The Imaginary Mountain Goats Fanscape of My Mind
Okay I finally got some free minutes to update my livejournal.
This entry might be full of parenthetical asides.
Boy oh boy has this weekend been one of the most absolutely amazing experiences I've ever had.
Friday at 2pm I left to take a flight to Philadelphia, PA to meet up with friend Matt McDermott, whom I would accompany on to Watkins Glen, NY to ZOOP!
So yeah, the flight took me from Louisville, KY to Detroit, MI to Philly, and had it not been fo the insanely huge Detroit aiport and a Nintendo DS my brother lent me, the 3 hours in connection would have been absolute hell. I got there around 9:30pm and I had some trouble finding my luggage, go figure. Turns out some asshole just took it off the conveyer belt and left it on the opposite side to which I was standing. Blegh.
I met Matt just outside and took a long drive back to his house, was gonna tour the city just a bit, but traffic was hell. I can't recall much we did that night, we listened to some stuff on his record player and watched Wizard People, Dear Reader. The next day we gathered some vegan foods. In retrospect, we accrued way too much to eat in a single weekend, but we wanted variety I suppose. We started our five hour drive about 11:30, after going to radioshack to look for some recording equipment for Matt's iRiver. Not much to say, we listened to as much that wasn't Mountain Goats on the ride up there, I put on Ghost, and Philip Glass, and some other stuff. We got a bit turned around cause I forgot that we were supposed to take 17 W to 14 N and so we lost about 30 minutes on time, but no worries. We eventually got to Watkins Glen, to which we put on Matt's cassette of The Hot Garden Stomp, to help pump us up. After our last non-vegan meal (at a pizza hut) we drove to the Farm Sanctuary and set up shop!
It was awesome, just seeing so many people there already, being only a few minutes past 5 (which was registration time). We got our stuff up pretty quickly, set up tents next to some nice people (kind of hard to not do that though) and went in to go get registered. I came across Darcy as I did that too, and after making a donation and getting a wristband, I went over to say hello and help her set everything up. For the next two days Matt and I would be spending most our time with them, and we started off the day by watching them set up and make screenprinted t-shirts for Zoop. They were all pretty dandy. I think the nicest part about this whole farm sanctuary show was just that Peter, Perry, & John (sounds like a 60s folk group) were just wandering amongst us, just hanging out and talking to anybody, the warm welcoming feeling of community within Mountain Goats (and that which the Moutain Goats have with their fans) ought to make anybody jealous that their favorite band couldn't do such an event and pull it off as well as it was done this weekend.
The first night's show was unexpected to turn out as well as it did. Matt, Darcy, Allison, and I were probably first in front, sitting, excited! I wasn't sure what Perry was going to play, if it was his own act or Prayers and Tears stuff, glad to hear I knew a good portion of the songs on his setlist. He had a very powerful performance, not what I was expecting from the descriptor "intimate" on FS's website, but still...jesus. Damn good. Peter Peter Hughes was amazing, I'm kind of upset I never got the football albums, cause they were rockin', and so glad he played Highway 71 Revisted, cause I couldn't for the life of me remember the title to that and I really like that one (that and Satch Carlson are my favorites from the DiskothiQ catelogue). I'm sorely pissed that my recording didn't come out as well as it could've (we listened to it on the way back, it was below decent) because I think G-3 is the only one who got a bootleg of that, hopefully it will surface soon. As for the Mountain Goats, they fucking blew me away. It was an absolutely amazing blend of the new and the old. The crowd, my god, it was so beautiful seeing people singing along with EVERY SINGLE SONG. God damn, during Old College Try it was serene, the crowd was "ooo"-ing along. He even played the song he got "the Mountain Goats" from, (Screaming Jay Hawkins' Big Yellow Coat). Hearing songs like: ong For An Old Friend, Hot Garden Stomp, Alpha Gelida, Keeping House, Shadow Song, and The Mess Inside absolutely made my night over and over again, and only left me with a huge anticipation for the next night.
After the first night (as well as second) there were bonfires. The first night wasn't all that exciting, I mean...well it was! But it was very very calm. Just a bunch of folks talking and whatnot. Matt brought out his ghettoblaster and we listened to The Birthday Party almost exclusively. We left with I think Joy Division playing, the people who stayed around 4AM demanded we walk off so that the sound fades away, instead of just turning it off. Oh it was so awesome, each night Peter stayed out with us probably longer than anyone else.
I will update this more later, with info on the second night!
I promise!
