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Yesterday, that is, Wednesday the 6th, I drove all the way from Louisville KY to Cleveland Ohio. I left my house at about 6:30 and did some shopping for road goodies, sodas and cashed a paycheck. I was on the road right around 7am. It took about five and a half hours to get to there. On the way I rolled thru Covington, Cincinnati and Columbus, all places where some bad-a** concerts have gone down.

So right, it's now about 12:30 and I'm all settled in at the Tower City Amphitheater's parking lot. When I look up who should I find but the very people I came to see: Bullets and Octane. I got to talk to James Daniels, the lead guitarist for a few minutes, and we walked to the gate with Toshiya of Dir en Grey.

Gates finally opened around 2:00 and the first band to play was Walls of Jericho. Can't say that I liked them very much. The singer just couldn't get us going, personally I think she tried too hard, and they just didn't put out enough energy otherwise.

The band I went to see came on second. Jager amp and all. I was able to talk to them while they were autographing for people, and they told me that from the stage it seemed like nobody, excluding myself, knew who they were. But the crowd warmed up them quickly, which was good. Gene Louis, the singer, ******** with the crowd alot, telling 'em the headliners have cancelled and what not.

After them Deadsy came on, and I was at the back of the room by then. But they sounded pretty good, so I picked up their album and got them to sign it, along with a poster.

After they played I zoned out and walked around checking out the booths that were set up. Among my favorites were the pitching booth that told you how fast you throw. It's been right around 4 years since I've thrown a baseball and I was able to get it up to 55mph. I also like the one that said "Don't be a p***y, pop a Balloon!"

Bury your Dead was on after Deadsy, next came 10 years who were awesome.

Next up was Dir En Grey. When I said that I had met Toshiya before the show had started, I did not know who it was. Mainly because I had never listened to them before, and I had no idea where they were from. But holy ******** they were good. Kyo started bleedin all over the place about halfway thru the set. I never thought Japanese people could be so ******** crazy. But I guess America can be a good influence sometimes.

Flyleaf played next. I basically wandered around and tuned them while they played.
After them Stone Sour played. Was a good set and I enjoyed it, but I don't listen to them enough to know the songs they play all that well, so I felt kinda left out.

Same for the last two Band. The Deftones and Korn. The three hours that they played I was basically keeping a couple of people out of the mosh pits that popped up during every song. Had to pull them off the ground after Korn cam on because they got knocked over and I didn't want them to get trampled.

I was honestly more impressed with the Deftones than I was Korn. Although Korn did pull out a firehose and spray the crowd. I got ******** drenched, but I cooled off right quick.

The funniest part of the whole trip was one of two things. After the show was over I went back out to my car, and James Daniels was standing out there and he had some chick with him. Picks her up off the ground, walks over to me and says "Can you hold onto her for second?" And just drops her right into my arms. She just gives me this real confused look and he tells her I'm cool cause I'm with them. The expression on her face with ******** priceless, confusion and all. I thought it was funny, maybe it was just because I was tired.

But being asked for a "man hug" was definately funny. Earlier in the day I had told him that I was leaving for the Marines and before they left town he asked when I was leaving, after I told him he asked for a hug, so I gave him one of those hugs where you only use one hand, mostly 'cause I had a 12 pack of Mountain Dew in the other hand. Then he said give me a real hug, a man hug, and I dropped the Dew and gave the man a real hug. After that it was basically the good byes take cares, and see ya again before hitting the road.

I think this trip was probably the best I've ever had.