The gates opened, we went in, show started... as the first acts finished, a DJ would walk out on stage and tell us who was coming next. Lovehammers got a really nice crowd response at each mention, and again, another DJ told us he’d just met the guys backstage and how incredibly nice they were.

When it came time for Lovehammers, the band didn’t have a long set to stretch out, so they launched into Straight as an Arrow and stormed the stage, slamming through as many songs as possible in the time allowed. Marty seemed a little extra amped up/more freaky than normal...if that's even possible. After the first song, they were already nicely drenched in sweat since the temperature was in the mid-80s.

It’s hard to remember exactly in what order all of the following happened, so here are some disjointed memories and observations:

-The hair and fashion report, you ask? Dino – jeans & t-shirt, what else? Bob, shorts & t-shirt. Billy, jeans & t-shirt, but his hair requires mention. It’s getting long and wild, almost in Sideshow Bob territory, but it suits him well! Marty – layers and layers – dark jacket, black shirt, black wife-beater, white pants and Chucks. All of Marty’s top layers were shed at some point. One of the female DJs later made mention on stage of enjoying watching him shed each layer.

-There wasn’t a lot of talking to the crowd because the guys were pounding through as many songs as they could, but Marty did say how happy they were to be there and mentioned how they (the guys) were really looking forward to seeing Switchfoot (more on that later). As he often does, he worked some little ad-libs and mentions of the venue into a song…I think it was Eyes this time.

-Dino looked to be pain free, which is nice to see after all this time of grimaces and bandaged fingers.

-Lots of smiles and laughter from all of them on stage.

-During This Town, I think, Marty slipped in a few lines from "Into the Deep End"...he sang "I want you to feel like I feel standing here in front of you" a few times.