My Edgefest
Beautiful weather and an organized Pizza Hut Park made last night's Edgefest 16 more than bearable and, during some of the bands' sets at least, pretty fun. I knew I didn't have the endurance to stick it out all day long, so I headed up to Frisco in the late afternoon. What follows is a timeline, with inner dialogue in italics:
4:45 p.m.: Arrive in Frisco and leave car approximately 10 million miles away from Pizza Hut Park. I should have worn hiking shoes.
4:50 p.m.: During long walk to stadium, I notice to my right the Frisco Senior Center. Wonder if people are playing shuffleboard inside.
5:03 p.m.: Enter the concourse of the stadium to the sound of Blue October performing "Hate Me." Groan loudly. I need a drink.
5:30 p.m.: Head down to ground-level general admission area. The drummer for British band Muse walks out on stage in a Spider-Man suit. I think I'm actually enjoying this now.
5:45 p.m.: Muse plays "Hysteria." Half the stadium is now under a shade. After the song, a barricade in front of the mosh pit breaks and the concert is stopped for 10 minutes to fix it. People in mosh pits have a thing for misery.
6:30 p.m.: Head to ATM because I need more money for, um, Coca-Cola. Every ATM seems to be malfunctioning, with long lines of impatient imps to boot. There's nothing left to do but stand in line and people-watch. Is a tool wearing a Tool shirt ironic or just convenient?
6:50 p.m.: Finally make it to front of ATM line. A kid in front of me is explaining to his friend that you can only take out increments of 20. Oy.
7:25 p.m.: AFI sounds horrible. More people-watching. There's a vendor walking around selling pink, furry top hats. The sad thing is that people will actually buy those.
7:50 p.m.: Estimation of percentage of shirtless people who need to be wearing shirts: 73 percent.
7:57 p.m.: On stage announcer tells crowd that Tool will be coming to Fort Worth on May 18. Wonder if the Tool tool is high-fiving his friends and spilling beer on people.
8:30 p.m.: After the highly infectious song "Mama," the bassist for My Chemical Romance puts on a pink, furry top hat thrown to him by someone in the crowd. I'm always right.
9:15 p.m.: While waiting for the Killers to go on, I read some of the text messages that people have sent to be displayed on the large screens to the left and right of the stage. The best ones include "I think my nose is broken," "Edgefest stole my girlfriend," "I'm all jacked on MTN Dew," "Girl I saved from pit is HOTT," and my personal fave, "I itch."
9:40 p.m.: The Killers launch into "When You Were Young." I'm in heaven, and I'm at Edgefest. How is that possible?
10:30 p.m.: Begin 8-hour drive home. Why do I exaggerate so damn much?
