a TigerRAWk Film

Friday, September 9, 2022

Audiofeed 2022: A Return Back Home!

After the COVID-19 pandemic caused a pause on larger groups gathering together for most of 2020 and 2021, Audiofeed returned in 2022! In both 2020 and 2021, the folks who run Audiofeed tried to find ways to have the event, however ultimately held off both years due to local restrictions and trying to be as safe as possible for all of us who love this community...holding onto hope that one day we could come together again.

I had acquired a new camera in that time - a Canon Rebel T6s. It had a microphone input jack so I also bought an Audio-Technica AT8024 microphone to use with it. I also bought a Canon BG-E18 battery grip which one could use two batteries at the same time, extending the shooting time available. All of these combined for a better experience in capturing Audiofeed this year, however, I realized with some of the clips that I poorly chose my microphone settings, not realizing how loud it was and therefore having some audio peaking and distortion. My apologies for that. It turns out there was a learning experience to be had! This camera allows for 30 minutes of recording before reaching the limit and stopping the process. I learned this at a Flatfoot 56 show a few months earlier so I was prepared for dealing with this. I still would like to improve the steadiness of my shooting, even with the tripod, adjusting the zoom, the direction I'm shooting, or the focus tends to be a bit shaky.

I created introductory clips for each performance mostly using Motion 4 on my Macbook adding bad television and bad film effects in Final Cut Pro on my Mac Mini. I used the full lineup flyer of Audiofeed as well as the lineup card flyers for each day, drawing an underline under each artist. I typed in artists names in blank space on the daily lineup flyers for those acts who either played on the Front Porch or the Park (Kid's Zone). I made a mistake on both The Castros and The Uh Ohs sets at the Park by putting them on the wrong dates. I didn't feel like redoing this so I just left the mistakes. In adding the additional effects in Final Cut Pro, I also created it to have a transparent background so I could layer it onto the video footage.

For a promotional video clip for this entire project, I used Audiofeed's full lineup flyer and each day's lineup card flyer along with some short clips from each performance. These were the same clips I used in the video project I created for each day. In Motion 4, I used a motion path and zoom effect to maneuver the flyer and lineup card into place. I actually created it reverse of how I wanted it to appear. I changed the speed to make it faster and then reversed the file once I put it in place in Final Cut Pro. Initially, I intended to have all those clips continuing to play as each new one appeared on screen but I realized unless I scaled the clips down to a point that they would be nearly impossible to see, I was going to run out of screen space. I decided instead of having it all playing, I created a freeze frame once each lineup card was in place then layered the performance clips from each artist scaled down to 30% randomly throughout the screen. I set each clip to zoom out from the name on the lineup card. I allotted 15 seconds per day at which point the next day's lineup card was set in motion. As the next day's lineup card set into place, I faded out from the previous clips, set another freeze frame with the lineup card set in place, then set the next artist performance clips to zoom out from their place in the lineup card...repeating the process for each day. Again, I wanted this to have a transparent background so I could layer it over the other video footage. My idea was to set it in place over the footage of our arrival at Audiofeed while we waited for our wristbands and any other instructions.

As I have done since the projects I created for Cornerstone starting in 2007 and continued with festivals I've attended ever since (including the previous Audiofeed Festivals), I created a daily summary video with clips of the artists that were mostly 30 seconds (these same clips were used in the promotional video). There are some that were longer due to what was being said by the artists before or after the songs. Along with these performance clips is footage from throughout the day.

