With all you nuggleberries at the mighty Bay Area Rock Festival. Mad good times were had, and I'm mad pleased at the overall experience we all had. Keep in mind that this post is going to stay away from performance descriptions as I feel many others have done just as good a job as I could in recapping the music. And for reasons I will be explaining in detail, they don't call this BAR Fest for nothin'. I definately got my BAR on this festival... and by Saturday afternoon, my ass was thoroughly kicked by both the bands and the BAR.
Wednesday Night Recap:
Touch down in the afternoon, met up with Raiderblack and had about a dozen beers in San Jose
My balls were clearly out of my purse for this one. I was steppin' up to the flavor.
Thursday Morning:
Shockingly... no hangover.
Had about 4 beers in the afternoon with some dinner on the Wharf with Raider. . Then, it was time to meet up with Eyefear, MOB Rules, Bear, DC, Cristen, and the whole crew. I spent a lot of cash on beer that night too... woohoo! David was all about the "That's Metal... TEN more! (of the highest alcohol potency beer there), you're fired!"... with the authorarian Donald Trumpesque control of our partying.
More beers ensued...
Friday Morning:
Huge hangover... and a little
uke: action going on.
Still, Raiderblack and I being troopers went to the airport to meet Crimson Glory. We failed to check the website for pictures of what they look like (and I know they look a lot different from the '80s hair days!) but sure enough I spotted them and brought them down to luggage with Raiderblack. There was a little bit of a mixup with the shuttle service and we accidentally sent half the band to the wrong hotel! (whoop!... I know David, we're FIRED! hahaha). Then we pickup Jax... and her presense inspired me to end my hangover and be ready for more drinking.
Friday Afternoon: Sushi and good time ensue...
Friday Evening: The problem with BAR Fest is that, the environment just encourages one to drink. There's no seating, so if you want to stretch your legs... it's time for another beer. or 7-8ish... and I wanted to sober up for Enchant, but Raiderblack had to buy me 2 more .
***okay... excuse me while I go on a raving Enchant rant****
Enchant was my favorite band of the evening, and favorite band of the festival. It has been a dream for 11 years of my life to see these guys live! And it finally happened. I personally want to thank the band for playing "Hostile World." That is my favorite Enchant song and it nearly brought me to tears seeing it performed live like that. I was seriously moved. A few less beers and I would have made out the order of songs better. The Enchant setlist was something like this: Tug of War, Sinking Sand, What to Say, Catharsis, Under Fire, Hostile World, At Death's Door, another Juggling 9 Song. I know they closed it out with Comatose.. Enchant did not play NEARLY long enough... I would have loved to have heard more songs. If someone has the official setlist, I would love to see it. I was surprised to not hear "The Thirst" and any songs off of Break. Forgive me if I'm missing some songs. Break has a few great songs on it like "Defenseless" and "In the Dark." If the band is reading this post, I really think you guys should play "In the Dark" some time. That song has some powerful lyrics and melodies. You might be surprised how strong it still resonates with the fans *like you were with "Hostile World" perhaps*.
*** Enchant rant over
****
I missed the first few tracks from Spock's Beard in favor or getting some food (which was a big mistake). Spock's Beard were fantastic. I have about half their albums (and should have all of them sadly). I know they played "The Water" with DC Cooper, Thoughts Part II, and I think they did a song from Beware of Darkness that I didn't recognize. All in all, it was fantastic!
Saturday Morning:
Hangover was pretty strong and only got stronger as the evening progressed.
Saturday Afternoon: Discovered that Californians suck at making corn... more on this later. For a regretful reason, I decide to have 2 beers with dinner
Saturday Evening: More Power Metalish evening... but a great evening at that! I totally loved all the bands -- especially Zero Hour and Jon Oliva's Pain. Zero Hour is the type of band that wants to make you burn your instruments and bow down and worship them as Gods of technical heavy metal. They are the type of people, however, that worship you for listening to their music and are the most humble, down to earth guys imaginable.
Crimson Glory and Eyefear surprisingly kicked my ass as well! Odin's Court was a trip to hear live... those guys have mad skills, for sheezy.
