I Mosh For Jesus

[[This post was originally started July 12. I'm just now finishing it.]]

So, Lifest. I never even posted the day I left or anything. It was awesome, as usual. This year I volunteered 2 shifts so I could get a half-price ticket, so I ended up working the merch booths for Yexus 24:7, TFK, and Echelon. Without further ado--

Thursday

We left for Lifest around 9 am and managed to make it there around 12-1-ish. We had no clue where we [we being me, Laura, Lauren] were headed but we managed to get there and register and whatnot. We set up our campsite, which was almost the exact same spot as last year [the half-mile-away-spot] and waited to meet up with Brian and Matt. They showed up sometime around 3, I think, and we hung out a while before going to see Roper, the new band of Five Iron Frenzy's singer, if you weren't aware. They were pretty good, I knew about half the songs they played [including a strangely placed cover of "Welcome to the Jungle" o.O].

Right after Roper I had to volunteer, so they put me in the booth for a group called Yexus 24:7 that nobody had heard of and so I got no business. But the fun thing was, it was right next to Roper's booth, and they came over to their booth after their show and hung out and signed stuff, so I got a signed sticker for John, who was supposed to come but came down with pnemonia just a day before going and had to stay home.

After a while at that booth, the volunteer guy came over and bumped me to TFK's merch booth, which was much more interesting. I missed their show--it was going on as I was being moved to their booth--but afterwards I got to sell t-shirts to a bunch of really sweaty people that told me it rocked. Erin and Miriah found me while they were walking around the merch building and so I gave them free buttons. The sad thing is, I forgot to grab a free thing for -myself- before I left. >.>;

Friday

When we got up Friday morning, nobody really had the ambition to do anything. At all. We hung out around the campsite for a while, but I got bored so I went wandering on my own. I ended up watching a seminar that was really interesting but I can't really recall many of the key points. I got there late, so it's not my fault that I don't remember it. >.>;;

I went back to the campsite afterwards and they still hadn't left, so I left again and went to see a band called Mouthpiece who were surprisingly good. A few of their songs are a little too close to Creed, but their guitarist is insane at some points and so it was worth picking up. After Mouthpiece I went to see Deja Normal. They weren't very good and so they don't get a link. =)

I ran into Merril but she was going to see The Wedding [who I heard were good] so I was forced to stay alone on the way to Spikefoot Tragedy. Nobody will give them a try 'cause their singer's a girl. But they're really good. The stuff on their site is a little old, I think--the quality's better live and they sound great. I got myself a Spikefoot t-shirt later in the day.

Then it was off to see this guy named Keith Cooper. He was doing a guitar clinic so I thought that would be pretty cool. Except everything he talked about was so far over my head that I wanted to quit playing guitar altogether. I left halfway through because he made my head hurt.

Killed some time in the merch booths and such, and then I went to Skillet. Honestly, I wasn't too impressed with their show this year. The music was alright, despite their guitarist/keyboardist having to be replaced 'cause she's pregnant, but the crowd was just obnoxious, particularly this one annoying girl who felt that she had to be the director of the mosh pit. I don't remember if I even stayed for the whole show.

12 Stones was next. They put on a better show than I remember from last year. I only knew maybe three of the songs they played, but it was still fun. The meet and greet afterwards was canceled because the band was flying back into a hurricane to make sure their families were doing alright. I figure that was a pretty good excuse.

I met up with Merril again [somehow--you have no idea how many times I saw people that I didn't come with] and we headed to Newsboys. They always put on a great show, and this year wasn't any different. We stayed for the fireworks then started heading out. On the way I ran into Miriah, Erin, and Jackie. I walked with them a while 'cause we were heading in the same direction anyway, and then all of a sudden this guy walks out of a tent and hands Bob [Jackie's dad] a pizza. "Here, have a free pizza. It's sausage." So I ended up going back to their campsite. =)

Saturday

Saturday we felt even lazier than Friday. We didn't do much of anything. I went to see Number One Fan, but they really weren't very good. I stayed for a song and a half. I worked from 3 to 8, so I headed out to my post. I got placed at Echelon. They're more of a worship band, not the type of music I really listen to [but not necessarily bad.] The people were pretty awesome though. Their singer kept asking me if I wanted anything and I kept thinking, "Dude, I'm working for -you-." Around 5:30 he came back with a couple slices of pizza and water. And then again asked if he could get me anything. XD Awesome guy. Then around 6:30 they came back and said that they were going to hang out by the booth anyway, so I should go watch some shows. I couldn't argue with that. [No, really. They wouldn't let me.]

