-CONCERT FOR AMERICA-
16 September 2001



Originally, this was supposed to be Lunatic Luau V, but after the terrorist attacks on the 11th, they changed the name of the concert and donated all the money to the Red Cross. I thought it was pretty cool of them. But anyway, here's a list of bands that were playing: Sea of Souls, Seven Channels, Beautiful Creatures, Soil, Bailout, Primer 55, Stereomud, Nickelback, Clutch, Three Doors Down, and some other bands I don't remember. I wasn't paying attention to much of the concert. Cold was supposed to be there, but they cancelled...which kind of disappointed me cos, while I don't really like Cold a whole lot, they were one of three bands I really wanted to see. The other two were Stereomud and Nickelback, by the way. I went with Ken, his cousin George, and my brother Jeremy.

So, the first surprise at the concert was the ripoff tickets. Originally tickets were $9, but when we went to buy them, they were $17.75 after surcharges. We were pissed off, but it was a 45-minute drive back home, so we paid the extra money and had enough money left to buy one bottle of water. We just had to trek all the way down to the water fountains and refill it, which we did six or eight times that day. Our primary goal was not really to experience the fifteen or so bands that were there that day, but rather to get in a few hours of hackey-sack. As X-fest taught us, all-day music festivals breed hack circles, and this one was no exception.

So, George found some people he knew and went to hang out with them while Jer, Ken and I sacked in a circle we'd found. It was in a good location, flat and asphalt, at the top of the ramp leading up to the lawn. We stayed there for about four hours. Maybe more. It gave us a good view of the second stage, but we couldn't see anything on the main one. It was right in the middle as far as acoustics, though. The only bands I heard that I liked were Sea of Souls and Soil. The rest of them pretty much sucked. Jer ripped a humongous hole in his pants while trying to do a "Johnny Cage back kick." The tear ran from the crotch of his pants to the mid thigh of his left pant leg. It really looked awful, and he flashed everyone in the circle with gratuitous package shots at any opportunity. Finally he took his overshirt off and made a kind of loincloth out of it. It killed his sackability, since most of his technique depends on his knees. We still had fun. We sat up there and sacked until Stereomud was about to come on.

Our circle pretty much dispersed when we left anyway, since it was getting kind of dark. We found prime seats on the lawn, right down next to the slope. Then we noticed that no one was checking tickets at the back seated sections, so we made our way down there instead. We ended up three rows back from the rail that separated our seats from the ones that cost $10 extra. Once Nickelback came on, we made it up to the front row. Either way, we were still close enough to see actual people on the stage. I suck at judging distance, though, so I won't even try to give an estimation.

I decided right away that I didn't like Stereomud anymore. I like Pain, and since it was their single, I figured the rest of their songs would be like it...but they weren't. Stereomud is pretty much just another screaming band. I hate screaming bands. I kind of liked it when they played Pain, but I was tired of their singer waaay before they got off the stage. He inserted the word 'fuck' into every phrase, and goaded the crowd into flicking him off on several occasions. I don't like it when bands do that for some reason. Anyway, the only good thing about the flicking off was, I saw this woman behind us who was probably at least 35, standing up with both middle fingers raised. She looked like Lee's mom. The thought of someone's mom flicking somebody off amused me.

Nickelback came on after about an hour. They played a good set. I was disappointed that Chad Kroeger doesn't play his guitar the same was as he did when I saw them a year ago. They opened with Breathe and played When I Woke Up this Morning and some other song off the new CD, as well as Cowboy Hat, Leader of Men, and How You Remind Me. They played well enough, but it doesn't seem the same as the last time. Maybe cos there were about 200 times as many people there as last time.

I hate Three Doors Down. I dislike Clutch. Therefore, to avoid traffic, we left after Nickelback went off. George kind of wanted to stay and watch Clutch, but we agreed that it was cold and we were all extremely hungry, so we went back home. Mom ordered us pizza and we watched a show on the Discovery Channel. It was a great closing for an exhausting day.