I started the footage for this project on the day we returned from the "West by Southwest Trip" that Elphie and I took at the end of March and beginning of April. Usually I take public transit to work but on Wednesday April 10th, I drove because we would need to pick up Stein after work. Elphie rode with me and I dropped her off with her friend Kathleen where Stein was staying. When I approached my car after work, I noticed big and angry waves on Lake Michigan so I got some clips of that.
On Saturday, April 13th, Leper had a show in Joliet at the Drunken Donut. I got a clip of something improvised due to equipment issues. Also on the show were Paper Ducks and Eve Black.
On Sunday, April 14 Chicago had another snowstorm. This was the last one I specifically documented as it came down pretty good for a bit and winter held on well into spring again. It was still somewhat cold in June.
Filmed LIVE at The Forge in Joliet, Illinois on Thursday April 18th, 2019 using an iPhone 8. Edited using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini. Filmed and Edited by Joel A. Swanson.
On Friday, April 19th, we left Chicago to drive to Warren, PA for Easter. We stopped at Albanese where I picked up a couple of bags of Gummy Goof-ups. As we entered Warren, we could see some of the tornado damage from a recent storm that destroyed some of the Carter Lumber buildings. On Saturday, April 20th, I took a little drive around other areas damaged by the storms. On Sunday, April 21st, I weighed the bags of gummy goof-ups and found them to be about four and five pounds. We had Easter dinner then visited with my Grandpa on our way out of town. We also were able to see the tornado damage in the daylight as we left town to return to Chicago.
on Saturday April 27th, I went to the AllState Arena to see the Misfits. I captured "London Dungeon" but it was removed from Youtube due to Glenn Danzig apparently finding and reporting it. It was the first time getting a copyright strike so I was forced to watch a video about copyrights and pass a test before I was allowed to post videos on my Youtube channel again. I wrote a blog on my thoughts on that situation that you can read here if you want to. I also saw Fear, Venom, Inc., and Power Trip that evening. I bought tickets to another show as well thinking it was the previous night. It was Death. I thought it would be interesting to see them, not realizing it was the same day. In fact, I went to the venue on Friday and that is how I found out that I had bought tickets for two shows on Saturday. I tried to see if anyone wanted to buy the tickets but had no takers and apparently my attempt on Facebook was seen as "spam" so it was removed. After leaving the Misfits show, I figured I'd try to see if the Death show was still going on. It wasn't so then I went home having wasted a few bucks. After the video situation, I somewhat wish I had decided to go to the Death show instead. I don't figure that they would have hit me with a copyright strike. Oh well.
Filmed LIVE at All State Arena in Rosemont, Illinois on Saturday April 27th, 2019 using an iPhone 8. Edited using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini. Filmed and Edited by Joel A. Swanson.
On Sunday, April 28th, I went to the Empty Bottle for the first time. It was the first Brick Assassin show in quite some time and it would be one of their last ever so I wanted to see it. I wasn't sure if I'd get to attend any of the other shows coming up. I captured "Ruled By You" from their set. They played with The Evictions and Bad Sons.
Filmed LIVE at Empty Bottle in Ukrainian Village Chicago, Illinois on Sunday April 28th, 2019 using an iPhone 8. Edited using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini. Filmed and Edited by Joel A. Swanson.
On Monday, April 29th, Elphie and I went to Luke's Lobster for my birthday. At home we had a battle of the Peeps in the microwave. It was a pretty low key celebration...it was a Monday, after all.
Filmed LIVE at BrauerHouse in Lombard, Illinois on Thursday May 2nd, 2019 using an iPhone 8. Edited using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini. Filmed and Edited by Joel A. Swanson.
On Saturday, May 4th, I went to Cobra Lounge to see Listener. I got to hang out and talk with the guys a bit after. It was good to catch up since they were not scheduled for Audiofeed this year.
Filmed LIVE at Cobra Lounge in Near Westside Chicago, Illinois on Saturday May 4th, 2019 using an iPhone 8. Edited using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini. Filmed and Edited by Joel A. Swanson.
On Sunday, May 5th, as we made our usual grocery trip to Highland, Indiana, we also went to Taco Bell so I figured it to be a celebration of Cinco de Mayo. Afterwards I went to a special show featuring mewithoutYOU and The Appleseed Cast at Sleeping Village. I captured "Winter Solstice" by mewithoutYOU.
Filmed LIVE at Sleeping Village in Northside Chicago, Illinois on Sunday May 5th, 2019 using an iPhone 8. Edited using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini. Filmed and Edited by Joel A. Swanson.
Filmed LIVE at Bottom Lounge in Near Westside Chicago, Illinois on Wednesday May 8th, 2019 using an iPhone 8. Edited using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini. Filmed and Edited by Joel A. Swanson.
On Sunday May 12th, we went to Bottom Lounge one more time to see P.O.D. Elphie got another angle as we captured "Southtown." On our way to Bottom Lounge a guy who was rollerblading with cross country ski polls passed us on Lake Street.
Filmed LIVE at Bottom Lounge in Near Westside Chicago, Illinois on Sunday May 12th, 2019 using an iPhone 6 and 8 by Elphie and Joel A. Swanson. Edited using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini by Joel A. Swanson.