06.30.2022
Thursday June 30th, 2022 was early access day. We loaded up with plans to leave Chicago for Champaign sometime between noon and 1:00pm. It ended up being closer to 1:30pm when we were able to head out. The trip is pretty much a straight shot down I-57. I-57 was one construction zone after another! It took a lot longer than we anticipated. I figured we'd stop at Audiofeed prior to going to our AirBnB but we ended up going directly to our AirBnB. Our arrival was over an hour later than I figured. Besides the many construction zones, most of the rest areas were also closed. The first one we found that was open wasn't all that far from Champaign. We took advantage of it. I captured a clip of a pay phone that was there...a relic of the past. I also captured footage of the rest area playground that they have in Illinois. As we approached Champaign, the GPS kept re-routing us due to a road closure. It turned out to be the interchange for I-74. I ignored the initial re-routing and once we found the interchange was under construction and we would not be able to use the ramp, I continued to the next exit as the GPS instructed. I did not follow its commands to head back north on I-57 but instead took the exit which was University Avenue and drove into Champaign by that road. We passed through the University of Illinois campus and arrived at our AirBnB. There were four Atlas Obscura sites in Champaign. Three were on the campus and the other was a couple blocks away from our AirBnB, however, we didn't visit any of them. I thought we might try after Audiofeed was over.

We checked into the AirBnB, unloaded all that we needed in there and waited on Skot and Rachel Shaw to arrive. Once they arrived and got unloaded, we relaxed a bit then decided to head to the fairgrounds to begin our 2022 experience of Audiofeed!

I used the song "Rock-N-Rule" by Emery due to the lyric regarding "driving around Chicago to Champaign"...it just felt right. After capturing and editing pieces of the drive, I chose to do a sped up clip of us driving into the fairgrounds and waiting to get our wristbands. I returned to regular speed as we approached the gate. I decided to also layer the title and intro clips on this footage.

 Jim Eisenmenger greeted us and reminded us of how things work with parking at Audiofeed. It was all basically the same as it had been in the years prior. Once parked, covered in bug spray and sunscreen, and loaded with my camera and tripod, we headed in! It was so good to be back! First stop was at the Grave Robbers tents. The Sheehy's were asked to bring their ministry this year. It was set up as a place to relax and fellowship. They were set up near the front gates of Audiofeed rather than down at the bottom of the grounds where The Asylum would usually set up. In fact, there was nothing down there...potentially due to flooding in previous years. Having the Sheehy's and the Grave Robbers Ministry was a good and refreshing change.
From there, I headed over to the Black Sheep stage where Harry Gore was playing some tunes as part of the early access day shows. It was good to see and hear him again. I captured a cover of "Treasure of the Broken Land" by Mark Heard which ended his set. He gave Audiofeed a hearty "Welcome back!" I saw the Hamptons and their ORCS Leather merch set up...I figured I'd see them again throughout the fest weekend!

https://youtu.be/ylFRxPnmDao
Though I had heard talk of Sanctuary being moved to where The Asylum had been, Sanctuary had their tent in the middle of the dirt track as has been usual and I headed over there next to catch Families. On my way over there, I captured a helicopter flying to the nearby hospital. I captured a new song by Families. There were technical issues going on so the last couple of songs including the one I captured were played unplugged in front of the stage.

https://youtu.be/2S5ZPPgHieo
I started the grill to cook sausages for Elphie and me. While letting the fire burn for a bit, I went back over to Black Sheep to catch the end of The Wayside set. I captured "Ain't No Easy Way," a cover of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. It ended up being the last song of the set.

https://youtu.be/KDi_Fb_9Ces
I went back to my grill and while talking with Pastor Dave Hart and slicing onions, I inadvertently sliced my finger pretty good. It bled a bit so I grabbed a rag from the trunk to wrap my finger. I finished slicing the onions and got everything on the grill then went over to see Parental Petulance playing by the port-o-potties behind Sanctuary. They decided to do their set out at the port-o-potties due to the issues with the sound equipment on the stage. I captured "Creepin' While You're Sleepin'." At the end of their set, Andreas Larsen climbed up on the port-o-potties and jumped off into the port-o-pit! I wish I had captured that moment and song!

