As I noted in the post that is directly below this one, this was the first day that I had full range to explore the festival. I had been telling people that I was going to go to four venues this night: The Mill, PS One, Yacht Club, and Tobacco Bowl. So, I’ll organize it by venue rather than some other way.

Venue one was technically The Englert for the reception that I attended with Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon. I should note that I didn’t talk to either of them and remembered that I absolutely hate receptions after about three minutes. I’m not good with social situations and talk very little. You figure it out why I hate being at these things. Most times when I attend these things through force and/or necessity, there is at least food to make it suck less. You don’t have to talk to anyone, but instead, can lurk in the background, eating things on sticks. So, there was this, but a) it was all vegan and b) there wasn’t nearly enough for the thirty people that were there. Total disaster of a reception. I won’t be attending another one ever again.

Real venue one was The Mill. The place was packed with people. The first band Stare Case was wearing sunglasses and playing music if you want to call it that. I ran into my friend John, and we both couldn’t help but notice the cool posing on stage. The two men were totally disaffected, staring off into the distance and playing rather repetitive music. The bass lines were the same notes with some of them looped over and over again for the satisfaction of, at least, not me. I thought some of it was cool, but the majority of it was rather boring. I really expected far more aggression coming from a band that is made of members of Wolf Eyes, which is one of the most savage noise groups outside of Merzbow and power electronics groups like Whitehouse. Anyway, after talking with John and his rather attractive Physics friend (I never caught her name, but I’ve seen her around before.), Kim and Thurston came on stage with Chris Corsano. As I noted in my prior post, I had hit my limit with ambient music. That’s exactly was the mirror/dash set was. I wasn’t really surprised, as I had seen them over 6 years ago at a noise concert in Washington, D.C. following the 1st election of George W. Bush. I actually walked out of that set because it was really boring. The same held here for me. This combined with my disinterest in want to be at another ambient show led me to peace out.

As I was finishing my beer to leave The Mill, I ran into some dudes out on the patio who were ready to just rock out. They wanted to do this at this show, but did not realize that this show was just not the place to dance and groove. I gave him some hints on where he could go to check out a show, including the two shows that I was going to later that same night. He called me a liar, but unbeknownst to him, I was totally right. After this discussion, I went back in, realized I was making the right decision, then moved operations to venue number two.

This place was Public Space One. I saw a band from Pittsburgh called Horse or Cycle. They were an awesome pop/punk band and the spirit that my soul needed. They had verses, choruses, and even more verses. They also had chord progressions and appeared that they had played the songs more than a few times before. Their time was good, and their live show was just really entertaining. I caught a large portion of their set and was rather glad for it. I ran into Chad (who I texted after not looking over to see him on the bench across from me), and he hated it. He doesn’t like a lot of things, and he’s wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed them. Check them out if they come through your town. We’re going to depart this space for a second, but it will return again later in this story.

During the time break, I tried to get Chad into the Yacht Club to no success. I caught the wrong door guy; the other door man would have let Chad in, but it’s whatever. We peaced out from there to go to Mission Bleak, a quick alternate show held by the punks in town, at the Tobacco Bowl. It featured two bands. One was Shitty Wizard, which is Alex Body’s alter ego. Not as good as his regular stuff or Bongrider, but it was still entertaining. As soon as he finished, Supersonic Piss got up and ripped. I advocate to anyone that likes punk rock to see Supersonic Piss because they are a straight-ahead, hard-hitting punk band. This show was a good example of that. There were people crowd surfing, a super heavy mosh pit, and pure, uncut insanity. There was a dude taking photos of this show from behind the drummer Joe (who also plays in Slut River, which I will discuss in due time). I would love to see those when they pop up later after this festival. I was in the front for the first three or four songs, but I got tired. I had to get out. Plus, it got super dangerous. One of the downsides of wearing toms is that they have ZERO traction. ZERO. I couldn’t push back on people because I had nothing close to friction. Either way, I was hot for the rest of the night.

I left from here to go to the Yacht Club to catch some of the Das Racist set. It was pretty good. They did one of my favorite songs from them in “Rainbow in the Dark,” but they laid it on a little thick with the air horn and tiger sounds. That was just sort of stupid. Those kids have talent, but they need to stop being so gimmicky. Just rap and get the crowd into it like they definitely can. I watched them for as long as it took me to drink my beer. I said what’s up to Andre, Todd, James, and Mikko as they were all just milling about at the bar. After I finished up, I went back to PS One and caught the end of Winters Ruby. Chad described their set as the song that I caught but multiplied by eight. The song that I heard wasn’t too bad, but I don’t know if I would want to hear it nine times.

Anyway, their set ended and Slut River started playing. Slut River is one of my favorite local bands. They play hard, and their lead singer has consummate stage presence. I love watching her clear the boys out in the pit and just own it, in heels no less. This was the best time I had seen them play as they had really clearly practiced. They were sharp, and the band as a whole just destroyed it all. It was the best way to end my night.

This picture below is my shirt at the end of the night. I don’t expect such heroics again tonight, but that’s fine. I just want to have fun. That’s what everyone wants to do, right?