The day before last, August 1st, we woke up to breakfast in my aunt Pam’s house. She was lovely enough not only to put us up for the night, but also do our laundry, make us breakfast and let us all shower. We are very thankful.
The drive, if I remember right, was mostly uneventful. Max and Charlie almost got caught swingin the samurai sword around at some empty cans at one stop, but that was the height of excitement.
We arrived in Rockford really early, about 3:30. When we checked to see when the show started, the bartender at the venue said she thought it was starting at 7:00, but we spotted a flyer which said 9:00. We were even earlier than we originally thought.
To kill time, we went for a walk around the same areas we did last year. There were a lot more people around this time, with couples sitting together on park benches watching the ducks, and people in speed boats racing down the river. I wanted to take another crack at the huge gap I tried to jump last year, but I was in better shape then. There was no chance of me making it this year.
We came back to the van, lied around for a bit, then went to get Mexican in the same place we did last year. The music in that joint was priceless. It was made with MIDI sounds, and it was loud. Also, I tried a Jarritos soda, lemon lime. It was AWESOME! Charlie says they’re at United Pantry. Go check em out.
After Mexican, we sat around at the van for an hour, waiting for the show to start.
Unlike last year, the guy running the show at the bar (the same bar we played in last year) wouldn’t let us chill in the bar. We had to stick in the back room and he put stupid armbands on us to label us as underage. He was freaking out and it was frustrating us. We had no problem last year. Also he was wearing Heelies. The guy was over thirty years old.
The show went well, with large women shouting and cheering at us the whole time. We didn’t have a place to stay yet at this point, so Max made an announcement informing the crowd as such. Luckily, an extremely friendly young man named Ben offered us a place to stay. I honestly don’t think you could every find anyone as friendly as this guy. After standing around listening to the rest of the bands, we headed over to his house, where he offered us all the food in his kitchen and showers and anything else we could possibly need. Keep in mind that we had just met him a few hours before that.
One of the other bands, who were friends with Ben, came over and Ben ordered pizza for everyone. I was super tired, so I went to bed. The rest of the guys stayed up and hung around until early morning.
