X-Fest Debreif

This past Saturday I went to X-Fest and it was awesome. Here is the low down...

It was at Fort Calgary, on a lovely summer's day. The bands that were there in opposite the order of appearance.
Jane's Addiction
Weezer
Social Distortion
Awolnation
House of Pain
The Dudes
Rural Alberta Advantage
Black Symphony Orchestra
Micheal Bernard Fitzgerald

All in all it was an amazing show. I was underwhelmed by the act put on by Jane's Addiction, so much so I actually walked out. Truth be told it was leaving a bad after taste in my ears after Weezer's killer performance. The one shocking thing I want to talk about with that show was the curtain drops and they start playing and there are these women in underwear suspended from the stage swinging back and forth. As I got closer I asked the question. Where were there harnesses. All I could see was bra, panties and stockings. Upon further examination I realized that they weren't harnessed. They were hooked. Literally they were jirating back and forth on cables attached into hooks pierced in their back flesh. After that I had images of them ripping out a hook and then the other and falling into the audience with essentially their backs ripped out. I was glad when they were lowered down after one song.

When Weezer takes the stage, they just go right into the music playing. And they play what they know will excite the crowd. With the encores they nail most of their singles, and they did two amazing covers. They covered Pumped up Kicks by Foster the People and they nailed...literally nailed it with coffin spikes, Paranoid Android by Radiohead. Which is amazing to hear because now when Radiohead tours they are all about the new stuff and wouldn't even touch that song. Also they did it so well, what was disappointing though was how many people weren't amazed by this song. Some people literally had no idea to appreciate what was happening And the personality the band has is awesome. They are just being there goofy selves which is great to see. The sound was amazing and made the whole show worth the price of admission, which I got at a discounted rate.

House of Pain and Social Distortion were among some of my other favorites, and on an unrelated topic both covered Johnny Cash. HoP did Folsom Prison Blues, and Social D did Ring of fire. I like the idea Everlast put forth of the JC being the original White Rapper, singing about prison, drugs, and popping folk. And despite trying to get there in time for the Rural Alberta Advantage, I missed there whole set which was disappointing because I heard they were really good. And I really enjoy their folky sound.

The festival experience isn't just about the music it is about the people too. Other include seeing several people from the drinking and hot sun get really sick. A girl's vag. Nic and I were sitting in the shade between sets and by the fence this obnixous girl came around saying she really had to pee. The line for the portapotties were long, but they went by pretty quick. She couldn't wait, she got a person or two to cover for her and then her short shorts were down and she was squating and spraying everywhere.

There was a lot of variety to the people there. Punks, families, and a lot of the alternative folks. With it being a hot day there were a lot of shirts off, revealing a lot of tattoos. From this I have come to the conclusion that there are a lot of truly terrible tattoos out there. In fact Nic was making a game of capturing in photographs people's terrible ink. I think with everyone wanting to be unique they put up a lot of real terrible art on themselves.

The food there was great. Pretty reasonable. It was all those food wagons that travel Calgary, but can't park on 17th cause shop owners are all in a huff about there presence. So they parked on the grounds. Great food and for reasonable prices too. The beer however was not reasonable. $7 a can and they fucking ran out.

At X-fest they offered VIP tickets for a 50% more and this was thought to be a good idea, but then, while we were there we realized that the VIP area was essentially at capacity. This was lame for those that paid more to get very little.

All in all a good long day in the hot sun. I highly recommend Weezer though.

I will have to post some pictures later, I am in Berlin right now, and forgot the appropriate cord to offload the pics from my phone.