Reel Big Fish/  Mest/  Goldfinger
by Morgan Reynolds

We drove for 3 hours (!) to get to Peoria, IL, and, surprisingly, in the
middle of the cornfields, was a RBF/Goldfinger/mest show! We missed the
first band cuz our driving buddies (coming from Ann Arbor) were 2 hours
late. That's okay though. The show was fun enough, but it was more like an
on-stage ego competition than anyhting else, three poppy punk bands gyrating
and stripping for a couple hundred 15-year olds (ever go to a show and just
know you're the coolest person there? Yeah, it was like that. Which is
sad, cuz we're all sorta dorky.) Anyway, Mest rocked (for being Blink-182
core), Reel Big Fish just seemed to lack...something, I don't know, new
songs, presence, the will to live. I mean they played everything you could
want to hear, but they didn't seem to want to really be there. Goldfinger
was rad though! After squeezing their inflated heads through the doors, and
hanging their impressive professional banner, they got on and ruled!
Flaming drums, nudity, cross dressing, cover songs...aaah. The best part
though had to be when three guys from (RBF? Mest? Dunno.) other bands got
on stage in see through cammo bikinis and ripped on that horrible Destiny's
Child song, Survivor. Or maybe when the lead singer threatened that the
next person who hit him in the head with a water bottle (what can I say, 15
year olds don't know better), would have to lick the drummers asshole. They
actually dragged some pre-pubescent poser on stage, pummeled the shit out of
him, then hauled his ass back stage. I say ha ha, idiot. Goldfinger closed
w/99 Red Balloons, so it was all good. Worth the drive? Yeah.

This was pretty funny too, just for your enjoyment:
After the show, we went to Perkins (it was about 2am), cause it was right
next to our hotel, and met up with all the 15 year olds. There were these
losers behind us that were, well, they sounded like this:
Loser1: Yeah and everyone says, hey, I know BEN WEASEL, I hung out with BEN
WEASEL, I love BEN WEASEL, (drones on with Ben Weasel name dropping)
Loser2: Yeah, but they don't really know BEN WEASEL, but I know BEN WEASEL..
(pause).. we recorded with BEN WEASEL
L1: Yeah, what losers, I mean, if you don't know BEN WEASEL then don't say
you know BEN WEASEL....
L2: Yeah, like remember that time that us and BEN WEASEL....
(and on and on, occasionally throwing the name Ben Weasel in the
conversation (Yes, accentuating the name), just for our benefit we think. I
mean obviously we didn't know Ben Weasel, as we were older than 15, and
didn't have hayseeds stuck in our teeth, hyuck, hyuck.)

SOIA here we come!
morgan