I was feeling very ill... and had to turn down at least 2 or 3 beers people bought for me (hahaha). Finally, I wound up nursing one beer for the whole evening and dumping it in the sink. My balls were definately in the purse that night. The corn pizza or whatever the hell I had for dinner did not agree with me and I had to go purge the contents of whatever was in my stomach two times during the festival! Once during Eyefearuke: and another during Crimson Glory uke: . You'll be happy to know that once my business didn't last more than 1 song per trip, the horns came out 
once that nasty Calicorn was in the toilet.
Jon Oliva's Pain was definately a trip to hear live. I was loving every minute of their performance, especially hearing Streets live like that. It was totally killer!
Okay... so sorry if this was a bit long and incoherent... but I figured all the cool friends I hung out with during the festival at least might I enjoy reading it.
Anyway, here's some honest feedback on the festival for all the promoters to read.
Pros: I loved the prog feel to this festival and hope it continues. I know some are wanting you guys to be a Prog Power II... but I don't think we need a second PP festival. This fest had it's own identify and feel to it and I hope it continues to develop into its own beast. Please continue to do this every year! I know the first year probably isn't going to make you guys any money, but neither did the first few Prog Powers. And to put things in perspective, Prog Power I was actually at a smaller venue than BAR Fest was. Prog is a bit of a dying art, but if you brought Arena next year, I think that would draw some people! I know I'd come back just to see them.
Cons: Somehow, I just don't think enough was done to get the word out. You'd be amazed to know how many people really hadn't heard of this thing. I know a lot of it has to do with it being the first year, but I think a little more topics started in other forums about BAR Fest would have generated a little more interest. I also feel that San Francisco has a lot more to offer than BAR Fest and you should encourage people to take a vacation in San Fran like I did instead of just coming down for the festival. Turn into a more party atmosphere and slowly add stuff like karaoke night and maybe some other forms of entertainment.
All right well... I' ve rambled long enough! I loved meeting all you whorebots this festival and hope to be back for BAR Fest II.
Peace Love and all that Bedroom Magic Nonsense Good Stuff!
The Michael
Wednesday Night Recap:
Touch down in the afternoon, met up with Raiderblack and had about a dozen beers in San Jose
My balls were clearly out of my purse for this one. I was steppin' up to the flavor.
Thursday Morning:
Shockingly... no hangover.
Had about 4 beers in the afternoon with some dinner on the Wharf with Raider.
. Then, it was time to meet up with Eyefear, MOB Rules, Bear, DC, Cristen, and the whole crew. I spent a lot of cash on beer that night too... woohoo! David was all about the "That's Metal... TEN more! (of the highest alcohol potency beer there), you're fired!"... with the authorarian Donald Trumpesque control of our partying.More beers ensued...
Friday Morning:
Huge hangover... and a little
uke: action going on.Still, Raiderblack and I being troopers went to the airport to meet Crimson Glory. We failed to check the website for pictures of what they look like (and I know they look a lot different from the '80s hair days!) but sure enough I spotted them and brought them down to luggage with Raiderblack. There was a little bit of a mixup with the shuttle service and we accidentally sent half the band to the wrong hotel! (whoop!... I know David, we're FIRED! hahaha). Then we pickup Jax... and her presense inspired me to end my hangover and be ready for more drinking.
Friday Afternoon: Sushi and good time ensue...
Friday Evening: The problem with BAR Fest is that, the environment just encourages one to drink. There's no seating, so if you want to stretch your legs... it's time for another beer.
