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09.19 ★ A "Funny" Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum Symphony

Alright, let's look at the timeline.

★ 2021.06.23: There's a Sonic Symphony livestream for his 30th anniversary. Honestly, it had me in tears. Sonic is my forever girl and I love him so much!!! It was fun watching with other people over Discord and going "Oh, please play XX!" and then hearing it played live.

Right after the stream, the Sonic Symphony tour was announced and I... tried to ignore it, because after 2020 I became terrified of crowds, and it took me a long time to rehabilitate myself lol. I'm still not sure I'm 100% to be honest, but.

★ Fast forward to 2024, where my birthday gift from the homie was a ticket to the show. I was still nervous but I found a seat with ample surrounding space up in the balcony lol.

View from the balcony at Sonic Symphony NYC at United Palace

Audience at Sonic Symphony NYC raising their phone lights to 'Reach for the Stars
I'm gonna reach for the stars, although they look pretty far...

I didn't take many pictures because I was busy vibing, but WOW it was so much fun!!

To the people who want the concert to come to their neck of the woods, I feel you 100%. The US does get a lot, but there's also a lot we don't get. And the things we do get, sometimes they're awesome and sometimes they're not. (This is where I could go into a long spiel about conventions here, but I won't). Personally, I wish it was easier for me to make my way over to CALIFORNIA.

Because what I wouldn't give to see Open Your Heart played live! By JUN SENOUE no less?? I'm SICK.

[deep breath] Alas, we try to take opportunities as they come. And along that vein...

★ There was the upcoming Boston show. I can't say it's watching the same concert twice, because:

Various posts from Shota Nakama's Xitter about his progress in composing new music for the show

Look at all that new music incoming!! How could I say no when Chef Shota is cooking THIS much? And that's not all, because the special guest...

Tomoya Ohtani, Sonic series sound director and GOAT

大谷にゃーん！！！ ♡♡♡

So it was somewhat last minute, but I decided to take a bus over to Boston for Symphony experience #2.

Packed up my stuff, set out for adventure

I was actually going to phone a friend and ask to hang out before the show, get some bubble tea and chat it up. But my GUT said no, and while I was confused I... don't disobey those orders. So after doing my trip prep I dozed off and had this weird dream that I wasted too much time standing around, to the point that I was running late for my trip. Huh. Taking that as a warning shot, I made sure to be as timely as possible in getting to the bus depot, factoring that weekends are full of delays due to construction.

The ride to Boston is usually about 4 hours but this one trip was 5 hours instead of 4... so I assumed it must be because of weekend morning/afternoon traffic. Whatever the reason, it didn't matter.

Because it arrived late anyway!

On top of that... pretty much all of the amenities were absent. No wifi. No one tried the movies, but if the wifi didn't work, I doubt those did either. The guy sitting next to me started fanning himself mid-ride and I was going to tell him to turn on the air above us... until I reached up and plugged my USB cord in and realized:

1. Most of the USB ports on the bus didn't work.
2. The air had been on the whole time. I could have blown on his face through my KN95 mask and made more air pressure than that.

On the bright side... we all arrived safely. Just late.

Next order of business, food. I figured, since I would probably get back home at around 4am in the morning if not later, I should eat something filling while I can. So I walked over to Boston Chinatown...

Entrance arch to Boston Chinatown

...and settled on a spicy chicken rice bowl. Carbs + spicy = comfortably filling!

(Not at all) Spicy chicken rice bowl covered in super sweet sauce

It was full of dried chilis, but... it was not at all spicy. In fact, it was sickeningly sweet, and hard for me to finish. Don't get me wrong, I can easily think of a dozen people who would tear through this. It's just not at all what I wanted. And yeah, it could be worse... it could be the Middle School Boston Trip Pizza Incident all over again, but that's a story for another time.

Sigh. Moving on, back to the station to get the train to Symphony Hall.

I took notes beforehand: two stops on the Red line, five stops on Green. Red line was easy enough. Green... it took me a few minutes to find the right track, and then I stepped onto the crowded train and waited...

and waited...

and waited.

BECAUSE THERE WAS AN ACCIDENT THAT DELAYED EVERYTHING.

IT'S JUST LIKE BEING BACK IN NYC! Σ(;･益･;;;)!!!

Except I have no idea how to come up with a backup plan because I don't know this place at all! People were exodus'ing off the train, presumably to grab Ubers... which means the fare will be high and quite frankly I don't think I even have the app on my phone anymore. Jesus.

So I waited until we finally got moving. Did I mention the aircon wasn't working so I was sweating the whole time?

FINALLY... I reached Symphony Hall. I thought I'd be able to kill time in the area, but I just got right on line instead. So that's what that "don't call your friend" gut feeling was. I felt guilty for not telling him I was coming, but I'd feel even more so if I had wasted his time. Moving on, and in...

A view of the inside of Symphony Hall, adorned with statues

Sonic Symphony Boston countdown screen

It's quite pretty inside! United Palace is pretty too but the seat spacing needs work. When I sat down my knees were against the chair in front of me and I'm 5'6"! Symphony Hall wins for leg room LOL.

Thankful for this post because... a good 4-5 people came to sit in my row in the middle of this song. (Ｔ▽Ｔ )

Photo taken by me of the rock concert portion of the show

I saw a few people on Twitter complaining about people singing and screaming at the show and I... am so lost as to what y'all expected LMAO. Not to mention most of the Symphony crew is from Boston! You're supposed to go up for the Hometown Heroes!! That's just facts!

Post-show photo of the performers and the crowd

Thank you once again for an unforgettable show!!! I can see my arm in the crowd, LOL.

My bizarre adventure wasn't over yet though. I was hoping to get autographs from the whole crew, but I also, y'know, didn't want to miss my bus ride home. After everything that happened my confidence was shaky at best about timely transportation, but like... when am I gonna get another chance to do this? The show ended after 9 and I had to catch the trains back to the bus which leaves at 11... I waited in line like

gif of Tsukino Usagi biting her nails

You know when the goal line is so close, yet so far away...? I kept checking the time on my phone and pulling up schedules like, am I gonna make it? What if I don't? What Would Sonic Do?

In the end, most of the performing crew left, but I got 3, and a lovely person gave out free keychains!

Still in disbelief. I got to give fist bumps to Ohtani-nyan and Nakama-nyan!!! Good, Great, Awesome, Outstanding, AMAZING!
Then I went tearing into the night because I didn't want to be stranded and pay $55 extra to reschedule my trip. orz

Meme drawing of 'gotta go fast' Sonic

Happy to say I made it just in time for boarding, and the ride home was WAY smoother. The air and USB chargers were working, so I got to watch live sumo on the ride home. The girl sitting next to me was sleeping super comfortably because she curled up on the seat and had her butt pressed up against me for half the ride, though. Sigh. （ー△ー；）

Sonic Frontiers poster with autographs from Tomoya Ohtani, Shota Nakama and Jose Delgado (orchestra conductor)

Sonic Symphony team: Thank you, for everything!
Boston... we need to have a little talk, another day. lol