due to the clamoring of my adoring public (hi Jennifer!), and since i finally managed to get off my ass and get the newest LP show flyers up on the site and get it updated, now seemed like a good time for a quick update.

in case you're wondering, yes, didn't quite make it to a post about the final day in DC/Jess' wedding yet, but… i'm getting there. maybe tomorrow when i'm taking a lazy half-day off work.

anyway, so… the festival itself kind of sucked. it was a joke really. yes, we are grateful to have had the experience of playing in that kind of an atmosphere, and we did have something of a good time, but the aspects of the festival that were supposed to be kick ass really weren't.

first off, first thing we get there, we drag our shit up to the gate, and whaddaya know? there're no dollys, no hand trucks, no big burly guys with bandanas waiting to help us lug our equipment to and from the gear storage and stage areas. these were things our festival brochure and the coordinator himself promised us would be there. so, in light of this first and most telling lie, who's glad that we decided not to pack that big ass Farfisa organ? i am, that's who.

i did take the initiative and accosted a Six Flags employee who was pushing around two dollys, and practically begged him for it. it worked, and i was happier. of course, our big grey tub is so damned heavy that it was still a major chore to haul it, even with a dolly. nevertheless my back and arms were mostly saved for the show.

we got to the stage, and the stage manager wasn't around, just his able bodied non-meal-voucher having assistant who was actually fairly helpful. we didn't get our meal vouchers that day because a) the stage manager wasn't there at any point while we were there, and b) because when we got done playing we were just too damned tired to give a rats ass, so jim, lori, and brax all went home. (i stayed and enjoyed the park for a while with my lovely sara).

anyway, i digress. after jim dropped the keyboard (at least 50% of our sound comes from that keyboard) and scared the crap out of us all, we mounted the stage and set up in record time (under 20 minutes, i do believe), then proceeded to have technical difficulties for the next five minutes after we tried to start playing.

once we got the technical issues worked out and got into our first song, it became apparent that we were going to have more issues, dealing with the stage monitors being adjusted for a mental patient with bad hearing in one ear but a good imagination. the monitors sucked. now, admittedly, as paul has pointed out, we could've gotten on the sound guys case a bit and had him adjust things, but my guitar was already feeding back as it was, plus the fact that we've never even worked with a "real" sound guy before, and we just kind of went with it. of course, come to find out after talking to the Pine Club the next day, they had similar issues with the monitor setup ("we couldn't hear shit up there") and they at least have quite a bit of experience between them of working with an engineer on a sound board. so, my conclusion is that the sound guy who was supposedly so experienced really either wasn't, or just couldn't compensate for the crappy equipment or stage dynamics. apparently, it sounded just lovely off-stage so i guess it's not all bad. it's just too bad we couldn't hear the beat and were guessing where we were in the songs half the time.

we did make it through though, and with at least half-a-minute to spare before our scheduled stop time. we hauled ass off stage with bile on our tongues, broke down, and got the hell out of there.

as i said, sara & I stayed and enjoyed the park for a while, if you can call getting bruised and cracked ribs enjoyable. my advice, if you go to Kentucky Kingdom, no matter how simple and "fun" it looks, do NOT ride the Roadrunner Express. that is probably the most violent coaster i've been on, and it's just a step above a kiddie coaster. we walked around for a while after that, but it made my head hurt, and we didn't feel like waiting in long lines, so we left the park and headed back to the house for a movie and some popcorn.

the next day, brax and i headed back out to the "festival", and we also walked around quite a bit. we finally managed to make it to the "big" "main" artists area the Paramarx Arena, and found to our utter lack of surprise, that it was two booths, a stage, and a smaller stage where some lawyer was talking about "how to make it in the music industry" to a crowd of maybe 15 people. yaaay louisville music! there were probably a total of 25 (this is me being generous) people in the "Arena" altogether, including brax & myself. one booth was for the mutual-admiration club called LMIA, the other was for a local recording studio. outside the arena was another stage with a girl doing karaoke… well, it was supposedly original music, i'm sure, but she was just singing over a tape. despite the promised in the festival promotional literature, there was no booth or tent set up for band photos, there was no catering, there were no "industry reps" within eyeshot, at least none set up in any sort of obvious or approachable place. so, with another 90% of the festival promises shattered, brax & i walked back to stage #5 to catch the Pine Club, get some water, and rest our baked and weary bodies.

post pine, we went and rode some roller coasters. Chang is highly recommended, T2 not so much. we walked around a hell-of-a-lot, but when we came up on some long lines at some of the other coasters we were moderately interested in riding, we decided to forego it, and to head home. all-in-all, we were there for maybe 3.5 hours.

it was a worthwhile experience, and we can now say that we've played a theme park, but it's not something we're looking to repeat. no more festivals. only dark, cool, small places where people are there for a reason (those being either a. to drink, or b. to see a rock show).

right now, of course, we're looking forward to August 9th. and you should be too.