I'd rather see my mom's best tit than attend, play, or crew for any type of fest again. Or at least that's how I felt while flying from Denver, Colroado to Manchester, England. Ok, here's the plan - four weeks of tour with Set Your Goals, Four Year Strong and Fireworks, hop on a plane literally hours after the Denver show, fly for nine or so hours, touchdown in England, drive immediately to Leeds and play a set on the first day of the annual Reading and Leeds Fest. Terrible fucking ideas all around but that's what Polar Bear Club did.
Before I dive into the actual fest, let me bitch about the flight overseas. Why bother to complain you ask? Well, I'm a spoiled, white, undeserving asshole. Let's just say that previous in flight entertainment to England has provided myself and PBC a seamless trasnsition into other countries and timezones. On past flights I've had my choice of all sorts of movies, episodes of Scrubs and Friends, and even music all at my fingertips due to television screens built into the airplane chiars. I planned on TV being my only solace; television would get me through this permanent zombie like state insomina had placed me in. What's that? Read a book? Fuck you, I graduated college, I'm never reading again.
Stepping on to American Airlines flight 54 broke my spirit more than any she devil ever has (yep, even more than you S). Immediately I knew there wouldn't be any quality entertainment to be had because there were communal tv's with pre arranged movies to be shown. It was as if everyone on board was being forced to share and use the same toothbrush! Briefly, I considered asking the stweardess what year it was. I believed it to be 2009 but it felt like 2003 on that rikshaw with wings. The twist of the knife that was firmly placed in my spine was the reveal of the movie we were forced to watch - 17 Again starring Goose's favorite boy toy Zac Efron. Old enough to me married with at least three children, there I was viewing a movie catered to girls aged 9 -15 years old. However, my love of the body swapping movie plot (i.e. Dream A Little Dream (saw it in the theater), Vice Versa, Like Father Like Son) and a shirtless Efron resulted in a curious erection that kept me watching the whole time. Of course, I love the movie and plan on watching it again but the point is I should of had a choice!
Oh, right, Leeds Fest. Of course I'd never experienced any event on this level or capacity. Sure, I went to Warped Tour from 1996 - 2000 and I've been to the last three Fests but Reading and Leeds is a complete different animal - numerous statges, world known bands, and of course six sleep deprived Americans, five of which had to perform hours after flying over the Atlantic Ocean. PBC was to play on a "smaller" stage which housed mostly the more aggressive type bands such as A Wilhelm Screm, Rise Against and Thursday. The stage itself was a large tented plot of land that at capacity would still allow thousands of people. The more expansive mainstage delivered Radiohead and a bunch of other bands I don't give a damn about. Rainy, wet, and soggy. No, not my underware but rather the theme for our visit to Leeds. However, sunshine, dry ground and complimentary toothy blow jobs probably couldn't have changed my miserable dispostion that day.
We're all fortunate to have made good friends in the UK and Europe and while I was looking forward to seeing everyone, I was more interested in seeing the band Snuff and going the fuck to sleep. But it is always my duty to play the part of drunken clown no matter how out of it I am. So, per usual, I began to drink around eleven in the morning or so. Polar Bear Club actually got their own trailer to hang out in for a couple of hours so most time was spent inside hiding from the rain and cold. I say a couple of hours because once Set Your Goals showed up, it was time to get out and let them take over since they have five lead singers and all. But before all of that and before Broadway Calls showed up to eat all of our free food, Polar Bear Club actually performed a show. The stage was called Lock Up and PBC was the second band to play, the band The Computers were first. Obviously, everyone in the van was pretty drained and Goose's bass equipment failing didn't help the entire situation. Pretty sure Goose wasn't able to play a song and a half due to his amp blowing up and the inept stage crew who weren't able to see through the smoke that the fog machine was pumping out to offer any type of help. Me? Well, I'm a story teller, not a bass tech. So coupling the equipment malfunction, the exhaustion, and the KISS-esque stage show PBC's set was good but could have been better.
