Well a few days ago, Rick and I got to see Snocore 2005 for free. Ahh the perks of the music business. I haven’t done street teaming for a while now, but this is almost as good. Free tickets to shows, free t-shirts, free CDs. And you don’t have to bug people by trying to hand them stickers.

The show was ok. Rick and I hung out in the skyways to avoid the chilly weather before heading out to the line. I guess that was a bad idea because we missed one of the only bands we wanted to see, Strata.

I was looking forward to being 21 and going upstairs finally. Too bad it was an all ages show and they just let anyone up there. Guess I was wrong. The rest of the show was ok. Futre Leaders of the World was the first band I saw. I never was a huge grunge fan. I can’t see these guys being the revival either. On the plus side, their drummer hit like crazy. I always like a guy who works hard.

The only analogy I can come up with for Crossfade is that they are the new boy bands. Right up there with Good Charlotte and Simple Plan. While they may have not been prefabricated, they certainly are taking the place of boy bands. I had to laugh when they have a guy who plays samples of guitars on a turntable. How hard is it to find someone to play backup or rhythm guitar for a signed band? Then there’s their look. No kidding, they look like a boy band. Well, at least the turntable guy. He had the whole look going. It was funny when their guitarist came and stood right behind me and Rick during Chevelle’s set. I’ll get to that later though.

Helmet was up next. Knowing these guys used to be huge, I was pretty sure they’d put on a good show. I’d never actually heard a Helmet song before though. While they weren’t really the type of music I’d listen to now, I’d probably have liked them in their heyday. They also put on a really energetic show. They probably were the best of the night.

Finally a band I wanted to see. Chevelle! Thinking back, I’ve been a Chevelle fan since about ‘98 or ‘99. I think I first heard them on the radio when their first album Point #1 came out. People were saying they could be the next Tool back then. Well, they aren’t quite Tool, but they are a pretty popular and well known band. It’s always more fun to see a band when you know their songs. Chevelle put on a decent show. They were into it and very thankful for the response from the crowd.

How could this week get any better? More shows! Saturday I checked out my favorite band last year, Break the Silence for only 7 bucks! Yea, it wasn’t free, but it was damn close. Rick was supposed to come up and go with me, but he got sick and stayed home. Being the trooper and live music junkie I am, I went anyway.

Rise or Rust opened followed by CJF and then 715. Rise or Rust looked like they were about 16, but they were damn good. They played a kind of political style punk ala Anti-Flag with a heavier edge to it. One of their guitarists actually had a few impressive solos. I rather enjoyed them. CJF followed. I had actually met their their drummer at the Nehemiah show the week before. He seemed cool and so I was somewhat curious to see what they were all about. Straight off, their sounded reminded me a lot of Alexisonfire. Their vocalist was equally talent at belting out melodies as he was at pulling up demonic screams. I probably would’ve spent some money on their CD had I rememebered to hit the ATM after work.

Speaking of work, that was another free thing. I found out the parking lot where I normally park for work is free on weekends. Yay! Anyway, back to the show.

715 from Madison, WI was third in line. I wasn’t impressed with them at all. Their vocalist was kind of flamboyant and obnoxious. He kind of pissed me off, so I just waited paitently knowing BtS would kick some ass pretty soon.

Finally, Break the Silence came on. I had been standing towards the back for most of the show, but moved right to the front for them. I forgot to mention earlier that there was only about 20 kids there when I first showed up and by this time it had maybe grown to 75. Suffice to say, there was plenty of room front and center. They played through most of their CD, leaving off maybe 2 or 3 songs. I was going off the whole time. I felt bad for them though because not many other people were. The drummer from CJF was next to me and he was going off just as hard, but except for a few moments, the rest of the crowd stood still.

After the music was over, I ran back to my car quick to grab my BtS CD cover. Mr. Precision was the only guy around at their merch booth, so I had him sign it for me. He was even nice enough to refold it the “correct” way. He said they messed it up at the factory. I chatted for a couple minutes before the big bouncer guy said “everyone out!” I wouldn’t pushed the issue if he hadn’t been about 400lbs and holding a very menacing looking drum stick.

On my way home, I grabbed some Subway from the closest one to my place. There was one guy working. Let’s just say he didn’t look too American. He took a good 10 minutes to figure out what the couple in front of me wanted. They spent about half that time trying to explain to him what extra crispy bacon was. My turn came up and he was able to fix my sub the way I wanted. We got to the register and I handed him 2 Sub Club tickets for which I’m supposed to buy a large drink and get a free footlong. I knew I was in trouble when he got this scared/confused look on his face. The next 15 minutes was spent with him hitting buttons on the register screen and making groaning noises. I tried to offer help a few times; he didn’t seem to understand. Finally, he calls someone up. I don’t know if it was his boss, a buddy who worked there, or a Subway in Mexico, but he was speaking Spanish fast. After a couple minutes on the phone he handed me the sub and my tickets back and said “Here, just go. They free.” I left before he had a chance to figure it out. Something tells me he was in for a long closing.

I capped off the night by drinking some beers which were sold to me by the guy at the liqour store. Why is this of interest you may ask? Well the guy decided it was appropriate to be talking on his cell phone to one of his buddies about how he couldn’t get off while having sex with his girlfriend that morning. Like I really need to hear the trials and tribulations of your sex life while I’m buying my beer. That about concluded my interesting encounters with stupid people for the day. Like I said, I drank some beer and went to bed.