I went to wash out my finger and it was still bleeding some so I went to the Road Dog Cafe to get see if Mama Linda had any band aids. She sprayed it with some bacteria spray and I got a couple band aids then returned to get the sausages off the grill so Elphie and I could eat. I spoke briefly with the Bradshaws and would catch up more with them later.

https://youtu.be/U7aaUFWxRBg
Setlist:
1. Destroy Nate Allen Intro
2. Loving You Means Everything To Me
3. Corn On The Cob
4. Brake Lights
5. Grocery Store
6. Thunderstorm
7. His Lips Are Sealed, Hallelujah!
After eating, we both went to Sanctuary to see Destroy Nate Allen! I captured the entire set. It was fun! Before heading there, I tried to catch some of Randy Stonehill. I did hear part of a song but he was talking for a while before the next song started and so I headed over to Sanctuary to be set up and ready when Destroy Nate Allen got started. There is a little bit of distorted audio on the video footage from this set due to not recognizing how loud it was in the Sanctuary tent and not adjusting the microphone accordingly.

https://youtu.be/POyN4ObLjUc
Insomniac Folklore played after Destroy Nate Allen at Sanctuary and Elphie got asked to pass out candles for the last song. I decided that would be the song I would capture and it was called "Wholly, Holy" with bits of "This Little Light Of Mine" and the "Doxology" mixed in. I'm glad to have captured that performance. I wrote the title wrong on the caption that is embedded in the video.

https://youtu.be/i8hPa-aFjrs
I headed back to Black Sheep to see Glenn Kaiser Band, catching the very end of the set. Glenn spoke for a bit then played "Spontaneous Combustion."

https://youtu.be/uYEIWRbfz34
I returned to the Sanctuary to catch a bit of Angel Machine and captured "Awake" then wandered a bit around the grounds before hanging at the Grave Robbers tents with Elphie and others. Folks didn't seem to be hanging around very late but we thought maybe it was because it was just early access day.

It was definitely good to be back! It was awesome to see some friends we haven't seen since the last festival.

Back at the AirBnB, Skot and I hung out in the living room for a while drinking the Mead he had made. It was pretty good.

07.01.2022
We woke up on Friday July 1st, 2022 and had breakfast and coffee at the AirBnB. We arrived back at the fairgrounds around 1:00pm. On my way to the Black Sheep stage, I captured a little bit of footage walking in. Guy Allen stopped me to show me the bicycle he bought from one of the vendors. I also captured a shot showing the Road Dog Cafe while someone (I didn't catch his name) was playing the Front Porch.

https://youtu.be/Cuos9nsxCOA
The first band I captured was Moral DK. Moral DK consists of members of Undercover. I liked their sound. I captured "Pink Champagne." A guy named Eli Snow approached me about using my footage for some project he was doing for Undercover. I told him I would send the footage to him when I could after the fest. I'm not sure what his affiliation was or if he is just an enthusiast but I figure he can do whatever he may wish with the video...and hopefully is kind enough to credit me for my footage.

https://youtu.be/B_6KjztTqVM
I wandered over to the Park which is where the children's activities take place. The Castros were playing a set. I captured a song entirely in Spanish, however, I couldn't recall the name nor could I catch it when Sara announced it.

https://youtu.be/QR6_3_uapL4
I hung around with folks for a bit then headed to Black Sheep to see Revisionist, capturing "Amen" from their set. I heard them on the "As The Story Grows" podcast so I wanted to check them out!

Afterwards, I caught up with Elphie who was with Rachel at Guy's booth. Elphie was getting a strawberry lemon shakeup. Lee, the infamous mullet donning man who also is avid about recording live footage apparently, came up to us. I guess he recognized Elphie first. He indicated he had some DvDs he wanted to give us. He had apparently filmed the Flatfoot 56 set at Division Street Festival in Chicago a few weeks earlier. We had missed it due to being in North Carolina during that weekend. He wanted to give me a copy of his footage and to give it to the guys in Flatfoot as well. I pointed out Josh Robieson over in the children's area in case he wanted to give it to Josh. It was nice to catch up with Lee for a bit.

https://youtu.be/k6XUqRPDPio
I was able to catch up with Jonathan Hape and a few other folks before heading back to Black Sheep for Dan Smith's solo set.

