Burn London, Burn

Last Sunday Burn played in London. An event that had cast a very long shadow. It was the first show Burn ever played in Europe and kids from all over Europe were travelling to London. I'm pretty sure there were more people from other countries than Brits at the show, which is kind of funny. I struck lucky because I had to go to London work related during that week anyway, so I had no extra travel expenses. No need to talk about how awesome Burn are. The first 7" is not only one of the best 7"s Rev have ever released, it is one of the best hardcore 7"s period. So (my) expectations were pretty high. And Burn didn't disappoint.
I must say I didn't care for the location the show took place at. Too big, stage too high, commercial venue, pretty much everything I dislike about a venue. The two bands that opened the show weren't really my cup of tea either. Then again, I hadn't really come for them, so my level of disappointment was pretty low. Burn played a great show, although they could have just played the songs off the first 7" because that's when the crowd went wild. During the other songs, the audience was much quieter. I'm pretty sure that at least 95% of all the pictures of the show posted on the internet were taken during those four songs. But anyway, it was a great set and I'd have been content if they'd only played Godhead. One of the songs I'd always wanted to hear live. I probably wouldn't have travelled to London just for the show, as many other people did, but I'm also glad I was able to attend the show.
About a week before the show the promoter posted on Instagram that there was going to be a surprise, which turned out to be a special pressing of the 7" on Rev. Surprisingly - well, maybe not that surprisingly since there are 300 copies, but still - the record didn't sell out before/during the show, so I was able to pick up a couple of more copies afterwards to help out two collector buddies.
Speaking of collectors, it was really fun meeting so many people I'd only known via messageboards and Instagram so far in real life and I had some nice conversations. Definitely a memorable show.

Close up of the stamp: place, date and the numbering. My copy is #252. 300 copies in total, three variants for the nerds. Apparently the numbering was done with two different pens, black and red. And there are also a couple of sleeves that didn't get numbered. All of this was deduced just hours after the show from pictures on Instagram. That's what you get when a whole bunch of nerds attend a show like this, haha.

This is what the record looks like when being held up against the light. Pretty sweet.