August '03 Update
near the public drinking-water-cooler, I took it upon myself to make sure it stayed full and iced. I even ran over a hundred gallons of water to one of the inflatable games. Lugging those 5-gallon buckets and coolers-full of water through the crowd was actually fun, in a different sort of way, and that little contribution made me feel useful. Serve if you can. It's well worth the effort.
The first part of the day featured younger bands. We heard The Monday Feeling (I'm thinking they're shifting a bit from punk to alternative --but I might be wrong), Festus (alt), Scarlet (punk), Harvest Blue (heavyish alt), Broken Spirit (alt), and Echo Frequency (heavier alt). Of those younger bands, I'd give Harvest Blue and Echo Frequency 4s. Echo Frequency even reminded me a bit of G.S.Megaphone. Between the young bands and the bigger names was an intermission, which we all used to sweat.
First up after the intermission was Riley Armstong. We got to see him at Crossover, and his show was still quite entertaining. I don't know how to describe his sound, except to say it's rather acoustic, diverse and lots of fun. My wife commented that his style makes him feel like family. By the way, Riley met his fiance, though I don't know if she told him yet. (see Crossover article).
Comedian, Bob Smiley followed Riley Armstrong. Bob's got a rather Pee-Wee Hermanish voice. The sound was poor, so I didn't get to hear much of him. I did catch that he was brought up in a Christian home --even the bathrooms were labeled 1st John, 2nd John, 3rd John.
Real Ministries came on stage with a Praise and Worship band, stunt-motorcyclist speaker, and more Praise and Worship.
Bob Smiley and Compassion International (children's mission) took the stage until Disciple came up.
I'd read about Disciple. They were supposed to be hard rockers, but I'd never heard them. Disciple was one of three band-reasons I attended (Riley Armstrong was first of the three). I don't know if anything out there is much harder without losing any semblance of music --and that's after having heard Seventh Angel, Mortification, Zao, and other heavies. Disciple's right in there with the heaviests. They're serious about their heavy rock, and even moreso about their Christian message. I'll be watching for more of their music. Theirs was the only CD I bought that day.
After Disciple came Souljahz. I'm a fairly
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