soundwave 2008

for the SECOND day in a row, I have realized my watch was 30 minutes slow. and yet again it happened just as I missed the train to St. Peter's train station near Sydney Park.

today was Australian Soundwave 2008. and I had my list of bands to see roaring to go- Boys Like Girls, The Starting Line, Plain White T's, Mae, Mindless Self Indulgence, Motion City Soundtrack, Alexisonfire, Incubus, mewithoutyou acoustic. didn't want to see The Offspring b/c to ask a blunt question: does anyone care about them anymore in the US?

so the day started out bad. and got worse. stood in a horrible cluster of people trying to enter the one entrance to the festival onyl to be told that the woman at the guest list booth didn't have the band guest list and told me to contact the band contact. well, didn't have that info. walked out of the park and 10 minutes away to the closest pay phone b/c my cell wasn't working (got it working later at a very expensive fee). called MP, who told me to think positively and act dumb. went back to the woman who after 10 more minutes, called my name and apologized for the misunderstanding. got my VIP bracelet and headed in.

now I have been to my share of music festivals and this one was not well organized (a girl at the train station tonight said the same thing). the lines for everything was crazy long (I waited in line for a rainbow slushie for a little over 1 hour). that and a stick of chocolate covered fruit were the only thing I ate for 6 hours in the sun. and the placement for the stages were not placed well I think. anywho...

got to Main Stage 2 just in time to persuade the security guard to let me backstage since I was MSI's only VIP from America! ran into Kitty (their drummer) and her tech, who allowed me to watch the show from the side of the stage. which was awesome. Mindless Self Indulgence is a pretty awesome band if you ask me. Little Jimmy Urine, their lead singer, like to crack insults at the crowd and told them today that MSI was here to punish them for making Crocodile Dundee 2 b/c "why try and top perfection?". one of the techs for Incubus gave me some ear plugs, which definately came in handy. they are playing another club gig on Tuesday night, so I may try and head down there for that on my last night in town.

waited in line for a slushie. got out of line. bought chocolate covered fruit b/c there was no line. bought a Soundwave 08 tshirt. waited in line for a slushie. for over an hour. it was $6.

headed back down to Main Stages 1 & 2 and caught some of Alexisonfire and the first few Incubus songs. headed back to Stage 5 and caught a few mewithoutyou acoustic songs and got the hell outta Sydney Park. it's summertime here, but man, does it get chilly when that sun goes down.

now I missed a bunch of the bands I wanted to see b/c of my entry problems and waiting in line for something to quench my thirst. sucks.

got the CityRail train back to Central Station, where I stopped in China Town for some food that I just ate in my room. my back hurts, my right heel has a blister on it BUT I AM HAPPY AND PROUD TO INFORM EVERYONE THAT I PUT SUNSCREEN ON THIS MORNING AND DID NOT GET BURNT! of course, I wasn't in the sun that long, but I was responsible today.

tomorrow I am going to ferry it to Manly Beach for some more sun and good food. Tuesday really is going to be the day of figuring out how to get all my stuff home. I think I may just pay for a third bag and try to evenly divide my bags so they are all at ok weights. still have to look into it.

so that's about it. getting pretty tired, so maybe I will sleep better today, as I wanna get up early tomorrow and head to Manly. yay!