Skull Fest was last week (8/15 through
8/18) and after there being ten of the damned things, I finally made
it to the eleventh. It was four days of dehydration and exhaustion
that taught me a few things about myself and my limitations. Here's
a rundown of my misadventures over the first two days along with my
inability to understand that I am way too old and out of shape for
this shit.
. . .
Night One: Babyland
I came running out of day
job in search of food and coffee in order to maintain some level of
functionality. The first mistake of my Skull Fest journey was made
immediately when I thought it was a good idea to head in the
direction of Subway for dinner. At least I had a gift card.
After ingesting a sandwich
that could easily be ranked in the top three most disappointing
sandwiches that I have ever eaten, I was off to Zeke's for caffeine. And as if the universe knew that I needed coffee and was in a hurry,
it threw in my path a woman that had seemingly wandered in from the
suburbs to buy coffee beans without the mental capacity to purchase
coffee beans. Unwilling to read the descriptions that were printed
on the bags, she had the lone employee explain to her the roast and
flavor of each type of bean. After fifteen long minutes of
astonishing indecision, the employee was relieved to discover that I
knew what I wanted and had the exact change to pay for it. Coffee in
hand, I was finally on my way to the venue.
The first few bands were
really fun but as the night wore on the beer throwers became more
abundant. That is an activity that I will never understand. I could
give two shits about beer but I would give a spilt cup of coffee a
memorial fitting for General Organa. Not a single drop is wasted let alone willingly thrown across a room.
By the time the last band
went on I had had my fill for the evening. I took some pictures and
bailed so I could rest up for the following day.
The highlights for me were
Charged DIS and Nandas.
. . .
Night Two: Spirit and
Cattivo
My second night of Skull
Fest began with learning my lesson from the previous day and not
going to Subway. I also heeded the warning I was given many years
ago about the pizza at Spirit. It was once described to me as
“overpriced, garbage pizza.” So I made my first pilgrimage to
B52, in Lawrenceville. I went with the seitan shawarma wrap and a
side of sauteed mushrooms and kale. The food was fantastic but I got
hung up on the coffee order.
For a place that put coffee
on Front St. when I walked in the door, they sure did serve up a tiny
cup of iced coffee. In my blurry eyed exhaustion, I almost asked if
they could bring over ten more of them. I also made the mistake of
going with coconut milk instead of almond milk. I don't think the
almond milk would have panned out either but coconut milk is a sure
fire way to fuck up a cup of coffee. And of course, I still slugged
it back. With intentions of hitting two venues in one night and not
a drop of coffee between the two, my precious life blood could not be
wasted.
After an oddly invasive pat
down that was very reminiscent of Stage AE, I was granted entry to
Spirit to see Pandemix, Humanmania and T.A.Z.
I'm not sure who was
responsible for it but whoever thought to play The Birthday Party
over the PA before the bands started deserves a medal of some sort. That was exactly what my ears needed to get ready for the evening.
I saw Pandemix back in
April at The Rock Room. They were good then but this time around
they outdid themselves by leaps and bounds. I don't know if it was
because of the better quality PA they were playing through or if it
was the miles they've travelled since but they tightened up their
attack.
T.A.Z. was a pleasant
surprise. Their singer had a very carefree approach that reminded me
of Polly Styrene from the X-Ray Spex. If I was thinking, I would
have hit the merch table to see if they had any records but for
whatever reason I failed to do so.
As much as I wanted to see
Rubella Ballet and The Mob, I skipped out to give myself a break
before the late show at Cattivo got started. Two days of work mixed
with two nights of shows were starting to take a toll.
Lawrenceville isn't a
neighborhood that I've spent any real amount of time in so I was glad
to take the opportunity to walk around a for a while between venues. During my walk from Spirit to Cattivo, I noticed how complete the
gentrification/colonization of Lawrenceville has become. I couldn't
help but stop and laugh at the open air cornhole court that I had
passed. The self-proclaimed future CEO's and financial criminals of
Amerikkka were out in full force to get their drink on, on a Friday
night. Butler St. has certainly become the Carson St. of the eastern
part of the city.
After successfully
answering the three questions posed by the security trolls at Cattivo, I
made my way down to the basement for the first band. The club was
split between the first floor and the basement so bands could play on
each floor with only a small amount of overlap.
As I was watching the first
two bands in the basement, I noticed the crowd seemed to be more and
more lubricated as the time went on. My guess is that the folks that
were attending the afternoon matinee show at The Rock Room and the
other show at Spirit were filtering into Cattivo. After a long day
of pounding PBR, the drunkards were drunkier than usual. In an
effort to avoid them, I went back upstairs to wait for the first band
to hit stage there.
That first band was De
Rodillas and the main reason I was still sticking around. I saw them
play a few months ago at Babyland, opening for Torso and immediately
became a fan. The band's singer has that feral approach that you
wouldn't want to cross paths with in a dark alley and she just lets
it rip. Relentless and so much fun.
As much as I wanted to
stick around for Generacion Suicida, I decided to head home. There
were too many drunks for my limited amount of patience and I needed
to rest up for the following night.
. . .
Tune in next week for the
exciting conclusion of my Skull Fest Adventures. Same Skull time.
Same Skull channel.
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