On Monday, May 13th, we celebrated Elphie's birthday with the Asian Buffet. It was also a low key celebration on a Monday. On Tuesday, May 14th, we went to Denny's in Oakbrook Terrace for a Winchester. As we were driving home we hit a big bump that was inadequately marked. It apparently jostled the blower for the heat and air conditioning somewhat. There were some weird noises as we continued home and it got worse the next time I turned it on...eventually it stopped blowing. I would attempt to fix it prior to our Audiofeed trip and eventually found a blown fuse was the problem after taking everything apart. On Thursday May 16th, I noticed art on a garbage truck and captured it. I had noticed it at least one other time but was more prepared to capture it this time!
On Sunday, May 19th, we went to the SeatGeek Stadium to see Tool with some other metal bands as part of Chicago Open Air Festival. It had rained earlier in the day as well as during the day before which caused some bands to get cut or delayed. Guy and Krista were able to come as well and though the had seats across the field from us, the stadium was empty enough that we figured they could get away sitting with us...and they did. Tool is one of Elphie's favorite bands. They put on a great show and I captured "Invicible" which is a new song from their upcoming album. When we returned to our cars we found $50 parking tickets for parking on municipal streets during an event. There was no signs so we took pictures, included screenshots from Google Maps and Streetview, and video (included in this project) attempting to fight the tickets but ultimately, we had to pay the tickets. We were given no further explanation nor did they acknowledge the lack of signs where we had parked to indicate the law we had violated. I'm not sure how we were supposed to know, but thanks Bridgeview for your hospitality.
On Saturday June 1st, we went to the Hollywood Casino Amphitheater in Tinley Park, IL to see Adam Sandler. Rob Schnieder opened for him. This event was delayed by storms as well. Though I did not get a lot of footage from storms, there were quite a number of potentially dangerous storms during the spring, summer, and fall of 2019. I also did not get footage of our attendance at this event though it was a good time. On Thursday, June 6th, our upstairs neighbor had a casualty with her hatchlings so we gave a fiery funeral to the deceased chick. I shot off a few bottle rockets as well. On Friday June 7th, Elphie and I went to Kyle Bawinkel's house to hang out on his deck. He was cooking some food and watching the NBA Finals. We ended up playing a cool board game for a bit.
On Saturday, June 8th, we drove to Joliet to the Theisen's house for an Ollie Mob Meetup to build props that would get used during the Flatfoot 56 theme show at Audiofeed (a blog for Audiofeed 2019 is here). The theme ended up being A Clash Of Titans: Big Foot's Birthday Bash. Atta Grrl got baptized during the meetup. I made a slightly modified clip of the meetup than is included in the full project.
Soundtrack is "Ollie Ollie" by Flatfoot 56.
Filmed using an iPhone 6 and 8 by Elphie and Joel A. Swanson. Additional video from Tobin Bawinkel's Facebook Live broadcast hosted by Bob Flynn. Once again apologies for the audio quality as I could not figure out how to download the broadcast so I recorded off the screen with my phone. Edited using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini by Joel A. Swanson
On Thursday, June 13th, we celebrated our 4th anniversary with Bree Thai and spending the evening together. I captured a cloudy commute into work on Monday, June 17th then on Tuesday, June 18th, it was even cloudier and I also captured a lie on a billboard in regards to coconut. On Saturday June 22nd, Elphie and I went to see Little Shop of Horrors again after getting dinner at Cheesie's. I met Elphie at Cheesie's after she hung around and observed the shenanigans and protests surrounding the Pride Festival. It is a fun musical to attend. This time we saw it at the Mercury Theater. We ended up in the second row. We also got ice cream after at Oberwies. On Thursday, June 27th I captured and edited into slow motion one of the few lightning shots I was able to capture this year. On my commute home on Friday June 28th, I captured the storm coming in around Uptown and a rainbow after it passed on the Southside. On Saturday June 29th, I captured a party going on as we left our neighborhood to go to Nocturna. I also captured some fireworks. I got some footage at Nocturna as well. On Sunday June 30th, after having breakfast with our house neighbors, Elphie and I decided to go north to observe the chaos of the Pride Parade and surrounding festivities. It was interesting to watch the people as well as the attempts of crowd control. I eventually headed home due to unexplainable but uncomfortable back pain while Elphie hung around for some more. She ended up reconnecting with a friend.
June ended up being the first month that I can recall in recent memory that I did not go to a single show. It feels a bit strange to lack any show footage from an entire month.
Additional soundtrack includes "The Isle" by 6'10, "Rites of Spring" by The Bravery, "Strange Love" by Depeche Mode, "Garden In Spring" by Hushpad, and "Ollie Ollie" by Flatfoot 56.
On New Year's Day, while relaxing and recuperating from the holidays travels to end 2018, we brought in the New Year watching Stein play with his new bug toy. On New Years Eve, we found our microwave was seeming to no longer work so Elphie found an option on Craigslist. On Saturday January 5th, we picked it up and figured we put the old one out by microwaving Peeps in it. The old one couldn't even do that so I guess it was good that we got the new one when we did! We switched the microwaves then properly microwaved our Peeps before heading to the 12th Day of Christmas Epiphany party with friends!
A Snowpacalype hit Chicago on Saturday January 12th. On Sunday January 13th, I went to Schuba's Tavern for Snüzfest to see The Blamed. I captured a new song titled "I Guess This Is Goodbye" as they played in pajamas.
As I walked home I met the Snowman of The Snowpacalypse. Another round would hit on Friday January 18th into Saturday January 19th. I got up and shoveled the car out so that we could attend the Ollie MobWhirlyball Meetup. Whirlyball was fun! Whoever came up with this game is a genius! I used Tobin Bawinkel's Facebook Live broadcast in this as well. Afterwards we ate at Portillo's.
Included here is a slightly modified clip of just the Ollie MobWhirlyball Meetup.
