fredag 9 Nov 2012, 9:32
It's taken me so long to write a recap of it but here it goes…
Arrived in Gainesville late Wednesday night feeling completely knackered. Wanted to go to Mikey Erg’s pre-fest show but decided sleep would be a much better option.
Thursday – Met a bunch of awesome Welsh people who I hung around with for most of the weekend as I had come over myself. The local liquor store were selling cider as well so that was a good start to my first Fest. Went to early registration which was surprisingly very easy to get in too and only took an hour. Headed to the pre-fest show at Loosey’s. Sung my heart out to Elway (who dedicated Kristina's Last Song to me – and damn right I jumped on the stage for the sing-along part, as did many others) and then had fun to Blacklist Royals (who also remembered me - good times). Enjoyed Junior Battles but it was during Nothington that I had the best time. There’s a reason they’re one of my favourite bands. The crowd jumping on stage for Where I Stand was pretty cool too. After that I walked the long walk back to the Holiday Inn where I crashed then the fire alarm went off and I thought I was in some sort of nightmare until I opened the door and noticed smoke down the hallway!
Friday – Chilled out by the pool for half the day then kicked of Fest with Anchors at The Laboratory. Enjoyable beginning to the weekend. During ‘Safety First, Then Teamwork’ I felt myself slowly beginning to let go. I then ventured down to The Venue for One Win Choice’s last ever show. There were a few songs I found myself rushing forward for and felt sad that this was their last ever show. Highlight for me was 'Act Your Age'. Next bands I seen were The Swellers (I was chatting to their drummer for ages on Thursday and kept bumping into him a lot over the weekend which was pretty damn cool as that wouldn't have happened at any other festival when you think about it) and The Copyrights – both of whom I stood to the side a little bit for and watched everyone else enjoying themselves. Got a little fed up of all the technical difficulties during The Copyrights so left slightly early, went to 8 Seconds and caught a few songs from Grabass Charletons. Was stoked to see Off With Their Heads again. It was beer shower central but I didn’t care. The Eyes of Death and Clear The Air were my highlights. That was also the first stage of my shoes getting fucked up (by the end of the weekend they were destroyed and talking to me!). Went to The Venue to catch Polar Bear Club seen as how they have some personal vendetta against Scotland in the last few years in regards to always missing them out every time they come to the U.K for headline shows. It was nice to finally catch them. They played the whole of The Redder, The Better and it was outstanding. Didn’t think in my wildest dreams I’d be able to get back into 8 Seconds to see Latterman but fortunately one of my Welsh friends was at the front of the queue and shouted me over. I then proceeded to lose my fucking shit to one of my favourite bands ever. As soon as Doom, Doom, Doom started, there was no looking back. Was right in the middle of the room for most of their set (when I wasn’t above everyone else’s head). The best part was during my favourite Latterman song My Bedroom Is Like For Artists. Me and 2 out of 3 of the other Scottish people I knew were in attendance grabbing each other and singing our hearts out then recreating the cover art from No Matter Where We Go. So much fun. My voice was a bit dodgy after that. It was only day one and already it was amazing.
Saturday – Knew this was going to be a great day when I met one of my friends in the lift that I hadn’t seen since Thursday morning. Anyway, walked to CMC in time for Sam Russo and Elway acoustic – the latter was just Tim and his guitar and it wasn’t acoustic as he’d forgotten to bring his acoustic guitar with him! He took requests for the whole of that set and it was amazing. The Lawrence Arms cover was a particular highlight. I then walked to 8 Seconds to find the biggest queue I had seen all weekend. I was planning on watching RVIVR and Good Luck anyway so just decided to stand in it. Met loads of people – including 2 dudes I was chatting to at the pre-fest so I didn’t mind. Got in for the last 5 songs of Iron Chic (as soon as I got into the venue, I immediately ran into the middle and sang my lungs out) and fortunately they played Time Keeps On Slipping Into The (Cosmic) Future (i.e my favourite IC song) last so it wasn’t too bad missing the start of their set. After RVIVR and Good Luck, I went to The Venue in time for We Are The Union who were pretty good but nothing special. Went back to 8 Seconds, downed a beer and began to get incredibly stoked for Banner Pilot. When they started it was just hit after hit and I was crowd surfing and running about a circle like there was no tomorrow. Seen as how I’ve been DESPERATE to see them for so long, it didn’t take much for that to be my favourite set of the weekend. I am in love with that band. Simple as that really. As I write this, I realise a large proportion of that day was spent hopping between the two bigger venues. For Streetlight Manifesto, I spent the whole set ska dancing with a group of strangers. Loads of fun and I was beginning to feel pretty drunk by this point. Next up were The Flatliners. My mind was starting to get lost with how many awesome bands I’d seen that day and it wasn’t about to stop. ‘Eulogy’ means a lot to me and even though I didn’t burst a blood vessel singing it this time, it was still bloody therapeutic. I left a song early to make sure I got into Durty Nelly’s for my most anticipated set of the weekend in the form of Pretty Boy Thorson & The Falling Angels. I thought taking shots of whiskey beforehand would be a good idea – as I found out a little later, it was a stupid thing to do! They were amazing. I was drunk. I probably pissed a lot of people off but I didn’t care. I was too busy enjoying myself. I really liked Durty Nelly’s as a venue too though I felt a little bad about smoking in such a small venue. I then went to Loosey’s for the remainder of the night to watch Captain, We’re Sinking, New Bruises and Nightmares For A Week. I made the mistake of getting too drunk and can only remember parts of each of their sets. Learned my lesson. I do remember going crazy during CWS though and singing along to NFAW. I was slightly OTT during CWS but thankfully the security let me stay until the end and let me back in on Sunday. It was pretty quiet for NFAW from what I remember too. My shoes were starting to fall apart by that point. Getting back to the hotel was like hell on earth but somehow I managed it, played some strange game in an Austrailians room and then passed out.
