Friday evening we embarked on our trip to Phildelphia, PA to attend SFU Showcase. The drive seemed easy enough. Josh drove the first half, I drove the second and pretty much the rest of the weekend. We stopped at Sheetz, which was a highlight of the trip. There were these two kids there with a lot of tattoos and vans on. One of them had a "WVHC" tattoo. I wanted to ask them about West Virginia hardcore but I didn't.
We arrived in Philly a few hours early and needed shit to do. I wanted to do some touristy shit but there was a lot of traffic. We found Love Park and took pictures
. Then we walked down the street a bit to sight see and we found a subway. I've never been in one so the boys let me wander around down there for a bit. It smelled like pee but the trains looked pretty cool. I would like to ride on one someday..just to say I did it. We dinked around a little bit more than went to the church to sit outside for an hour or something. I saw a handful of people I knew and made small talk. Most of the time was spent with Jim, Josh, and Ethan. Oh, in the midst of cruising around the ghetto of Philly, Josh's "Check Engine" light came on.
We had to pay $10 for parking..and that sucked but the safety of our belongings was comforting.
The Mongoloids played first. It was the most awkward set I've seen any band play. I mean, not the band, but the reaction from the crowd was weird. Jim was the first and sort of only person to mosh. Some kids were singing along but no one really cared. Greg seemed to just mock everyone and say "Your opinions change every week anyway." I suppose he's right.
Bitter End played next. They played an awesome set. It wasnt as crazy as I remember Philly being. I don't know..maybe the city's gone soft. Who knows! Bitter End played a handful of new songs and nothing off the demo. That bummed me out because I don't know a lot of songs off Climate of Fear but that's okay because I really enjoyed seeing them again.
The Rival Mob played third. I think we were outside taking a water break because it was pretty stinking hot in there. One of Jim's friends landed on their neck during the 3rd song so I went with him to make sure his friend was okay and he was pretty shaken up about it so we went outside to chill. I've seen Rival Mob a handful of times and I'm sure I will again. The few songs I saw were awesome. They opened up with "We're Mental with a Tazmanian devil singer," that mother fucker always has the funniest shit to say in between songs/opening/closing. It rules. "Everybody eat pussy and freak the fuck out"
Alert played next. They are a straightedge youth crew band from Mass. Typical YCHC but they rule. It was a fun set and kids seem to really enjoy them.
Mother of Mercy played before Floorpunch, which is whatever I don't understand that because they are the newest band out of the others (beside Alert). I like MOM but sat outside because it was fucking hot. yeah I sound like a bitch in this post. Eat me.
There was some downtime before Floorpunch. Josh started to freak out about money and his car and that caused me to stress because Josh usually is pretty laid back and doesn't give a fuck. We talked about not going to see Forfeit which bummed me out. We decided to just see what happens after the show and try to get shit done.
Floorpunch played. I've said this before I would be more stoked if I was still straightedge and 17 seeing Floorpunch. I like Floorpunch a lot but the songs just meant so much more to me when I was straightedge (WAH WAH WAH). I still had a great time. They played Warzone intro which was really perfect (RIP RAYBEEZ). They didn't play Shottsie, which is the one song I really wanted to hear. Pit was decent, nothing to crazy. Inside jokes were laughed out, rumors were smashed, good times were had.
I picked up a Rival Mob 7" and a Floorpunch tank top that is fucking ill- and it ripped in the washer so I need to sew it.
After the show Jim traded a Rival Mob Bitter Rivals shirt for a 93 Eurodiscipline shirt in perfect condition.
We go to the car and went to Autozone to see whats up with Josh's car, they were no help. We decided to wing it and drive to Syracuse (this is why I have the best friends). We stopped at a rest area and fought about where to stay because everywhere was so expensive or out of the way and I was in a grumpy mood because I felt like I had to pay for the whole hotel by myself and I was just wasn't having that.
We ended up staying at a SleepInn somewhere in PA in route to Syracuse. It wasn't too expensive and it was nice enough. I liked it. We ate some awesome pizza and slept. Woke up for breakfast and swim but we couldn't find the hotel pool and had to check out.
On the way to Syrcause we made stupid stops like one in Scranton to take a picture with a city sign, but there were none so fuck Scranton. We stopped at Hot Topic and Josh stole some sunglasses and I bought an ODB shirt for $3 which was tight. Ethan bought a Hatebreed shirt for $3, so, he wins.
We stopped in Cortland, NY to eat at a cool little deli-
We arrived in Syracuse a few hours early. I slept most of the way there.
I'm going to finish this soon.
