Fest 8 was GR8 review! - Zachs version!

Alright so..... The Fest is a punk rock fest that happens every October in Gainesville, Florida. It has over 200 bands and they are pretty much all awesome. Austin and I were lucky enough to be able to go last October and we had the time of our lives, with a few minor complaints. I will say what I thought and then let Austin tell you what he thought. First I will say that the top three performances of the fest were as follows....

1. Comadre
2. Lemuria
3. Psyched To Die

HM. Ampere

I had seen Comadre twice before but, holy crap, they were SO ridiculously intense. I had so much fun during their set. My face was bleeding afterwards and it was so awesome. Crazy mosh pits. I think I'll say after seeing them three times that Comadre is the best active live band. Whenever "Burn the Scene" is played, its INSANE. So awesome.

Lemuria is my favorite active band. I was able to meet Alex Kerns and Sheena Ozzella (the drummer, and guitarist respectively. Both are on vocals) They were super nice and cool. When they played I was able to sing along to every song and the mosh pits were awesome. I was a little pissed when a stupid moron came into the mosh pit with a cup of beer and spilled it all over my favorite Lemuria shirt. I wanted to perform an SXE beatdown right then and there. (just kidding) It REALLY pissed me off. I'll touch more on this later though.... Anyway, Lemuria played pretty much all of their best songs and it was a lot of fun.

Psyched To Die has one of my favorite musicians Mike Yannich (from The Ergs!) on guitar and vocals. Its pretty much a straight forward pretty fast hardcore band. They are SO good though. I saw them in a tiny venue called 1982 and it was loads of fun. Everyone was getting into it and I had a great time. I went up to Mike after, and showed him my ergs! tattoo and he gave me a gigantic bear hug. It pretty much made my life.

Ampere was the honorable mention (cause a top 4 would be weird) They were right after Comadre so I was tired but they were even more intense then Comadre, which was a little TOO intense for me but still ridiculously awesome. It was probably the roughest mosh pit I had been in. They were super nice people too.

Ok onto the disappointments.....

1. Japanther
2. The Measure (SA)
3. Banner Pilot

Ok I will start by saying that I absolutely love all three of these bands. Theyre all awesome BUT their fest performances werent too great.

Japanther played in the biggest venue which I think was a major mistake. Their music came off as boring, generic, and kind of lame, which it isnt at all on their recordings. I've been wanting to see Japanther for years and when I finally did they really came off flat. It really bummed me out. I hope they come back to SLC so I can see them in a smaller venue where their music will probably be much better.

2. The Measure (SA) is a great pop-punk band with (you guessed it!) Mike Yannich on the drums but they all came on stage really drunk, and they just werent that great. I really love them and would love to see them again but it just wasnt what I was expecting.

3. Banner Pilot is a pretty good orgish band but I've never been way into them so I wasnt TOO pumped to see them. Still though, I was pretty stoked and they were just kinda boring. Maybe if I knew their music better or was more into them they would have been better but for the most part it wasnt that exciting.


Gripes and Complaints -

I had heard that there is a lot of drinking at the fest and I dont drink but I didnt think too much into it. When I got to the shows and especially the "after-shows" the drinking was insane and really obnoxious. I mean why would you fly from all over the country, or world to go get drunk? Shouldnt you be there for the music? To see your favorite bands? I mean, you can get drunk at home on your couch or at a frat party with a bunch of bros. Come on. And whats with the dumbasses bringing cups of beer into mosh pits? My Lemuria shirt was drenched from beer after the Lemuria show. It was disgusting. At the after shows people were drunk out of their mind making COMPLETE dicks out of themselves and when a hardcore band came on and starting doing their breakdowns I actually welcomed all the hardcore dancers who I usually hate with a passion. They scared away the stupid drunks. Also some fester came up and offered us weed and then scoffed at us when we respectfully declined. Screw that stuff. Its stupid.

Also, the lines were pretty long and getting into venues was a real pain. That got very frustrating at times but I was still able to see a ton of good bands, and pretty much everyone that i wanted to see except for Defiance, Ohio. (but I've seen them before so its ok)

Overall fest 8 was amazing! I recommend it to everyone who can go. Maybe I'll be back next year, who knows?