But It's So Hard To Say Goodbye

Sunday's show--

The Homeschoolers are a pretty cool local band, but they are changing their name. Sunday was their last night officially known as the Homeschoolers, but they decided to temporarily change their name to Death By Numchucks, a move I fully support. Turns out Brandon and the guitarist used to hang out a couple years ago. Small world. I got their CD 'cause it was cheap 'cause they wanted to get rid of their old Homeschooler labeled stuff.

The Switch was by far the most entertaining band I've seen. The singer and drummer were up there just having a blast [not that the rest of the band wasn't.] I was a little scared however when the drummer started something all too familiar...that annoying Gwen Stefani song that I can't remember the name of. Anyway, it was pretty funny to hear coming from this guy.

The Dog & Everything was next up, and they were pretty cool. I picked up their CD afterwards and it too is pretty cool. Look 'em up.

The Fold was last [and the band I knew] and they also were pretty cool. So I bought a t-shirt. We talked to the singer for a while before the show and it turns out he used to be in Showoff and it was like, his sixth or seventh time playing at the Warehouse.

So there's my barely-late-at-all Fold wrap-up.

Got a cell phone today. Just a matter of time before I become one of those annoying kids that never looks up from the mobile.

In other news I don't know what the hell I was thinking choosing an out-of-state college. I don't want to do this anymore. But it's a little late now.

Remind Your Parents, We're Tomorrow

On the way back from a Halo party last week, Dan put on Anberlin's new CD and I really liked it. I gotta get myself a copy of that.

The Halo-ing was up in Winona with some guys I work with. Thursday was my last day working at Burnstad's and I'm glad to be done but I did meet some cool people there. It's almost enough to convince me to come back and work there over winter break.

Almost. =)

So this is going to be the Warped Tour update. And I'm going to rush through it. 'Cause I'm lazy.

We [me, Nick, Merril, John] headed down to Chicago on Friday and stayed with Nick's godparents. They live in this awesome house by a big lake and they have a boat and a paddleboat and a pool table and a foosball table and staying there was almost more fun than the concert itself. >.>;; We hung out there with his cousin Ashley and eventually [around 4 am] ended up watching Dazed and Confused and got a few hours of sleep.

The next day it took us a while to wake up and head to the Tweeter Center and when we finally got there, the All-American Rejects were already playing. So we ended up waiting in line listening to most of their set and we got to their state just in time to hear the Last Song. [literally.] So we tried to figure out how things were working out and while we were studying the big board with all the bands on it we ended up missing Mae without realizing it. Then we found out that you could get the schedules text messaged to your cell phone, and since Nick had his, we did that and it worked out a whole lot better.

This was about the point that everybody realized that I was the -only- person with pockets. And not small pockets! Large cargoshorts pockets. So I was stuck carrying everybody's crap for the first half the concert, until they finally started visitng merch tents and got bags.

Anyway, the first concert we caught all the way through was Relient K. They were fun, I knew all the songs and I managed not to get kicked in the head by body surfers [but it came close several times.] Afterwards we walked around a bit, caught one song by Hawthorne Heights (Ohio is For Lovers, which was the only one we knew anyway, so that was cool.)

Then I had to break off from the group--I don't remember who they wanted to see....Mest, that's who they wanted to see. So they headed that way and I went to a stage on the other side of the place to catch the Matches. I only knew a couple of their songs but they put on an awesome show, I couldn't believe the crowd for how small the stage looked. [[The lead singer had some crazy hair. I can't begin to explain it, but it rocked.]] "Sick Little Suicide" was their last song and it was an amazing ending to their show. I forgot to come back to their booth and buy something later. >.>;

I met up with the group again and they were getting ready for MxPx, except that I wanted to go see Paramore, so I had to break away from the group again. Paramore was playing on this tiny stage that was basically just a pink [yes, pink] U-haul truck opened up on the side. But they still put on a great show. I couldn't believe how young the singer looked--she's 17 or 18, but she looked 14. She was at least a foot shorter then the other guys in the band and it was hard to believe that was -her- singing. It was probably the smallest crowd I was in that day, but it was still a fun show.

So that was followed by more merchtentmooching. I don't really remember the order of the rest of the bands, and there's no hard copy of a schedule or anything so it's all a little random now. Nick went into the crowd at the Starting Line while the rest of us hung back. Personally I didn't really think their show was that good--they ended with a Rage Against the Machine cover and a poor one at that. It was like, wait, what? So yeah. But they opened with Best of Me, and that was nice.

We weren't all that interested in the Transplants, but the Dodgers were, so we sort of left them there and wandered a bit during the concert [I think this was about the time I bought my Warped Tour and No Use For a Name shirts.] Talked to a couple of the guys from No Use For a Name and they were cool. Oh that reminds me, I saw their show too. I think it was before the Starting Line. Or after. Anyway, nobody else with me knew them, so they hung back and I went up close. They were at the first Warped Tour and they're still going strong, and amazingly they're still relatively unknown. Also, it was kind of nice being the youngest person in that section of the crowd for a change. =) The only song they played that I knew was Dumb Reminders, and they were playing that as I was getting there, but I still enjoyed it. Gonna pick up a CD or two of theirs sooner or later.

At some point we wandered past Thrice, and the singer sounded stoned out of his mind. It was amusing.

Fall Out Boy was insane. I'd heard they were huge, but I guess I didn't realize how huge. I was almost a football field away from the stage, and there were still people bodysurfing around me and it was crammed. Everybody around me knew the words to almost every song. I knew maybe three. It was just really weird. I wish I caught them when they played at the Warehouse--I think only a year ago. Crazy. Now they're being played on MTV and pop radio and I can barely listen to From Under the Cork Tree now. It's a tragedy.

Nick and Brandon went up for the Offspring while the rest of us hung back. It looked like a pretty good show but by this point, we were sort of tired.

Motion City Soundtrack was the last show we went to. It was in the actual Tweeter Center, which was a big stadium type room with some really bad acoustics. Okay, I'm a little crazy when it comes to stages. If the sound sucks, I -won't- stay for the show, I don't care who it is. At Lifest, I didn't watch a single show in the Pit because it's got the worst acoustics of any place I've ever been to. Plus, I only knew one song by them, so I sat way in back. Nick was the only one that went forward, which was weird because only minutes before he was going on about how tired he was.

I'm pretty sure I covered everything? I hope so.

So that night we drove back to our home away from home and proceeded to complain about how tired we were and then stay up all night. We made fun of Nick and hung out with his cousin. Merril and I took the paddleboat out [it took about a half hour before we figured out how to drive it] and nearly fell asleep in the middle of the lake. Then Ashley took the group around the lake [it was a really long lake] on the boat. Much foosball was played and I am currently undefeated on a six game streak. =)

And the next day we headed home. Not much to say there. *shrug* I ended up driving the entire Wisconsin part, but that's okay because driving Nick's car is an adventure! =)

So that's my Warped Tour adventure. Any adventure's that may have happened since shall not be posted 'cause it's too late for that.

And everyone welcome Martin back to the wonderful world of Wisconsin!

Also, I'm going to post every day. To freak everyone out. I want to see what'll happen.