Figured today was a good day to add some more posts that I have lying around. Originally posted on the LOC, 8-18-09 & 8-19-09.DAY ONE:
This was a total last minute decision on my part. Mer and Sausage's girlfriend Caitlin basically brow beat me into it so that they could hang out at the SFU table together all weekend (I'm not one to turn down pretty women, what can I say). Garvey tipped it over the scales by offering us a spot in a 4 star hotel suite 5 minutes from the fest with him, Red Sox Jess, and Stef. A 24 hour gym and a pool were specifically mentioned to get me to sign on, and I was very definite that THOSE were the reasons I was going. My plan was this: Go down Friday night, wake up and swim, go see Rival Mob, go back and swim, go see Floorpunch, eat a cheese steak, go work out, sleep, wake up and swim, eat a cheese steak go to the fest around 5 to catch Wisdom in Chains and Reach The Sky, leave and go home. That plan was thrown entirely out the window, and I'm actually really glad it was. There were some minor annoyances with the hotel situation (you had to pay to park, there were an additional 4 people staying in the room that Garvey failed to mention- tho they were all chill, and I still got a bed it just made shit overly chaotic, etc. Nothing gig related).
So going down Friday night was a piece of cake. Got there in an easy breezy 2 hour ride, and got to the hotel right as everyone was getting there from Suicide File ending (I would have liked to see them, but it would have meant a lot of traffic, and when I went to get tickets the three day passes and Friday tickets were all sold out, so I only did Saturday and Sunday, which was a good move since they sold out before Friday was even over. Yes, I paid for a show. Shocking, I know). Pretty much went straight to bed so that we could wake up early for the continental breakfast.
There was no continental breakfast. It was a 15 dollar buffet.
Went swimming for about 2 hours, then decided to walk to the show. Took about 30 minutes, pretty easy, and the fun thing about Philly is that the schizo homeless people will relentlessly badger you for blocks in broad daylight. Example: we stopped in at a Wawa to get waters and lunch, and this 3 foot tall batshit insane lady comes wandering up to us while we're eating outside...
"Can you help me out?"
Garvey- "Probably not."
(to Mer) "Can you help me out?"
*Mer ignores her*
"It's your own fault. Stop complaining. Stop complaining."
Fortunately, she walked away after about the 5th repetition of this, as Mer's Sketchy face was on and things were about to get very ugly in broad daylight. Mer then proceeded to complain about the harassment all weekend. Precognitive homeless women. Fuckin' Philly.
Took about 30 minutes to get over to the show, but unfortunately we got there at about 2:39, and the Mob was already done. Their set time had been scheduled for 2:30. The show was running AHEAD of schedule. My mind was blown. Talk about awesome. Also awesome, the fact that Joe released this to the internet ahead of time:
Fucking awesome. All I had to do to know what was going on was just look at my phone, and was how I had come up with my schedule for the weekend. A schedule that I ended up completely abandoning. And please note the presence of an intermission. Such a great idea (tho apparently only brought on by Cruel Hand dropping off).
With nothing else to do and plenty of time to go back and swim before FP, we went in and camped out at the Six Feet Under table, which is where we ended up for the duration. It was def 1000 degrees in there, I was drenched in seconds. The plan was to watch The Killer and Convicted, then go eat lunch and go back to swim. This was kiboshed because of the following:
1. I was leaked word of a special guest before Cold World.
2. Greg Mongo asked me to stay for Mongoloids, because he was nervous as hell about playing a high profile hc gig with the new line up after all the internet scandal. I had no problem with this, and since the hotel was so close by car, it still left time to swim.
So that really didn't make it worthwhile to go back to the hotel, as it would have ended up only being about 30 minutes of swimming time. And with things running ahead of schedule, and my having no intention of seeing VOD, there would still be time to swim after.
The Killer and Convicted both sounded good, I was actually kind of surprised that The Killer played before Convicted. I won't lie tho, I wasn't really paying much attention to the either as I was busy hitting up the FP merch booth and getting the low down on the secret merch.
We then went to lunch. What Mer and I hadn't been told was that Stef and Jess had already decided that we were going to this place called THE SPAGHETTI WAREHOUSE that was behind the show. Because on a super hot day in a super hot show, you want to go load up on hot plates of starchy carbs. Suffice to say, we watched them eat while enjoying large glasses of water.
Hung outside after that and had a long talk with Greg about the latest in Mongo scandals and how he should deal with it onstage. He also said that TDT had made shirts with his face on them, with his mouth stuffed full of money, that said The Mongoloid and "Is anybody stealing me" on the back, and that those shirts had mysteriously vanished from TDT. Interesting.
Went in for the Mongoloids, Greg had had nothing to worry about. His new line up was tight as all hell, and kids went bat shit. First words out of his mouth were "there's been a lot of talk about us on the internet... and it's all true", ha ha ha. Somehow Todd Pollock ended up with the mic for the last song, and broke his hand trying to keep his balance while being piled on. I am 99% sure he was back on stage taking pictures within 2 bands, and was there on Sunday with a giant cast.