https://youtu.be/zB7VSKZwTxs
I headed down to where I parked to prepare the grill and venison steak for our dinner. I got the fire going and put the corn on then headed back out to see Jeff Elbel + Ping play on the Front Porch. While preparing to capture some footage, it began to rain so I set up under the cover of the tent for Black Sheep. I am glad I did! The rain really began to come down...perhaps that makes this video that much more interesting. The band played on and I captured a song, then waited for the rain to at least slow if not stop completely so I could finish cooking our food! I left my camera bag at the car so I didn't have that as an option to protect my camera if I had gone into the rain! It was a fairly short lived storm so I was able to get over and finally get the meat on the grill. This delay sort of messed up my plans for a little while on seeing some bands. I missed Idle Threat, Jay Joseph, and American Arson unfortunately.

https://youtu.be/vCIuFKlZpqc
I pulled the meat for Elphie and let mine cook a bit longer while I ate the corn. I headed over to Burningtown a little bit late after taking some meat to Guy to capture the Destroy Nate Allen "With Our Powers Combined" anniversary show featuring a full band with members of Coxey's Army and Must Build Jacuzzi. I ended up capturing "Great Idea." I left a bit early too so I could eat my food. I gave a piece to Stewart as well!

https://youtu.be/aDvNjutmObQ
I went to Black Sheep to see Narrow/Arrow. I didn't have the microphone set up properly so the audio is a bit distorted during this clip.

https://youtu.be/mbwoYovxnRM
I returned to Burningtown to see a little bit of the set by Teel Short. I was able to see a few songs before going to Black Sheep again. On my way to Black Sheep, M-Low was playing on the Front Porch. I meant to capture a song then but instead I just got a shot of the clouds illuminated by the sunset. David Eugene Edwards seemed to be getting ready to start the Wovenhand set and I didn't want to miss any of that so I get in the tent and set up.

https://youtu.be/wFALqZh4D1Q
Setlist:
1. All Your Waves
2. Kingdom Of Ice
3. Outlaw Song
4. The Speaking Hands
5. Signs Of The Zodiac
6. Triptych
7. Hutterite Mile
8. Whistling Girl
9. As I Went Out One Morning
10. Horse Head
11. Deerskin Doll
12. White Bird
13. Horse Head Fiddle
I captured the entire Wovenhand set! It was awesome! Even solo, it was a show I am glad I didn't miss. Unfortunate scheduling meant that Leper was playing during the Wovenhand set...apparently Skot had some surprises planned for the set. Still, I was glad to see and capture the entire Wovenhand set.

https://youtu.be/6h7hs-3rubg
I did make it to Sanctuary for one song by Leper. It was a sort of unplanned encore performance of "Il Modo Che Tutto Si Svela (The Way It All Unfolds)" and I was able to at least capture that.

https://youtu.be/JXGW05yIDKo
I returned to Black Sheep and captured "The Eyes Of Love" by Undercover. I watched probably half of the set.

https://youtu.be/gKqtXwz1iTE
I went back over to Sanctuary for Grave Robber and captured "Rigor Mortis." I wanted to capture that song for a long time and glad I finally got the chance! I watched the rest of their set and headed toward Radon but found that Undercover was still playing so I went to see the rest of their set. It was their last song.

https://youtu.be/mQB9PGCSRd0
After they finished, then I went to Radon for the Eric Clayton and Friends performance. He told some stories as well as playing a few songs. This was the plan as listed on the announcement flyer. Members of Undercover were meant to be playing with him as well as Shawn Browning but since both of those shows just ended, they were a bit late to the party! I ended up capturing "Love Never Dies" and again the audio is pretty severely distorted due inadvertently to having the microphone on the wrong setting.

At the end of the night, Elphie and I hung out at the Grave Robbers Tents for a while again before heading back to our AirBnB. Again, most folks were not hanging around late into the night for some reason.

Back at the AirBnB, Skot brought out another batch of Mead and we hung out in the living room for a while once again...this time not realizing day was breaking!

