I have never, ever been as worn out from a show or a weekend as I was from this one. I've done Warped Tours and Bonnaroos, Slaughteramas and previous Best Friends Days, along with myriad of other all day and multi-day intense festivals and events. Ones where you need to nap 5 times over the course of the day and night to keep up with all of the happenings. Ones where you just never stop drinking, not only because it keeps flowing, but also so the hangover never catches up to you. So why the hell did this one leave me bedridden most of Sunday? .shrug.
Friday evening, Webber rode his bike down to Onetribe with a 4 pack of Sparks, which we split and downed while watching some Daily Show excerpts. After deeming ourselves sufficiently pregamed, we biked to Canal Club. Psh, who am I kidding- there was no real game considering we had no spare beer monies. Serendipitously, we ran into a poker buddy and good friend that had just won $120 at poker the previous night, and he bought us a round of Jagerbombs and PBRs. Over the course of the night, he bought us two more rounds. What a pal.
I didn't catch much of Capsule, and I've seen Dead to Me before... I don't even remember how many times I've seen them, that's how memorable they were. I mean, they're a good band, they just don't stick. The Catalyst was an opener of note. I've been wanting to see this local band for a while, never gotten to. Well, it was sweet.
This was the fifth time I've seen Strike Anywhere. Now that I think of it, the first time was BFD two years ago... I can't believe I've seen them that many times since. But they are a local band, and damn they are fun to sing along to. It helps that I've obsessed over the lyrics many times, because they're fucking brilliant. Therefore, my heart is 100% in the show when they play. This video, while the vocals sound shitty, is probably one of the better examples of their live show: (I also highly recommend checking out the lyrics to get a full picture.)
Pg. 99 was an amazing set to watch. I wish I was more familiar with their music, especially since I'll probably never have a chance to see them again- this was a reunion show. I really enjoyed watching the crowd, though, as well as the band's antics.
Converge. Fuck! I lost myself here. I don't remember seeing the band play at all, but I remember the songs. As soon as the second song, Dark Horse, came on, I was in the middle of the pit. I haven't voluntarily found myself there in years. I suppose I have to have enough energy/rage/drink in me in order to hold my own in a pit, and this time, it was perfect. I just sustained a lot of bruises on my arms and a few on my temple. Oh yeah, my vertical labret did get hit, but it was totally my fault for headbanging into someone else. Webber stayed up front, but every time he pulled me next to him, I found I had no room to thrash, which was unacceptable. Thrash... thrash... thrash, I did.
Saturday morning I was woken up by a cat licking my shaved head. Upon later inquiry, Webber says Baron has never done this before, which is curious, and a pleasantly odd way to be woken at 9am. We arrived at Hadad's Lake before noon and hung out with the Point Blank dudes. Drank lots of PBR.I finally got to see a fantastic hardcore band from SF, Cali called Punch. Drank more PBR. Wandered and ran into many friends, of course. Was fed bourbon. Danced to No BS! Drank PBR. Stuck my face under a delicious mini keg of Bell's Oberon. Hung out in the lake, careful not to dunk my lip in the accursed waters, and watched everyone. Drank PBR. Was fed whiskey + Fanta. Watched Big Freedia's set and marveled at the copious and amazing ass-shaking. Started to cut back on my alcohol intake once I noticed Webber was drunk. (I believe I can count on both hands the number of times I've seen him drunk. It's not much.) Watched Baroness' stunning set, and about freaked the fuck out when Tony Waste got on vocals and they played "Bikeage" by the Descendents. WTF? They then played Blitz. Against Me! had one of the better sets I've seen them play in years, but unfortunately, my bare feet were too beaten by that point to join in the fun in the pit.
The cat just had this kind of snorting-sneeze right next to me, it was pretty cute.
Anyway, I have one of the worst bangovers I've ever had; I'm wondering when my neck will recover. As you may have expected me to say, though, it was so worth it.
Many full and incomplete sets of the BFD shows can be found at this wonderful person's Youtube channel.
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