The Harbinger

This past Memorial Day weekend we attended the Grassroots Festival in Mt. Dora. My in-laws decided to come for a visit this weekend, so we brought them along. As the President of the Militia, I got two free VIP tickets, but had to buy two more for the in-laws at $25 each. That hurt a bit… but it was a special concert for us, so we had to go.

Next door in Zellwood was the annual corn festival that a lot of people attend. It has concerts, lots of food and drink and all you can eat corn (14 ears is my record). Rennigers had a lot of competition, and it showed. When we got there around 5:30 pm, there were around 100 people there, including the campers. The campsites were lined up “Mount” Dora, which is pretty much a hill. They had the areas taped off, and didn’t allow coolers outside of the tape. We ran into Joey B, MtDora Dave and Laura, and eventually Diana showed up. We walked around a bit, and chatted by Dave’s fire.

There were two stages set up in the “valley”. A smaller one and a large one. They alternated the acts between the stages, and played prerecorded music between bands. Resin8 played a set on the small stage, and there was a pretty good country band on the other side. They had a few food/beer stands around, but very few customers. All of the stand had “for sale” signs on them.

The Monsters showed up early and met the fans. I took my in-laws down to introduce them to the band. My father-in-law used to listen when he worked during the day, so he knew the names. He also wanted to make sure he met the “Smoking Ninja guy” from the DVD I showed him years ago. Kate and Russ had ridden out earlier in the week, and Kate got scared and named the area “Raper Village” due to the trees and various hiding places, not to mention the crowd that was there looked like it was out of Deliverance. Russ said that if he was gonna get raped, it would have to be a pretty big guy, hopefully with a “small willie”.

Tiffany and her parents were there. They asked us to remind people of the gig this Saturday (yesterday?) at Maui’s. They were only serving beer, but Tiffany needed a little liquid courage to get on stage. I may need to bring some liquor to the next gig. The “VIP” BBQ and beer showed up, so we had dinner. There were a lot of fans showing up so Diana and I met a lot of new people and I handed out a lot of business cards.

The Monsters went on stage “raw” around 9:30, with no sound check. It definitely showed. The levels were way off, and there was a lot of feedback. By the end of the second song, it pretty much leveled out. My father-in-law enjoyed “Face Pirate” and “Here’s To You (American Blue)”. Then the sound went out. The monitors were working, so the Monsters didn’t notice, and the crowd just sang along with them. After about two songs, the sound came back on, and the Monsters continued to rock. By this time there was a good sized crowd, maybe up to 500 people (it was hard to judge as it was completely dark).

Russ called up Tuddle and had him do his song. He got it perfect, but the crowd still wanted to see him punished, so Tiffany kicked him in the balls. Russ than called Diana and I up. He presented us with a new dogtag each, with “President” and “Vice President” on them. We got a loud cheer out of the crowd. With the bright lights on stage, and it completely dark out, it looked like there was nobody there. I don’t know if that makes it easier or harder for performers.

We (ok, I) completely forgot to bring chairs to sit in. By this time my mother-in-law had been standing for a couple of hours and was getting tired and sore. We hung around for a couple more songs, and then drove the (once again) long drive home.

The show was not as bad as people (and Russ) predicted it to be. Russ wanted to put on a really good show because the people had gone out of their way to go there, and had paid so much to get in. I think they succeeded. If Rennigers wants to do again next year, they should pick another date, not charge as much, and have better food available. Overall, I think everybody had a great time. A great show, good friends, introducing the in-laws around. On to the next Party to the People show…
Melbourne!!

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