It took us 45 minutes to get to the Englishtown exit, and 2.5 hours to drive the last 10 miles to Raceway Park. Lucky for us, Dylan is hilarious, so the traffic jam wasn't nearly as torturous as I would've expected.
First interview of the day was with Will from Amber Pacific. He was a good sport-- we were sitting down on the pavement, and the sun was heating it up so much that I couldn't sit still, but he didn't even flinch. We caught the end of their set later in the day-- they were great.
Later we talked to Shawn from The Matches. He told us a story about a girl throwing up at one of their signings...check back on the site to see it when it gets posted (or check out the animation he made in his blog.)
After that (plus Meg & Dia, So They Say and The Spill Canvas) we talked to Kenny from The Starting Line. He had the magical ability to make whoever he was talking about appear. He talked about their upcoming coheadlining tour with Paramore, and half of Paramore walked by behind me. He talked about watching Circa Survive, and one of the guys from Circa rode his bike directly through the interview. Also, at one point he was talking about influences and for a split second I really thought he'd said Ace of Base (until I realized that he probably said face to face, which actually makes a lot more sense.)
We had a quick chat with Bryce from The Rocket Summer (whose new album I LOVE) and then took a belated lunch break. Other camera dude Joe and photographer-for-the-day Eric went to check out Chiodos and New Found Glory. One of our last interviews of the day was with Bayside. They're awesome guys, and we already posted a little preview of what's to come from their interview...head over to our youtube to check it out.
After one last interview (with Rookie of the Year, at their merch tent) we said goodbye to our wonderful crew for the day, and Naomi and I stuck around to check out some bands. We saw The Starting Line from afar, and we managed to catch a good chunk of Circa's set (condom spaceships, anyone?) before heading to the Hurley stage to see Bayside. They had a great set-- I think Anthony has such a cool voice. Also, Aaron from Underoath/The Almost came out to sing The Walking Wounded with them.
On our way out we saw a bit of Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, then we hopped back in the car for our short trip back to NYC (read: we got lost 4 times and it took us 2.5 hours, then my subway wasn't running when I tried to go home from Naomi's.) In any case, it was a great day and we can't wait to get the stuff up for everyone to see!
