Punknews Feature: The Fest V

For the weekend of October 27-29, thousands of friends and almost 200 bands converged upon the city of Gainesville, FL to take part in the annual Fest. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to travel to this amazing event to represent Punknews.org, a Fest sponsor, and to work with the great people over at National Underground, to conduct band interviews and impressions for the upcoming Fest 5 DVD.

Below, I'm assembled some thoughts, pictures and two video clips of this unforgettable weekend. Please click Read More to check it out.

Smoke or Fire played one of the best sets of the first night. The venue was extremely hot and humid, attributed to an oncoming storm. Despite these conditions, they blasted through a high energy set to an excited crowd. The newest addition to the band, drummer Dave Atchison, adds a new element of ferocity and excitement in the music, which was showcased in five new songs performed.

On the afternoon of day two, No Trigger performed at one of the city's smaller venues, but packed to near-capacity. The crowd seemed to be a somewhat younger than what filled the later evening shows, but nonetheless displayed the same enthusiasm as No Trigger ripped through their set. The included audio is their set closer, a cover of the Misfit's "Where Eagles Dare"

Florida's favorite ska-punks, Against All Authority, headlined the previously mentioned showcase to an extremely anxious crowd. Their set focused on older material, highlighted by the fan-favorite "All Fall Down".

One of the most anticipated performances of the entire Fest was the Philadelphia all-star group, a href=bands/armalite">Armalite. Their set also played host to night one of the "Dan Yemin marathon", which this evening featured him on bass.

While many packed Abbey Road to check out the Radon reunion, I opted to stick around the Common Grounds to check out a band I've wanted to see for sometime, hometown favorites the Grabass Charlestons. A couple of locals standing next to advised me that bassist Dave Drobach provides quite the stage show, and as you can see with the provided image below, they were absolutely right.

Anyone that has witnessed the spectacle that is Minneapolis' Dillinger Four knows a few things to expect: drunken antics, hilarious stage banter and nudity. Fortunately, their Fest performance wasn't lacking in any of those departments.

Day three kicked off for me at Abbey Road, catching Dead to Me. It was my first time seeing them live, and I was impressed, despite the somewhat lethargic crowd response. Hearing them peform "Last Word Spoken", from Jack's prior band One Man Army, was a pleasant suprise and was received well.

None More Black received a warm welcome, and performed the best set I've ever witnessed from them. The band sounded extremely tight, and frontman Jason Shevchuk seems completely natural now with a guitar alongside his vocal duties.

The Riverboat Gamblers played to a somewhat depleted crowd, due mostly to Chuck Ragan's performance down the street. But from their high octane stage antics, you would have thought the place was filled to capacity. Punknews.org reader's favorite internet cartoonist, Mitch Clem, seemed to be providing more enthusiasm than the rest of the collective audience.

And one hell of a weekend ended with one hell of a performance from Lifetime:

(Thanks to all of the amazing people I met, had a drink with, took the time to do interviews, and so on: Tony No Idea, Vanessa Burt, Tom No Trigger, Smoke or Fire, Brendan and Chris from the Lawrence Arms, AAA, Dan Yemin/Armalite, Waffles, Fifth Hour Hero, Jack and Chicken from Dead to Me, Mitch Clem, Wes and Ryan from Maryland aka "Baseball" and "Graphix", VCR, Scott Heisel and Scott Auth aka "Kirby", Colin from None More Black, Mike from the Riverboat Gamblers, Michelle Dosson, anyone at the 50 cent beer Fest party at Xtabi and all the people staying at the Rush Lake Motel)