or 7-8ish... and I wanted to sober up for Enchant, but Raiderblack had to buy me 2 more .***okay... excuse me while I go on a raving Enchant rant****
Enchant was my favorite band of the evening, and favorite band of the festival. It has been a dream for 11 years of my life to see these guys live! And it finally happened. I personally want to thank the band for playing "Hostile World." That is my favorite Enchant song and it nearly brought me to tears seeing it performed live like that. I was seriously moved. A few less beers and I would have made out the order of songs better. The Enchant setlist was something like this: Tug of War, Sinking Sand, What to Say, Catharsis, Under Fire, Hostile World, At Death's Door, another Juggling 9 Song. I know they closed it out with Comatose.. Enchant did not play NEARLY long enough... I would have loved to have heard more songs. If someone has the official setlist, I would love to see it. I was surprised to not hear "The Thirst" and any songs off of Break. Forgive me if I'm missing some songs. Break has a few great songs on it like "Defenseless" and "In the Dark." If the band is reading this post, I really think you guys should play "In the Dark" some time. That song has some powerful lyrics and melodies. You might be surprised how strong it still resonates with the fans *like you were with "Hostile World" perhaps*.
*** Enchant rant over
****I missed the first few tracks from Spock's Beard in favor or getting some food (which was a big mistake). Spock's Beard were fantastic. I have about half their albums (and should have all of them sadly). I know they played "The Water" with DC Cooper, Thoughts Part II, and I think they did a song from Beware of Darkness that I didn't recognize. All in all, it was fantastic!
Saturday Morning:
Hangover was pretty strong and only got stronger as the evening progressed.
Saturday Afternoon: Discovered that Californians suck at making corn... more on this later. For a regretful reason, I decide to have 2 beers with dinner
Saturday Evening: More Power Metalish evening... but a great evening at that! I totally loved all the bands -- especially Zero Hour and Jon Oliva's Pain. Zero Hour is the type of band that wants to make you burn your instruments and bow down and worship them as Gods of technical heavy metal. They are the type of people, however, that worship you for listening to their music and are the most humble, down to earth guys imaginable.
Crimson Glory and Eyefear surprisingly kicked my ass as well! Odin's Court was a trip to hear live... those guys have mad skills, for sheezy.
I was feeling very ill... and had to turn down at least 2 or 3 beers people bought for me (hahaha). Finally, I wound up nursing one beer for the whole evening and dumping it in the sink. My balls were definately in the purse that night. The corn pizza or whatever the hell I had for dinner did not agree with me and I had to go purge the contents of whatever was in my stomach two times during the festival! Once during Eyefear
uke: and another during Crimson Glory uke: . You'll be happy to know that once my business didn't last more than 1 song per trip, the horns came out once that nasty Calicorn was in the toilet.Jon Oliva's Pain was definately a trip to hear live. I was loving every minute of their performance, especially hearing Streets live like that. It was totally killer!
Okay... so sorry if this was a bit long and incoherent... but I figured all the cool friends I hung out with during the festival at least might I enjoy reading it.
Anyway, here's some honest feedback on the festival for all the promoters to read.
Pros: I loved the prog feel to this festival and hope it continues. I know some are wanting you guys to be a Prog Power II... but I don't think we need a second PP festival. This fest had it's own identify and feel to it and I hope it continues to develop into its own beast. Please continue to do this every year! I know the first year probably isn't going to make you guys any money, but neither did the first few Prog Powers. And to put things in perspective, Prog Power I was actually at a smaller venue than BAR Fest was. Prog is a bit of a dying art, but if you brought Arena next year, I think that would draw some people! I know I'd come back just to see them.
Cons: Somehow, I just don't think enough was done to get the word out. You'd be amazed to know how many people really hadn't heard of this thing. I know a lot of it has to do with it being the first year, but I think a little more topics started in other forums about BAR Fest would have generated a little more interest. I also feel that San Francisco has a lot more to offer than BAR Fest and you should encourage people to take a vacation in San Fran like I did instead of just coming down for the festival. Turn into a more party atmosphere and slowly add stuff like karaoke night and maybe some other forms of entertainment.
All right well... I' ve rambled long enough! I loved meeting all you whorebots this festival and hope to be back for BAR Fest II.
Peace Love and all that Bedroom Magic Nonsense Good Stuff!
The Michael
One thing I know for sure, we were both MAJORLY stoked about Enchant and had dreams fulfilled. Come to think of it, that you singing along with me up front, wasn't it? Looking at that picture again, I'm sure of it!! No shit! Dude, I had a blast! Thanks for sharing that experience with me!
