Today has been so long, I can hardly remember it all. After breakfast this morning the 4 of us went to an outlet center for Rob to buy sneakers and for all of us to get Starbucks. We saw Phil Joel there which was fun. Then we headed to the hotel for Life Support practice/meeting. It was a bit long so Jolene and I left partway through to get some snacks at the grocery store... the rest of the time I played on phones and looked at pictures. After all that we headed to Gunstock for Soulfest!
Arriving there was a little chaotic, as I am learning it is for all (non-main-stage) artists who play festivals. Apparently someone had already checked in as Life Support... meaning, someone pretended to be them and took all the passes. Like who does that? So after waiting for awhile they got it sorted out, the band got their wristbands and the bus went to unload. Jolene and I had to hang around a bit for a parking pass, and we ended up being given meal cards and I got a bracelet. So basically, $70 spent on tickets I didn't need. D'oh. Oh well, at least I was there right? We got led to the VIP parking area, parked the car, and met up with the band at Mercy St Cafe. I watched free food flee before my eyes (we gave the cards to the band) and then we had supper. Asian chicken salad. I approve of (good) salads at festivals. Then we went back to Mercy St and the Band got ready to go.
I've never seen Life Support live before but man, they rocked it. They all came alive on stage. It was fun watching Rob & Pale. Andrew was AMAZING on drums, and Alex and Deanna were in hardcore worship mode, I just loved it. They were tight and energetic. Yep. Good show. I really hope they keep pushing with this band, they will go really far.
After Life Support got off stage we sat and chatted a bit; I was feeling really out of place, and really anxious to get to Switchfoot. Eventually I was like "why am I sitting here feeling crappy when I am at Soulfest???" so I left everybody and took off to the main stage. When I got there Maeve was finishing their set and they were great! 3 girls, a guy playing a cajon, and a 2 year old girl running around on stage haha. I'm assuming one of the girls is married to the cajon player and the 2 year old is their daughter. Maybe. Anyway they played acoustically and it was basically just percussion and 3-part harmonies. It was really nice :) I started off about 16 rows back center. I started chatting with 2 guys next to me about how many people we thought were there. My guess was 12,000 (found out later it was actually 13,000). They were really sweet; I ended up being with them for the whole show and they even looked out for me when a crowd surfer almost fell on me.
Eventually Switchfoot took to the stage and my sour mood left. They were amazing! Switchfoot aren't a band I ever really wanted to see live, but I realized tonight they really should have been on my list! I've been buying their CDs for a long time, and I know so much of their stuff. Their energy was awesome. I never expected them to jump off of things and run around as much as they did. They played a bunch of great songs... my favorites were probably "Gone" and "Mess of Me". The crowd was energetic for sure, I had a blast right up in the middle of it. The 2 guys I made friends with weaved up to 8th row, so I followed behind them. Partway through the set, Jon Foreman jumped down into the crowd and everyone went left towards him... so I took the opportunity to move up to 4th row center. So I had a great view. Energy was great, I had fun. When I was in 4th row there were guys in front of me that were jumping a lot and didn't have much of a concept of personal space... so I got stepped on a bit. And there was one single crowd surfer in the whole place, haha. He almost went down so I got under and helped push him forward... but he fell down like a row or two ahead, haha. The guys I was with were like "are you okay? Did you get hurt?" I was like no haha I'm used to this stuff. Anyway.... two days of rock shows. So much fun. Sad it's over.
After Switchfoot I found everybody else and we headed back to Mercy St Cafe to catch a tiny bit of John Reuben... a rapper who came out dressed in tin foil despite the insanely hot weather. It was so hot in there I only stayed a bit... eventually we got out of there, came back to the hotel and I practically ran to the shower. It looked like I had a tan but it was dust, and I blew my nose and dust definitely came out.... rock n roll is gross. Anyway, GREAT show. It's been a great trip for concerts!
Tomorrow the guys leave with Life Support to head to Toronto. I'm actually looking forward to low-key shopping with Jolene and hanging out with her parents in Maine. It's been super fun with the group of us but it'll be nice to not feel like a 3rd wheel for awhile. Home late Saturday night.
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