To Hell and Back

Of all the bands of my youth, the one I regret not seeing live was Helloween. By the time I was going to concerts, Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske had already left the band and although I liked and listened to some of their new material, the classics live without Kai and Michael just wouldn't have been the same. Knowing they all reunited and were playing huge festivals in Europe, I was eagerly awaiting a North American tour. The 40th Anniversary tour was it and they were coming to my state! The only problem ... I was going to be in Sint Maarten during their local show!

Luckily, Canada is "close", so the Toronto show it was!

I only bought 2 tickets as it was a 19+ show so my kids wouldn't be going and I figured I'd find someone to go with me. My brother was interested, but ultimately couldn't swing it. So I booked a hotel for the night of the show only to realize the date booked was for the day of the show; so when the show ended at 11pm, I would have no place to stay. On top of this, flights were becoming ridiculous - $500+ for round trip from Boston. That settled it - I was going to drive, and that meant starting to drive home after the show at 11pm.

I headed up on Saturday, April 18 midday and arrived at the hotel in downtown Toronto around 9pm. An absurd $40 overnight parking charge later and I was heading to my room to sleep. The next morning I got in my run followed by breakfast I brought in my room since breakfast was not included with the hotel and that was another $30 charge - skip it.

I went to the venue area to park for the day and walk around until show start. I had a great lunch at Liberty Village Market & Cafe and walked down by the water until the line started forming outside the venue.

Heavy Metal is the Law

Keeper of the Seven Keys (encore)

The show was great and well worth the costs, journey, mishaps and the 9-hour all-night drive home!