Filmed LIVE at Liar's Club in Northside Chicago, Illinois on Saturday January 19th, 2019 using an iPhone 8. Edited using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini. Filmed and Edited by Joel A. Swanson.
I captured some shots of the Lunar Eclipse on Sunday January 20th, but cloud cover interfered at the actual time of the eclipse. On Wednesday January 23rd, I decided to capture a clip of a goofy dog in the neighborhood that gets super excited when one walks by, jumping about in circles and such. on Thursday, January 24th, it was warm enough to kill the Snowman of Snowpacalypse, though the very next day it was quite cold again. On Friday January 25th, Wiley Willis put together an "Up The Pups" benefit at Co-Prosperity Sphere. I captured clips from Gnus, Magnifiers, Shitizen, October Bird Of Death (I captured "Shadows Like Teeth"), Sasquatch Turf War, Through N Through, and The Kreutzer Sonata. Below is a playlist from the evening as well as each clip individually posted.
On Tuesday January 29th, as I went to work, the Chicago Transit Authority began preparations of the tracks for the Polar Vortex. Elphie grounded me from work during what would be the coldest day of the year in the midst of the Polar Vortex on Wednesday January 30th so I spent a sick day. I returned to work on Thursday January 31st at midday.
On Friday February 1st, I watched Jeremy Seigrist play at Wilson Abbey capturing "Blood Root" from his set. I enjoyed his previous work with Psalters and The Illogical Spoon and it was good to hear his music again. He writes very long songs.
Filmed LIVE at Wilson Abbey in Uptown Chicago, Illinois on Friday February 1st, 2019 using an iPhone 8. Edited using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini. Filmed and Edited by Joel A. Swanson.
Filmed LIVE at Reggies in Southside Chicago, Illinois on Friday February 8th, 2019 using an iPhone 8. Edited using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini. Filmed and Edited by Joel A. Swanson.
On Thursday February 14th, I became aware that the Shamrock Shake season had begun so Elphie and I went to McDonald's to get my first Shamrock Shake of the season! On Saturday February 16th we hung out at Cobra Lounge and Exit throughout the evening. On Tuesday February 19th, I captured some birds in the snow while waiting on the train to work. On Friday February 22nd, we had some Leper hangs with Skot and Rachel in Joliet as they attempted to get pre-sale tickets for a show that Leper had coming up in April. We got Mexican food and later ice cream! On Saturday February 23rd, I hung with Guy Allen and Krista at the Art Institute then a pizza restaurant. It was my first visit to the Art Institute and I enjoyed it.
Filmed LIVE at Bottom Lounge in Near West Side Chicago, Illinois on Thursday March 7th, 2019 using an iPhone 6 and 8 by Elphie and Joel A. Swanson. Edited using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini by Joel A. Swanson.
On Friday March 8th, we went to the All State Arena to see Three Days Grace with Disturbed. I captured "Pain Killer" from Three Days Grace and "The Sound Of Silence" from Disturbed. This was a show Elphie wanted to go to more than me. It's not exactly in my genre or preference of type of show but it was a good one. Disturbed is vocal about getting mental health help for those who need it so that cause is a great one.
Filmed LIVE at All State Arena in Rosemont, Illinois on Friday March 8th, 2019 using an iPhone 8. Edited using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini. Filmed and Edited by Joel A. Swanson.
On Saturday March 9th, I went to the Aragon Ballroom to see Matt Heckler, Lucero, and Flogging Molly. I captured "(No More) Paddy's Lament" from Flogging Molly. It had been quite some years since I last was able to see Flogging Molly. Matt Heckler reminded me a bit of my friend Dylan Rooke...they also look a bit a like. As I got ready to go to this show, there was a power outage at home in the neighborhood.
Filmed LIVE at Aragon Ballroom in Uptown Chicago, Illinois on Saturday March 9th, 2019 using an iPhone 8. Edited using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini. Filmed and Edited by Joel A. Swanson.
On Tuesday March 12th, I went to Live Wire to see Desiring Dead Flesh and captured "I Am A Race Traitor" from their set. Bryan told me that their plans to begin living on the road as a family on a Perpetual Motion Tour were set to begin soon. Erzulie and Alley Slob Service also played. Erzulie called what they do Voodoo Metal...that was interesting.
Filmed LIVE at Live Wire in Northside Chicago, Illinois on Tuesday March 12th, 2019 using an iPhone 8. Edited using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini. Filmed and Edited by Joel A. Swanson.
The additional soundtrack for this project included "Winter Solstice" and "Winter Solstice Alt. Version" by mewithoutYOU, "Winter In Chicago" and Ollie Ollie" by Flatfoot 56, and "Art In Me" by Jars of Clay.
Audiofeed Music Festival: Volume 7 occurred between July 3rd and July 6th, 2019. I decided to go back to a more "traditional" type of promo / teaser trailer this year by taking highlight clips and fitting them together instead of taking the whole project and speeding it up as I did with last year's project. I used "Summertime Blues (Director's Cut) by '68 as a soundtrack for this as well as throughout the project. It was really the only additional soundtrack I used (except I used some audio from the Flatfoot 56 set to punch in "Ollie Ollie" during the Ollie Mob meetup clip).
Once again, I animated some maps of the trip. This year I decided to use an old timey car in the map animation. I took a screenshot from the top of the Audiofeed promo flyer for this year to capture the style that was used. I wanted to go with a similar style as I did last year with the various Audiofeed logos in use leading up to the current one. I decided to stagger the logos and have the current one sort of grow up from the bottom of the screen then take over while having a shot of the logo at the festival in the background. All titles and animations were once again created using Motion 4 on a MacBook.
