Fest 9

okay, lauren, annie, augusta, mike schwartz and myself left for fest thursday morning. got there pretty quickly. Only stopped for gas and like at a waffle house and JR's and south of the border. i drove all of south caroline and georgia and then slept through florida and woke up in Gainesville at 3 am. we got a room, the girls went to sleep and me and mike drank in the parking lot. ran into capt in the lot and some other kids. eventually went to bed and woke up a few hours later. renued the room and went and go bagels at a bad bagel place. that was the begining of just non stop run ins with people i know from all over the country. such a great weekend (i'll probably end up saying that a bunch in this entry). then we went to registration, waited in line, got our passes, got a bunch of koozies, got some vinyl, swam in the holiday in pool, watched the No BS Brass Band and Larry and His Flask and just got to hang with a ton of great people.

so i basically tweeted everything i was doing so i would remember it, or be able to read it all when it was all said and done. cause even at the pool party at like 2pm, i was pretty trashed. also, best party of fest 9 was maybe getting to hang out with Jeff Riddle a fucking ton too, and JR as Russel Tate. okay, the first band i saw was Stolen Parts at Jeffs Deli, then Carpenter played and were fucking awesome, and everyone was really into it and it ruled very hard. After that was done me and Lauren sprinted to spin cycle to see Big Soda, who were really good but the crowd was weird and people were pushing to much and hurting girls and two dudes got kicked out. Then went to common grounds to see Static Radio, who played in drag. Did a bunch of stage dives and only saw half there set again. Left early with Lauren and Nick R. to go see Bars Of Gold at 1982, who were fucking amazing, and people were losing there shit over them, it was like a religious experience. After that me and Lauren met up with Great Explainer dudes and Carpenter dudes at 8 Seconds to see Kylesa who were also awesome, but that place was huge. After that me and Lauren Jeff and Tony went to the civic center to see Mikey Erg acoustic, we tried to convince Pat O to come but he didnt and ended up getting kicked out of fest instead. But Mikey Erg was great. Did a TON of Ergs! covers and even did a Pysched To Die cover. People were circle pitting to an acoustic show, it was nuts. After that we went to Rum Runners and saw some of Heavy Petty with JR, which was pretty lame, and then ended up going back to 8 Seconds to see High On Fire, who fucking ruled. After that we all ended up walking back to the hotel (which sucked!), but somehow we all got split up, and i ended up walking back with JR Greg K and Dayna from Carpenter. the last two were both very drunk and stumbling into traffic, which made the two mile walk very unfun, and that plus coming home to a bunch of people in my hotel room was not fun. but eventually i said fuck it and just drank and hung out at the hotel all night.

