Gainesville Rock City

So we're in Gainesville now, which is in northern Florida. Leaving new york was quite a relief, to be honest i was ready to leave by about Tuesday so when Thursday finally rolled around it was a huge relief. We got into Orlando at about six on Thursday evening, picked up our twelve seater passenger van, loaded up with ten Americans and, after a brief learning session for me on how to drive automactic, where the lights are, and why you shouldn't drive with the brakes on, we were off. One hundred miles later, we were in Gainesville to check into our hotel, the holiday inn. Dumped our stuff and headed over to Bar 1982 where a few friends bands were playing. Amazing night, ran into so many people I've not seen in a year. Got out of there about two and went back to the hotel, we'd rented a room for four people (two double beds) but managed to cram in eleven people, which was fun. Having spent the previous few days in new york being woken early either by the heat (they took away our A/C on Sunday - boiling hot it was) or the noise (roadworks directly outside), it was great to finally get a bit of sleep.

Friday was the first day of The Fest. For those who don't know, the fest is a punk festival I've been attending in Florida each October for the last few years. This year there's around 1800 people staying in the one hotel (total fest capacity is about 3000) so it's been insane - dirty looking feckers walking around covered in tattoos and invariably drunk as all hell. They even had a stand giving tattoos at the registration, where i picked up my wristband and all-access/vip/skip-the-line pass. This is the second year i've been working as a photographer here so i get the pass so i don't miss any bands because the line outside is too long. And thank god, in my own opinion they oversold the fest this year (doubled the capacity but only added one venue) so the lines for some of the gigs were ridiculous. But i just walked on by...

Spent most of the day with seamie, masshole, beckwith and angela, drinking in an irish bar before getting food at this awesome punk run restaurant called "The Top". Damn them punks can cook. Met up with some of the english boys and went to see some bands (ADD/C, Watson, Nervous Dogs) before me and masshole met up with the boys in Glass And Ashes, who know the owner of one of the bigger venues, who got us past the 45 minute line outside and gave us special wristbands so we could drink for free. Sweet. Hung out with Against Nick's girlfriend for a while, met the Planes Mistaken For Stars guys, which was cool, saw a bit of Planes's set before running to The Atlantic to meet up with seamie and see an (as always) amazing show by Young Livers and an absolutely insano show by Glass And Ashes which culminated with most of the crowd either spilling all over the stage or jumping off it.

After that i spent some time chatting with some friends outside that i'd not seen yet, met the dude in charge of the photography, asked him for a schedule to be told i was being given no schedule as i'd turned in so much good work last year, they decided to let me shoot whatever i wanted to shoot, which ruled. Went to catch some Naked Raygun in the newest venue, cleverly titled "The Venue". Took some photos that turned out pretty good. Went to one more gig, met up with Masshole again and got some food and crashed at about 3am (only eight people in the room this time, relaxing ;)

So today we got up late, went to a house show the lads (north lincoln) were playing, basically someone with a living room big enough to accommodate a band and about fifty people. There was probably between 100 and 150 people at the gig so it was good fun, $1 beers, $2 burgers. After the gig we legged it across town to see Bridge And Tunnel (pat from latterman's new band), who were amazing, and Ringers who were class. Headed back to the hotel to meet up with this graphic design guy who did a really cool poster for the D4 gig with one of my pics on (you can see it by clicking here), gave him my address in Macroom and asked him to post a few copies back there for me. Got some food and now i'm here, in the lobby of the hotel, transferring photos off my camera onto my MP3 player (which i've just found out won't let me view Nikon Raw images, grrrrrr) and write this boring blog that i'm sure nobody cares about anyways.

AWESOME!!!! In conclusion (if you skipped the above): having a great time, meeting loads of people, seeing loads of bands, getting very little sleep. Orlando Monday, NYC Tuesday, Thailand Wednesday. Job.