I filmed mostly using my Canon Rebel T6 again this year. I seemed to get a bit too close at times causing some audio distortion with the built in microphone. I also used my iPhone 8 as well as the CrossTour CR900 Dash Cam which was new for this year. It makes the travelling clips a lot easier to capture. Elphie used her iPhone 6 for the clips she contributed. Editing was done using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini as usual.
I only caught a few new (at least to me) artists this year, one of which was not planned, I just happened to be passing by to hear and take interest. I had hoped to catch a couple other seminars or spend more time at some that I did attend. The messages given in the seminars that I captured probably come with a bit of bias from my personal views but I did feel that the things spoken that I shared had value and that is why I included them in the project. Once again this year I labeled the project "as filmed by" with the intention to indicate that this is the way I experienced / filmed this particular event. Someone else had a different experience than I did. Other video projects you might see (and I linked some other creators below) also will show a different experience than what you will see here. I think that it's not only ok...I think it is great that there is diversity in our experiences of things, even when the experience is shared with a lot of other people, there is still a personal experience. This is my personal experience as captured on video (along with a few clips provided by my wife, Elphie).
I want to take the time here to highlight a few other folks who were in attendance at Audiofeed and have posted or will be posting their video projects to their channels:
These guys have footage I don't have of artists or different songs and / or different perspectives of the same song that did not capture. It has been fun to see what they were able to capture and create.
I began the project with some clips from Tuesday July 2nd, 2019 showing me at work on lunch highlighting the schedule of the artists that I wanted to see at Audiofeed this year. I had some difficulty due to the extremely small print. On my way home from work I encountered a rain storm that continued into the evening providing some lightning to the south of us. Rain would be a trend for the week as it had been much of the spring and summer so far. As we packed up, Stein was compelled to get himself in our luggage again.
On Wednesday July 3rd, 2019, the goal was to try leaving by 11am. I sort of tried a little homage to Mr. Rogers in filming putting my boots on...I have decided to continue to wear my old worn out boots that have holes in them for Audiofeed so I don't destroy the ones I wear day to day. They felt damp, possibly from last year still, ha! I prepared my French Press for the week with Pneuma Coffee - The 86 House Blend. We loaded everything up and hit the road about noon so we were only an hour behind what I had hoped would be our departure. As we drove, I utilized the CrossTour CR900 Dash Cam to capture a little footage along the way, including the fair going on next to the highway in Chicago's Southside. We made a stop at Speedway to use the restroom and purchase soda then continued on our way to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois for Audiofeed. We arrived around 2:30pm. My hope was to get in to hear Loyal Thurman of Unified Underground speak at The Asylum but once we got our wristbands and parked, he had decided not to talk apparently. Jennifer Mercy was there as well so we had her follow us to the hotel as she was also staying there. We drove over to the Lincoln Lodge, got checked in, and watched the daily storm roll in. We also watched a patron of the hotel apparently trying to orchestrate the storm. I returned to Audiofeed to see some bands and prepare dinner.
First band I saw was Desiring Dead Flesh on the ground in The Sanctuary. They were building the stage as Desiring Dead Flesh played a more DIY style set. I felt that "Holidays Suck!" was a great song to capture in light of Christmas in July going on at The Asylum.
I made my way to The Asylum to capture some footage of The Uh-Ohs. I captured "Good King Wenceslas" with its line about eating flesh. Figured it to be appropriate in light of the setting.
I prepared the grill for the venison steaks and corn on the cob as Good Saint Nathanael was preparing to take the stage. I sort of took this footage out of order technically as the meat was not finished before I watched the set. I had to clean up after preparing the food then made my way over to Black Sheep.
I cut the bit where Nate spoke of his recovery from abuse but it is included in the daily video project and it is worth taking the time to listen. I captured his song "Bombs" from the set.
I ate my dinner and went to see what was going on in The Sanctuary but I did not capture any footage of Raviner. Mike Adkins did though and you can see that along with the rest of his footage at AdkinsDietFilms4.
6'10 was on Black Sheep and I captured the beginning of their set which was a new song called "The Old Man." I didn't capture it this night but Tobin spoke about how we are all loved by God even when things aren't going so great, we have doubts, and are possibly angry at God. He spoke on this also during the Flatfoot 56 set and I captured it then on video.
I returned to The Asylum for more Christmas In July holiday tunes and captured this clip of Glenn Kaiser. I also was able to capture a clip from his speaking session the next day and a clip of one of his other sets.
Though I was outside the tent but in earshot during much of Harry Gore's set having a good chat with Simon and Sheri Bjorn, I did make my way back in to The Asylum to capture "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" to close out the Christmas in July.
Afterwards, I returned to the conversation with Simon and Sheri then made my way around the grounds to try to find Elphie. I encountered Anastasia and Josh putting flyers on the port-o-potties and then Mike Adkins and his "Camel Flage" shirt which is where the filming came to an end. Elphie and I hung out with Ricky Puckett for a while. We also chatted a bit with Chris Middendorf for a while about life then went to retrieve Elphie's dinner from the grill at which point I also put it away. After Elphie ate her dinner, we reconvened with Ricky Puckett on the black top of the food court area and chatted for a while before returning to the hotel.
I woke and made my way to Audiofeed for the first official day. I was sure to have a cup of Pneuma Coffee - The 86 House Blend as I made my way onto the grounds. I stopped in The Radon Lounge at the Justice. Mercy. Humility. Conference first and listened for a bit to Rev. Amy Cantrell as she brought up issues with the American church being more American than it was Christian especially in terms of how it deals with justice issues...or doesn't deal with them well.
