Are we having fun yet?
Unknown Caped Crusader
After a slight hitch with wristbands (too much to write down right now), we kicked off our fourth Fun^3 Fest. I met M and 2.0 at the park (Bike parking is a bit of a cluster) around 2. We watched the sheeple and planned our evening. M and I took a stroll around the park to see if my plan to jump between blue and orange was feasible. Slightly cumbersome, but I was game for the challenge.
We managed to locate a few key things on our trip. Media area, water refill station (Did I not say, “Bring an empty water bottle”?), cell phone charging station… We checked out the food vendors (I could hardly think about food after ingesting my first course of festival dust). We determined that the cheapest entree was the $4 Frito pie. After grabbing fries from Aquarelle (BTW. Fries + festival dust = not so good) and charging M’s phone, we hit the beer tent. WHAT? $9 for a beer? Oh wait, it’s 24oz. That’s 2 beers in one can (This is where that coozie becomes useful. Next year I am going to have these…)
Now it was time to get to work. We hit the orange stage so we could check out Heartless Bastards. I am not sure what the sound guy was thinking. With the amount of bass you would think that we were rollin’ though the hood with a low rider and spinning rims. After M shot from the pit we moved to the other side of the stage to watch the Thermals set up (We also found our first caped crusader of the weekend). I wasn’t going to miss them this time (some of you may recall the last time I saw the Thermals). It was a great set until the hipsters kicked up all the dust and started crowd surfing.
After hitting the port-o-potty labyrinth, I headed over to the blue stage to catch the rest of Franki Chan. I was a little scared that Franki had completely changed his style. There was an untz, untz, untz… blaring from the speakers when I walked up. It was just a phase. He mixed in my summer skate jam of 1985. ” I’ve got a crush on you” by the Jets. I remember collecting Kool Aid points to get their cassette and seeing them at the fair grounds in New York.
Big Freedia was on stage next. She didn’t have as many dancers as last year, but Meg and Chris’ favorite was there. Hipster Girl! In addition to the usual stage show, I had the pleasure of watching Franki Chan’s reaction. There was also an appearance by Ryan Gosling (Mr. Gosling, why weren’t you shaking your azz? Oh, you are filming a movie) . There were probably a few more celebrity appearances but I didn’t have time to find out. I wanted to see Reggie Watts. I saw him at the Fusebox Festival this Spring and was blown away. I wanted to have fun. Unfortunately some dudes decided to push to the front and start smoking. Apparently they didn’t get the memo that it wasn’t polite to smoke in a tent. Reggie restored my happiness by mocking CYHSY singing Satin. Hilarious. He said it was too happy. Like they were singing about Seitan.
I left Reggie to check out Public Enemy and managed to catch the end of Four Tet‘s set. Four Tet sounded great. Public Enemy, not so much. Riddle me this, If you were a sound guy, running boards for a rap artist, is it not important to have vocals in the speaker? I bailed and went to see the end of Passion Pit‘s set. Their sound guy didn’t hate them as much. I don’t know what it is about that band when they get on a big stage with lots of blinky lights, but they certainly deliver. I had another childhood flash back. Flashing lights + synth pop managed to conjure up my first Disney Electric Light Parade. I forgive them for that subpar performance at Emo’s a few years back.
We left the fest at during the encore to avoid getting trampled by sheeple. I am glad I didn’t go alone. My bike was wedged under 3 bikes. M and 2.0 had to help free it.
So that’s a wrap for day one. It’s time for bed. Enjoy the unedited slideshow of my day. M took a ton of photos on the BAC. Stay tuned.
