one warped world

ok, so i haven't posted in a long time, and there's a reason. my computer is shit. but i'll get into that later. right now i'm using my brother's computer to write this.

today was warped tour. it was my first time, as i was stupid in years past. now i hate myself for not going before, but what can you do. today was filled with offspring and a fire hose, corruption of minors, an amazing set by my chemical romance, me saving the lives of many a crowd surfer, and billy fucking idol, as jim would say.
the day started off with my meeting jim at the cactus to head out. after a nice drive, full of high class conversation about wine and other classy things (really, it was) (ok, maybe not), we get into denver. as we get closer to the venue, traffic gets heavier, and then all of a sudden, there's a huge line of cars on the shoulder. at first, we thought that it was just people like parking their cars and walking, but a mile or so down the road, we realized the line was moving, that in fact it was the line to get in. so, i did the only sensible thing, and stopped right there in the middle of the road. it was a five lane interstate, so i figured the other people could the the remaining four lanes. as i turned on my blinkers and began to attempt to edge my car into the line, the car that i was planning on cutting in front of sped up. obviously they didn't want anyone getting in front of them. however, as i sat there, the occupants of the car began to frantically wave at jim and me. rolling down the window, we heard their offer: they'd let us in if we gave them one of our beers. as jim had brought 12 of them, we decided it was a good deal. this saved us probably at least half an hour, which is good, cuz we were in that line for an hour all the same. adding in the time driving, sitting in that line, and in the one to pick up will call tickets, we took three and a half hours to get down there, a trip that normally would have taken me 40-50 minutes, max. no matter, we got in eventually. and once in, man, what a show. as we entered, transplants were on the main stage. they were good, nothing exceptional, at least not for me. jim and i wandered a bit, met up with some friends, and saw fallout boy and a couple smaller bands. then it was time for offspring. our group got a little separated, and i wound up a little farther back than i would have liked, but it was still amazing. kids going crazy everywhere, the band was great- i love concerts where i know most of the songs well enough to sing along. and then, halfway through the show, noodles decided that the crowd looked hot and needed a drink. so out comes a firehose they found somewhere, and they start spraying the crowd. so cool.
after the offspring, we watched a couple more bands, fallout boy, simple plan, wandered some more, got lunch, i took a nap. then it was time for the other headliner, billy idol. from when i had first heard he was going to be playing, i was a little dubious. i mean, i know his type of music fits with warped tour, and that he is good, but for some reason i just didn't expect much from him. turns out i was wrong. i enjoyed his set the most of any that i saw that day. he just had an energy about him, maybe because he's been doing this for as long as i've been alive, i dunno. he just knew how to work the crowd. speaking of the crowds, for billy idol, it was mostly people my age or older, ones who appreciated who he was. the other acts, there were tons of little kids, all of them annoying. maybe i'm cynical or something, but i just don't think twelve year olds really know enough about music to deserve to be there. that's just my biased opinion, but it's one of the reasons i enjoyed billy idol so much. that and the fact that he had a bunch of girls flashing him. after his set, we saw about half of mxpx, which was good, and then the last band of the day, my chemical romance. i guess they're really popular right now, especially with the younger kids. i like a couple of their songs, but i didn't think they were that big. the crowd however, disagreed. probably it was a combination of them being the last band of the day and their popularity, but it was an amazing set. i wish i could have paid a bit more attention to the band, but i was distracted by all the crowd surfers. there had been surfers at all the sets, but for this one there must have been ten times as many. they just kept coming, kicking me in the head. i wound up saving a lot of them, because we were standing by this group of 12 year old girls, and the surfers would all get to there and then just fall, cuz the girls didn't know what they were doing and wouldn't have been able to hold up the people anyway. so i had to step in and catch all of the surfers before they crushed the girls. it wound being me and my friend jake basically catching people and carrying them 6 feet or so til we could lift them up to people who could help. it got annoying at times, but it was still fun. all in all, it was a good day of music.
after the last song, jim and i got back in my car to discover that the hour or so that we had sat in line in the morning had pretty much burned off all of my engine coolant, so the car was threatening to overheat at any moment. luckily we made it out of denver, and once we got going fast enough, the wind cooled the engine a little, enough to make it home. and by home i mean the cactus grill, because jim had told the owner he'd check in and make sure everything looked right. that and we wanted to drink a little. after a few drinks there, i had one of the best white russian i've had in a while, jim is a good bartender, we headed up to his house. after sitting around watching family guy for a while, the rest of the party showed up. it was me, jim, mallory, and a couple of mallory's friends, drinking daiquiris, whiskey, vodka, whatever we could make. a couple of hard-fought foosball games later, it was time for a swim. so we all troop over to the pool, hop the fence, and, in the case of half the group, strip completely down. i wasn't quite sloshed enough to go skinny dipping, so my suit stayed on. anyways, we spent quite some time swimming, goofing off, jumping off the roof, generally having a good time. we had just begun a chicken fight contest when our fun was interrupted by a very bright light. apparently we were loud enough that one of the neighbors called the cops. (perhaps it was me yelling "i am a golden god" before jumping off the roof. we'll never know) anyway, we all had to climb out of the pool, in various stages of undress, climb back over the fence, and head home, all while attempting to hide the large bottle of whisky we had brought along. not the easiest thing, especially with a spotlight trained on you, but we managed it. figuring that the night was complete now that we had almost gotten arrested (thank you dane cook), we all headed home.