train next to Hatsune Miku (at least, someone cosplaying her, I assume lol). 15 minutes on a metro train later, we were there and... oh my god, there were so many people. After having a quick smoke break, we decided to join the queue to get into the venue. It proceeded surprisingly quickly and before we knew it, we were through ticket control and a bag check. We had finally made it.
Seeing as I didn't want to be crushed under a mound of human beings for trying to get merch after the show, Lukas and I queued up before the concert to get some, while James was getting some water. I was in the queue the longest sadly and oh my god, I nearly passed out at one point due to the sheer temperature of being squished between dozens of people and the sensory overload from all sides. If you've ever seen how bees huddle together to kill wasps, you can imagine how it was in the merch queue.
I got myself a travel tag, a t-shirt and a poster. Once again, I am tasking myself with framing a poster even though I still haven't gotten around to finding a frame that fits the poster from the Trash Taste live show we were at nearly two years ago lol. After that close call with the grim reaper, we headed to our seats and got ready to enjoy some amazing music.
Inside the venue, any form of video recording and photography were strictly prohibited, and since I didn't want to risk getting kicked out from a concert I've been waiting to go to for this long, I wasn't taking the risk. So sadly, no photos.
The concert itself was absolutely insane. Apart from singing along very badly, but very energetically and with tons of enthusiasm, it was also a nice little opportunity to test out my listening comprehension when it comes to Japanese. It's far from good, but everyone's gotta start somewhere, right? I was honestly already quite happy with being able to understand the vague outline of what Ado was saying. うっせぇわ as the opening track certainly set the energy level already, but as soon as エルフ came on I was balling my eyes out. Another favourite track of mine is Mirror, so I was very happy to hear that live. Honestly I could just go on for quite a while about each track individually and the short segments of Ado talking to the audience, but since this post is already longer than I thought it would be, I'm gonna stop myself lol.
The next day was already the end of our short Milan trip sadly, but that's a different story for another time. Gonna meet up with some friends today, since I'm in the UK at the moment. Anyways, that's a quick recap of what I've been up to this week. I suck at travel blog posts, no idea how people do this lmao.
See ya ^^