Flashback Baltimore 2006: 5 yr Anniversary of First Blog Review

Five years ago I wrote my first ever blog review on MySpace.  I blogged about my trip to Baltimore and the HFStival concert, I thought it would be fun to release this post to the Blast Furnace to commemorate the occasion.  This trip included a few Blast Furnace contributors; I have changed the names to protect the innocents.  Enjoy!

Memorial Day Weekend 2006

I spent Memorial Day 2006 in Columbia, MD where Oechsleins and his wife reside.  Chris and I drove down on Saturday afternoon and had a mini-picnic/barbeque, Oechselins playing the burger chef.  Later that night we made a 20 minute journey to Baltimore to go bar hopping.  I found the bars to be very nice; it puts Pittsburgh’s beloved Southside to shame. The bars that we visited in Canton and Fells Point were new and streets clean.  The first bar we entered, the bartender offered us a ‘stoplight’ shot.  We were clueless on what a ‘stoplight’ was but it consisted of three shots: green, yellow, and red.  These shots must be slugged back in the conventional stoplight sequence and participants must race each other.  Chris won the contest and Oechsleins finished last, I may have won if I wasn't chewing gum which I eventually swallowed on my last shot.  Other highlights from that night included drinking a cold Natty Boh and looking out at the old "Homicide: Life on the Streets" police station.  BPDave3 even called at 5:00am to check in from Corpus Christi, TX.

On to Sunday, the main reason for the visit, we went to the HFStival at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD, a venue similar to Star Lake only more wooded.  It was a very hot and humid Maryland afternoon, temperatures reached the 90s. The main headliners were the bands AFI, 80's rock chick Joan Jett, Dashboard Confessional, Strokes, and Counting Crows. The first band that we enjoyed was Damone.  They had a fairly hot female lead singer and were a pleasant surprise since they were playing the second stage.  I thought that AFI was the best band of the day, lead singer Davey Havok, who Pills, Oechsleins, and I saw one night in Oakland at 1:00am, (not really but a transvestite look-a-like who was interested in one of the three of us) had a great stage presence.  Other notable highlights include Dashboard Confessional playing Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees" and Counting Crows opening up with “Mr. Jones.”

AFI's Davey Havok

I observed a lot of things and people (Oechsleins referred to it as "people watching" which he enjoys too) at the concert which was entertaining enough without the music. There was a lot of white trash with really bad tattoos concentrated throughout the venue.  One twenty-something in particular caught the eye of Chris, Oechsleins, and me; a blond curly haired stoner, wearing glasses with a Super Marijuana Brothers t-shirt on.  He loved Coheed & Cambria and was proudly holding his DVD high into the heavens thanking the rock 'n roll Gods for putting a band of this magnitude on earth. There was also a security guard in his forties with a huge disc in his ear, which stretched his ear down to his cheek and he also had a nose ring between his two nostrils, like a bull.  He was, in Oechsleins’ words “an animal.”  Chris also saw Drew Barrymore walking in the pavilion and Counting Crows lead singer Adam Duritz got fat.  There were just so many fascinating people there to write about.  That about raps up this addition of RKorn’s blog.  Kudos go out to Oechsleins and wife for being such great hosts and making it a fun Memorial Day weekend.

Follow-up:  The trip to Baltimore and the HFStival was pretty fun.  I would end up going to Baltimore five times after that trip and always had a good time.  Our group has found our favorite spots:  Pub Dogs in Federal Hill and Nacho Mamas in Canton.  My affinity for AFI began there as well.  I had of course been exposed to them before 2006, but I never really listened to them.  After their performance I became a huge fan.  I hope my blogging skills have improved since then.