Elphie and the Shaw's went to eat with Jennifer Mercy and the Geeseman on Saturday July 2nd, 2022. I decided to stay back and head to Audiofeed once I showered. I think I had misread when All Hallowed was supposed to start. As I got dressed, I realized that they were already starting. I tried to get ready the rest of the way quickly and catch at least the end of their set.

https://youtu.be/dWKTGsRU06o
Once I arrived and got set up, I think All Hallowed played two or three more songs. I captured one and realized part way through I hadn't turned on the microphone. I continued to record anyway. I captured their cover of "Seven Nation Army" and realized part way through that I had the microphone set too hot. I switched the setting then ended up capturing "Kill" without all the distorted audio. All Hallowed was another band I learned about listening to the "As The Story Grows" podcast.

https://youtu.be/p4IjyrtwRrA
M-Low played another Front Porch set right after so I was able to capture "Island Nut" from his set before venturing other places. I still needed to put on sunscreen and bug spray! Again, I had the microphone set too hot so there's distortion in the audio for that clip.

https://youtu.be/0vjFeJ04uGc
After going to the car to apply the bug spray and sunscreen, I headed over to Burning Town for Kevin Schlereth's set. I captured a song he wrote during the Lenten season. Yet again, the audio is a bit distorted due to my lack of awareness of how hot the microphone setting was.

https://youtu.be/oUYuz8xvL2c
I went over to The Park to see a little bit of  The Uh Ohs set, and captured a song about Bees. I'm glad that I did because I ended up missing their Burning Town set later in the evening due to wanting to capture the Wedding Party set.

https://youtu.be/kBn5xedn1T4
I headed over to the Sanctuary for XDoulosX. I captured a song which was described as being about the struggle with addition. They scratched the old school hardcore itch!

https://youtu.be/nDHHR-RGC_o
Back at Black Sheep, I captured the last song performed by SPACESHIPS for their set called "Parallel." I was glad I caught part of their set. Over the pandemic, I found their music once again due to listening to the "As The Story Grows" podcast, though I had heard of them before...I just didn't realize I liked it as I know now!

Returning to the Sanctuary, I captured a new song from Insomniac Folklore called "On To The Kingdom" which I really liked. They played a few newer tunes that will be recorded in the eventual future as well as a bit off the Everything Will Burn album. They also wore their stage make up and costumes they have used from the Everything Will Burn tours.

https://youtu.be/eDr-Vy6KTMo
Setlist:
1. Intro/Prayer/Technical Difficulties
2. To The Unknown God (more technical difficulties)
3. Crystal River
4. Lamb
5. Bury The Dead
6. Raven's Warning
7. War Memorial
8. Omega
9. No More Night
I captured the entirety of the set by the Wedding Party...technical issues with the sound at Sanctuary and all (thankfully I didn't have audio issues with my recording!). The schedule wasn't exactly clear about what was happening during their set since it was a "dinner break" set combined with Pastor Bob Beeman's speaking time. I got set up and ready in case Wedding Party was playing first. I ended up missing the set of The Uh Ohs. I did end up with footage of Pastor Bob Beeman's message along with the Wedding Party set. As the set went on, things did improve sound wise. Eric Clayton made a guest appearance as well. There was a "Wedding Reception" planned at the Grave Robbers tents after the Wedding Party set was over. The food arrived before the end of the set since things had been delayed with the various technical difficulties and sound issues. I planned to head over to that a bit later.

https://youtu.be/9DJsnF4J_Y8
Listener was playing at Black Sheep so I headed over there to catch a few songs at least. I captured "There's Money In The Walls." I was near the back of the tent and decided to leave through the opening back there during the end of Listener's set and noticed everyone staring at the sky or taking photos. It turned out to be a huge rainbow out there! I captured some footage and shots of it myself! As I walked over to the Grave Robbers tent area to get some food from the "Wedding Reception" that rainbow began to turn pink with the sunset! While enjoying the food, I got to talk with Andy Whitten for quite a while. He was somewhat stranded for an extra day due to his vehicle breaking down as he arrived to play with Grave Robber! It was a good time talking with Andy.

https://youtu.be/3tiVszk8r28
I decided to head back over to Black Sheep to catch some of Rosie Thomas' set. Along the way, there were fireworks going off north of the grounds that I captured along with Michael Bridgewater's son playing his saxophone in his fancy outfit near the food vendors. Rosie talked about taking a break from playing music live and having children, giving some entertaining stories of all that. I captured a short song she played after a relatively long monologue.