I made my way over to The Sanctuary to listen to some of Thin Ice playing. I saw a different lineup of this band at Death Or Glory Fest in San Antonio in 2014 so I was interested in seeing them again.
I made my way over to The Asylum and captured Wannabe by The Uh-Ohs. After the song, they announced that the Kickstarter for their new album had officially begun and brought attention to their hat model, Stewart! He did an excellent job!
I returned to The Sanctuary to catch Desiring Dead Flesh and was able to capture a new song that I had not captured before nor had I heard it before. The song was called "Blah Blah Blah" about their new nomadic life.
I captured the crossing of the Marshall Brown bridge. He built it to help folks make their way to/from the stage as in previous years the rains have created quite the mud obstacle. I went to The Asylum and listened to Glenn Kaiser speaking on Income Inequality, capturing a story he shared which also highlighted my workplace, Cornerstone Community Outreach. It was also nice to sit out of the heat for a while.
Back at The Sanctuary, I watched the Dark Valentine set which was a little strange to have occur in daytime. Having learned a bit about some of what the songs were about, it was interesting having captured "Drain" during their set.
I realized that I had forgotten to bring the bread for the venison burgers that I would be beginning to cook so I left the grounds for a quick trip to the hotel to get the bread. As I made this quick trip, the daily rain began. I returned and waited out the rain so I could start the charcoal and get the meat cooking. This also meant I had used up most of the down time in my personal schedule. I was trying to determine where I should use the grill and just decided to set it up by the car again as I did the night before...even though I was out in a different parking lot. I got the fire going then the venison burger and corn on the cob on the grill then hurried to the restroom to clean my hands. I returned to the car to get my camera and waited for it to be time to flip the meat so I could see Destroy Nate Allen and Hushpad.
Destroy Nate Allen played BurningTown and announced a new Allen family project as well called the Noisy Do-Gooders. Part of the set was dedicated to doing the songs attributed to that project. I decided to try to capture a new Destroy Nate Allen song and captured one about not cooking bacon while naked. A very important tip for everyone I am sure!
I ended up leaving the Destroy Nate Allen / The Noisy Do-Gooders set a little early so that I could catch some of Hushpad in The Radon Lounge. I was able to catch a few songs and captured something that I don't think I had captured before. They did not play last year so it was good to see and hear them again.
I figured it might be possible that the meat was overdone by now so I hurried back to my car and the grill. The venison burger tasted great and corn on the cob, while quite hot, tasted great too. I did a taste tasting of the Mountain. Dew Justice Brew...it was ok. I figured what better day than the 4th of July to taste test it.
There were other things going on as I ate my dinner and met up with Elphie but I was able to have some good times of conversation with folks before going into The Asylum to watch Gaffer Project. I captured "A Hardened Heart."
I then made my way over to Black Sheep to see The Threats, capturing the opening of the set. This band consists of members of The Chariot. They were one of the few new artists I saw during Audiofeed this year and enjoyed their set.
I had hoped to see Drottnar playing at The Asylum but they cancelled that appearance apparently.
As Leper was getting set up and working through sound check at The Sanctuary, I went outside the tent for a moment to try to capture neighborhood fireworks. I did not capture much. It seems that throughout the every time I tried, it would be the end of the fireworks for that moment.
I decided to capture the beginning of the Leper set thinking maybe they would start with new music but getting Jet Black Tears (Lacrime Nere) was cool. The intro was a recording of new music. Elphie came up with an idea to pay tribute to HeadBanging Bob with headbang in his honor during the Leper set. He was unable to attend Audiofeed this year due to health issues. The tribute occurred during a newer song that I had captured last year, "Where Is They Sting?" We hope that Bob makes a full recovery and is able to return to Audiofeed and Head Bang better than ever!
I went back to The Radon Lounge, capturing the sign along the way. I was able to get there before Timbre started so I was able to see her entire set. I captured "Your Hands Hold Home" which is a fun live song to capture as the other players on stage come and play on the harp with Timbre. It had been a while since I had been to a Timbre show due to various reasons so it was good to see and hear her again.
The last act of the night was Good Saint Nathanael in The Asylum. With a storm appearing to be coming in, I hoped to capture "Lightning" but Nate cut it from his set thinking he did not have enough time to play the song based on his understanding of the schedule information. It turned out he probably could have played the songs that he cut in hindsight. I had hoped to get a song that I hadn't captured before but I went with "Better" as my previous clip was not the song in its entirety.
Afterwards I went to find Elphie thinking that it might be a good idea to get back to the hotel if all the lightning was indication of a storm. It was. Thankfully we did return to the hotel and made it shortly before the storm began.
I started the second official day of Audiofeed with more Penuma - The 86 House Blend coffee as I tried to hurriedly make my way to BurningTown to see The Castros. I think this was the earliest set I attended at Audiofeed. I am not a morning person and being in a hotel, while it is nearby, does not serve well for early waking. Due to it being a business day for the nearby hospital where I had parked the previous day, I had to find parking in the grounds. I ended up fairly far from the tent and with the rain, I had to make my way through mud as well. I was able to catch the last couple of songs by The Castros capturing Marco speaking a bit and the song "Forgive Me."
