All Stars Aground

RE: tour variants etc
 
Went to the very first date of the Descensus Tour in Boston on November 5th.  The merch table didn't include any tour variants from Circa Survive (or any copies of the new record) but I did actually take some photos of the merch they're selling on tour (or least were selling on the first date of the tour) since I figured someone might like to know.
Shitty cell phone pics in the dark, but here's what they had: http://i.imgur.com/4T0z551.jpg
Shirts/clothing.  I do not believe the giant framed bear (?) artwork on the wall was part of the merchandise.
The merch table: http://i.imgur.com/Ba0uLAj.jpg
In front is a Circa Survive Desensus Tour poster, behind that is a CS logo decal, and behind that was a tip jar and some Circa Survive CDs.
I've got tickets to their two final shows of the tour in Philly at Union Transfer that I bought as a Christmas present to myself, so perhaps they'll be selling some unique merch there.  Just hoping I can actually make it ("He's got the motive but no transportation" ...sorry).  If I'm able to find a way to Philly that weekend I'll try to remind myself to post here after Show #1 if there were any tour variants or special merch or anything.
 
 
Would HIGHLY recommend going regardless.  Right now I'm waiting til midnight Pacific (3AM Eastern, here) for the possibility of the HT variant going online at that time and am bored so I'm going to segue into a story of that night/that show that will highlight how worthwhile it is to go...except I'm going to do so by recapping why being there was so shitty in nearly every respect (bear with me).  I was sick as hell, had just arrived in Boston an hour before the show after waiting around in airports/being on last-minute flights all day due to a cancelled flight back to Boston 14 hours beforehand, was planning on going to the show with a really old friend of mine who I never get to see anymore but I ended up going alone; she was at the show too but completely ditched me because she met someone else she knew and left early with him instead without telling me, leading me to wait outside by the entrance - our rendezvous spot in case we couldn't find each other - on the street after the show in freezing temps alone for over 2 hours, with me occasionally texting/calling to no response until finally at 1:50AM I got a message from her saying the friend wanted to leave early so she did and was now with him some 150 miles away.  I sent a pic of the closed venue entrance/totally empty street with the caption "Oh.  Well, I'm still here.." to which she replied with a thumbs up emoticon.
I kinda figured after the first 20 mins she wasn't gonna show so I did have a back-up plan/ulterior motive in waiting outside on the street in the freezing cold for over 2 hours, since the tour bus was right there idling that entire time and I was waiting for the band/Anthony to come out so I could say hi (met Anthony once before, seriously the nicest guy ever) and there were maybe 30 or so other fans waiting on the street for the first half hour after the show with the same hopes, then about a dozen people left at the 1 hour mark; I briefly talked to one guy who said that Anthony ALWAYS comes out after shows (dunno how true this is) and commented how it was weird that it had taken this long.  That guy and his friends left sometime in the next hour and by the 2 hour mark it was only me and two other girls further down the street who figured I was with the band since I'd been standing there alone the entire time after everyone else left, so they came up to me and asked if Anthony would be coming out.  I apologized and told them I wasn't with the band and was just waiting as well, which sucked to have to tell them because I could see they were really disappointed and they left right after, at which point it was only me.  20 minutes later I got the thumbs up text from my friend and was like 'k time to call it a night' and left.
Also, immediately after Circa left the stage and the house lights came on I asked the security guard behind the barrier if he could please hand me the setlist which was directly behind him on stage to which he replied "Fuck off."  I was the first one to ask for a setlist and a bunch of other people followed suit but just got totally ignored by security - I was the only one to get a "fuck off."  I figured someone on stage might hand them out so I stuck around against the barrier and after 5 minutes of standing there alone, silently waiting amongst maybe 20 other people - most yelling "setlist!  setlist!" at the various dudes cleaning up the stage after security refused to acknowledge them - I got a tap on the shoulder by the same security guard and was told "show's over, need to clean up the floor, you gotta go."  I get this, except literally no one else got tapped on the shoulder and was told to leave except for me...everyone else standing behind the barrier with me was still just chatting with their friends or yelling "setlist" and no one got asked to leave besides me which struck me as needlessly douchey, even for security.  I was about to respond but then the guy recognized someone who had crowd surfed earlier during the set and went over to yell at him instead, so with that security guard busy berating the fan I just hung around with the rest of the fans behind the barrier waiting for the slim possibility of a setlist.  About 2 mins later someone on stage picked up one of the three setlists (one was on the left of the stage, one center, one on the right) and threw it over to someone maybe 6 people to the left of me, and right after this another security guard finally turned around and picked up the setlist on the right side of the stage and handed it to a chick about 6 people to my right.  Then there was the center setlist that I was directly in front of and had asked for (using the word "please," no less) and the douche security guard sees his opportunity, stops berating the random crowd surfer, walks back over in front of me and peels off the final setlist and hands it to me - I thanked him and began to laugh because I figured he must have been playing around with the whole "fuck off" thing and singling me out to leave when I was just standing there silently, so as he's reaching out to hand it to me and looking at me he suddenly pulls a "PSYCH!" face and gives it to the girl standing directly beside me who hadn't even been there until about 30 seconds beforehand.  Dude then gives me a smug look and walks off.
 