Went back outside after, where we bumped into Steve Bush, Porter, Rifkin and co, who Bushy was leading up the street to a block party. Tho we initially declined in order to go for our own walk to find a non-pasta meal, there was literally nothing else around the show, and we ended up right at the block party. Which was off the HOOK. People on the roofs of the buildings, free Red Bull (Jay Bush also said there was free food, tho we never saw it), a whole lot of people jumping up and down and basically raving in the street and doing the whole "the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire" chant, some woman walked up to us offering up sips from a little tiny bubble bottle of moonshine... just amazing ridiculousness. So much fun, and we weren't even doing anything, just watching hipsters and hoodrats get down. Rad as it was, we all peaced back to the show after a little bit because no one wanted to miss the special guest.
(while we were gone we missed Pulling Teeth close with two Ink and Dagger covers)
We got back way earlier than intended, as Slumlords were just going on when we got back. I've never been into them, as seeing Perlin sing joke songs about walking the dog and male pattern baldness just doesn't hold my interest the way Perlin singing songs about watching a street fight while eating a Big Mac does, but they did do a completely serious cover of Rock You Like A Hurricane from start to finish that was pretty incredible (and got a great crowd reaction).
It was time for Cold World after that, which meant it was time for the special guest. Dan got on stage, took the mic, said "We're Cold World... and this is CLUBBER LANG" and handed the mic off to Cooper for Varsity Violence and Execution Style. You bet I was moshing (and it was a perfect set for me to do so, because 2 songs is about all my back and I can stand these days). All the old dudes sent the kids who were up front for CW packing. Joe HC moshed so hard his shoes came off. After that all the old men (including myself) vanished so the kids could have their fun.
CW got a great response, it looked really nuts up there. And yes, Scace flew in for another 24 hours so he could gig. Joe was grading stage dives, he literally had score cards that he would hold up after each dive. "Holy shit", "Worst Stage Dive Ever", "-2", "9", and I think maybe one other. He would also lean over the bad divers and berate them. Just his reactions to the stage dives in general were a highlight of the weekend. So many looks, ranging from disgust to awe to exasperation. That dude Chris NASE who's been rolling with CW was doing INCREDIBLE front flips and getting all "Holy Shit" ratings, like full flips done with 3 feet of air between him and the crowd. Near the end someone either kicked them out of Joe's hands or grabbed them as they went, effectively killing the gag for the rest of the fest, but it was fun while it lasted. George did his part in Dedicated..., and Dr Dan from Lifetime came out and did Greg's part from the 7 inch (I think, it's been awhile since I've listened to CW on record).
It was finally time for FP, which meant I was allowed to bust out the secret FP merch, which if you've seen the pick ups thread, you know was the Division One Champs football jerseys. My experience with football jerseys has always been that they run large, so I had grabbed a medium for myself. This may prove to be a mistake, as it fits me like a second skin, and I absolutely could not remove it without help once I started sweating (well, I was already sweating, but you know what I mean). On the plus side, it did make me look like I was moshing in full football pads.
FP kicked things off with Perlin singing All I Ask, then dueting with Porter on Safe In A Crowd. Shit was nuts. Perlin was wearing a diaper on his head for reasons I do not fathom in the slightest."He's not raising my kids, he's playing on my football team."- Porter on Michael Vick.:angry:
I have to say this was the "worst" of the FP reunions I've seen (keeping in mind of course that a bad FP set is better than most bands best). Everything was going great, and then they give the mic to Brett Beach for the first half of Keep It Clear. And all due respect to Brett, but it didn't sound good. He seemed really nervous, and pretty much just talked the lyrics. Things kind of never picked up again after that, and the set kind of ended with a whimper (everyone had thought True Colors was the last song, and then they went back to do Gonna Get Yours, to a minimal response). Zusi said on the LWB that they cut it short cuz Porter couldn't breathe due to the heat, and I believe it. It was deathly hot in there.
Like I'm going to stay and watch VOD in 2009. Shit, I wouldn't even have watched them in 1996, even tho I like that song Suffer (which I'm told is the only old song they even played). We got picked up by Jana, went back to the hotel and swam, then hit up Pat's for cheese steaks (I wasn't impressed).
DAY TWO:
So the initial plan of get everything together, go get food, go back to the hotel and go to the pool while Garvey checked us out and then let him back in so we could all swim until we wanted to head to the show was shot down by too many girls doing too much applying of make up and flat ironing of hair for too long a time. So we ended up going straight from checkout to food. No swimming. Lame.
With nothing else to do, we ended up at the show pretty much right at the start. I think we missed the first band, and Braindead was setting up as we got in. It was already ridiculously hot, but fortunately we had had dressed for it- Mer wore her Rampage sports bra in lieu of a shirt, and I wore a bathing suit. Because said bathing suit had no pockets, I paired it with the fanny pack I wear to the gym. We still ended up drenched in sweat all day, but it was a vast improvement.
