I was stoked to head back to Austin for Thrasher's Zine Thing party and to check out Fun Fun Fun Fest again. Joe Dirt scooped me from the airport and brought me to Darin's, where we bullshitted for a few then headed to Anthony's. I had eaten all day, so the beer got the better of me, and it was kind of an early night crashing at Darin's. Thanks man!
The next day my buddy from Phoenix Jeff Petite scooped me up and we at at Magnolia Cafe and checked out End of an Ear. Then it was off to the Yellow Jacket to make some preparations for the night's festivities. My buddy Maria Mabra (above) met us -- haven't seen her for 20 years or so, since the Fallout days, and it was super rad to hang out and catch up. She shuttled Dave and I around a little, and helped me out throughout the weekend. Thanks Maria!
The Zine Thing show went off well -- tons of people, killer art, and just a blast. Thanks to everyone involved! I played records all night so I didn't mingle too much, but got to see some old and some new friends.
I hung up a few band shots and some prints from the new mag.
Tim and Bill's section was killer.
Stoked to see Donny Dietrich for the first time since he's been out of the can. Ruling as usual, we hung out a few times over the weekend. He's killing it. And Sam Hitz came out to show some Larb creations for the party. Good times.
The next day we checked out the festival. Last year, the festival flew me out, put me up in a posh hotel, and made sure I had proper credentials. This time, not so much. I got the show to find out I didn't even have a photo pass. "How can you shoot the bands for an article in Thrasher without a photo pass?" you ask? Good question, obvious answer. That really freed up my time, so I got to hang out with locals. There were plenty of bands I wanted to check out, but it meant I didn't have to scramble from stage to stage to shoot a bunch of stuff. It also meant I could break out to hang out with some of the local dudes. First stop was an old pool that's been skated for years. We went there on Friday and it had water in it, so we drained it. It was painted and remained slick, so no skating went down. Tomorrow would be the session. We headed back to the Fest for Judas Priest. Since they got a new crew to build the ramp this year, a lot of the locals were bummed. Normally they help and get passes, but this time that didn't happen. Most sneaked in when they could, however, and saw some of the bands they wanted to. Reeling from Thursday night, Friday night was an easy one.
Priest killed it!
The next day, McNair and I grabbed a bite and checked out the local park. Looked like fun, and he got a FS pivot in a tight spot. Then we headed back to the pool. It was dry, and shredding commenced.
McNair had an epic battle with the stairs. Joe showed up and made it look easy -- but he's skated there a bunch and has stairs dialed. The stairs were tough as shit. As the session winded down, MCNair started trying them, and I shot the attempts. At the end of the day, and after 50+ tries (I counted them on my camera), he pulled it. It's not taking anything away from McNair to say it took that many tries -- shit was gnarly -- but it's a testament to his fortitude that he stuck it out. Yeah buddy!
Back to the Fest to check some more skating. A lot of rippers. Grant Taylor straight up and down ollie on the extension, David Gonzalez floats a lien, and Grant and Pedro doubles on the center obstacle.
That night, King diamond played. It was rad.
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