Big Pre-Fest in Little Ybor 5: Day 2

“Do you wanna see a dead body?”

Day 2 had started. Garrett Dale from Red City Radio had an acoustic guitar and played that song for the first of an eventual three times. The PA stopped working, but he continued yelling anyway, as someone requested for him to play a song from the Moana soundtrack which he protested and said he didn’t know before he played 95% of it. I’m glad I dragged my tired ass out of bed to watch it; it was probably the most fun set of the entire weekend.

We ran back to the hotel for a couple room drinks before it was time to hit the Crowbar for Western Addiction. I really enjoyed their latest album, Tremulous, and I ended up missing them the last time they played in San Diego. So I would be damned if I missed them again. We were greeted by the usually four piece band as a five piece, a move that gave the singer more freedom to move about the venue, jumping into the crowd and climbing on the bar tops. We had little time to run across town when they were done to catch Fest favorites Dead Bars at the Dirty Shame.

The good news is that after Dead Bars, it was time to head back to the duck machine and half priced drinks at Gametime. We were so close to hitting our 200 duck quota. We made a detour passing by the Crowbar to hop inside and catch the last couple songs of toyGuitar first though. I was ecstatic that they began playing “I.T.I.A.L.S.,” a song from Jack’s old band One Man Army, as soon as we walked in. On a new high hearing a song I thought I’d never hear live, we continued on to Gametime.

Unfortunately that high didn’t last long as I felt the exhaustion creeping up. I had to sit down on a nearby couch in the arcade, which ultimately lead to me laying down, eyes closed. As I laid there contemplating if this was a good idea, or my ultimate downfall. I felt a body hop over the side of the couch and land right on me. It was my girlfriend Kaylin, followed by our scumbag friends all dog piling on top of me. This was my cue to keep going. It was time for Meat Wave at The Orpheum.

Now, this is where things get a bit hazy. As I look at me schedule for Pre-Fest, I see that Meat Wave played from 7:10 PM until 7:40 PM. The next band I saw was Banner Pilot at 10:40 PM. That means I’m missing three hours from my night. I saw no bands. I have no idea what I did. Just three hours gone forever. (Editor’s Note: I’m pretty sure we were at the Freezy Drink Bar. Or at least I was. I asked the musician who had set up on a small stage in the pay to play me some Matchbox Twenty tunes. I sipped my frozen Pina Colada slush and sang along to “If You’re Gone”.)

The good news is that Banner Pilot was awesome, despite having all the corn fed giant Midwest fans possible in attendance. There was this one dude who was just so excited, but he moved like a fucking wrecking ball, barreling through people and knocking everyone over. This was the rowdiest crowd I had seen so far. That’s what happens when you go on hiatus for over a year.

The last stop was The Orpheum, once again for Against Me! We were only four or five songs into the set before Kaylin tossed a duck and hit Laura Jane Grace right on the dome and we bailed. We all were tired and ready for bed, but we had one last stop to make: THE BONEYARD. Last year we had met up with a bunch of people for a drink or two at this bar, and had a great and hazy time. This time, it was just a couple of us tired old bitter fucks who would rather have a nap than one last whiskey ginger. Defeated after only two days of Pre-Festing, we headed out for one last pizza and bed before the main event, The Fest 16 in Gainesville, Florida.

Fuck. We still had three days left of this.