I attended Lhotkapalooza: Battle of the Bands, hosted by our music teacher Mr. Dale Lhotka. It didn't seem like many people turned out at the doors at 7:00, but I would say a pretty intense 200 people showed up (including middle schoolers). I showed up to support my four good friends in the band Shaken Not Stirred--because I wanted to see my friend Max :) play guitar and Quinn sing and play drums just like UnderOath or Atreyu, and three other friends in Two Weeks Notice. Well I got my friend Chris to tag along with me then we met up with another fellow mosher/headbanger Justin and Kristen. A bunch of my other friends went, but they mostly just watched because they're not as hardcore.

In my last blog I talked about moshing with a group of people I didn't know very well--so I saw them her too and moshed with them during lunch today, and also at the show. It was really fun, we had another HUGE dance train led by my friend Hans; in fact the train actually encircled the dance floor and back room, so the people in the middle where trapped. My previous math teacher, Mr. Wellman, for some odd reason decided to attend dressed as a girl wearing a blue dress hahahaha--he and Mr. Lhotka, dressed as a clown, contributed to a gigantic head bang circle in the middle of the dance floor as Ethan's band played a Coheed and Cambria song...he was actually pretty good at shredding. TWN (formed within 2 weeks of the event lol...Dekland didn't even now the names of some of the songs) played two Misfits songs--one of them being Halloween, The Casualties' Unknown Soldier, a Bloodhound Gang song, and one other songs. SNS played a Beatles song, Johnny Cash, The Cars, and two other covers--also Quinn gave me a shout out. When my friends in the band were not playing they went and moshed/head banged with us; yup all great times. During the last hour of Lhotkapalooza Mr. Wellman and Mr. Lhotka along with Mr. W (Polish name I can't spell--who also goes to my church and chaperoned After Prom) played "We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister. I would say in all 50 people where really really hardcore, and the rest were semi, hippie, or ska--yes many styles were there. Jordan, guitarist of TWN, and I went crowd surfing--he nearly fell.

Everyone pretty much expected our local legendary band Trigger to win because they have an amazing vocalist who can shred, drummer with personality (was in my Spanish class last year), great bassist, great guitarist (great friend), just all around amazing, their stage show was amazing--They covered "Sweet Child of Mine" by Guns and Roses, "Living On A Prayer" by Bon Jovi, and a Megadeath song among others. When they played nearly everyone went really hardcore. Even with all that SNS won, beating the five other bands, and did an amazing encore at around 10:15 P.M. when people were tired and went home; I think they played He-Man and The Masters of the Universe--at that point like 15 of us did that Chris Pontious Party Boy thing to our vice principal again--I think we're gonna start a tradition. Well it was a lot of fun--all great times especially since it only cost 5 dollars--the same price Mr. Wellman paid to see Fugazi back in the day--Some 1,000 dollars were raised for the school music department, but I'm sleepy, sweaty, my neck hurts, and yeah I'm gonna head to bed. http://www.purevolume.com/shaken_not_stirred (I'm the honorary first fan and comment)