Before I dive into the actual fest, let me bitch about the flight overseas. Why bother to complain you ask? Well, I'm a spoiled, white, undeserving asshole. Let's just say that previous in flight entertainment to England has provided myself and PBC a seamless trasnsition into other countries and timezones. On past flights I've had my choice of all sorts of movies, episodes of Scrubs and Friends, and even music all at my fingertips due to television screens built into the airplane chiars. I planned on TV being my only solace; television would get me through this permanent zombie like state insomina had placed me in. What's that? Read a book? Fuck you, I graduated college, I'm never reading again.
Stepping on to American Airlines flight 54 broke my spirit more than any she devil ever has (yep, even more than you S). Immediately I knew there wouldn't be any quality entertainment to be had because there were communal tv's with pre arranged movies to be shown. It was as if everyone on board was being forced to share and use the same toothbrush! Briefly, I considered asking the stweardess what year it was. I believed it to be 2009 but it felt like 2003 on that rikshaw with wings. The twist of the knife that was firmly placed in my spine was the reveal of the movie we were forced to watch - 17 Again starring Goose's favorite boy toy Zac Efron. Old enough to me married with at least three children, there I was viewing a movie catered to girls aged 9 -15 years old. However, my love of the body swapping movie plot (i.e. Dream A Little Dream (saw it in the theater), Vice Versa, Like Father Like Son) and a shirtless Efron resulted in a curious erection that kept me watching the whole time. Of course, I love the movie and plan on watching it again but the point is I should of had a choice!
Oh, right, Leeds Fest. Of course I'd never experienced any event on this level or capacity. Sure, I went to Warped Tour from 1996 - 2000 and I've been to the last three Fests but Reading and Leeds is a complete different animal - numerous statges, world known bands, and of course six sleep deprived Americans, five of which had to perform hours after flying over the Atlantic Ocean. PBC was to play on a "smaller" stage which housed mostly the more aggressive type bands such as A Wilhelm Screm, Rise Against and Thursday. The stage itself was a large tented plot of land that at capacity would still allow thousands of people. The more expansive mainstage delivered Radiohead and a bunch of other bands I don't give a damn about. Rainy, wet, and soggy. No, not my underware but rather the theme for our visit to Leeds. However, sunshine, dry ground and complimentary toothy blow jobs probably couldn't have changed my miserable dispostion that day.
We're all fortunate to have made good friends in the UK and Europe and while I was looking forward to seeing everyone, I was more interested in seeing the band Snuff and going the fuck to sleep. But it is always my duty to play the part of drunken clown no matter how out of it I am. So, per usual, I began to drink around eleven in the morning or so. Polar Bear Club actually got their own trailer to hang out in for a couple of hours so most time was spent inside hiding from the rain and cold. I say a couple of hours because once Set Your Goals showed up, it was time to get out and let them take over since they have five lead singers and all. But before all of that and before Broadway Calls showed up to eat all of our free food, Polar Bear Club actually performed a show. The stage was called Lock Up and PBC was the second band to play, the band The Computers were first. Obviously, everyone in the van was pretty drained and Goose's bass equipment failing didn't help the entire situation. Pretty sure Goose wasn't able to play a song and a half due to his amp blowing up and the inept stage crew who weren't able to see through the smoke that the fog machine was pumping out to offer any type of help. Me? Well, I'm a story teller, not a bass tech. So coupling the equipment malfunction, the exhaustion, and the KISS-esque stage show PBC's set was good but could have been better.
And yes, I did manage to catch Snuff as well as Set Your Goals and maybe even one more. Who knows. After that it was off to our friends Neal and Liena's house to catch up on some much needed sleep. For the first time in forever I was actually passed out by 7pm. Years ago, when I fancied myself a punk my friends would always shout their battle cry "Sleep when you're dead!". Well, fuck that, now that I'm older I go by the creedo "sleep when you're tired". The spiked belt and ambition is long, long gone. And that's really it kids. I didn't say I was going to revolutionize the internet with this entry. It's just a couple paragraphs about some show months and months ago. Time willing, I'll get around to spitting out a couple words about Reading which took place the next day. Until then, I hope you're all listening to Defeater and not Paramore.
