14/08/2009

So it begins

A few quick thoughts on the first night of Fucking Awesome Fest.

People kept asking me if I was, “ready for this.”  My old-manness must of have been showing, because I really wasn’t — but I did really enjoy myself.

  • I liked the set up a lot more than I thought I would.  When you take the theater out of the mix, have bands in the Garden Bowl Lanes AND in the bar, the cafe and 3 stages of the Stick you almost feel compelled to stay in constant motion.  You really can see a little bit of every band if you don’t stop moving your feet.  Perfectly suited to an ADD, iPod shuffle culture.  I’m not sure that’s great for the bands, but I did have a good time.
  • The new Cafe stage is very nice and the acoustic treatments and high ceilings easily make it the best sounding room in the joint.  But it can get loud.  I have no idea why I thought I could go in there to catch a little bit of Chapstik’s awesome brutalness without hearing protection.
  • I’ve never enjoyed Garden Bowl bar shows as much as I did last night.  I’m going to attribute it to Fidrych, the Four Hour Friends and the Beggars — but it sounded pretty good.  I heard someone describe Beggar’s singer Steven Davis as the retarded son of Jim Morrison and Roger Daltry.  That person was me and I mean it as the highest compliment.
  • The side stage in the stick never works that well.  Creating two side stages up there instead of one didn’t help.  I saw Troy Gregory, Friendly Foes and a little Tyvek — all of which sounded pretty good musically, but the wedding dj mains they were using for vocals got swallowed up as soon as there were 50+ people on the floor.  I understand we get to see more bands when they use this setup, but there has to be a better way.
  • The only band I saw in the Garden Bowl was Allen James and the Coldwave — who I’ve somehow managed to never see before.  They were pretty great, strong melodies and good interplay between AJ’s lead vocals and Ryan Allen’s harmonies.  I’m not sure moving the stage to the back of the lanes and having the crowd walk on rugs was good for the bowling lanes, but it did open up the room (and the fire exits) improving both the sound and the traffic flow dramatically.

Here’s my one hint for tonight.  If you hate entertainment, skip Juiceboxxx.  Hopefully, we’ll get some Judgement Night shit as well.

Text posted at 09:22

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