Winter Jam (And no. It's not Jelly made of a Christmas Tree)

So a couple of nights ago I went to Winter Jam. I'm not going to talk about the bands, because I only liked about 3. I'm going to tell you about y actually winter Jam Experience.
The doors open at 4:45. Due to the fact that we were at McDonalds at this time, we weren't exactly first in line. At about 5:00 we were still(all 20 of us in a 17 passenger van. Very warm. No need for the heaters...) on our way. When we finally got there at about 5:15 and waited in a huge line huddled together for about 15 minutes. The bands started playing while we were still in line, so we missed about 20 minutes, which really annoyed me actually. Why can't they wait until the doors have been open at least an hour?
     After we got inside, we found 2 other people who had been there since noon, but instead of going to find seats they waited for us.
      ????????????
      I don't understand that at all. Due to the fact that everything was un-organized, we ended up splitting into 3 groups(and not even on purpose. The crowds there are insane). After walking around in a circle for about 20 minutes and finding no 2 seats together, we finally reverted to doing something "illegal(which, we found out later, the other groups did too. 8 of them climbed up on this table and just sat there until they got yelled at. But, hey, it's a random table. of course people are going to sit on it). There were some seats taped off as restricted. No one was sitting there. So we just took them.
      They were seats behind the stage. And I know that might sound kind of sucky, but we were really close to the bands and we got to watch them walk on and off stage. Plus you know that time at a concert when a slower song is playing and it's all black and people get out there phone? It was sooooo beautiful I wish I had a picture. Behind the stage is the best place for a view like that.
       It's funny to think that when our parents were kids/teenager/young adults, you would take out a lighter at the concert. I have no idea what that looked like, but I don't think it could have ever been as pretty as cell phones. As my friend Chelsea said, it's like being at a concert in space.
        Anyway..... After the pretty cell-phone display, we noticed that a lot of people were doing the same thing as we did(going into restricted seating). The good thing about this, it made us feel less-guilty. The bad thing, it got us noticed. Some old guy(and I'm really only calling him that because I'm still bitter that he made us move) came and told us we had to leave. And we did.
        60 seconds later, another group had moved into those seats.
        So then we walked around some more, and found another restricted area. But we ended up not staying, and on my way out the yellow tape wrapped around my leg, "catching me in the act".
        We ended up at the very top of the arena. At the very top not even sitting on chairs, but leaning against the wall. I went with a few other people and we went down to the ground floor and just sat there for a while. Then we went all the way back up to the top(fighting our way through the crowds. again.)only to sit there for one performance(Sanctus Real) and then go back down to the ground floor to watch "Skillet".
         And omigosh am I glad we did. Up til then I hadn't REALLY liked any of the bands. But Skillet always put on the best performances.
        It started a violin and cello player in these white robes. There were these spooky, distorted shadows behind them and they moved all jerky playing their instruments. It's was really cool. Then in the 1st songs, there were these blasts of fire behind them. We could feel it all the way to the back of the room, I don;t know how they could be 3 feet from it.

And no, I did not pick this picture of her just because she's
doing the "L" backwards. I think it's cute!

        I never really get that excited about music. I mean, I like it, I dance to it, I know the words.... But there is something about going to a concert and it being so loud and the people right there....it just makes it that much more amazing and you can't help screaming, you can't help not caring that your ears can't hear anything less than a ringing noise for hours.
        After Skillet was done(and I didn't even begin to tell you how cool their whole concert was)we met out in the parking lot and I had to hear my friend go on and on and on about Jen Ledger. And I agree, she is very pretty. But can I go on and on and on about how amazing that dude form Thor looks without getting a glare? No, I can't.