Finally, I was in line at the merch table to buy that tour poster seen in my pic above - there were originally a stack of 'em; here's another merch table pic I took as I was two people behind in line as proof...and yes, that photo is of the guy 2 people ahead of me buying one of them, leaving one remaining (see the pic I took right afterward, back at the beginning of this post).  Then the one guy left ahead of me in line buys the poster and sure enough, the merch guy tells him it's his lucky day because that's the last one.  So then it's my turn in line and the merch guy, in a rush, asks me what I want and after standing in line all that time and seeing the tour posters taken away I was kind of flustered and said "uhhhh" and he said "come on, venue's closing" so I bought a decal and got out my credit card and the merch dude was packing things up and had his back to me and said something I couldn't understand but sounded like "no plastic...minimum plastic is 30" so I figured I'd buy a Circa Survive hoodie plus the decal, and even though I already own the exact same CS hoodie I figured I'd give it as a gift for my friend at our rendezvous spot on the street since it was so cold outside that night and her birthday was coming up, so I asked for the CS hoodie and the decal ($45 for the hoodie, $5 for the decal, $50.00 total) and tried handing him my credit card again but he said "told you, no credit, broken" or something like that so I went digging through my wallet for cash, found two twenties, a five and two ones...then had to dig out change from my pocket and try and count out exactly three dollars in dimes and shit as fast as possible while merch dude was in a rush and everyone behind me in line (who were being pressured out of the venue by security) all looked at me like "REALLY!?"  Good news is I actually did have 3 dollars in coins though so I got the hoodie and the decal.  Bad news of course being I never got to deliver the hoodie as a gift to my friend because she'd left much earlier (though I did not know this at the time and wouldn't know til nearly 2.5 hours later...and sadly we had a falling out because of that night so it didn't seem quite appropriate to ship it to her as a bday gift later).
 
The point in this whole rambling mess?  That all sucked but it was ALL MADE WORTH IT BY CIRCA SURVIVE'S PERFORMANCE.  Seriously.  Despite all the suckage immediately before and after, they put on such a fucking flawless (and LONG) set that I'll remember the passion and energy in that show and in that crowd and being a part of every second of it *long* after forgetting the other shit that happened that same night; it's still all pretty recent so I can recall it all now but in the end doesn't mean much when juxtaposed with such an overwhelmingly positive experience on the same night. I've seen them live before, first time being over 8 years ago, and this was the best set I've seen from them by a long shot.  They covered so much material, the energy from the band has never been higher, it was them at absolute top form.  Go.  You won't regret it.
 
TL;DR: Boredom + insomnia induced story about shitty night that I don't care was shitty in retrospect because of how good Circa's set was.  If you/anyone else has the chance to see them on this tour, absolutely take it.
 
P.S.
In the time it took to write out my Circa Survive show story midnight pacific/3AM eastern has come and gone (now 3:28AM Eastern) and still no sign of the vinyl anywhere on the Hot Topic site.  Maybe in the morning?

