Norma Jean Blog and Journals

I went with (pictured below) my brother Francis (the funny guy with the headband) and my cousin Bill (the young'n, his first major music event ever). Quite exciting.

    We arrived and got into the gates at 11:30 ish. To my surprise, we were welcomed in by the sounds of The Academy Is... I didn't expect them to be playing so early. Now, I'm not a huge TAI fan, but of course I couldn't resist snapping a quick shot of The Beckett before checking the schedule board. That boy is bee-ee-ay-yoo-ti-full. Didn't stick around though, I had bigger fish to fry.

    A quick glance at the board told me that We The Kings was playing, and soon!! So without a second thought, I bolted off to find the Hurley stage without checking anything else. I wanted to be on that barricade, and I wasn't going to take my chances on missing out on them again. [It's a long story. You can ask me on your own time if you want.] Found the stage and hurled myself into the Pierce the Veil crowd. It wasn't terribly hard to wiggle to the front. They finished their set, (I have to give them a good listen, I wasn't really paying attention but I liked what I heard) and I actually picked up a guitar pick. I met my new friend Julia, who squished up next to me to wait for WTK and we had some good conversation about some bands we had in common. We exchanged numbers and texted all day. Now we plan on being myspace bffls and meeting up for Cobra Starship/Forever the Sickest Kids in the Fall. We entertained eachother and soon enough, Travis, Hunter, Drew and Danny hopped up on stage. I could talk all day about how amazing they were, but you can just see for yourself. Check my videos! Oh and I have to brag about getting a piece of the redhead's arm when he reached out to us in the crowd. I even got a picture.

    After We the Kings, I wanted to explore the merch tent area and get myself oriented with the layout. I saw fellow Buzzsters Jac Vanek and Jeffree Star in the flesh, I must say I was really weirded out seeing them in person. Francis and I bought some sweet new pairs of shades ($5 each! Loves it!), and Bill got his compilation cd. We tried to go to the MySpace tent for an FTSK acoustic set but there were too many people so we walked away. Instead, Francis wanted to check the board for the rest of the bands we wanted to watch, so we paused at the Ernie Ball Stage. He went off and Bill and I stuck around and watched the band that was playing, Transit Studio. They weren't bad, but I'm not really compelled to explore them further.

    We jogged around the tents some more, and then posted up by the Highway 1 Stage sound tent to sit down and get a comfortable viewing spot for Story of the Year. (Sadly, we had missed Cobra Starship.) While waiting we heard a little bit of Norma Jean from the Route 66 Stage. Story of the Year started and I decided I really like them. Hahaha. Got a little video, watched a couple songs, but then we lost interest and went back to the tent area so I could buy my We The Kings tee.

    The next band on our list was Forever the Sickest Kids but they weren't for another few hours. So we walked around, scored some free stuff, and checked out some of the causes that were on the tour. We popped a squat in a shady area until the sounds of Oreskaband drew us over to the Hurley.com stage. Those girls are cute, yet badass at the same time (at least as BA as you can get while playing ska). I didn't even care that I couldn't understand their Japanese, their stuff was fun to jump and dance around to.

    Bill got thirsty so we went to get him a Sprite. On our way to the food area, I stopped at the Sk8 Ramp stage because The Randies drew me over there. It's 4 chicks rocking out, how do I not stop and watch? I like them. Listened to a song, took a picture and kept walking. After we got out drinks we got stopped by some boys of a band called Farwell. Jason, Jordan and Andrew. They persuaded us to listen to a track off their CD and we liked it. They told us that they had lost 2 members while on the tour, and spent all their money on fixing their van when it broke down. They're from Michigan and they weren't sure how they were gonna get home. So we bought their CD and a sweet pair of shorts (modeled by Jordan below) for $20. Even though it was my last twenty, I knew it was going to a good cause. They have to get home, for crying out loud. We rattled up some shenanigans with them, and Francis took a pretty good video. I'm glad we made some friends. I should text Andrew and see if they figured out a way home. Oh yeah, and while we were talking to them Motion City Soundtrack was playing in the background. You can hear on the video. Ha.

    Since I was out of money, we sat down in our shady spot and waited for Forever the Sickest Kids. We planned on getting to their stage a little early, but we pit stopped at the port-a-potties. Got into the middle of the FTSK crowd shortly after Panima finished up. We were in a pretty nice spot, or so I thought. As soon as the band got onstage there was a MAD push for the front and yours truly got stuck smack dab in the middle. I was a few people back from the front, and right in the center, with no escape. All I had to say was "FTSK? F-U-C-K!" The crowd got hyped and everyone was jumping so I had no choice but to jump with them. Normally I have no problem with this and I love jumping up and down and dancing around, granted that everyone is jumping to the same beat. Yeah. The group to my left was jumping one way, and the group to my right was jumping a different beat. Stupid ass white people with no rhythm. I seriously do not remember the FTSK crowd being that bad last summer. I survived a good portion of the set, but by the time they played their last song, She's A Lady, I was seriously so annoyed that I wanted out. Wasn't worth it, I've seen FTSK twice before. I either had to wait out the madness or walk back through the madness. Neither option seemed appealing, so I asked the kind sir next to me if he would give me a boost so I could crowd surf out of the pit. Normally I think crowd surfers are idiots, but it was the last song and it seemed to be a good solution to my problem. But now I know why people do it because, holy balls, it's way fun. Haha.

    After that I was pretty exhausted so I bought a gatorade and headed to the back of the crowd for All Time Low to wait for Family Force 5. Didn't really pay attention, but I thought it was funny when ATL said "First of all, you all need to calm the fuck down. We're at a music festival, it's not like we're playing Pokemon here." Roflrofl. Family Force 5 was next. I love the song Drama Queen. They put on a really hype show and I wish I hadn't been to tired to jump into the crowd. That would've been way fun. Instead the three of us chilled by the sound tent for good viewing. Caught some video until my camera ran out of memory.

    Before the end of their set, we went to their merch tent and Francis bought a t shirt. Bill bought a Warped tee and then we stuck around for a little Relient K. We then decided as a group that there was no one else worth sticking around for, so we headed out for some dinner.