All Links Open In New Window (Yay!)

Hard to believe it's already been a week since Lifest. o_o But yeah. It has been. I've been waiting to blog about it until I got my pictures back, but it turns out that was kind of a waste of time, since most of my pictures look like crap. My camera chose to focus on the back of the heads of the crowd rather than the bands. I hate it with a passion. But anyway. Here's how Lifest went. (Apart from -awesome- which is the more general version.)

Thursday

I got up bright and early (blah) and went to meet everyone in Wilton, and we were soon on our way, a caravan of 6 cars and vans, getting seperated at every intersection. We had with us only two walkie talkies to stay in contact. At one point, the other talkie died. The situation was dire, and I stepped up to the challenge. While stopped at a bridge due to construction, I boldly grabbed the batteries and ran out of our van and ahead to theirs, delivering the precious cargo and barely making it back in time before traffic started up again. I was hero for the moment. Soon, radio chatter had again returned, and we were able to make it to Lifest with only a few more minor problems.


(By the way, my effort proved to be in vain later on--there were so many people there, that every channel on the walkie-talkie was used. By the end of it, no one was even bothering to use them for communicating. It was just "Hi!" "Hey." "...Who're you?")


So, we got to our campsite. It was a really long way from all the stages. Seriously. (That picture was taken about half-way between our camp and the main stage.) But it was no big deal to us, for we had long ago accepted our fate. (In other words, a week earlier I told everyone that we were serious procrastinators and our campsite would suck because all the good ones were taken.)


Soon, tent-setting-up began. John had the nerve to take pictures while the rest of us were hard at work. Before long, camp was established. That tiny tent is Lauren's, btw.


We managed to catch the end of Casting Crowns and Casting Pearls. Double the Casting, Double the fun! They were both pretty good bands, tho'. Soon, finding ourselves with nowhere to go and not really liking Toby Mac (sorry) we went to see Spikefoot Tragedy just because we liked their name. Which was good, because I ended up liking them. (The singer looks JUST like Jenna Anderson, a girl who graduated last year at Brookwood. Also, the guitarist looked like Mike Dougherty, another graduate. Weirdness. They're good, anyway.) Then it was on to Kutless and then back to the main stage.


Random fact, last year, it rained a lot at Lifest, and the main stage got really, really muddy. It rained this year too, so they moved it to a new location which I liked. And not just because it was closer to our campsite.


Anyway. We played frisbee by the mainstage while Stephen Baldwin, actor-turned-ministry-guy spoke. (Hey, we listened...mostly...) But we were really only there for one reason (as was most of the crowd)--to see Newsboys. They were quite good. Awesomely so, one might say, if one wanted to be right.


All day, I cursed myself for leaving my camera at the campsite. >.>;;


Friday

I forgot to mention, Thursday, we found out that we had a grill, and gas, but nothing to be used to hook the two together. So Martin and Lauren left to find a Wal-Mart to get a new grill. It took almost two hours. Later in the week, we found out the EXACT SAME GRILL was for sale in the General Store at Lifest. A ten minute walk from our site. Aaaarggh....


Anyway. Friday. We awoke to a nice breakfast of cereal without milk. (Hot dogs, for almost every other meal--we had a LOT of hot dogs.) Then it was off to catch the end of Kids in the Way. Afterwards, I wanted to see FM Static and found out that they were canceled. :( As it turned out, a member of the band was in another country and they couldn't get the visa in time to make it to Lifest. Teh blah. We wandered for a while and eventually made our way to Thousand Foot Krutch and then moved on to Selah to look for Lauren and Martin, who wanted something a little less...loud. =) (They wore earplugs during the big concerts. Phhh.) We never did find them.


At Thousand Foot Krutch, John and I met up with Merril who told us, very firmly, we would mosh before the day was over. She hauled us over to Superchic[k] to wait for her favorite band, Skillet. (The last song Superchic[k] played, Hero (or something like that) was actually pretty good.) While waiting for Skillet, she kept pulling us along closer to the stage, till eventually the concert began and we were probably four feet away from the huge speakers. Great view, tho'. We weren't in the serious mosh area (which was good) but we were in the spot where you get to jump a lot, which was fun. Afterwards, Merril couldn't hear out of her left ear and mine was ringing till Monday. No joke. Anyway.