Sunday - I woke up early, decided the best thing to do would be to have some hair of the dog and go lie down by the pool. It was awesome just chilling in silence with a few other hungover people. I then got a taxi to CMC as there was no way I could walk it with how I was feeling and on Saturday whilst I was walking there I almost got attacked by a homeless woman. Watched a little bit of Erica Freas (RVIVR) but for the most part sat outside in the glorious sun with a beer and a cigarette. I went in for Red City Radio acoustic though as I was gutted to miss them on Saturday night. Was a nice way to start the last day of Fest and Garrett remembered me as the person going absolutely mental at their Glasgow show earlier this year. After that I headed to Boca Fiesta for The Flatliners mystery set. Met so many people I had spoken to over the weekend and it was a good way to spent 45 minutes. No Eulogy this time but still lost my shit to Monumental. Next I decided to head to The Venue to catch a bit of Dear Landlord. They were good but I wasn’t really feeling it. Still sung from the side to I Live In Hell though. Afterwards it was on to The New Top Spot for Such Gold (who were good but it was no Groezrock in terms of how the crowd responded to them and the barrier was fucking awful) - where I was in stiches at this dude who must have been 300 pounds crowd surfing. Gave the security a high five after that! It was laregely new material but then that's to be expected. Vetnured to 8 Seconds to catch the end of The Front Bottoms (totally forgot they were on or I would have caught the full set). Had fun singing along with the Austrailians that I had met. After that I went away for something to eat as I felt like I was about to pass out then headed back in time for Mixtapes, had a few massive sing alongs then headed away early to go watch The Menzingers at The Venue. Wasn’t planning on seeing them as there were many awesome bands playing at the time they were on but they are my favourite band in life and something inside me was screaming for them. I also knew that if I was to go see anybody else, the fact that they were on would constantly be in the front of my mind so decided to do myself a favour. I got in just as they were taking to the stage and I didn’t need any help getting to the middle of the room – I just asked someone for a lift up and crowd surfed my way there. For that whole set I was fucking mental. Probably on par with how much I ‘lost it’ for Banner Pilot. I had SO much fun. The smile I noticed on Greg’s face when he first seen me crowd surfing towards them really set the bar for me. I gave Tom a high five after their set as well as he was surprised to see me there. Amazing band. My mind was blown. Afterwards I went back to The New Top Spot where Red Collar were finishing – they were pretty good and was impressed with The Replacements cover. I was there for Fake Problems who were out of this world good. Was hilarious watching the guitarist from The Front Bottoms losing his mind. Songs For Teenagers is a fucking tune. Strangely I crowd surfed to it ha hah. Went back to The Venue to finally catch Good Riddance after missing them earlier this year. They were good live but I just sort of admired them from the back as I’m not an enthusiastic fan … yet. After they finished, 2 girls I met a lot during the weekend decided to leave. That was pretty upsetting as they were up there with the best people I met all weekend. Watched a few songs from Propaghandi but got bored so went next door to catch the last 30 minutes of Frank Turner. I was slow dancing with some dude to Long Live The Queen, crowd surfed during I Still Believe and then a massive group of us all hugged during the last song and sang out lungs out. I then headed to Loosey’s to finish Fest watching my friends in Great Cynics. It was a great way to end it all. Headed back to the Holiday Inn, spent a few hours of the after party lying down on the floor, totally fucked, then decided to call it a night.
Favourite bands of each day for me were Nothington, Latterman, Banner Pilot and The Menzingers but in alll honesty, every band was fucking incredible. Best weekend of my life and all though there is no denying the bands were great, the best part was definitely all the amazing people I met and the atmosphere because of it. One big happy family having the best time of our lives.
Me at the end of Sunday night…
http://sphotos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/409313_377107442375241_93384900_n.jpg