nmdmatt // libérerMédias

Wow, it’s all ready Friday, and I never got a chance to blog the amazing adventure with Pistofficer and friends down to Harvard, IL.

Well, it all started around 2:30pm. Franky called me and said we should be starting to meet up at Jimmy’s, so we went to go get B Rangel. He also asked we get his jacket from his mom’s house.

Well that added about an extra 15 minute delay, and his mom or step dad weren’t even home.

Originally Mark, Liberty, or Matt weren’t sure if they were going, but they decided to and met up with us at Jimmy’s.

Frank handed me a small map from Mapquest that showed where Harvard was, and the bar’s name, no real directions. We talked about how to get there while everything else was being taken care of.

I guess the van was having some issues before with getting out of first gear, but they said they fixed it, put fluid in it, etc. The van was packed with ten people, myself and B Rangel in mine, then Matt’s car with Mark and Liberty. Around 3:30 we finally hit the road.

We headed up 60th St to Green Bay when I noticed Frank driving really slow, and the van seemed to be acting up. They pulled into a gas station and I figured that was the end of the line for it, but nope. They put some gas in it, everyone got some snacks, and we headed out.

And then everything went to shit a little bit later. At the intersection of Hwy 50 and H, the van died right on the line. We ended up sitting through one whole light. Finally they gave up on starting it and ran out to push it into PDQ’s parking lot. In the mean time I ran to other cars behind us telling them to go around. Once the van was out of the way, Matt and I followed into PDQ.

There was a lot of head banging and pissed off-ness in the air. Luckily…I had an Aztek! That little devil fit every dan piece of equipment minus a huge bass cab. We had to take out my seats, though, and I felt like a sardine when driving.

That solved the equipment problem, but Matt had to drive Ridge and Frank into town to grab their cars. 4:30 hit and we were back on the road. We took C to 173, but after only 10 minutes Tanya had to turn around and grab her purse she forgot in the van. That car had directions, real ones, unline me or Matt, so they just let us go.

It was one hell of a boring one hour drive, I’ll tell you what. So many small towns, and so many damn farms.

When we got there, Frank parked on one of the side street parking spots. I thought we were there, but actually just asked some kids where we were going. That meant trying to back up, to repark two blocks down. The kicker is, once I reparked, I had to pull out, pull a u-turn and go around the block to park in back.

Finally parked, the stuff was unloaded, and I just relaxed. The show started at…who knows when. Some local band opened, bunch of young kids. They were fast, drummer sucked, sounded decent. With a lot of practice, and a new drummer, they’d be pretty damn good.

Pistofficer played second, and I video taped the whole thing. I’ve been meaning to edit the tape, but been too busy. They need it for a DVD compilation someone is doing.

Urban Assault played next, a really bad “metal” band from Chicago. Then Bucket Waste played. Bucket Waste is pretty good, they’re like Link 80 style of punk with a bit of ska.

The part I was pumped about was Offend Your Friends played. During Bucket Waste I was tired, hungry, thirsty, and wanted to leave. We started packing up and such when they were like “You’re leaving?!” In the end we stayed for them, and I got a hug from each one, haha.

They played good, like always.

Now for the cherry on top. I thought the day couln’t get any worse considering the start of the adventure…well it did. I guess Jimmy didn’t want to leave the bar because he met up with his old friend Steph. Jimmy’s girlfriend was pissed, people were arguing… For about 2 hours we went back and forth trying to get him to leave, dickin’ around in the parking lot, and who knows what.

I guess the story is Jimmy’s friend was going to jail, or something, and had to sleep in her car, so he wanted to get a room and see her before she left.

In any case, I don’t know the story, don’t care to. We got home at 1am an I just crashed, I was so dead.