It was a nice snapshot into what got Neil into his whole punk phase, I totally get it! If I had gone when I was late teens/early twenties, this might have shaped what kind of music I would be into. But I was also highly influenced by whomever I was with and what they were into since I'm not a very big music person. I mean, I like music, obviously, why else do I go to so many concerts???
The Aquabats! is such an amazing, wholesome group to see live! Apparently, the one singer has done stuff for children's shows and you can see how that influences their whole thing*! They had the crowd help two kids surf the crowd on inflatable pizzas, and it was so amazing to see everyone work together to get it done (safely!!! mostly!!!). They created a few new fans in our group that night. Neil and I are hoping they become the "signature band" of our one friend couple, they are both so wholesome and cute and a bit quirky (ok, the band is a lot bit quirky), it's a perfect match!
Actually, a TON of the groups that I saw were huge into crowd participation, either by actually going out into the crowd, or pulling people on stage; punk has that whole "we are all family here" vibe that was so awesome. Here is a video of Fish Bone going out into the crowd while singing, and here is a video of banana guy (just a random guy in a banana costume we kept seeing everywhere, ha), getting pulled on stage to dance.
On Saturday, during Less than Jake, they wanted everyone to make a giant circle mosh pit around the sound booth. My group was near the booth and we all just kinda side-eyed each other and was like, yay or nay? I SAID YAY and went for it (see me at the 54 second mark, red shirt in front of me is my brother, pink sweater and backback is me and at the very end my husband, wearing a bright blue cap)! There were moments that I felt a little unsafe, it got bottlenecked and I could feel the pressure of the crowd behind me and I was like if this doesn't move soon I might start having a panic attack... Once it all stopped, people were trying to find lost shoes their home (my husband helping by shouting LOST SHOE HERE, ANYBODY NEED A SHOE!), and this guy came up to us and was like, guys, FUNNY STORY, look at my shoes! I lost one, but found a different one, in the RIGHT SIZE. Another girl came up to grab the other random shoe because she was also missing one.
Also found out that the men in my life were keeping an eye on me, my brother purposely stayed around me in case I fell, and my husband saw that my brother was on watch so hung back. AWWWWW! I had no idea! To me it just felt like chaos, I was just running/pushing forward!
We went later on Sunday, we didn't spend the whole day like Saturday. The times kept changing for NOFX, and we found out later that they double booked themselves, one performance in Quebec and then Warped, and they were having a hella hard time getting back. So they had to find a private jet, get Shoreline to push the curfew (!!! this place is super strict about curfew so not sure how they managed that!), and had other bands play some of their songs. Sum 41 did the most since they started off as a NOFX cover band, who knew.
When we just got there, we met up with some friends, and one wanted to get his photo taken while jumping into a foam pit which makes it look like you are stage diving. For whatever reason, the line was taking FOREVER (it was moving much faster the day before! but people kept getting stuck, and losing glasses and such) and this girl behind me just would.not.stop.talking to me. She was trying to convince me to do it (girl powerrr) and that I would be on my death bed regretting not doing this and she used to be shy like me until she broke out of it and lalalala. Neil was like, as your legal counsel, I advise against you signing that waiver, and I was like, I will heed your advice mister legal guy. Not that I wanted to do it anyways!
At one point, this cute girl approached my brother and whispered in his ear and he looked so confused and said no? And she went away. Apparently, she asked him if he wanted any coke or molly, lolsssss! He was like, I just want to eat my nachos?
I didn't snap any photos of my outfit for the first day, because sober me was like no, this room is too messy, and the second day, well... I snapped it after I came back home. Drunk. Drunk me always thinks things are better ideas than sober me. So I didn't bother trying to move all the laundry, because I just wanted to strip and fall into bed. Plus, I think it adds to the whole "grunge" feel, right? LOLS. But you can see somehow my husband and I generate a metric tonne of laundry and my room is not always so tidy.
Groups I saw:
-Skating Polly
-Doll Skin
-The Vandals (the energy! dang, super funny live)
-Anti Flag
-Save Ferris (loved!)
-Less than Jake (participated in the circle pit!)
-The Aquabats! (too much fun, new favorite)
-The Offspring (one of the only groups I already knew, ha)
-Chali 2n, Cut Chemist
-Fish Bone
-Sum 41
-Tsunami Bomb
-Lagwagon
-The Used
-Jawbreaker (Neil gave me the tl;dr of this group and it literally moved me to tears. Might have also been all the vodka lemonade I just drank)
-Warped Super Band (various bands covering for NOFX until they could make it, Thrice, Sum 41 etc)
-NOFX (my husbands FAVORITE group (you can also see that drunk me gets like, MEGA SMILES) that I lowkey hate, but like I said earlier, live performances make a difference though I honestly preferred the songs sung by the other groups, or my husband!)
Plaid Button Up || Abercrombie & Fitch
Dress || American Apparel
Tank Top || Warped Tour (bought Saturday)
Shoes || Adidas (I had taken those off downstairs)
*Not only does Neil know the name of every member of a band/group he likes, he knows all the song titles, the lyrics, and personal history. I never go that deep. I couldn't tell you the main person of any group I like unless the group is named after them. He is also like this with movies and celebrities (him to me: oh you'll like this movie, it's directed by the same person that directed these two other movies you liked. me: (...) .