The next concert gets a whole paragraph to itself. After Skillet, we moved back and met up with Martin and Lauren again. Before long, it was starting--Blindside. We slowly pushed our way to the front for the ass-kicking-ness. Right off the bat, first song--stage dive. This was really awesome, mainly because before every concert, the rules were read--and an emphasis was put on the fact that there was NO BODY SURFING this year. But Blindside went and did it anyway. (It really pissed of Merril, though--the spot we were at for Skillet was EXACTLY the spot he jumped to...) Then during Caught a Glimpse, he DROPPED the mic, then snatched it again and went on like nothing happened. It was awesome. Merril pulled me to the point of the mosh pit, where I stopped. I was right on the very border of the murderously aggressive pit. 'Twas awesome, because the people in front of me were too busy pushing to get their hands in the way of the band. I had some pretty sweet pictures, but again, my camera sucks. They played all the great songs off Silence, plus a bunch I'd never heard of, then they ended with About a Burning Fire. Everyone starts chanting, "ONE MORE SONG! ONE MORE SONG!" When the guy came out after Skillet, it was like, "Aww...no encore." (There was anyway.) When he came out for Blinside, they actually booed him. We were GOING to get another song, dammit! He told everyone to BACK UP. Yeah. The people in front were going so nuts, that there was STEAM rising from the front of the stage. Not boiling water, mind you. Sweat. All of a sudden, the lead singer comes on (to a lot of cheering) and whispers something to the guy, and he tells us that they'll play one more song--but everyone has to BACK UP. So they did, of course. Then he told us that they really WERE going to be done, but they figured hey--why not play another. As it turns out, Lifest was the last stop on their current tour before a three week break back in Sweden. So they played us a BRAND NEW SONG reserved for their new tour. So no one else has heard it yet. We rule. So that's over, and Merril and I start walking away, and notice they're all just standing on the stage, looking around. And then he goes, "I think we'll play ONE more." So we run back to our spots as they play a song off their debut CD and everyone cheers their heads off. Awesomely awesome. We headed back to camp (even Merril, who wasn't camping) and I grabbed my cds and I went back to the Meet 'n Greet. I got to talk to the guys that put on the completely awesome show, and they signed their CD! How many times can I say awesome?

BLINDSIDE: Crappy picture #1, Crappy picture #2.


Ok, ok. Enough of that. Blindside kicks ass, I think I've rubbed it in enough. After getting the autographs (Merril had them sign a frisbee, and the drummer drew smoke coming out of the musket the guy on the frisbee was holding XD) we caught the end of Third Day and then the fireworks show, which I swear Martin enjoyed more than any of the bands.


Saturday

Man this is a long entry. Still there? Good. Saturday we felt kind of lazy. The lack of sleep was slowly settling in. I had to wait in line over an hour and a half to get a shower, but I suppose it was worth the wait. We caught ApologetiX and then went back to camp for some frisbee. We got really, really good at frisbee this weekend. We even decided that if we ever start a band, we're calling it Frizbee.


There wasn't anything that we really wanted to see, so we just hung out around the camp. (I really wish I could say they posed for that picture....) Somehow Martin even found time to sleep but he's the only one. In fact, he took a -nap- later that day and missed out on a lot. Crazy sleep-getting people.


We finally managed to get moving and went off to see the Supertones. They were pretty good--I got to learn how to skank, which was nifty. I liked 'em enough to even pick up their newest CD, Revenge of the O.C. Supertones *dun dun dun*. 'Tis a pretty good CD. (Supertones pics: crappy picture #1, crappy picture #2) Afterwards, we caught the ends of Point of Grace and 12 Stones and then we headed back to the main stage for Audio Adrenaline. About halfway through, John and I wanted to see some more ska, so we took the risk and went to Johnny Okay, a band we'd never heard of. Turns out, they're a local ska band--we have ska in WI, I'm so proud--and it was worth going to. They're a really young band, and I'm hoping they'll be able to keep together and go places. They were good. =)

Watching everyone skank apparantly made Lauren really tired, because she was nearly dead walking back to camp. If John and I weren't with her, I think she really would have just curled up in the grass and slept out there. We managed to get her back (stumbling all the way) and finally convince her to sleep. She insisted she wasn't tired. While falling over. It wasn't long before she was out, and we all followed suit. Except maybe Martin, who'd been asleep since Supertones anyway...


Sunday

Sunday, we actually had eggs and bacon for breakfast. A welcome change to our hot dog diet. At first, I wasn't sure if I really wanted to go to the Sunday worship service--I've never really been much of a churchgoer. But everyone else was going, and I was too tired to think up reasons not to, so I went along. As it turned out, I was glad that I did. It was a good reminder of why we were really all there. Bob Lenz, the guy who thought up the idea for Lifest, spoke, proving that all the things I kept hearing about him weren't just publicity. He was a good speaker, funny too. If church was like that--the way it should be, with no rituals of the different denominations, no church-exclusive applications of the Bible--maybe I'd actually go. There's a reason I'm non-denominational. But I won't go too much into that--I know not everyone reading this shares the same beliefs I do, and I don't intend to force it down anyone's throat. (Although it's really easy to just skip this paragraph. Maybe it's a good thing I waited till the end to say that =) )


A while after that, we headed back to see Relient K, who had this really weird Christmas theme. Either way, they were pretty cool. They played some old faves and a few new songs, and there was much rejoicing throughout the land. I even bought a Relient K t-shirt--I figured buying an overpriced shirt would balance out the fact that I have a burned copy of their CD. >.> <.<; (Relient K pics--crappy picture 1, crappy picture 2.) Afterwards, we caught FFH and then headed back to the grandstand to listen to Kirk Cameron and then see the final show of Lifest, Jars of Clay. We left a little early to beat the traffic, so we only saw the first half of their show. It's all good.


We managed to make it home just find, and we stopped in Montello so that I could waste some film and then late that night we arrived back at home to tell everyone we were back and how awesome Lifest was.


I had more film to waste, so I thought I'd rub it in to everyone that I have a chimney. Ha.


Well, that's it. Lifest, in lots of words. Next year, I plan on volunteering. Free ticket, plus you might get to meet some bands. =D


Now that you've read/skimmed/skipped over everything I had to say, here's a story that deserves to be told. It's really sad how paranoid this country's getting.


It took me a really, really long time to make this entry...