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my friends; kay and el, and i arrived just before TIMES NEW VIKING started and listening to them was a great way to start the fest. i had wanted to see RAT KING but we were moving slow; sometimes coffee is more important than metal.
TIMES NEW VIKING had a lot of energy and i danced and flailed to their rocknroll, other people must still been waking up. i've seen them a couple of times before and they were just as good. i noticed the guys got haircuts and beth has a new orc synth. i'm glad middle earth has resumed production.
i've always rocked out to SHONEN KNIFE on cd, so it was awesome to finally see them live. the 60s girl-pop suits and the fuzzy guitars were a good mix. they were also fun to dance to. i was offered bbq snaps during "let's have a bbq party", the guy thought it might improve my dancing.
as they were finishing kay txtd me that THE SWORD was starting so i walked up the hill towards the black stage. On my way i passed an impeccably dressed couple; he: a dark brown suit, patent shoes and a small rimmed hat; she: a vintage embroidered dress and victorian style leather boots as well as many others in black shirts, black glasses, black hair and fosters tall cans.
THE SWORD was like nordic metal processed through southern rock meat grinder. the shredding solos and punishing time switches had everyone in the crowd banging their heads to the swaggering strut, hands in the air, flashing horns with hands. i've never seen so many horns fans at a metal show.
i hung out for a minute with kay and el who were waiting for MELT BANANA to start but while they set up i noticed that NO AGE were starting. when i arrived at the orange stage they were still testing levels. so i went to blue stage and i don't even know what was playing but it didn't catch my interest so i went back to orange and NO AGE had started. they were noisy and driving and as the waves of distorted effects pounded against me i looked around. it was as if all the festival goers had suddenly turned into teenagers. there was no one who looked over eighteen as far as the eye could see.
when NO AGE paused between songs to adjust settings i could feel yako's singing wrapping around my torso and pulling me towards the black stage.
as i approached black stage, i was accosted with the familiar digital squeal and crunching stutter that is MELT BANANA. yako sang into the whirlpool of bodies at the front of the stage pausing only to pull a face for one of the thousands of mobile/video/pda/mini/cameras at the fest. i've seen them before, but every time, they tear through an angular thrashing high energy set that whips the crowd into a sweating, howling frenzy. i jumped around and screamed at the edge of the ever expanding pit, a row of people away from getting sucked in.
towards the end of the set a couple security guys stood at the edge of the stage like stiff sentinels staring off into the crowd behind where i was jumping. they sprung like stage divers doing a cannonball right onto the cement and bolted towards two guys punching each other on the cinder-block-ground. there was a tussle and then everyone involved ran to the band entranced followed by some rubberneckers who just wanted to see what's up.
the crowd was roared at the end of the set and i made my way out of the grinning staggering throng to look for kay and el.