I headed back over to the Grave Robbers tent, capturing footage of the food spread from the Wedding Reception. A guy dressed as a ninja came along, the only ninja at Audiofeed this year it seemed. He was talking about someone mentioning wanting a picture or video of him doing num-chuks so I decided to capture his num-chuck skills for a minute. While hanging out, Pastor Dave Hart performed a marriage ceremony for Eric and Kristin Clayton, even though they had been married during the pandemic in Germany. This allowed them to wed with friends as witnesses without masks and plexiglass between them.

https://youtu.be/vt5vLIJsB6g
I went back to the Black Sheep to see Pedro The Lion and captured "First Drum Set." I ended up sitting down for a while when I saw a chair open up. I may have sat too long as it was a bit difficult to get back up! I guess I'm getting old. I enjoyed the Pedro The Lion set. Dave Bazan mentioned feeling "triggered" being in Illinois in a tent in summer after the many years of playing Cornerstone. I found it a bit odd in that he'd played Audiofeed previously but I hope he enjoyed his time even if he was triggered.

https://youtu.be/a8BrR6fsu7M
I ended the night watching the 6'10 set in Radon. As they sound checked, Elphie and I hung around by the Tuned Up booth with the Castros. We filled out the Bingo Card and I got two Bingos! I got up to move more center in the room to capture some footage which ended up being "Hurricane."

After 6'10 finished up and we hung for a bit longer, Elphie and I then went over to the Grave Robbers tent to hang again for a while. Most folks were gone or in bed again. I captured K.Ick riding his motorcycle but out of focus along with the lights of the Grave Robbers tent and surrounding parking lots and hospital. We then headed out to our AirBnB.

On Sunday July 3rd, 2022, we got a later start than I had hoped getting ready and getting to the festival grounds. I actually didn't even start filming anything until reaching The Park where Insomniac Folklore was playing. I had captured "Mountains And Continents" but forgot to turn on the microphone so the footage is a silent film. I didn't include it in the project.

https://youtu.be/PhGO-RrbskM
I quickly moved over to Burningtown where Good Saint Nathanael was playing. He asked me to capture his entire set...but again, I had forgotten to turn the microphone on so the beginning is silent. When I did turn on the microphone, I set it too high and alot of the audio is distorted, unfortunately. I decided to save a clip to share from the set where the distortion seemed minimal and sent Nate the file of the set because he still wanted it despite the poor audio quality.

For a much better experience, watch this footage that Jeff Summers captured! He's got a lot of other great footage too!

https://youtu.be/lsiOv-uuFy8


https://youtu.be/5yY9QgwynIY
After Nate Allen finished up his Good Saint Nathanael set, I headed to Sanctuary to see another Nate play in his band Coxey's Army. It was a fun set! I captured "Faithful" which was dedicated to a friend to many of us, Skip Brooks.

https://youtu.be/mMR2vhn9WgQ
While Coxey's Army was setting up, Elphie went to the Front Porch and captured some footage of The Nick House Party. She ended up missing Coxey's Army.

https://youtu.be/HLlSlFkSYWs
I stuck around at Sanctuary and watched Must Build Jacuzzi play their fun set. It got extremely dusty with the movement going on! I captured a song from their set as well as Nate and Ryan from Coxey's Army, uh, sharing a candy, ha!

https://youtu.be/S1UuO4J3xvw
At this point I hit the part of the day's schedule where about every stage had someone playing that I wanted to see. I started at Black Sheep capturing a clip of Spoken Nerd. While there, Nate Allen approached about wanting to indulge in a game of catch that we discussed prior to the festival online. I told him I'd be down to do it in a little while.

https://youtu.be/z-mYs1X6c_U
I ran over to Radon to see a little bit of Levi The Poet and captured a song while there as well.

https://youtu.be/c9QMmKFxaVE
I finished my running around at Burningtown to catch the end of The Castros set and captured "Pumpkin Pie." They had The Uh Ohs backing them. Marco took a bit of a run in the midst of the song!

