As metal fans, I'd say we're a pretty dedicated bunch. We'll travel a little further than we'd like in order to see a band that we love. However, I think one guy might have us beat right now- enter the 5,000 mile trek of one Brazilian fan to see Between The Buried and Me in Pennsylvania.
The story was originally posted on Reddit by the fan himself and it seems like he had a ball! More importantly, he got to meet the band and even hang out with them a bit. How fucking awesome is that? He traveled so, so far and essentially had the time of his life.
Hello, everyone! I recently found out about reddit and this glorious subreddit which feels like home to me, since BTBAM has been easily my favourite band for years. So I felt like sharing this little story that happened a couple of months ago with you (Sorry, this is going to be a long and boring post unfortunately).
I am a 19 year-old student from Brazil, and I knew it would take some time for BTBAM to come around here, so I decided to save some money to go see them somewhere in the United States. When they announced their latest tour with Atlas Moth, I had enough money to do this madness so I bought my plane tickets to New York, and booked a train to Lancaster, PA where it would be the last concert from that tour. I couldn't really have asked for a better choice, really. I was in New York the whole time, and would travel to Lancaster in the morning of the concert day, coming back the next day. When I got there, I decided to have lunch near the venue, and right as I was walking out of the restaurant, I saw Blake crossing the street right in front of me. I went to him and said "Hey, you look like BTBAM's drummer", and he replied with a smile "That's because it's me!". We talked a lot and walked together to the venue, and he was blown away by the fact that I came all the way up from Brazil just to see them. On our way there, we stumbled upon Dustie, who was also the kindness in person (All of them were, actually). We took a pretty nice selfie then, and parted our ways, since I didn't want to bother them too much. http://i.imgur.com/VJxL2uj.jpg
I was in the corner of the venue's street when I saw Paul and Dan coming from their lunch, greeted them as they passed by and once again had a very nice and friendly talk with them. All of them were very impressed and grateful that I came so far to see them, and they were also very humble as well. Took a selfie with Dan (my name is Dan as well, so we were joking about this 'Danception') – http://i.imgur.com/5eqalJI.jpg – and Dustie took a picture of me with Paul and his glorious pickles – http://i.imgur.com/KqCoz7t.jpg – I was already blown away that I met four of them, when Dustie came up with some gifts – that "Weak Souls, Weak Minds" T-Shirt and the "Night Owl" socks – and we talked about brazilian musicians, languages and many other things as if we were long lost friends.
The day was already the best one in my entire life, when they just blew me away in every possible way by delivering the best experience I've had and that I've been wanting for years – a BTBAM concert, at its finest. Being a fan of a band who never comes anywhere near 4000 miles where you live is hard, so this was pretty much a dream come true to me. It was about to get better – right before the last song, Paul takes a time to give shout outs, and the last one was actually for me. I couldn't believe when that happened – him telling the crowd about what I just did and Tommy coming up to me asking where I was from, it was just unreal. A guy who was in the front row with me recorded it and uploaded it! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeVpFEE7oxc&feature=youtu.be – around 2:13).
By the end of the concert, Paul gave me his pick and Blake one of his drumsticks. I was out in the street already when Tommy came to me and said "Hey, you're the guy from Brazil, right?", and kindly thanked me for what I've done and we had a quick talk because he had to take a plane in the morning. We also took a picture – http://i.imgur.com/U3vvkgF.jpg
And that's about it. A very long post, I know, I'm sorry for that. Just felt like sharing this with you since we're all really big fans of BTBAM and I had a dream come true thanks to their kindness, awesomeness, skill and pretty much everything else. Also, I'm already saving money for another trip like this. Maybe in two years or so?
Here's the video he references, which just makes the whole experience that much cooler.
Daniel, if you're reading this- right on! That is serious dedication!