It began to rain fairly hard during The Castros set so I hung around in the tent for a bit but I wanted to get to the Justice. Mercy. Humility. Conference so I decided to just make a run for The Radon Lounge. The rain began to subside as I was making my move but I still ended up pretty wet. Shane Claiborne was speaking regarding the death penalty as he recently fought for the life of a death row inmate but was unable to stop the execution. He spoke about the lack of mercy in capital punishment and highlighted the lack of mercy shown by the government of the United States of America toward immigrants, minorities, and the poor which he pointed out to be contradictory to that which was taught by Jesus Christ. He also pointed out how a Jewish Rabbi friend of his indicated that Christians have no excuse to lack in mercy when they have the teachings of Jesus. After Shane finished talking I wandered around the grounds for a bit then decided to take my now empty coffee mug and a couple of vinyls I picked up along the way back to the car, navigating through the mud. I heard a Johnny Cash cover coming from The Sanctuary so I made my way over there but the song had ended.
In The Sanctuary I found The Comancheros playing and they had one more song left so I captured it. They reminded me somewhat of a younger, heavier, faster, Lynyrd Skynyrd. Unfortunately with the built in mic with no mic jack on the Canon Rebel T6, there is significant distortion to the audio from the low end. I took a moment to hang with Ben Aldrich. I had yet to actually see him other than in the distance on Early Access Day as he was riding his scooter toward The Road Dog Cafe. We caught up for a bit then I caught up with Caleb Daniels and Sean Huncherick as well.
I went back down to The Sanctuary to watch Irae. I was standing on the edge of the tent trying to figure where I might set up my camera and finishing eating an apple and watched from there for a bit. I really wish I had been filming because Josh Simmons decided it was time to bust out his pit moves and in the process took out Mike Adkin's camera! ha! Watching as it happened, it was like in slow motion but nothing I could do about it from where I was standing. I eventually moved in the middle of the back of the tent and captured a clip. Again, sound wasn't the best due to the distortion from the low end.
I hung a bit with Josh and others after the Irae set then went back to my car and decided to move it closer and start cooking the Johnsonville cheddar filled sausages and corn on the cob for dinner. On my way I decided to grab a clip of some lost shoes in the grass that I had passed several times along the way.
I stopped by the Family Zone and captured the beginning of The Uh-Ohs set with "The Uh-Oh Song" and "Keep On." I also captured a clip of Elbie Awesome Allen playing with bubbles and the wooden corn of course. I got my food from the grill then ate it behind Guy Allen's food tent and captured a quick clip of his "Don't Be A Dick" icon T-Shirt and had good conversations with some folks.
The next few hours would be whirlwind of bands on different stages at the same time starting with cathcing a few songs from Kevin Schlereth in BurningTown.
I swung over to the Front Porch to watch a few songs of the mewithoutYOU? (circa 2005) cover set, capturing "Torches Together." I would have liked to watch the entire set but I think I watched about half of it. These guys pulled it off quite well, especially Nathaniel 'Danger' Fitzgerald as Aaron Weiss.
Next I made my way down to The Sanctuary to see Death Therapy. I got their as they were finishing up a song I captured last year ("Slow Dance With Death") and they started another one as I set up my camera. I captured Jason Wisdom as he spoke for a bit then they played "The Lie" to end their set.
I headed back to BurningTown to see Insomniac Folklore and captured "Live Until I Die." They were playing a fairly long song to end the set as I left to try to catch Leper in The Asylum when Elphie stopped me and informed me that they had not yet started even though it was past time that they were scheduled so I went back to BurningTown to watch the rest of the Insomniac Folklore set.
I went over by the Front Porch and talked a bit more with Ben Aldrich as he waited for Triple Stitch to play their set later there. I also reconnected for a bit with Jimmy Riot. I decided to step over to the Black Sheep to watch and capture a little bit from Wolves At The Gate. Apparently, around this time, Leper began to play. As I was filming, about a minute or so before the song that Wolves At The Gate was playing ended, the battery died on my Canon Rebel T6 so the song is cut off early. I was not prepared to cover this with my iPhone 8 nor felt I had time to switch batteries so you get what you get. I inadvertently cut off the end of a different song that last time I watched them as well so my apologies to Wolves At The Gate.
I figured I should have enough time to watch a few songs by 2Minute Minor at The Sanctuary and capture something before heading to The Asylum for the end of the Leper set. I captured the Cro Mags cover, "Hard Times." A firework show was going on as well so I captured a few seconds of that and the moon as I made my was across the grounds.
Triple Stitch started playing the Front Porch so I watched a couple songs capturing "Stop, Drop, and RocknRoll" then went to see Leper at The Asylum and found that they had just ended. At this point the craziness of the schedule had also ended and there wasn't really much I was specifically planning to watch so Elphie and I went back up to the Front Porch, seeing the rest of the firework show as we walked, and we watched the last bit of the Triple Stitch set. We then went over to the food court area and had some decent conversations with some folks for a while such as Ryan Getz, Michael Bridgewater, Colleen Davick, Patrick 'Danger' Quigley, and others.
I returned to The Asylum to see the worship experience being created by I Hear Voices. Mike and Donna Sheehy of Grave Robbers ministry administered communion during the portion I captured. I did cut a little bit out while Donna was passing out the elements. In the part I cut out, there was a motorcycle that conveniently gunned it as they passed the tent area...it seemed like the person responsible may have done so intentionally, which is pretty goofy (you can hear that on the footage posted by AdkinsDietFilms4). The worship experience was pretty cool. I wasn't paying close enough attention to my camera so the focus is a bit blurry through a lot of this.
Afterwards we hung out a bit outside the tents and had some good conversations. Eventually, everyone went their separate ways so we returned to our hotel as well.