After this, I decided to get a quesadilla from the food truck. After eating it, I got my glove and found Nate in the Road Dog Cafe so we could have our catch. It was fun! We had hip hop as a soundtrack!

https://youtu.be/jfS6G5JGi3Q
After the catch, I put my glove away then headed to Radon to catch a bit of Max Simmon's set. When he finished up, I got a Strawberry Lemon Shake-Up and Deep Fried Oreos from Guy Allen! While waiting for my order, I met some of the dudes from Meco Club (Elijah and someone else I can't recall the name) who worked on the recent Flatfoot 56 music videos. It was cool meeting them and talking for a bit before going to Radon for more music!

https://youtu.be/6IJegftNMEo
Back at Radon, I captured a song from hushpad and ate my Deep Fried Oreos while drinking my Strawberry Lemon Shake-Up. I saved some for Elphie who I was able to find before going to Black Sheep to see the Huntingtons.

https://youtu.be/zzbvJePsIHw
I was able to see about half of the Huntingtons set and captured "Too Late" before heading down to Sanctuary for Bub Walker and the TombsTones set.

https://youtu.be/pAEiQKy2w-c
Setlist:
1. Intro
2. The Tones Of the Tombs
3. Surfer Brain
4. Misirlou
5. I'll Die Once, You'll Die Twice
6. Flesh Eating Covenant
7. Hava Nagila
8. Larus Infectis Mortem
9. Urushiol Tsunami
Bub Walker and the TombsTones was one of the bands I decided I wanted to capture the entire set from. I got set up with plenty of time. It was a fun set! Tyler Hentschel played the role of Bub Walker once again! There was a point where some of the ladies took to the stage to dance. Anastasia Robieson was one of the ladies and she took on a mission of tossing beach balls back to the crowd. Both "Bub" and Andreas surfed the crowd on surfboards. All the shenanigans made it an awesome set to capture on video!

https://youtu.be/QAtOHA2183U
Back at the Black Sheep I was able to arrive in time to see the entire Flatfoot 56 set! I decided not to capture it in its entirety but had a couple different songs I was thinking about capturing. The one I went with was "Hourglass" with Little Jessi Dills playing trumpet. As usual, they put on a great show. It was the last "theme show" that they are doing so I was glad to have at least some footage from it. I had captured their set at "Save The Rock-N-Roll" Fest in Chicago in April and it was a pretty similar set of songs.

https://youtu.be/CHu6XldGL6U
Ami Moss And The Unfortunate finished off the festival playing in Radon. I got there toward the end of their set after hanging out with folks for a bit. It was a good set.

After this, I captured a little bit of footage while wandering around. The celtic folk were once again having a late night jam session which we captured what seemed might be the very end of it. Over in Road Dog Cafe there weren't too many people hanging around so we went back to the Grave Robbers tent area and hung around there until quite late. The eastern sky was beginning to light up as we left.

