Just got home from San Diego. 4 hour drive in total. I am writing this review at 2am. I should be sleeping. But I will write a review so I don’t forget everything by tomorrow.
Sat. July 25th 2010.
My day started with waking up the earliest I woke up this summer, around 9am. I got dressed in simple black jeans and a plain shirt which said my site name in glow in the dark paint. I crossed out everything on my check list and my dad drove my mom and myself to the Marriot hotel. We got a rent a car so we don’t waste miles on our car. We weren’t picky with the car. The only thing we really wanted was a CD player.
We got the car and started the 2 hour “road trip” to San Diego for a festival called 91X fest which was at the Cricket Amp. in Chula Vista. We drove and drove and listened to music as we starved since we didn’t eat. We finally spotted a Jack in the Box and got some sandwich’s after a 30 min. wait. NOT fast food.
Just as the navigation said, we arrived 2 hours from the time we left to our “destination.” But we weren’t in the place yet, oh no. We still needed to get into the parking lot which took another 15 minutes because everyone was showing up at that time. Though it wasn’t quite boring as we waited since we watched someone constantly running in the streets. Someone actually went out of their car, went to another car, got a case of beer then ran back to his car. A few minutes later he was out again passing beer out to nearby cars.
Ahhh finally a parking lot. Since we are just so cool we went to VIP parking and parked near a 91X van so we could actually remember where we parked. We went to will call and received 2 VIP passes also known as backstage passes. That was an issue though. You can’t go into a show with backstage passes. You need tickets. But what I was worried about was my photopass. That was the reason we went to San Diego; because I got a photopass.
Since our tickets and pass was under the 311 guest list and their guest list didn’t arrive, we were stuck waiting until it did. We got there at 3 and when the guest list with all the tiks and passes finally arrived it was 5. We were waiting almost as long as we took driving there. Again, not very boring. Many, MANY unique- I will say, people trotted through the entrance. Quite interesting looking at them. Some in costumes. Some already drunk before they got inside, and some of the more “normal” “mellow” people.
But we finally walked in the venue. The first place we went to was a Neon Tree autograph signing. I took a couple pictures for fans and the singer held the sign for my site up, which was nice of her. Overall Neon Trees might be unknown for the most part but they are really cool and nice to their fans. Plus they have a fair amount of good songs. Then Authority Zero did their signing. I took a few pics and passes out numerous business cards.
Next my mom wanted a drink so we headed over to the drink area and I notice someone looking at my photopass. They come to me and show me a little area where some photographers were standing, waiting. She asks if I want to take pictures of more bands then just 311 and though they are the headlining band, I still wanted other bands. So I say yes. I am not going into much detail after that but long story short, I got a Pepper Photopass and 311. By the time we got into the Venue only 4 or 5 bands were left. By the time I talked with the girl there were only 3 bands left. Pepper, The Offspring and 311. And I got the 2 of the 3 to photograph. All but Offspring. Some photographers told me only about people got approved to take pics of the Offspring.
So I waited with the photographers and then when Cake came off the stage and Pepper was 15 min before coming on, the photographers and myself started making our way to the stage. We went in front of the pit, where the security guards stand and we started practicing. We are only allowed for first 3 songs so you really need to take as many pictures as possible. The stage was really really high and I am only 5’4 so I was on my “tippy toes” most of the time. Then around the 2nd song I saw this amp. I think it was so I stood on top of it. It worked. I got better shots. So that was all for Pepper.
The Offspring was next. The photographers had to stay in the photographer area but I managed to sneak away. Well actually you could leave but you had to leave your camera. I was not going to do that. So I went to my seat and they were literally amazing seats. 2 rows from the pit. But I wanted to go to the pit. So, I showed the security guard my passes and thought after a 3 min convo. he said no. So I went back and he looked shocked so I went back to him and he said he was letting me in. So I was thinking, “Awesome!”
I got in the pit, pretty close to the front and tried to take pictures. But it didn’t work because my lens for my camera is wide angle. Basically that means it makes things look further away. But I still enjoyed the pit. I recorded some songs, including a brand new one!!! My mom texted me mid way through the Offspring’s set. She wanted to make sure I didn’t get killed in the pit. She said there was a lot of moshing and crowd surfing but no one pushed where I was at… luckily.
311. We walked over, just like we did with Pepper and took pictures of the band. The security said no flash and I didn’t know how to take mine off so a fellow photographer helped me out and changed some other settings on my camera which made taking pictures a lot easier to take.
After the 3 songs I tried to sneak away again to our seats but some lady who works there said I have to take my “professional” camera to the car and exit the venue. I said I need to wait for my mom. When my mom came- that’s when we tried to go to our seats. She stopped us. So we walked behind her to the exit and she was constantly looking back at us, as if we were going to run away. Psh.
We put the camera away then went back into the venue, but let minutes later since we don’t really like 311. No offense 311 likers. We just didn’t know many songs and the ones we did know they already played.
Photos and videos of this show in the photos and videos category.