I just gotta go right now, meeting up with Aimée to celebrate our 2 month anniversary.
This entry might be full of parenthetical asides.
Boy oh boy has this weekend been one of the most absolutely amazing experiences I've ever had.
Friday at 2pm I left to take a flight to Philadelphia, PA to meet up with friend Matt McDermott, whom I would accompany on to Watkins Glen, NY to ZOOP!
So yeah, the flight took me from Louisville, KY to Detroit, MI to Philly, and had it not been fo the insanely huge Detroit aiport and a Nintendo DS my brother lent me, the 3 hours in connection would have been absolute hell. I got there around 9:30pm and I had some trouble finding my luggage, go figure. Turns out some asshole just took it off the conveyer belt and left it on the opposite side to which I was standing. Blegh.
I met Matt just outside and took a long drive back to his house, was gonna tour the city just a bit, but traffic was hell. I can't recall much we did that night, we listened to some stuff on his record player and watched Wizard People, Dear Reader. The next day we gathered some vegan foods. In retrospect, we accrued way too much to eat in a single weekend, but we wanted variety I suppose. We started our five hour drive about 11:30, after going to radioshack to look for some recording equipment for Matt's iRiver. Not much to say, we listened to as much that wasn't Mountain Goats on the ride up there, I put on Ghost, and Philip Glass, and some other stuff. We got a bit turned around cause I forgot that we were supposed to take 17 W to 14 N and so we lost about 30 minutes on time, but no worries. We eventually got to Watkins Glen, to which we put on Matt's cassette of The Hot Garden Stomp, to help pump us up. After our last non-vegan meal (at a pizza hut) we drove to the Farm Sanctuary and set up shop!
It was awesome, just seeing so many people there already, being only a few minutes past 5 (which was registration time). We got our stuff up pretty quickly, set up tents next to some nice people (kind of hard to not do that though) and went in to go get registered. I came across Darcy as I did that too, and after making a donation and getting a wristband, I went over to say hello and help her set everything up. For the next two days Matt and I would be spending most our time with them, and we started off the day by watching them set up and make screenprinted t-shirts for Zoop. They were all pretty dandy. I think the nicest part about this whole farm sanctuary show was just that Peter, Perry, & John (sounds like a 60s folk group) were just wandering amongst us, just hanging out and talking to anybody, the warm welcoming feeling of community within Mountain Goats (and that which the Moutain Goats have with their fans) ought to make anybody jealous that their favorite band couldn't do such an event and pull it off as well as it was done this weekend.
The first night's show was unexpected to turn out as well as it did. Matt, Darcy, Allison, and I were probably first in front, sitting, excited! I wasn't sure what Perry was going to play, if it was his own act or Prayers and Tears stuff, glad to hear I knew a good portion of the songs on his setlist. He had a very powerful performance, not what I was expecting from the descriptor "intimate" on FS's website, but still...jesus. Damn good. Peter Peter Hughes was amazing, I'm kind of upset I never got the football albums, cause they were rockin', and so glad he played Highway 71 Revisted, cause I couldn't for the life of me remember the title to that and I really like that one (that and Satch Carlson are my favorites from the DiskothiQ catelogue). I'm sorely pissed that my recording didn't come out as well as it could've (we listened to it on the way back, it was below decent) because I think G-3 is the only one who got a bootleg of that, hopefully it will surface soon. As for the Mountain Goats, they fucking blew me away. It was an absolutely amazing blend of the new and the old. The crowd, my god, it was so beautiful seeing people singing along with EVERY SINGLE SONG. God damn, during Old College Try it was serene, the crowd was "ooo"-ing along. He even played the song he got "the Mountain Goats" from, (Screaming Jay Hawkins' Big Yellow Coat). Hearing songs like: ong For An Old Friend, Hot Garden Stomp, Alpha Gelida, Keeping House, Shadow Song, and The Mess Inside absolutely made my night over and over again, and only left me with a huge anticipation for the next night.
After the first night (as well as second) there were bonfires. The first night wasn't all that exciting, I mean...well it was! But it was very very calm. Just a bunch of folks talking and whatnot. Matt brought out his ghettoblaster and we listened to The Birthday Party almost exclusively. We left with I think Joy Division playing, the people who stayed around 4AM demanded we walk off so that the sound fades away, instead of just turning it off. Oh it was so awesome, each night Peter stayed out with us probably longer than anyone else.
I will update this more later, with info on the second night!
I promise!
I just gotta go right now, meeting up with Aimée to celebrate our 2 month anniversary.