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. =)

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...