Banda Macho!

Banda Macho!
L to R: Sam, Mike, Luke, Nato, Matt

Monday, September 28, 2015

Fest 14 Is Coming...

Hello, Blue Diamond Land! I hope your autumn is going well. The leaves are turning, there is a refreshing chill in the night air, baseball teams are setting their starting rotations for the playoffs... what does it all mean? Why, it means Gainesville Fest is almost here! Check out the Official Website and get your passes now!

This year's Fest looks really, really, really fucking good. They finally got Andrew W.K., do I need to add any more info?

Actually, I do want to say a couple things. First off, Sam Beer will be playing two sets this year - his other band, Dingus, is playing Fest! They're touring there with their/our friends Braver (also from Mpls). Go see both bands in the course of your Festing, you won't regret it!

And then there's the matter of our show. How can I explain this properly... first off, playing Fest is always, ALWAYS great. But to borrow from Animal Farm, some greats are greater than others. Some years, we have looked at ourselves in the mirror at Durty Nelly's early on a Fest Sunday afternoon and wondered just how the hell we were going to go onstage in half an hour. And every time, somehow, we pull it off. The room is full of all our friends, cheering and singing along, and it feels great to be alive! Which definitely is not how we felt when we woke up.

(And then there's the time the fire alarm - and therefore the power - went off during the fourth song one year, and that was how our set ended. Despite the fact that we finished the song unplugged, me riding on a friend's shoulders around the room, which was fun, I suppose I'll admit that I would have just preferred to finish the set with electricity and no fire alarm.)

This year? THIS YEAR IS GREAT. We play Sunday at Durty Nelly's, comfortably late enough to be assured of completely conquering our hangovers. And the lineup for our show is insane. This lineup feels like the Fest mavens read my mind and discerned the bands I would want to play with at a show at Fest, AND THEN MADE THAT THE LINEUP. Look at this:

12:10 AM - 12:40 AMWhiskey & Co.
11:20 PM - 11:50 PMArliss Nancy
10:30 PM - 11:00 PMBlacklist Royals
9:40 PM - 10:10 PMTwo Cow Garage
8:50 PM - 9:20 PMMutts
8:00 PM - 8:30 PMLee Bains III & The Glory Fires
7:10 PM - 7:40 PMNato Coles and the Blue Diamond Band
6:20 PM - 6:50 PMNinja Gun
5:30 PM - 6:00 PMBrian Wahlstrom
4:40 PM - 5:10 PMWaylon Thorton & The Heavy Hands
3:50 PM - 4:20 PMRivernecks
3:00 PM - 3:30 PMThe Ones To Blame
2:10 PM - 2:40 PMThose Crosstown Rivals
1:20 PM - 1:50 PMThe Record Collection

Yes, that's our show at Fest. True, we are not on the same show as Andrew W.K., but as the late great Yogi Berra once said, you can't win them all sometimes*.

Allright, get your Fest 14 passes now, and let's party onward, straight to hell and back! In other news, our live album is still slated to come out this year. Meanwhile, the excellent Rum Bar Records is releasing a deluxe version of Promises To Deliver on CD, with bonus tracks that should be out in the next month or two as well, maybe in time for Gainesville! So you'll want to monitor that situation closely. Check out Rum Bar Records's bandcamp page where you can listen to a ton of great power pop, rock'n'roll, punk rock, garage, etcetera ad infinitum. Great stuff!

Salud,
NC&BDB

*since we're talking about Florida, gotta tip my hat to The Crumbs on that quote too...