RE: tour variants etc
 
Went to the very first date of the Descensus Tour in Boston on November 5th.  The merch table didn't include any tour variants from Circa Survive (or any copies of the new record) but I did actually take some photos of the merch they're selling on tour (or least were selling on the first date of the tour) since I figured someone might like to know.
Shitty cell phone pics in the dark, but here's what they had: http://i.imgur.com/4T0z551.jpg
Shirts/clothing.  I do not believe the giant framed bear (?) artwork on the wall was part of the merchandise.
The merch table: http://i.imgur.com/Ba0uLAj.jpg
In front is a Circa Survive Desensus Tour poster, behind that is a CS logo decal, and behind that was a tip jar and some Circa Survive CDs.
I've got tickets to their two final shows of the tour in Philly at Union Transfer that I bought as a Christmas present to myself, so perhaps they'll be selling some unique merch there.  Just hoping I can actually make it ("He's got the motive but no transportation" ...sorry).  If I'm able to find a way to Philly that weekend I'll try to remind myself to post here after Show #1 if there were any tour variants or special merch or anything.
 
 
Would HIGHLY recommend going regardless.  Right now I'm waiting til midnight Pacific (3AM Eastern, here) for the possibility of the HT variant going online at that time and am bored so I'm going to segue into a story of that night/that show that will highlight how worthwhile it is to go...except I'm going to do so by recapping why being there was so shitty in nearly every respect (bear with me).  I was sick as hell, had just arrived in Boston an hour before the show after waiting around in airports/being on last-minute flights all day due to a cancelled flight back to Boston 14 hours beforehand, was planning on going to the show with a really old friend of mine who I never get to see anymore but I ended up going alone; she was at the show too but completely ditched me because she met someone else she knew and left early with him instead without telling me, leading me to wait outside by the entrance - our rendezvous spot in case we couldn't find each other - on the street after the show in freezing temps alone for over 2 hours, with me occasionally texting/calling to no response until finally at 1:50AM I got a message from her saying the friend wanted to leave early so she did and was now with him some 150 miles away.  I sent a pic of the closed venue entrance/totally empty street with the caption "Oh.  Well, I'm still here.." to which she replied with a thumbs up emoticon.
I kinda figured after the first 20 mins she wasn't gonna show so I did have a back-up plan/ulterior motive in waiting outside on the street in the freezing cold for over 2 hours, since the tour bus was right there idling that entire time and I was waiting for the band/Anthony to come out so I could say hi (met Anthony once before, seriously the nicest guy ever) and there were maybe 30 or so other fans waiting on the street for the first half hour after the show with the same hopes, then about a dozen people left at the 1 hour mark; I briefly talked to one guy who said that Anthony ALWAYS comes out after shows (dunno how true this is) and commented how it was weird that it had taken this long.  That guy and his friends left sometime in the next hour and by the 2 hour mark it was only me and two other girls further down the street who figured I was with the band since I'd been standing there alone the entire time after everyone else left, so they came up to me and asked if Anthony would be coming out.  I apologized and told them I wasn't with the band and was just waiting as well, which sucked to have to tell them because I could see they were really disappointed and they left right after, at which point it was only me.  20 minutes later I got the thumbs up text from my friend and was like 'k time to call it a night' and left.
Also, immediately after Circa left the stage and the house lights came on I asked the security guard behind the barrier if he could please hand me the setlist which was directly behind him on stage to which he replied "Fuck off."  I was the first one to ask for a setlist and a bunch of other people followed suit but just got totally ignored by security - I was the only one to get a "fuck off."  I figured someone on stage might hand them out so I stuck around against the barrier and after 5 minutes of standing there alone, silently waiting amongst maybe 20 other people - most yelling "setlist!  setlist!" at the various dudes cleaning up the stage after security refused to acknowledge them - I got a tap on the shoulder by the same security guard and was told "show's over, need to clean up the floor, you gotta go."  I get this, except literally no one else got tapped on the shoulder and was told to leave except for me...everyone else standing behind the barrier with me was still just chatting with their friends or yelling "setlist" and no one got asked to leave besides me which struck me as needlessly douchey, even for security.  I was about to respond but then the guy recognized someone who had crowd surfed earlier during the set and went over to yell at him instead, so with that security guard busy berating the fan I just hung around with the rest of the fans behind the barrier waiting for the slim possibility of a setlist.  About 2 mins later someone on stage picked up one of the three setlists (one was on the left of the stage, one center, one on the right) and threw it over to someone maybe 6 people to the left of me, and right after this another security guard finally turned around and picked up the setlist on the right side of the stage and handed it to a chick about 6 people to my right.  Then there was the center setlist that I was directly in front of and had asked for (using the word "please," no less) and the douche security guard sees his opportunity, stops berating the random crowd surfer, walks back over in front of me and peels off the final setlist and hands it to me - I thanked him and began to laugh because I figured he must have been playing around with the whole "fuck off" thing and singling me out to leave when I was just standing there silently, so as he's reaching out to hand it to me and looking at me he suddenly pulls a "PSYCH!" face and gives it to the girl standing directly beside me who hadn't even been there until about 30 seconds beforehand.  Dude then gives me a smug look and walks off.
 