I woke up for the last day of Audiofeed 2019. I finished off the Pneuma - The 86 House Blend coffee I had brewed as I made my way over to the grounds. As I entered in, I ran into Nate Allen as he was getting himself situated to speak in The Asylum. I poked my head in for just a moment after greeting Nate and made my way over to The Radon Lounge for the Justice. Mercy. Humility. Conference and captured a bit of Dr. Alma Petty speaking on humility.
Next I went to Black Sheep to hear Triple Stitch, capturing a somewhat ska rendition of "Fight The System" and learned that there would be a hot dog party after all the bands played later that night. I knew I was short on memory on the card I was using in my Canon Rebel T6 so I captured some of the song on my iPhone 8 so when the camera memory ran out, I don't think I missed much if anything at all on the switch between the clips.
I returned to The Asylum for Nate Allen's talk on Launching, Landing, And Moving Forward. He had also written a book on the subject. I captured a little bit at the end of the "Launching" part of his talk. I missed the very beginning of his talk. I was able to catch up a bit more with Michael Bridgewater for a few moments and 'Little' Jessie Dills as well. We all then headed to the Ollie Mob Meet-up. I took an audio clip from Elphie's footage of Flatfoot 56 playing "Ollie Ollie" to overlap on these clips.
I was getting concerned during the Ollie Mob meetup that I might miss The Satire at The Sanctuary. Thankfully I didn't miss it. I captured the final song of the set and some talking. It was good to see these guys again as they don't play too often. I hung around for a bit at The Sanctuary, taking a little bit of a beating from Quinn while talking with Sid. Then I hung out a bit with Guy at his vendor tent again.
I refilled my water bottle then went back to The Sanctuary for Bub Walker And The TombsTones. I ran a few minutes late so I missed the special mandolin intro by Josh Robieson but I captured a song when Tyler Hentschel, playing the role of Bub, crowd surfed on a surfboard. The next song Andreas Larson also surfed the crowd on the surfboard while playing guitar but I did not get to capture that. A quick but hard storm blew in as the Bub Walker And The TombsTones set ended so I stayed inside The Sanctuary tent. The storm grew stronger and stronger and the stage staff battened down the tent, minimizing the rain that could get in. Still, water seeped in from the ground and began to pool in the middle. The storm, while short, was intense and some folks did not luck out so well. Apparently some of the sound gear in The Asylum was damaged, I noticed that they had built a trench to try to let some water out. Some folks had damaged or destroyed tents and soaked belongings. It's all part of festival life. It is what caused the change to hotel use for the festival for us.
After the short but intense storm, I crossed the bridge which now did go over water and I made my way to the merch area as I had my eye on some vinyl. I missed my opportunity to grab a Kraftwerk album (turned out my friend Mark snagged it) but I made my way through some other boxes and got a handful of older albums for a pretty good price. I then purchased an Insomniac Folklore shirt.
I then realized I did not have my water bottle. I couldn't figure out where I had left it. I walked back down to The Sanctuary but they were in the middle of a service so I didn't want to interrupt but walked in the back checking where I had been standing then sitting while waiting out the storm...no water bottle to be found. I retraced my steps through the merch area but still did not find it. I just figured at this point, I would need to purchase a new one.
Over at the Family Zone I watched a little bit of the new Destroy Nate Allen side project The Noisy Do-Gooders and captured their hit single (to be) "Corn On The Cob" featuring Elbie Awesome Allen on the lead vocals!
I went to put my merch away in the car and got another chance to talk with Loyal Thurman of Unified Underground. I apologized for missing his speaking times throughout the week as they were a bit too early for me. Hopefully he can get a later time slot of he speaks in the same tent again in the future. I also heard a bit more of the story of what he has had to endure over the last year with his ministry, which was a sad thing to hear but hopeful for the best for him going forward.
I ran into Tara on my way toward the Road Dog Cafe and asked if it was ok to eat there since most of the bands had probably already eaten. It was Hog Roast day and there seemed to often be left overs. She said it was all good to go in and eat so I let Elphie know and we got to enjoy a great dinner! I also got to see MaMa Linda briefly so that was nice. Thank you, Road Dog Cafe for the great hospitality to bands (and allowing us to partake in it as well)!
I took a break from eating to get a clip of Comrades playing on Black Sheep. It seemed that they were playing a lot of newer stuff and I'm pretty certain that the clip I captured was a new song. I went back to the Road Dog Cafe to finish eating.
https://youtu.be/00eEQbKQVyA
Setlist:
1. I Don’t Want To Change The World, I Just Want To Change Your Mind
2. We Rule The Night
3. Make You Dance
4. Piece Of The Dream
5. The Youth
6. What I Believe
7. Side By Side
8. Fight The System
9. Turn It Up
10. No Tomorrow
11. Adolescent Night
12. Apocalypse Now
13. Bombs Over Broadway
14. Blitzkrieg Bop
I captured the entirety of the Squad Five-0 set at Black Sheep. Each year I try to get one full set each of something that is punk / hardcore, metal / hardcore, and something in the general rock styles for the way I keep my video archives. It usually means capturing Flatfoot 56 with their theme shows. This year, however, there was a timing conflict as I wanted to see Crimson Moonlight who was playing at The Sanctuary when Flatfoot 56 was playing. Last year, Elphie ended up filming Flatfoot 56 when a similar conflict occurred but she was not committed to doing so this year. So I decided I would just capture Squad Five-0 in their entirety and figured I'd capture a clip of Flatfoot 56 before or after the Crimson Moonlight set.
