I must first say that God is so good and gave us the amazing opportunity to play at Metalfest in Anaheim with some awesome bands like As I Lay Dying and Sleeping Giant. They are so talented and are truly advancing God's kingdom.
Beyond that it was quite the experience. We had to be there at 8 AM which meant that we had to get up at 5, leave our drummer Izzy's house by 6, and then drive up the 5 freeway to LA. Plus the night before I only got 5 hours of sleep due to working on our light walls (which are so freakin legit I had no idea they would look that good when they were done!). So I was tired yet so pumped to play.
So then we arrive and park the van next to SOOO many band vans and trailers. It was kinda surreal how many other musicians were just chillin and hangin out, many of which are well known in the heavy music industry. I'm not really used to being in and among true musicians at an event like that. Sure I've hung out with tons of bands before, but never as an actual band member there to perform. We walked around and checked out the venue....which of course was colossal. The stage was BY FAR the biggest stage I have ever performed on. And the floor section for the audience was big too, but a little peculiar because it had levels that went up as you walk toward the back of the room with 2 foot half walls in between each section. I was pretty curious to find out how the bands were gunna call for a "wall of death" or a circle pit. Didn't seem like it was gunna work........ But we finally got checked in with the management people and they gave us our wristbands/laminated badges. At the same time we found out our set time. We were actually the very first band to play mainstage at 12:15, which was only 15 minutes after the doors to the venue opened. I knew that we weren't going to have a lot of people watching our set but it turned out alright anyway. I wasn't worried because I knew God would bring the right people in to watch us play. And so we walked around, said hi to some people, and felt out the vibes for the show.
This is where my experience from Metalfest took a shift. That whole morning I had been stoked on being there until I started watching some of the bands load their gear onto stage and backline everything for the concert. I got to watch Suicide Silence sound check their gear around 10 and I talked to their vocalist for a little bit. He seemed like a pretty nice guy off stage which was cool. Plus he was hangin out with his boston terrier puppy he had and that little dude was rad. But after that people were loading in gear and had the worst attitudes. Everyone was pissed off to be there early in the morning and did not seem appreciative of playing at a legit concert. People were cussing each other out, running their mouths, and walking around like nothing good was going to happen that day. I pretty quickly felt the spirit of appreciation I had in me conflict with those I saw around me. Everyone felt dark and there wasn't a whole lot of light in people I met. It started dragging my spirit down with everyone else's attitude so I texted Ian and asked him to pray for me and my heart. I didn't want to get dragged down and not be able to connect with the people in the audience for our set. By the time we were about to play I felt a lot better, but I had finally realized how spiritually draining it can be to be around bands that don't know Christ and conduct themselves with an air of selfishness and without appreciation. I am thankful for bands who believe in Jesus who can be a light to some of these bands and roadies who carry a lot of darkness with them.
And so finally it came time for our set! We had quite a while to sound check since we were the first band. We ran through all the instruments, all the mics, and then played "Counted Out" all the way through for overall sound. I was taken back by how present my voice was coming through the system and how booming everything was. Its a remarkable feeling when you barely say a word and a humongous room echoes with your voice. Pretty sweet :) All the guys in the band sounded awesome and I knew we were in for a legit show. So the set started, our sample tracks were working perfectly, and the lighting was awesome. Our light walls completely lit that room up and people were getting a taste of who we were. I turned around as soon as the first song was about to start and saw that we had a smaller group of people watching us, probably about 45-50, but that didn't stop any of us from goin bonkers. As soon as we play together on-stage we light up and get all the energy we need. So we went through all the songs, people in the crowd weren't too into it (a.k.a. our merch guy Habacuc was the only one throwing down and trying to get people moving), but a lot of them were taking pictures and video so that was cool. We had to end the set a little early due to time, which ended up being a little awkward because Izzy told me to not play our outro but I didn't have the time to tell the rest of the band. So I made my last thank you's on the mic and told everyone to come hang out with us after our performance, hoping the rest of the guys playing figured out we had to cut it short. So we ended our set, pulled all our gear off stage for the next band, and then I jumped down in front of the guard rail and talked to some of the people in the audience. They said they were stoked on our music and that it sounded really good, which is such a good thing to hear right after you perform. I took some pictures with a couple people, signed a couple people's Metalfest tickets, and said thanks to everyone. One of the best parts about playing is connecting with fans and the audience in a personal way.
Essentially the rest of the time up there was a lot of hangin out, meeting people from other bands we know (Southern Lights, Casino Madrid, etc.) and getting to soak it all in. We actually got to talk to a guy from Victory Records who was interested in us and asked if we had been talking to anyone else about record labels and stuff like that. Alex and I gave him our cd and contact information and had a good conversation with them in hopes that they might get back to us about possibly getting a record deal going. Who knows!
By the end of the day I was wiped and we packed up and headed home around 7:30. Sleeping Giant was awesome and really stirred in me to stand by my convictions in my faith and walk about the sin in my life that tries to grip me and pull me down. Tom Green their singer really exuded that spirit of God's power over sin and it empowered me to do the same. We didn't get to see As I Lay Dying because we were so tired and had a long day, but all that we saw and experienced was awesome and I am thankful for being there.
God is good, and he is guiding our path as we walk faithfully. Also, read Romans 6, its really hittin home for me lately :)