Finally, I was in line at the merch table to buy that tour poster seen in my pic above - there were originally a stack of 'em; here's another merch table pic I took as I was two people behind in line as proof...and yes, that photo is of the guy 2 people ahead of me buying one of them, leaving one remaining (see the pic I took right afterward, back at the beginning of this post).  Then the one guy left ahead of me in line buys the poster and sure enough, the merch guy tells him it's his lucky day because that's the last one.  So then it's my turn in line and the merch guy, in a rush, asks me what I want and after standing in line all that time and seeing the tour posters taken away I was kind of flustered and said "uhhhh" and he said "come on, venue's closing" so I bought a decal and got out my credit card and the merch dude was packing things up and had his back to me and said something I couldn't understand but sounded like "no plastic...minimum plastic is 30" so I figured I'd buy a Circa Survive hoodie plus the decal, and even though I already own the exact same CS hoodie I figured I'd give it as a gift for my friend at our rendezvous spot on the street since it was so cold outside that night and her birthday was coming up, so I asked for the CS hoodie and the decal ($45 for the hoodie, $5 for the decal, $50.00 total) and tried handing him my credit card again but he said "told you, no credit, broken" or something like that so I went digging through my wallet for cash, found two twenties, a five and two ones...then had to dig out change from my pocket and try and count out exactly three dollars in dimes and shit as fast as possible while merch dude was in a rush and everyone behind me in line (who were being pressured out of the venue by security) all looked at me like "REALLY!?"  Good news is I actually did have 3 dollars in coins though so I got the hoodie and the decal.  Bad news of course being I never got to deliver the hoodie as a gift to my friend because she'd left much earlier (though I did not know this at the time and wouldn't know til nearly 2.5 hours later...and sadly we had a falling out because of that night so it didn't seem quite appropriate to ship it to her as a bday gift later).
 
The point in this whole rambling mess?  That all sucked but it was ALL MADE WORTH IT BY CIRCA SURVIVE'S PERFORMANCE.  Seriously.  Despite all the suckage immediately before and after, they put on such a fucking flawless (and LONG) set that I'll remember the passion and energy in that show and in that crowd and being a part of every second of it *long* after forgetting the other shit that happened that same night; it's still all pretty recent so I can recall it all now but in the end doesn't mean much when juxtaposed with such an overwhelmingly positive experience on the same night. I've seen them live before, first time being over 8 years ago, and this was the best set I've seen from them by a long shot.  They covered so much material, the energy from the band has never been higher, it was them at absolute top form.  Go.  You won't regret it.
 
TL;DR: Boredom + insomnia induced story about shitty night that I don't care was shitty in retrospect because of how good Circa's set was.  If you/anyone else has the chance to see them on this tour, absolutely take it.
 
P.S.
In the time it took to write out my Circa Survive show story midnight pacific/3AM eastern has come and gone (now 3:28AM Eastern) and still no sign of the vinyl anywhere on the Hot Topic site.  Maybe in the morning?

According to this source the "expected online release date" for the Hot Topic variant is November 24th, 2014...AKA today, if you're on the East Coast, though it's only been the 24th for under a half hour so far.
 
 
There's a link to "Buy Now" which just redirects to the Hot Topic vinyl merch section, which (as of 12:29AM Eastern) does not have it available.  Tried searching Circa Survive on the site as well and only got 1 result, for a t-shirt.  So I'm guessing/hoping later today?  Not sure how fast this will go; hoping I don't miss out on it like I did on the test press/lyrics/signed drum head when those went live.