So with my newfound time I headed to see Project 86. They were alright, but a little too heavy for me, I think. I only stayed for a few songs and then I headed to The Fold. I'd never heard of them before, but apparantly they just got signed to Tooth & Nail recently. They were pretty good--check them out so you can say you heard of them before they got big. [[At Warped Tour, Relient K actually talked about them. I was like, '=o i saw them!' Fun stuff.]]

I didn't stay for the entire show, though--I had to make it back for Blindside. They played an awesome show, of course. I started out pretty close, and when they came onstage I was about ten feet closer and there were still just as many people in front of me. I stayed up there only for the first song--I was so busy trying to stand that I couldn't even see the band. So I backed up a bit to a safer spot and slid forward every once and a while. I ended up in about the same spot I started, so that worked out pretty well. They played some new songs, and now I'm really looking forward to their new CD. There was one disappointment though, they weren't allowed to play an encore. They were about to, and they weren't allowed to because there were people passing out from the heat. They were going to play Silence, which is a -slow- song and it would have been fine, but they couldn't talk the stage guys into it. Sigh. I ended up picking up their DVD and a sticker, and I had them sign my Lifest t-shirt. Heheh.

After we had a few minutes to recover from Blindside, Merril dragged me over to Justifide. I didn't really like them [plus they were playing at the stage with the crappiest acoustics] so I left after 2 songs and wandered a bit. I ended up catching the end of Spoken and then heading back to camp to play guitar in Matt's car for a good hour and a half. =) Yay for station wagon jamming.

Sunday

The final day. We caught the worship service in the morning--Bob Lenz really is a great speaker. The service was interesting--they gave everyone a nail and whoever wanted could nail it into a large cross they had set up. I somehow got a mutilated nail with no end that could possibly go into wood and so I didn't end up doing that.

When I was running the TFK booth, I was next to Steller Kart's booth [although it wasn't ready yet] and people kept telling me to go see them. But I ended up missing them. Sorry. =)

I caught Plumb, though. I didn't know any of the songs, but they were pretty good. It was really hot and I was lazy, so I ended up sitting down on a lawn chair that I couldn't identify. I figured it was okay, because about a hundred people had left their chairs behind. =)

Later on I went to Kutless and despite the incredible heat it was still a good show. I met up with Merril yet again--this time -during- the concert. When it ended we went to meet up with Jess, Diana, and Nikki and they didn't want us to sit by them 'cause we smelled bad from behing around all the sweaty people. =) We hung out in the shade a while and then Merril and I went back for Pillar, the last big show of the day. They were a lot better than I remember them being last year. It was a fun [however sweaty] show. We met up with the gang again and then went to Hawk Nelson, the very last show. I only stayed for a song and a half. They weren't really bad, but they weren't worth staying another half-hour for when we all sort of wanted to go home. Nikki was pissed 'cause she really likes them and the entire first nine rows were largely composed of junior high girls. =)

Having packed up all our campsite junk earlier in the day, we were ready to attempt making it home in one piece. The drive home seemed a lot faster than the drive there, which is weird because I slept for half the ride there. We listened to some of the music we picked up [I bought Five Iron Frenzy's 'The End is Here'] and I made it home around 9:30. I took a much-needed shower [it was ninety-something degrees all day] and Melissa came over.

Yes, Martin's gossip on my comments is true. Chris is [amazingly] no longer single. Martin and Merril got the idea that they should set me up with Melissa and it turned out they were right. [Who'd have guessed? =)] More on that later, possibly. I'm out of posting ambition. This took awhile.

Also, Warped Tour post coming eventually. =)