Squad Five-0 put on a great set playing mostly from their two Tooth And Nail releases but they did pull out a few songs from their early days as well. They did not play anything from their final album. It was fun to see them again. I was lucky enough to see their previous reunion show at Cornerstone 2011 as well. Toward the end of the set, my battery indicated it was low so I had my iPhone 8 filming in case I would need to switch over. I used a very short clip from my iPhone 8 when i hit the 12 minute limit but I was able to otherwise get the entirety of the rest of the set without the battery dying.
Crimson Moonlight, a Swedish "Unblack" Metal band closed the night at The Sanctuary. I missed any previous chances I had to see them before so I was not about to miss it on this opportunity. I did have to miss Drottnar however. I enjoyed the Crimson Moonlight set. There was a good crowd as well. I don't know the songs so I was unable to create a setlist unfortunately. Pilgrim's accent seemed to sound somewhat celtic to me which I found interesting.
I hustled my way back to Black Sheep and Flatfoot 56 was getting ready to end their set for the night. I captured a bit of Tobin talking and "I'll Fly Away." I used some of Elphie's iPhone 6 footage for this video and the shenanigans from the theme show that I missed.
I ran to get some fried candy bars from Guy and Flatfoot 56 played an encore of Johnny Rumble, which I wish I would have stuck around to watch.
https://youtu.be/Wuwxvznin7g
Setlist:
1. Black Light
2. Pour
3. Bloody Angles
4. Hail
5. Of Wilderness
6. Memoir
7. Selah
8. Ghost Story
9. Lower Still
10. Open Letter
My Epic would be the set to cover the rest of the rock music genres for my archives. They played in The Radon Lounge so I found a chair by some unused tables and set my camera up there. I ran out of memory again, this time on my last memory card for my Canon Rebel T6 so I had to switch to my iPhone 8 about halfway through the set. I may have missed a few seconds while getting my iPhone 8 on and filming but I don't think I missed much.
After My Epic ended, I captured a little bit of a pinball game going on. I loaded our chairs and my camera equipment into my car then went on a search for my water bottle. I went back down to The Sanctuary now that everything had been cleared out but still I did not see my water bottle. As I returned to the main festival area, I thought I might be seeing it near the first place I was looking at vinyl but sitting on the ground. Sure enough, there it was! So I reclaimed my water bottle. I then went over to the hot dog party for a few moments.
I caught a little bit of a celtic jam then Ricky, Elphie, and I ended up sitting on some vacant golf carts near the festival office and rest room and chatted for a couple of hours. Guy had loaded up his vending booth and supplies and was leaving but decided to go to the restroom...while leaving his truck running. I decided that I was going to move it. I only moved it around the parking lot but as I tried to get out and make it look like nothing happened, the belt I had been wearing for like 20 years snapped and so I had difficulty with my pants! As it got quite late, as we were the last ones still up at Audiofeed 2019, Ricky eventually took the role of the responsible one and decided he needed to go to sleep so he could drive home in the morning. We went back to our hotel as well. I found that I had forgotten to shut my window when I arrived on the grounds in the morning. My side of the car was soaked from the earlier torrential downpour so I had a fun car ride sitting in a puddle.
We got up the next morning and packed the car as we vacated the Lincoln Lodge. We met with Skot and Rachel Shaw, Jennifer Mercy, Bryce Eickholt, and Mike Adkins at Blaze Pizza then made our way to Highland, Indiana to get groceries at Meijer before heading home. We passed by Monee again which I think is a funny name for a town so I got a clip of the sign as we passed. We got caught in some very slow traffic but had about an hour to unload, reunite with Stein, and perhaps relax a little bit before going to the unofficial Audiofeed "aftershow" at Subterranean with The Uh-Ohs and The Castros.
The footage from the show is a "hidden" set of bonus clips after the credits screens. I had "Summertime Blues" by '68 playing during all of this footage and the credits. These clips were filmed using my iPhone 8.
I captured "The Better Song" by The Uh-Ohs. The Uh-Ohs were the most filmed artists of my project this year as all their sets worked out that I could see at least part of their performances. Congratulations Anastasia and Josh!
I don't think I ever captured "Savannah" from The Castros before so I was glad I got it this time.
Though I was exhausted, it was good to hang with these guys some more before the end of the weekend. I know I struggled a bit to stay awake during the sets. Struggled a bit on the trip home as well but I made it. It took a couple days to get back to "normal" after that.
I was glad to get all this footage edited and put out there this quickly this year. Last year I got myself behind on a lot of things but I really wanted to share this before Audiofeed 2019 was too far in the past. I enjoyed it as I always do. I had some good times of conversation. I ran around like crazy at other times. I think I stayed out of drama situations this year, which is a relief after the silliness that came from last year.
On the technical side of things, while my Canon Rebel T6 has been a great camera so far, I feel like I would want to upgrade my camera so I could have a microphone jack and better sound quality among other possible enhanced features. I definitely will be purchasing some more memory cards so I don't have the problem of running out of space in the middle of a set. I do feel that the overall quality was improved from last year, probably due somewhat to it being fresh in my memory having edited the footage from last year just a couple months ago. I am happy about that.
I am thankful to all who make Audiofeed happen each year. Thank you for giving a place for us to call home for a few days each year. It's always good gather together. Hopefully there are other opportunities to gather in the time in between (such as during Bloodline Fest) but as always, I can't wait until next year!
This is a TigerRAWknRoll Summer: Audiofeed 2019 as I filmed my experience...with a little help from Elphie as well!
Additional soundtrack is “Summertime Blues" and "Summertime Blues (Director’s Cut)" by ’68.
