i have not showered in three days. i have slept approximately 8 hours in the last 72 hours, only about 5 of them in a row, the rest in increments of 20 - 30 minutes whenever i could. my body is sore.
i went to Edgefest up in phoenix arizona with a guy who is from there (we crashed at his parent's house) and the mexican i went to see velvet revolver with. it was a one day concert which we sandwiched between two nights of all night "partying" which consisted of people sitting around and talking and drinking until 4 a.m. apparently that is what people do. all this time i thought i was missing something, but it turns out i am not missing too much. i had a good time, but i don't understand staying up until 4 am to drink and talk. if i am going to stay up all night, i am going to be doing something exciting or illegal or both. i can sit around and talk during daylight hours.
the rest of this piece will be a review of the concert, so if you aren't interested in that, don't waste your time reading further.
the weather was perfect (duh! it's arizona), the venue was big enough to be comfortable but small enough to not need a map to get around and see everything they had to offer pretty easily. four stages, two small, two main, one band on each stage at a time. the local no-name bands on the small stage, the big time rock and roll bands on the main stage. the local bands kicked some ass, more on that later. the local roller derby association was there puttin on demos and pimping thier thing, and i think i will become an avid roller derby fan once i settle in here. violence and rollerskates, two ingrediants for quality entertainment. someone asked to take a picture of my sneakers. i had about five comments on my sneakers throughout the day.
it wasn't too crowded, and the crowd had a damn good vibe. refreshingly, it wasn't a huge commercial for hot topic. in fact, i don't think i saw more than two hot topic outfits. it was genuine. there was, however, a metric fuckload of misfits shirts/tattoos/belts/whatever. this is cool, but surprises me as i know most of those kids have never seen the misfits or probably even listen to them. i wonder if it's the cool skull logo that attracts the kids so much. wierd. anyway, there was no peacock strutting, no territorial pissing, none of that posing that goes on at a lot of music festivals. even in the mosh pits and close to the stage people were pretty considerate, not too much idiocy going on. a good fun clean family affair really. like church, but louder and with a bit more pushing, piercings, and tattoos. a small, not so commercialized (yet still endorsed heavily by "the man") event that showcased some damn fine local talent as well as the big names.
i am now hot on a local band called Peachcake who are like, still in highschool or something, but put on a fun cool show. it was like a fucking party, and they sound like "atom and his package" mixed with Dead Milkmen. they fucking rock, not punk at all, and i think that is why i like them, after a while the screamo bands start to sound the same. and i don't think they have any cd's out, but i got thier t shirt. seriously, they were a fun band. goofy but cool.
the fun seriously started happening with a local band called Authority Zero, who kicked some ass and put on a damn good show. fenix tx also put on a damn good show. some band called Louis XIV played in cool hip suits and were ok, i couldn't tell if they sucked or not. Interpol was pretty awesome, and some 14 year old started throwing elbows and started a mosh pit, and people actually moshed to interpol. i swear people will mosh to anything, cause they think"that is what you do at a concert." i enjoy it, don't get me wrong, but to the right music. there is music for it, and interpol is not that music.
there was a lot of room, even close to the stage, until RISE AGAINST, when i looked around and noticed it suddenly got awfully croweded. as soon as they started, it was on. spectacular violence ensued, complete with my face being rubbed against sweaty naked backs, arms being twisted in all sorts of ways, people trying to shielf thier girlfreinds and everyone attempting not to fall down to avoid being trampled, but really, you almost can't fall down, it is too packed. i think i may have had sex with someone (hopefully she was not underage). i enjoyed seeing absolute fear on the faces of the people who were being twisted and shoved, as if they didn't realize that was going to happen. eventually enough room opened up to allow the dance of the damned, the cirlce of tormented souls, the mosh pit. as i was pushed from one pit, i ended up in another. i have to say, that was one of the main highlights of the day. the sheer violence of it all made me laugh uncontrollably, i needed it, it felt good and wonderful. i am not a violent man, but with the music and sweat and heat and energy....i swear if you could capture that energy, you could run a small city on it. and it all lasted about two songs, then everyone suddenly gave space and we all stood and listened to the music. it was wierd.
pennywise put on a great show and seemed like they were having fun. sadly for me, they didn't play "perfect people" or "searching" which are my all time favorite songs of thiers and i am compelled to jump into the nearst pit when i hear those songs. but still, they haven't lost thier edge, and the lead singer of rise against joined them for a tune which got everyone excited.
i finally got to see the phunk junkees, who put on a rollicking party type show, they kicked major ass. they are locals, from phoenix, and they were just downright damned fun to listen and dance to. they looked like they were having fun, and it made the whole damn thing fun. thier guitarist kicks serious ass. i danced and sang along to them.
and then, perhaps the greatest band in the world, SOCIAL DISTORTION. yeah yeah, mike ness can talk a bit too much at times, but are you gonna tell him he cant? and besides, he is one of the old skool granddaddys, he can pretty much do whatever the fuck he feels like. and he does. and he puts on a great show. i had not sang out loud for the other bands (much) but i scraemed and sang with every song Social D played, and danced and it was fucking fantastic. i basked in the sound, energy, complete feeling. i hope i feel the same way when i die if i get to go to heaven (chances are slim, but i can hope).
overall it was an emotional event, lots of fun and adreneline. i think about 72 breasts were rubbed up against me in the course of five hours, which is more than i have had in my whole pathetic life, so that alone was worth the price of admission. i also had the opportunity to trade sweat with about 200 strangers, and if you do a link association, i probably have touched the entire state of arizona and some of california. overall, the music was excellent, band put on a good show, the crowd was excellent, it was a great line up. definatly one of the best saturdays i have spent. i will attend this event every year until i die.
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