First on the sidebar: We didn't have the same interesting preacher as last year's Freedom Fest, BUT we did have this guy, Judah Smith. His job was to be louder than the band, and to create questionable biblical connections. And as Shawn put it, to play off the crowd's "adolescent egocentrism."The CDs I got are also worth a mention, because they are cool. I picked up Jars of Clay's album The Eleventh Hour, which makes them officially the most-albumed band in my collection at four albums. I got the classic Echoing Green album Supernova, which had originals of two of my favorite EG songs: She's Gone Tragic and Liberation. I owe Shawn for finding that one for me; it's now one of my favorite albums ever. I got the best of DC Talk (the album was Intermission) and what I've listened to of that sounds good. I got the first Tree 63 album as well, and what I've heard of that is good (of course "Joy," "Treasure," and "Look What You've Done" are awesome songs.) There was also an old Myx records sampler, and a sampler of singles which I got mostly because PAX217's "Til the Sun" was on it, and that's just an awesome song. My iTunes library grew considerably. Shawn was able to pick up the Supertones Hi-Fi Revival and an All Together Separate CD himself.
Other bad bands: Zeo Doxa, which somehow is managing to do humanitarian work in Africa. My theory is that they start playing, and then take donations so they'll stop. And that's how they raise money to do their work in Africa. The MC of the event, Frank Montgomery, also did some "worship" at random and with a band. Ginny asked "If this is the worship, then what were we doing before?" Who else was bad? Hrm, we avoided KJ-52 on night two, but we still could hear his music; about half of his songs seemed like they were covers or stolen from someplace. He did freestyle, but I didn't hear enough of that to know whether he was any good. He also played his infamous ode to Eminem, "Dear Slim." Who else was bad...there were one or two other bad bands whose names escape me. There was one that was rocky, and their lead singer couldn't really sing that well. And numerous fringe stage bands that weren't really that good. One last "bad bands" quip was Alicia's note about Seventh Day Slumber's "bragimony" (the bragimony in question being HEY SONY AND UNIVERSAL OFFERED US MAINSTREAM DEALS AND WE SAID NOOOO.) Shawn theorized that the only reason they didn't take it was because, unlike some other bands like Skillet and Switchfoot, the music doesn't have a strong enough message on its own not to require preaching in-between songs. With the exception of the innocence song, that seems fairly accurate, although to be honest I am sometimes unsure of exactly how much of a message Switchfoot and Skillet music has on its own.
Perelux (a good band) would have been there, and would have been good, had they not for some unknown reason cancelled their show. I know someone who takes guitar from their lead singer / guitarist; I think I asked him to ask their lead singer about it.
Other magical musical musings (alliteration was a virtue this weekend, apparently Alicia is a fan of it as well) include the fact that not one but two artists on day two, Riley Armstrong and Shawn McDonald, stuck the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" verses into their songs.
We also saw one of Shawn's friends from high school, a guy named Luke. He was at the Narnia booth promoting the new movie which was, well, based on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He actually ate hot dogs with us on night two, and was going to join us for dinner on night three, but that didn't work out for some reason I don't yet know. He was a cool person to meet.
Oh yes, the chicken. Rooster, rather. We had a rooster which came to hang out with us as we made dinner by the road. It was lured in with tortilla bits by Ginny, and then Alicia and Shawn chased it away, and I got the chase on video using my Shawn's small camera...I look forward to seeing that one again! We got to hang out with the rooster twice, once for each of the last two days. That was fun stuff, and he was a funny little thing. Whenever I have pictures from this Freedom Fest thing (the Judah Smith picture was from the FF website) I'll make sure to put up a couple.
Shawn's hearing was amazing this weekend. He couldn't hear anything I was saying, it seemed--often Alicia had to translate for him. Just about every other word that came out of my mouth missed his ears. I'm not sure exactly why. But it wasn't just when we were all up in front or anything; it was the whole weekend.
Let's see, what else...I think that about covers it, actually. Have nice day, and God bless!
- Edit at 1:42: I also didn't wear sunscreen the second day, and today my ears proved it. I should make sure to get outside plenty in the next week, maybe actually preserve a tan for once. -
- Edit at 2:21: There's a few things I put in, like names and more details. Plus the Shawn's hearing section and updates to the "bad bands" section.
- Edit at 2:48: I just keep remembering details.
2 comments:
Maybe it wasn't Shawn's hearing. Maybe you were doing your infamous "speed talking." Another item for the "roommate survival kit": a tape recorder so he can record what you say and then play it back slowly so he can understand what you've said.
No, it was Shawn's hearing. I realized how that might have sounded after I typed it. I might have talked a bit fast, but it wasn't all me, at least not this weekend. If you want some confirmation it was at least in part Shawn's hearing, ask Alicia the next time she's at NVF.
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