went to bed incredibly late. the next day we got pizza at leonardos and then couldn't get into common grounds to see Iron Chic so we went to 1982 to see Big Eyes who were sort of a let down. After that we went to 8 Seconds to hang out, Paul Baribeau was playing, didn't care too much except Mike Erg sang 'Only Babies Cry' with him. After him me and Lauren watched Good Luck over Algernon Cadwalader cause she had never seen GL before. they were really really tight and people were going nuts during there set, but they didnt play the cover. After that we went to the Venue and saw Banner Pilot. then came back to 8 Seconds, saw like one song of Defiance Ohio, then saw The Measure [sa], who didnt have a huge turnout but those who were there were psyched. After that me and Lauren went back over to the Venue and saw Teenage Bottlerocket, who were very good and very tight. Then Lauren rushed me over to 1982 to see The Max Levine Ensemble, who were really good, I'm just not all that into there new material, oh well. After them we stuck around and watched Captain, Were Sinking. People were going nuts during there set. I had no idea Capt were so big. They also covered 'Going To Georgia'. After that me and Lauren went over to the civic media center to Theo Grizol, thinking we were going to see acoustic Nana Grizol songs, but it ended up being acoustic Defiance Ohio songs. That sucked very hard so we left and went to the Venue to catch the second half of Paint It Black, and it was definitely worth it. Kissed Josh on stage mid break down and I leap frogged Dan Yemin. Afterwards Lauren called Josh out on cutting the line for pizza at 5 Star. After that the drunken quest for house shows began. We ended up at one where Glocca Morra was suppose to play but the cops came and it was shut down. Then me Danielle Jordyn and Pete went to another house to end up seeing Comadre and Punch play a split set in a tiny tiny living room. Punch did all covers including Minor Threat, Infest, Kid Dynamite and others. After that we left right before the cops came and went to the Holiday Inn for the lobby shows. Dan and Jordyn fucked me over and didnt get me in so I kicked in an emergency exit door and then took a dump in the out of order womans room before Bobby gave some british kid a picture of Young Jok at prom and drew a cow on the back and wrote "you moooooooove me" on the back as Capt merch. didnt see anyone play the lobby show, except some random dude did a hot water music cover and an alk3 cover. Apparently i had JUST missed Broadway Calls and Fake Problems, huge bummer. then we took a cab back to the hotel, drank a bunch of whiskey, walked to a Days Inn and saw a few acoustic songs from Attica! Attica! and PJ Bond, then we brought the show out into the parking lot and AA and PJ played some more and Jeff Riddle and SteveO played some songs too. Then we went to Steak and Shake where JR successfully got everyone in the restauraunt to chant "I SUCK MY DADS DICK". That was a pretty appropriate ending to that night. Hit the hay around 8 am. We were all woken up by room service at 10 being told if we were out by 11 we would be charged another night. So we woke up, packed up out shit and drove into town. Didnt go to the No Idea records bbq AGAIN cause the line was way to long. Took a few hours to catch up on life that morning. Got pizza and went to Tonys hotel room at the Holiday Inn and showered and napped then hit the town. Went straight to the Venue to see Fake Problems who played all of there earliest material (and only stuff i like) for the first time in awhile and for the last time ever, including songs that never made it to official releases. They also covered 'Wild Wild West' which was awesome. Wasn't planning on drinking that day but The Menzingers got me a backstage pass that included unlimited free beer, so obviously i drank, a lot. after Fake Problems i hung out at the Menzos merch table and sold some shit, then watched The Copyrights, who were fucking awesome. They played my favorite song, Planet Earth Nineteen Ninety Four, and i sorta lost my shit for a hot second. After that I watched Lemuria from the side stage. Recieved ALOT of half joking angry texts from friends in the crowd who saw me side stage and were mad at me. Whatever, totaly worth it in the end. After Lemuria The Menzingers played and it was absolutely nuts. They hit the first note of 'I Was Born' and the crowd errupted and it looked like KoRn at woodstock. I was actually a little afraid to stage dive at first, which sucked cause when I did stagedive I lost my shoe. I watched the rest of the set from sidestage, but during the last song SteveO jumped off a stack and then everyone went nuts, i jumped again, then they brought like the entire crowd onto the stage. It was crazy. After them we all left and went accross the street and saw Glocca Morra at sping cycle, but I ended up only watching one song then going outside at talking to Mark Bronz and Kate fom Cheeky about shows and making fun on the Ergs!. After that i rushed back over to the Venue to see Bomb The Music Industry! who were absolutely nuts. at one point they covered 'Why Bother' by Weezer and Mikey Erg sang, and then they played 'I Don't Love You Anymore' and Franz Nicolay played piano for it. It was absolutely nuts. After that I found Lauren and brought her back stage where some dude from Canada talked to me about how much pull in the drug world he has in Canada and then offered me blow. Then me and Lauren watched Municipal Waste from side stage and it was crazy. They threw everything on stage into the audience. After that we walked to the Holiday Inn, met up with Nick and PatO and took a cab back to the hotel. Lauren and I got a room by ourselves and went to bed without any more partying. Woke up at like 9 and started driving home. Traded Annie for Leo from Capt and made pretty great time getting home which ruled except for the cold weather. And well, that was fest 9. An absolutely amazing weekend and I can not fucking wait for fest 10 which is obviously going to be nuts.

Pat O said it best: "Fest is like Christmas except better because your shitty cousins arent there but beer is"

Dear Landlord - High Fives