Ludo - St. Louis - 5/18/08
So TiberiusLazarus, Gnome_Queen and myself went to PointFest in St. Louis to see Ludo and a bunch of other bands; including Shinedown, Theory of a Deadman, Hurt, Finger 11, Filter, Killswitch Engage, 10 Years, and many more. Tiberius and I got there when the gates opened at 10am, and Gnome_Queen arrived around 12:30 with a couple of her friends.
The crowd was huge for Ludo. It was crazy. Gnome_Queen and her friend both 'crowd-surfed' up to the security guards while Ludo was playing! After the show we headed over to the tent where the band was signing CD's.
Well, the line to meet Ludo was fail. Ludo was only signing CD's due to the time restraints of each band getting time in the tent. There was a security lady that kept telling people they had to have a Ludo CD to be in line to meet them. So I bought Gnome_Queen a Ludo CD and we got in line. As we got closer to the band, the lady kept telling me I had to have a CD. "I'm friends with Ludo.", I tell her. She doesn't listen. Finally we get pretty close to Ludo and she again tells me I need a CD. I shout over to Matt(drummer)..
"Hey Matt!"
Matt looks up and instantly recognizes me. "Hey, whats going on?"
"You guys mind if I come say hello, I don't have a cd, but I have my friend here with one."
"Hell Yeah!" Matt says.
I look back the security lady. "Sorry." is all she says and looks away.
I give Andrew a high 5 and he asks me if Detroit or today was a better show. I told him Detroit was epic because I got to hang out with you guys, but the way you got the crowd going today was awesome. I shake hands with Tim and Marshall. When I get to Tim Convy, he looks up and goes, "Hey man how's it going, great to see ya again!" Yus, they remembered the fatcat
I finished with shaking hands with my buddy Matt and thanking the band for a hell of the show and Gnome_Queen got her CD signed.Some of the other bands put on a great show, some were so-so. All in all, it was a great day with some great music.
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Now I have the great joy of feeling it.
Faaaaantastic.
I am so bringing SPF 30 to Warped Tour.
How was shinedown in person?
Yep, that pretty much rocks. :bigggrin:
Shinedown was good, but they played too many songs off of their brand new cd, which I'm not quite sure has even been released. I'm all for new stuff, but it's rather hard to sing along to stuff you've never heard, so I would have liked for a few more old songs in there too. They played about...ten songs, maybe? At LEAST half of those were brand new, but I felt like it was even more than half.
JUST HEARTBURN FROM FAIL BUD LIGHT BEER.
but wut you expect being in St. Louis. Budweiser and Verizon pretty much owned the place.
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all the bottles, including the beer, were plastic.
No glass was allowed inside the gates.
Convy is always going nuts on stage. He is a blast to watch.
Sunday, 5/18/08 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre - Pointfest (Maryland Heights, MO)
"There must be no God. My alarm didn't go off. Fortunately, I was having a dream about my alarm not going off, so I woke up with a jolt and checked the time. 11:05. NO!!! NO!!!! I have to shower!!! NO!!!! Having redeemed my installment of Ludo's 75 minutes of allotted sleep, I sprinted upstairs, rinsed off, threw clothes on, sprinted outside and joined all my equally jostled compatriots, for a trip to Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre (formerly UMB Bank Pavilion (formerly Riverport Amphitheatre)). Got there by noon, just in time to load in. By the time we got there, the place was already filling up with people. Curran was there to lend a helping hand. Nick set up our stuff with the merch people. Tim, Tim, and I joined David McGilvray and his crew on a van ride over to the 105.7 The Point lounge where we did a sweet-ass interview with Rizzuto and Donnie Fandango (their first of the day!). Rejoined the rhythm section on the side of the stage, met some fine young gentlemen in Copperview, and then watched the bands Red and Ten Years vigorously play our stage. There was quite a dense throng around the stage. We went on at 2:35. The throng got denser. And bigger. We were worried that maybe the crowd was going to think themselves a little too nu metal to enjoy a Ludo show, and there were certainly some confused faces as we soundchecked. But the faithful were PUMPED. Once Tom announced us though and said we were from St. Louis, and the rock show commenced, it just started going crazy. We were playing to somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 people. They were CRAZY. The crowd-surfing factory was sending far more surfers down the assembly line toward the stage than the guards could handle. I saw one girl fall from seven feet up in the air over the barricade and she landed where I couldn't see her, headfirst on the asphalt. I was trying to sing Lake Pontchartrain at the time, but the fall looked so gruesome, I almost stopped. I was thinking to myself, "Oh ****balls, security dudes, please pick her up, please grab that girl..." and they did. As they lifted her three seconds after she landed, all I could see was blood. Soaking her whole head, and waterfalling onto her legs. They dragged her out of their quickly - shook me up to see it so close. It made me nervous for all the other people crowdsurfing, but security seemed to catch all the others - and they were coming in droves. A circle pit ensued for Epic. A circle pit. At a Ludo show. Okay. Whatever. Go for it. Just don't hurt any small, gentle people. Upon my request the crowd threw hundreds of plastic bottles and shows and other random bull**** into the air. I was hoping for watches and cell phones and gold nuggets, but no one had the cajones to make it happen. They were singing along unappeasably, moshing like *******s, and screaming like werewolves. I saw bloodied noses everywhere, and people passing out in the crowd. The good news is, for every person who looked like they were dying, there were at least seven who looked like they might live. It was nuts. Then we passed out kazoos and had the whole front of the crowd play Love Me Dead with us. Amazing. The weather was perfect. The crowd was like nothing I'd ever seen at a Ludo show, and then the show was over. It was hands-down the most intense experience I've ever had in Ludo. We caught a ride over to the Slacker's tent and signed stuff for a good hour until we got to the end of the line. Unexpectedly, lots of dudes in Killswitch Engage shirts saying we rocked. Turns out the Pointfest liked Ludo. It was an amazing day. Stopped by and gave some love to Rifqa, Donnie, and the beautiful Island Street Teamers at their van, and then we reconvened back at our stage where we sat on top of the van stage right and watched Coheed tear it up. It was beautiful. Nick settled with the merch people, we all shook hands and went our separate ways for a good 48 hours of rest. Pointfest. You are a gorgeous, healthy baby and we were happy to babysit you for a half-hour. Let's do it again in the fall."