Alright, I'm finally posting my experience! Lmao
We got on the train at 4:30 pm and arrived in Chicago about 6:15pm. We stopped at got Burger King in the train station because we were starving and then we went and walked to our hotel. Which oh man, I practically died walking there. I had heels on and my bag felt like 100 pounds. We had to take a break halfway there and it was only a 10 minute walk, lol.
We got to the hotel and we sorted out what we were bringing with us. I brought my bookplate and Synthesis CD. And she brought her Fallen and TOD CD's. Made sure I had the tickets and what not then we took off to the theatre. It was about a 5 min walk. We were halfway down the block from the theatre and I noticed the crowd of people waiting to get into see Ev. IT WAS NUTS! SO MANY PEOPLE! Even for it being a week day. I didn't expect so many people. When I went to see Megadeth, it was a weekday and only a couple hundred people were there, nothing too extreme. The Chicago Theatre holds about 3,000 people. It was almost closed to being sold out from the looks of it. Not very many open seats left in there.
Anyways, we got close to the theatre so of course I snapped this pic:
Then we got in line to get in. Security metal detected us and then we were let in. The lobby was PACKED! We went to the merch booth. We got in line and oh boy, it was LONG. It wrapped around a few times. We got into the theatre about about 7:30 and we got to our seats at like 8:05. So we were in line for awhile. I got the 2 shirts I wanted and then we were seated. We were on the oppposite of the stage than what I thought we were suppose to be. From what I thought from the seating chart we were at the piano side of the stage. But we weren't. We were pretty much close to the center. We were 4 rows back but it was still super close.
After we were seated about a couple minutes later the orchestra started playing. It was amazing. And I think Amy picked out some excellent songs for them to play. After they were done it was a 30 minute intermission. I went to use the bathroom then so I didn't have to get up during Ev at all. It was still a mad house in the lobby. Got back and then waited for Ev.
The background music stopped (which I think Amy made the playlist for. There was Bjork and Portishead playing) and the lights changed. The band walked out on stage and my anxiety really went up and I started to get an adrenaline rush, I tried hard not to cry. And then Amy came out on stage and I lost it. I was bawling. The first thing I thought was, "She is 10x prettier in person". No joke either, I honestly couldn't believe it. Amy is so gorgeous.
Then they started off. The whole thing felt like a dream. It was so hard to focus, I just couldn't believe I was actually there. And the music was so AMAZING. So much better than any of the live recordings. You really have to be there in person to get the full experience, to hear every detail. Amy sings so effortlessly!! No straining, no nothing. It was perfect. It just flows right out of her. I was seriously blown away. It was truly like listening to the album/a studio recording. Like, wow. I was so impressed. I still am. And the music had so much bass like at an actual rock concert. For some reason, I wasn't expecting that at all. You could feel it in your chest like at any ole rock concert. It was awesome. It was hard not to focus on just one thing. So much was going on on stage, you had to look everywhere. It was super hard not to watch Amy the whole entire time. I was blinded by stage lights a few times, lol.
Anyways, they finished and it was time for the encore. I was going to get a picture of them all bowing but the band just walked off which I thought was weird. I should have realized they were doing something different now that I look back on it. At this part before Good Enough Amy pretty much said she wasn't going to give the usual speech here because she didn't want it to lose it's meaning. She said, "I don't want to keep giving this speech because then it will end up losing it's meaning. And I mean every word of it. If I keep doing it, I'll end up hating myself. And that's what it's pretty much about anyways, not hating yourself. So stop hating yourself!" That's not word for word but that's pretty much what she said. Then she commenced with Good Enough. After that the band came back on stage.
Amy said she wanted to try something new for us and to get our opinion to see if we like it. That may not be word for word because at this point I was so excited it's like a blur. The song started. I whipped my head to look at my best friend and was like, "IS THIS A NEW SONG!?!?!?!!?" Then these specific notes played and I was like, "Nope, it's Weight of the World!" And it was fucking amazing and I rocked out. My jaw dropped when Troy got up and started doing that solo. I was going to take a picture of him but then Amy started that insane high note and I lost it. I didn't know who to look at. It was so Nine Inch Nails sounding to me. I can def hear some inspiration from them in there. None of the videos do it justice at all. We really need a studio recording.
Here a few pics I took. I didn't get many because she was so white washed in my camera.
Weight of the World ended and they bowed. After that we excited the theatre room and went to the lobby. My best friend went to the bathroom and I went and picked our VIP merch.
We didn't get our exclusive coasters because the theatre didn't get them yet. I think they're coming in the mail. While I was out in the lobby, I met a wonderful Ev fan I know from Twitter. Her name is Annie and she came all the way from Germany to see Ev. After that we went out to the side of the building to wait for the band. And Jen was already out there signing and taking pictures. She's so nice!! I got a picture with her (I look like a potato but i'll share it here.)
She signed my Synthesis CD after that and she signed my best friends TOD CD. Richie was out there too with her. After a few mins she left. I wasn't even nervous to meet or talk to her surprisingly. Then a theatre worker came out and said the band had parked on the other side of the theatre and that they were leaving. So me and another fan named Julie I know from Twitter gave him our stuff to give to Jen to pass onto Amy. I didn't really think he would.
After that we decided to go onto the other side of the building to see if they were already gone and they weren't but the buses were out there. There were 2 different barricades set up so we got in line behind one and waited. We chatted with some other fans who were awesome and kind. I guess we were waiting for about 40 mins or so and then Amy came out. She got on the bus and they had us move behind the other barricade to form one big line. After Amy came back out with Richie and signed things. He scares me, lol. He was yelling at people and rushing Amy. The barricade they had was short so where it ended he said Amy wasn't signing anything else. So if you wanted something signed you better try to get behind it. And if the barricade moved at all she was getting back on the bus. When she got down to us, it got nuts. People were crowding. I had to shove my hand through a crowd of people for her to sign my CD. And my best friend was stuck in the back against the building, so I ripped the CD from her hands and shoved my hand back through so she could get it signed by Amy, lmao. It was a mad house. The people before us were so lucky because they got hugs and pics with Amy. But I just happy to see her in person even with people in front of me. And I'm grateful that I had my CD signed.
After that she got on the bus but Jen was talking to other fans. Before she got in the bus I asked her if she was given a letter to pass onto Amy and she said yes and to check Instagram. She then apologized because she had to get on the bus and leave. We stayed for a minuted or 2 and then they started taking down the barricade so we started leaving. I'm guessing Tim, Will and Troy were already on the bus since we never saw them. But we did see Beth, Dave Eggar and Will "Science" Hunt get on and off the bus a few times before Amy came out. Dave said hi to everyone at one point.
When we got to the corner to cross the street once we were leaving, we stopped and I checked Insta stories and that's when I saw Amy showing the camera my 2 drawings. I lost it and started crying my eyes out and my friend held me and started crying too cause we were so happy. I'm so glad that theatre worker didn't lie. Also thank you to everyone who saved that instagram story for me!!
I'm glad to have that forever memory now. I hope she really liked my drawings and letter. I called my mom and boyfriend immediately after seeing it on insta stories. After that we went back to the hotel and slept. That was the best first Evanescence experience ever and I can't wait to see them whenever they come back. Sorry for such a long post, I'm bad at keeping things short.
I'm going to take a nap first, I'm so exhausted but it was all worth it. 
