View Part 2 here.
Mayhem Festival 2012!
Ok, so here's the story. I kinda wanted to go to this festival for months. I had planned to go with some friends, but like two days before the show, everyone cancelled for one reason or another. I bought my tickets anyway thinking I would probably meet up with some people up there since I pretty much know everyone in Indiana, and I had some people I knew were going up there with other people. But the venue is like an hour's drive from my house and I just didn't want to drive up there alone.
So anyway about 15 hours before the show, my friend Liz gets offered a free VIP ticket, so she totally jumped on that and was like, "hey let's caravan up there with Chris and Eddie." So we tried to call them, and they were both like, "I'm not going because I'm lame". So Liz and I went up there without them.
So I went to pick up Liz and when I get to her house she tells me that the guy who gave her his extra ticket has a migraine, and so now he has two extra VIP tickets, and if we drive up to his place (which was on the way anyway) that I could have it. So we did, and VIP tickets include some really kick-ass parking and access to the air conditioned bar. It made for a really good time. Not to mention that we were basically upgraded from the lawn to the lower pavilion for free. Lower pavilion at this venue is just about as close as you can get to the show. You can easily throw shit at the stage from this distance, and I am a girl, and I throw like a girl.
See, we were really close.
So we get there and Liz and I met up with my friend Nick, who lives in the middle of nowhere North Dakota. He actually used to be in a local Indianapolis metal band in the late 90's early 2000's, Pupil. Then drama happened and he left the band and then the band turned into some other band. Ishiah (or something like that... I don't remember or know the details.) So I hadn't seen Nick in like 10 years. So it was fun to hang out with him again. He's currently in a band called Celestria in North Dakota, and we had to break the news that his band name is totally the name of the princess of Equestria in My Little Pony. Good job Nick.
So later on, I sent a text to Chris, that said something to the sort of, "I am drunk, come out here and keep me out of trouble." Which actually worked to get him to the show believe it or not. And when he got there and I was not drunk, he bought me drinks cause he is awesome.
Then his lady, Reeann showed up too! She is awesome, and I was super excited that they were both able to come out considering that they had completely bailed on the idea two days before.
Here is all of us together. I'm not in the pic cause I took it.
I also met up with someone I used to LARP with. (Don't judge me!)
I really love this venue. It has so much open space, so you're not just sitting out in the middle of the sun surrounded by a bunch of smelly people.
So on with the show I guess.
At the second stage we saw White Chapel and a number of other bands. I thought they were pretty good. Though I'd never really heard of them before. Liz went crowd surfing. So that was fun.
Then we went over to the main stage and caught As I Lay Dying, which Chris was excited to see. Liz and I took this time to go check out our seats in the pavilion to see how good they were. The seats were awesomely close to the stage.
Then we went back up to the lawn to hook back up with everyone else. We spent most of our time up on the lawn with everyone. Motorhead and Slayer played. And they were good, but I mean they're so old you know. Still good, but didn't have any new stuff or anything.
When Slipknot came on, Liz and I ran back down to our pavilion seats. There was a loud gunshot of sorts that totally startled me, and I ducked and screamed. I then realized that it was part of the show. I felt pretty embarrassed, but that's ok. Slipknot is AMAZING!
They have 3 drummers! I never knew that. It was really cool. They had a really cool light show with fire and projections and fire. And some of the band was playing drums way up in the air while others were climbing up onto the drum kit. And another drummer was playing completely upside down, something I haven't seen since I saw Blink 182 in 2002.
But anyway, where the seats were, it actually allowed no wind at all, so I had to go back up to the lawn about 1/2 way through the set so I wouldn't pass out. I think I actually had more fun out in the grass anyway because it's easier to jump around without tripping over chairs and stuff. The show was still awesome from out in the lawn.
And that wraps up the Mega Metal Weekend review. Sorry it took so long, but the awesomeness made me mentally check out for about a week.
