FEST: Saturday

FEST
10/30-11/1
Gainesville, Florida

We ventured back out through Gainesville for the second day of FEST on Halloween.  The day was filled with great bands, great food, and seeing a lot of friends.  Take a look at our day after the jump!

Written by: Kayla Lee
Photos by: Nick Zimmer

Modern Baseball (The Killers)

Modern Baseball kicked off our second day of FEST at The High Dive with a cover set of The Killers. All of the songs that they played were so wonderfully accurate with their own added spin. Modern Baseball are such a fun and animated band to see live on their own, so seeing them play a cover set was obviously great—they were even joined on stage by Greg and Tom from The Menzingers and Bob Barnett of Captain, We’re Sinking! “Mr. Brightside”, “Smile Like You Mean It”,  and “Somebody Told Me” all seemed to be crowd favorites, although their entire performance was solid. Modern Baseball have always put on an enjoyable show each time that I’ve seen them and I’m happy to say that they didn’t disappoint.

Masked Intruder

Pulling a large crowd at Lot 10, Masked Intruder opened with “Almost Like We’re Already In Love”. Their lighthearted and energetic stage presence adds to the experience of seeing them live, not to mention that Officer Bradford running around and pointing in people’s faces is hilarious and gets a great reaction from the crowd. Towards the end of their set, something amazing happened—someone proposed on stage! Overall, Masked Intruder are a fantastically fun band that you should be listening to now if you aren’t already.

Pet Symmetry

Dressed up as a Black Metal band for Halloween, Pet Symmetry performed at Cowboys. The band, which consists of Evan Weiss (Into It Over It, Erok Czaja (Dowsing), and Marcus Nuccio (What Gives) played songs in support of their new album Pets Hounds which came out earlier this year.  The band doesn’t get to tour often, so it was a treat to be able to see them. They really played up to their black metal allegiance, sounding more like Dimmu Borgir than emo royalty with their stage banter.  Go listen to Pet Symmetry and make sure you catch them any time they get out of Chicago and make it to your city! (NZ)

Foxing

Foxing took the stage next and were a slight change from the other bands that we had seen thus far. Their beautiful and slightly relaxing music had the audience engaged from the start. Although Cowboys was a difficult venue to get into with a long line outside, it was well worth the wait for people that were able to get in. Conor declared that FEST was “the most amazing festival in existence” (I can’t argue with that) and talked about how Foxing hopes to be able to play again next year. Ending their set with “Rory”, I was extremely happy that I was able to see them live and recommend that you check them out as soon as possible.

The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die

The World Is… were the second band of the day that I saw who were dressed up for Halloween–the entire band was dressed like members of the Adams family! They’re such an emotional band to listen to, so seeing how their music impacts others live is amazing. “Getting Sodas”, their final song, had so many people crowd surfing and singing along that it made me look forward to the next time I’ll be able to see them. Since they’re currently on tour, be sure to see them if they’re playing nearby. You can check out the dates HERE.

Superheaven

Superheaven are one of those bands that I have to see every chance I get. This set, was the fourth time I’ve been able to catch them this year, and all four times have been in different states.  While the majority of the set was comprised of tracks from their latest effort Ours Is Chrome, the band also threw in some old favorites from Jar.  Superheaven played one of the tightest sets of the weekend, and thats something you can always expect with them.

The Hotelier

The majority of our day was spent at Cowboys, where we caught The Hotelier to end the night.  If you’ve never had the chance to catch them live you’re doing yourself a disservice. The emotion behind Christian’s voice is enough to move anyone in the crowd, and it did.  There wasn’t a moment where the crowd wasn’t screaming back at the band or security wasn’t catching crowd surfers.  We ended our night with The Hotelier and it couldn’t have been a better way to do so.