Braindead played every style of hardcore. And by that I mean each song sounded like a different band. I wasn't impressed.
Naysayer was next. My friend Jaycox (see minute 1:05 of the video below) had told me the day before to be sure to be there, I had told him I couldn't guarantee anything. Boy would I have been bummed out if I had actually missed them. 3rd band of the day, getting what, given the amount of people inside at the time, could be considered a headlining band's reaction. It actually got me incredibly psyched.
Mer and I went for a little walk during the Carrier, so I don't know how that was. I'm told the singer projectile vomited. Coke Bust went in one ear and out the other.
We actually paid attention to Foundation, as we had been hanging out with their roadie Stan and his wife at the SFU table both days (it turns out I had actually met Stan before, as he was the guy who got hit with the chain during Dump Truck at Posi Numbers when it got thrown into the crowd). They were alright, perfectly acceptable heavy 90s core.
Shout outs to the SFU records table ladies crew.Halfway through the set, Sausage gets onstage and takes the bass, and Ryan DM takes the mic. Never Enough Time. Moving On. Times You Share. Almost nothing but brand name dudes moshing. I would actually describe the reaction as subdued, which isn't what I expected. Almost no diving, as there was never really more than one row of kids up front singing along for the most part (Joe HC seemed very disappointed by this, but most of the time he was freaking out with a huge smile on his face). Does this count as a DM reunion? Probably not, and I'm sure those LOJ dudes are pissed that people are talking about it like it was. But fuck it, I thought it was fun and awesome and it sounded tight.
Let Down finished up after that. I went and chilled out at the table (well, chilled may be the wrong word given the temperature) for the rest of their set and for Brace War (who if memory serves intro'd with Pledge Your Allegiance by Suicidal Tendencies).
Joe then took the stage to deliver a speech thanking every one for coming out, and explaining that he considers putting on TIH every year part of his penance for all the bad things he's done. It was really sincere and actually pretty touching. He then intro'd Trapped Under Ice, and the place EXPLODED. Like, it looked like that Sick Of It All video from the Ritz in 1991, only with stage diving. Absolutely positively THE set of the day, possibly the entire weekend (I'm told Suicide File was a sight to behold, but I wasn't there). At one point a um... larger girl got on stage to dive, and nearly caught a bass to the face, and dodging it nearly made her fall right off the stage onto her head. Fortunately Joe was there to grab her and direct her off the stage. Apparently she argued over it, because he had to take the mic and explain to everyone that they haven't been grabbing divers and making them get off the stage to be dicks, but because they don't want them diving when there's no one there to catch them, and don't want them breaking their necks. "We will NOT be sued because you did something stupid."
Wisdom In Chains was on next, and it was an unfortunate spot for them, because the room was virtually empty. TUI had wiped everybody out. I went up front, but the energy was just weird. They kept it really short, and only the last song got a big response (Land of Kings), seeing as it was all about how awesome Pennsylvania is. So that was sort of a bumout, seeing as they were one of the 4 bands I had originally intended to watch.
I hate Ceremony. Not even going to review it. I drank a lot of water and tuned them out.
Reach The Sky was up. I was completely drained due to the heat so I didn't head up front right away, which meant I got to see Ian have a "senior moment" during the first song (started singing the wrong part, stopped, had to catch up. He later blamed this on "Zac playing the wrong part", but that's not what I heard...). After a couple songs I felt refreshed enough to go up front, just in time for Let Us Be Damned (GREAT mosh part). It wasn't too nuts. Basically the same set as Worcester (did I review that one?). That song that had Rachel Bilson in the video and She Really Loved you got the biggest responses, and were the songs that I was able to get decent dives in on. Lost Glories actually got almost no response, no one packed up front to sing along, not a lot of moshers. I think it was pretty much just me and Garvey and our hair tackling people into the sides. Fun tho, but with the heat and the lack of sleep and food (we hadn't eaten since we left the hotel) I was completely wiped out. I spent almost all of Blacklisted lying flat on my back on the SFU merch bags, pretty much asleep. I think I may have gone up for Eye For An Eye, but at that point the heat had me absolutely shot. So we peaced out (apologies to Bedard).
We picked up the car and paid the parking bill (50 bucks, which when combined with the hotel room and that expensive ass breakfast only brought our total to 90 bucks, which isn't so bad), and then tried to find something to eat. It was a disaster, and we somehow ended up back in front of that same Wawa, with that same precognitive schizo still standing out front. We fled. It was definitely time to leave Philly.
Fortunately on the way home we found a Sonic off the highway, which made everything much, much better (large Cherry limeade, FTW). And once again, we made it home in an easy breezy 2 hours. All in all, an excellent weekend, and an excellent fest. Would go to again.
You can check out videos of every band's set here.
