Holiday's in the Sun diary

Friday August 24th

5:41 PM : It's obvious we are nearing the Maritime Hall. Why do I know that?
Most likely because of the high concentration of Mohawks noted in the surrounding neighborhood. We can't wait to exit the cab and head up to the booth to get our press passes, laminates and other assorted freebies that go along with being someone important. Beer bottles stuffed in our camera bags clank together as we walk the stairs into the show. But wait what is this? Security checking all bags. Time to play it cool so security doesn't ditch the alcohol.

Security seems uninterested in our bags because of all the camera crap so they just wave us on to will call. At the window the reality begins to sit in. No press passes, no laminates, no freebies but at least the daily free tickets were waiting.
I assure the other DJ's that there must be some mistake which I'm sure can be corrected. (more on that later!)

The Maritime Hall seems like the perfect venue
for a big punk show. Large open rooms which
are connected by very small stairways. The
merchadise room is represented by the likes
of TAANG, BYO, TKO and a few other punk
merchants. Even if you have arrived under-
dressed for the occasion, dont fear.
Doc Martins and spiked attire are available
as easily as you can swipe the credit card.

We check in some of the stuff we are carrying for the bargain price of $2 per bag.
It is obvious the coat/bag check girl smokes at least a 1/4 ounce of pot per day.
The music is playing so we head up another punk filled stairway to reach the main floor of the venue where all the music will be taking place over the next 3 days.

                                              6:05 PM The hall was still somewhat empty as
                                              expected. We had managed to miss The Worthless
                                              as I realized Mad Parade was already on stage.
                                              Mad Parade is an old school band from Southern
                                              California. They had this song called "The Night is
                                              Ours Forever" I used to play it over an over again
                                              being one of the few 4+ minute punk songs that I
                                              could tolorate and actually enjoy. We watched a few
                                              songs from their set and decided to go drink some
                                              beers and check out what was going on around the
                                              festival.

In various hallways around the festival, different bands had their merchandise booths set up. The biggest bargain of the festival turned out to be the Pistol Grip work shirt for $5. But by the time I figured out the bargain, all the large sizes were gone. None of the bands seemed to be ripping off the kids like some high priced
rock show where T-shirts start at $25. Heading back up upstairs, the hallways begin to fill with squatting punks. This was something that became more annoying as the each day went on, as everyone was forced to cram almost single file to snake their way through the maze of leather, spikes and legs.

Back inside the main floor of the festival, we were
just in time for the beginning of the US Bombs set.
I haven't seen the band live and was expecting big
things. Actually Duane Peters came out looking
much more fit than I expected. Tattoos adorn just
about every part of his body. He proved to be a
great show man and quickly got the crowd into it.

Alot of the songs sounded similar to me but that seemed to be OK because the US Bombs fucking rocked the place. If you get a chance to see this band live, do not miss out. They have a great street punk sound and left nobody looking disappointed when their set finished.

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