EH-EM-EFF: 2013
Quips, Quotes, Thoughts and Recollections from Armstrong Metalfest 2013 by Jeff Black
THURSDAY
“Strangers in the Night”
Picked up Celine from the jam space in Edmonton. Van is loaded with keyboard/drum gear. We're getting really really good at this van tetris thing, it's remarkable
- Listening to Riot (not the quiet kind), Wishbone Ash, Striker, Saxon and Blind Guardian down Hwy II
Due to work commitments, Dave, Terry and Celine get to hang around Calgary until Friday afternoon. I drive down separately with a few pals to catch the whole party
Nearly 12 hours driving from Edmonton. No air conditioning. Listening to the entire Scorpions catalog
Rolled into the campground at 11pm Thursday night. Met up with my girlfriend Rachel. Picked a spot next to the bleachers to tent up
Drinking Konig Ludwig beer and stumbling around in the dark looking for people that I might know
- Probably around seventy-five people camped thus far. Last year at this time it was just the volunteers and a few people that traveled out of province
Met up with Striker [Edmonton] nearby. Their tent is a 15-man mothership outfitted with full-sized cots. They have four tiki-torches ablaze & arranged outside the entrance. They sit in lawn chairs in a V-formation crossing their legs identically and heckle passers-by with Bill & Ted vocab
- Striker bust out three 55-packs of Kokanee, kinda resembling the barrels from Donkey Kong except they are blue and full of beers
Striker knows how to fucking camp
We forgot to bring a boombox so we sing Saxon, Blind Guardian, Bon Jovi and Manowar to drown out the shitty tech-death that everyone else is pumping
Went to pee in the huge bathroom building. Jesse Valstar [AMF promoter] and his gang of cohorts stumble in, drunk as skunks and yelling things about beer (popular item here), reminds of good old times that I spent in Germany with Jesse
Striker guys are wasted and trying to talk about hockey
- “Get your illicit narcotics away from me, you filthy bongheaded fuck” [Dan Cleary to Adam Brown, Striker]
Drunk. Passed out at 3am I think?
In and out of sleep. People camping next to us are screaming in drug-addled coherence throughout the night. Tent is a goddamn sauna
To be continued...
