Parachute!

not this:this:
four days of pure awesomeness....this one was the best ever.

I know i'm kinda blogging about it a bit late but yeh.

we had a real different perspective this time actually being one of the artists performing in the festival... ok this stage wasn't the one we were playing on and our crowd wasn't that massive....but it was AWESOME nonetheless. It was great to see our mates in metal/hardcore band Fallen World play one set before ours. They put on a pretty good perfomance.....I don't usually like metal but I was impressed!

I'll start at the beginning:

The bus trip up was pretty awesome...we left a bit later than usual though. I so didn't get any sleep the night before!

We got there and set up camp. Michael was just chilling: find it funny he's wearing a girls hat though... we went and found a place to store our gear, then we enjoyed the atmosphere for a few hours... The bands kicked off at about 6. Again later than last year. I hung out at mainstage to see reggae band Three Houses Down (very cool and funky) and a band called the Smart, who were absolutely AWESOME! Their lead singer/guitarist had a see-through axe! Wish I took a pic of THAT...

This is Manafest. Saw his last 4 songs at the Deluxe. He was really good! Just him rapping though.. no backing band. =(

After him it was back to Mainstage. Chris & Kerry convinced me too go see All Left Out, a punk rock band who has a singer with the WEIRDEST accent of all time. Which was the reason why I didn't much like them. But their set was really proffesional. It was one of the best I've seen actually. It made me like them!!!

They had a sweet as howdown with like 40 members onstage. It wasn't quite as good as DCB's last year (cos they had a banjo), but it was pretty cool.

Next up was the moment we'd all been waiting for:

Rapture Ruckus!!!They came on and did the epicest pause! It was in a half sun shape.

Then they kicked into the intro of Tonight! & the moshpit went NUTS! I was standing about 8 rows from the front, with Nate, Chris, Kerry, and Beka. But I got so utterly pushed around that next time I could actually stick my head up and see what was happening, I was stuck right between two death circles! ARGGH! I kept moshing. It was the only way to survive.

Finally I made it to a place where I could jump without being shoved everywhere, just as the song was finishing. It was AWESOME!

Man it was a sweet concert. He did Lose Control, Freight Train, a new one called All We Got, One... I sang along to all of them. In about their 4th song I found out Beka was somehow behind me - don't know how...(everyone else was lost somewhere over the other side of the moshpit)
Then they did I Believe! It was real cool! They had the words on the big screen.

They also did Hold On and All Things New, my 2 favourites! Then they went off.

Good thing there was an encore. He came back on and did No Matter What. Awesome way to finish.

After that was Falling Up. You have no idea how excited I was for this concert... Falling Up have some awesome songs and all their old vids look mean.

I was disappointed though. It was really slow. Musically intresting but really boring live. There were a few good moments in Moonlit, Streams of Woe at Acheron, and Searchlights. The best bit was when some guys were having shoulder ride fights in the moshpit and security jumped the fence and tackled them!!!!

After that disappointing show I went to bed...

Saturday was great. Kicked off with worship @ the morning meeting. Leeland Mooring (from Leeland) came and did an awesome song with Parachute Band. Then we had to go to the Artist Breifing at the Apollo.

Our show was AWESOME! We went so hard out and just enjoyed ourselves. We got about between 70-100 people there, and just let rip. I even did a jump off the drumstage (something I've always wanted to do.) I was so hot afterwards though...

After our show I saw a bit off Rapture Ruckus then caught up with some friends in the Village. Then I went to the Deluxe for 3 awesome shows in a row: Playjerise, Lydia Cole, and Triggor Theory.

Playjerise were great. I just chilled out. They did so many sweet songs! Google them. You won't regret it...

Lydia Cole was pretty awesome too for a singer/songwriter.

Triggor Theory were ok. A bit weird after all that accoustic stuff! They did some good hard-rockers What Are You Afraid Of? and As We Fall, as well as softer stuff like A Soft Farewell. Only problem was the sound was terrible. You could barely even here the drummer scream. =(

still the crowd liked it quite a lot.

After them I went to the Apollo to see a band called Efekt cos they were from a town near ours.

They were alright. I didn't like the bass player though. And the lead singer wasn't that great. Still, I managed to get the best picture of Parachute on my phone of them:
Then it was back to Mainstage to see crunk-rockers Family Force 5! They were wild! Their show was staged really awesomely though! I really enjoyed it...

Between FF5 and Switchfoot there were some cool as birthday celebrations, with fireworks and huge blow up guys.

After them was Switchfoot. They were AMAZING! If you've ever seen them live in concert, you will know what I'm talking about. (If you haven't, make sure you do!) Jon Foreman had the crowd on fire. Everyone was singing at the top off their lungs, and waving glowsticks. We all jumped to tunes such as Meant To Live, The Awakening, Oh Gravity, Stars, and lots of other Switchfoot hits. They did quite a lot of their new stuff which is so GOOD! After they went off everyone yelled ENCORE! and threw their glowsticks at the stage. Wave after wave of brightly coloured sticks flew over my head, lighting up the dark night, and landing on the stage. Then they came back on and played Dare You to Move. It was the best concert I've ever been lucky to experience.

After them I went to see Nathan King. I ran in just as he was playing Bury Me. Man he is a good performer! His backing band is awesome too; the guitar player has one of the coolest axes of all time.

I didn't get any pics of Sunday cos my phone kept dying. The funny thing was it was bucketing down with rain. Most parts flooded in some ways. The morning meeting was great. We all had umbrellas.

We wandered around in the rain for a bit, then went to see Shooting Stars. They weren't that great, but mostly cos Ben was overseas so it was Dave and some guys from My Life Story. It sounded weird with drums. After that I went to the One Life Experience. It was hardcore raining so I got dry kinda (YAY!) but the line took ages. After that I went to see the Smart again then stuck around for Sleeptalkers! They were pretty mean! Their keyboardist is really good! And the lead singer has another one of the sweetest axes known to man! They did 2 new songs, both which had pretty awesome tunes. Spin had an awesome keyboard riff!

Next band I saw was Steve Apirana at Mainstage. He was hilariously funny! Really cool too. Then I went to the Deluxe again to see a band called Willet. They were AWESOME! They did a great live show. Typical rock band formula, but a bit harder. It was great. Their guitarist really knew how to bust out the distorted solo's, man!!!! They did a cool song called Shout it From the Rooftops and a hard-rocker aptly called War & Peace.

Then it was back to Mainstage to see Leeland. They were definetly the best worship band I'd ever seen! They had a real heart for it, and they knew how to put on a great show! They got the entire crowd singing along to Sound Of Melodies, Tears of the Saints, Can't Stop, and Count Me In, as well as newer ones like Via Dolorosa, and Follow You (one of the best songs in the world!!!). They did a really awesome song about letting your light shine for God, played on a background of lit-up Chinese Lanterns. It was so moving and awesome.

I went to see Falling Up again (cos it was their final concert) but was disappointed when they did EXACTLY all the same songs as on Friday.

We walked around the village for ages doing fun stuff like mega group hugs, and dancing round rubbish bins b4 heading back to our tents.

Monday was a bit short. I went to the Morning Meeting, then helped pack the bus. We headed off at about lunch time, saying goodbye to an awesome weekend of good times, rain & sunshine, talks, atmosphere, God-space, and of course, epic music.

I can't wait for 2011!

Jordan