As I mentioned yesterday I was very anti-filming this year – I wanted a clean, pure MIDI/Strawberry experience – no camera hassle, no unwanted weight – just my flailing body in a sea of sound. Lucky enough, my video mercenary, the one and only David Mondin was kind enough to bring my Sony Zoom and snap some photos, and while most of them are of him staring creepily into the camera (check Facebook), it’s a fine jumping off point for throwing in my two cents and the whole festival debacle. So have at it kids!

MIDI Day 1

–      MIDI really upped the game this year in terms of getting to the actual grounds as they yet again underestimate the numbers of buses needed to run an operation like this; and then drop you off a couple kilometers away from said grounds — lame

  How we felt after waiting for fighting off the hordes for a bus

–      Entering was smooth and easy

–      MIDI was chaos inside – but hey, nothing wrong with a little chaos

–      Stage layout – manageable, though sound was definitely lacking

–      No doubt about it, MIDI is the home of metal

Case in point, Dark Haze (look at the face)

–      Can’t complain about prices – these have become pretty much standardized by now

These cookies were the devil

–      The Bennies in all their goofy glory

 

 

 

 

–      Lots of fake Maos bein thrown about courtesy of my metalhead

–      Speaking of metal, the Yaksa crowd was insanity — literally being carried side to side by crowd —- pretty much lost my entire party after that mosh

–      Disappointed by XTX

–      Band Checklist: Dark Haze, The Bennies, Broke, Queen Swa Big Shark, Yaksa, XTX

–      Don’t even mention the ride home

 

Strawberry Day 2

–      Trek to Strawberry is relatively easy though having four years practice helps (looks like line 6 will extend to the park by next year)

–      Entering however was a pain in the ass mainly due to a crazy mid-section gate for people to get rid of their plastic bottles

–      Love these guys

–      More stages this year – a bit much anyone? Though gotta give it to Strawberry – sound was top notch

–      Worst job ever…

–      My girlfriend’s mother fit right in —- couldn’t stop her singing along to Second Hand Rose all the next day

–      Josh killing it with Kang Mao

–      Re-Tros is simply amazing – double that for Second Hand Rose whose lead had quite the get-up

–      Band Checklist: Hedgehog, Snapline, Re-Tros, SUBS, Second Hand Rose, Hanggai

–      Again – don’t even mention the ride home though was probably one of the funniest experiences ever due to the motley crew I was with

 

All in all, I’d saw Strawberry did more for me this year, though I had a goofier time at MIDI – musically, Strawberry takes the cake, but gotta give it to MIDI for having more spirit —- just comes down to what you’re looking for — frankly, by Day Three I didn\’t want to be near either 

Till next year?