On Monday July 4th, 2022, we somewhat overslept and had to rush a bit to get out of the AirBnB on time...well at least not too terribly late! After loading up and trying to make sure we left the AirBnB in decent shape...and also making sure we didn't forget anything, Elphie and I headed back to the fairgrounds to see who was still around. I made a quick stop at the Circle K to get some of their exclusive Mountain Dew variant called Purple Thunder. It is supposedly Blackberry and Plum flavored. My understanding was it was only available in the fountain so that's how I got it. Apparently it also comes in bottles. I'm not sure if that's really what it tasted like but I didn't really care for it. At the fairgrounds parked by the now vacated Grave Robbers tent. The Larsen's were still around at their RV next to the Grave Robbers tent so we hung with them for a minute. Lee also was driving around in his "Mulet2" car. We chatted with him a minute before he headed off for home, I suppose. We walked over to see Guy as he was tearing down his booth. While there, we learned that the corn sculpture toppled over on Sunday, that the vice president of the fair board had passed, and that a child had hit his head on a fan blade in the Road Dog Cafe! A rather unfortunate series of events during the fest. Thankfully for the child, the hospital is just across the parking lots!

The Castros drove up while we were there talking and told us that they were heading into Champaign for coffee. We also got to see the Hamptons for a bit as they were working on post-festival cleanup. We walked over to the Road Dog Cafe to see Mama Linda, Tara, Tony, and the rest. They were pretty much loaded up and ready to go. It was good to see them before they headed out.

We headed back toward the car, seeing the Hamptons and Guy again along the way and then hung around at the Larsen's RV with the Allen's for a bit. When we decided to leave, Jim Eisenmenger mentioned how it was nice having "happy goths" this year. I definitely agreed with him! It was a refreshing change from previous years where drama centered certain members of that group.

We left the fairgrounds and met with The Castros downtown to get lunch at Signature Grill. It was an interesting spot serving Indian food. I got some sort of a Chicken Quesadilla. The Castros had originally thought about staying in the area a bit longer but storms coming made them change plans and head back to Ohio.

We decided at this point to start heading back toward Chicago. We didn't end up visiting any of the Atlas Obscura sites. Perhaps next year...

As we drove, I decided to pull off at the first exit with a sign for Casey's General Store so I could try their Mountain Dew variant called Overdrive. I got it from the fountain, again, with the understanding it was the only option but I am learning now it also comes in bottles. This one was like a fruit punch, similar to the Southern Shock at Bojangles. I liked it a lot more than the Purple Thunder variant from Circle K. As I was paying, the clerk was talking about the severe weather that was expected to hit soon. The clouds were quite dark...and they were in the direction we would be driving.

Sure enough, a pretty significant storm hit shortly after we left while on the highway. We had to take it very slow for a while but eventually got through it and continued on our way toward Chicago. While stopping for gas I learned of a mass shooting that occurred in or around Chicago. I decided to look up information to find out where so I could know about any detours we might have to make and learned it was not really close to where we needed to go. I wish I had stopped at the exit before the one I took because the gas prices was considerably lower. We had to get through the edge of another storm before getting into Chicago. While driving in the southern suburbs, we saw a rainbow form! We arrived in early evening...just in time for the neighborhood fireworks to hit their peak!

I felt this year the neighborhood fireworks weren't quite as impressive as in the previous years. Perhaps folks were hit by the inflation or choose to spend the money on things other than fireworks. Maybe it was because I didn't really participate as I did the last couple of years without Audiofeed. All I had left were some bottle rockets which I used up. I did capture some footage of the fireworks and hung around outside much of the evening to watch whatever there was to see. I tried to capture some video footage of an airplane coming into Midway through the fireworks but I didn't quite achieve what I would have liked. Lightning began to creep into the skies as did some wind...I came inside a few minutes before another storm hit. I went to bed shortly after.

Again, I was very happy to be back at Audiofeed...not having that community in real life for that long was way too long! It was understandable why it had to be this way, the safety of the community is important and necessary. I hope it can continue moving forward and folks who are still with us make their return next year along with lots of new people! The music was RAD and the community was awesome!
Additional soundtrack includes "Rock-N-Rule" by Emery and "Lose My Mind" by Squad Five-0.

Filmed using iPhones 6 and 8, CrossTour CR-900, and Canon Rebel T6s with an Audio-Technica AT8024 microphone by Elphie and Joel A. Swanson. Maps, titles, and animations created using Motion 4 on a Macbook by Joel A. Swanson. Edited using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini by Joel A. Swanson.