September 19, 2006 | Posted by j.p. at 7:48 PM

howe 'bout dem 'oews hon?

that's my dog. ain't she cute?

I'm skipping town this weekend.

That said, given how bonkers work has been lately, and how little I get to see wifey since she's been swallowed whole by some sort of higher educational institution, this would seem like a bad idea. And perhaps it is - lord knows there's plenty of non-optional stuff I need to take care of around Brooklyn.

But. This is one I simply can't miss. Despite the inevitable and painful exhaustion that results from the mess of the modern music festival.

Those of you from the DC/Baltimore area will remember a little thing called WHFS, which was pretty much a bazillion-watt alt-rock beacon for the DelMarVa area in the 90's. And then, without warning, got bought by Clearchannel, sucked, died and was reincarnated as a non-stop latin party station. Abrupt, to say the least. But in its heyday, HFS sponsored the HFStival, which was a full day of sun-burning, mosh-pitting, stadium packing fun. Getting to see Primus go on right before the Ramones was a real mindflop. Seeing a 25-year old Gwen Stefani cover the Star Wars theme right before Tony Bennett sang and Jewel got hit in the face with a frisbee and started crying was priceless. Good times.

So there's been a special place in my Bmore-raised heart for the big rock show. I never liked having to drive to DC though, and how ironic that now after I ditched town, they bring the big rock to little Charm City. Plus, it's at the goddamn Pimlico Infield, which, as any good Baltimoron will tell you, is NOT a place to watch horses race from. That's the grandstands. The Infield is basically for drinking, getting drunk, and yelling at the horses to show all the rich folks watching the horses from the grandstands how drunk you can get (see Exhibit A, and if you can stomach white people at their worst, also see B, C, and D - look at that guy's gut!). Note the ratio of stuffed beer coolers:people. Also, see the one guy lugging a whole trashcan of iced beer for himself? Nice!

Being in Japan for the first half of the summer, I missed acts that were on my to-do list (Gnarls Barkley, Scissor Sisters, that free RJD2 show, Wolfmother). These bands + long overdue see 'em agains (Flaming Lips, 2 Many DJs) = no power to resist.

Now here's where it all might matter to people who didn't grow up in Baltimore. There's tickets to be had. Free tickets. Tickets that are free and not that hard to get. As in, I know more than one person that's claimed them through minimal texting. Here's the deal, as described in the ad spot (thank you for spoiling Lost, by the way, YouTube):

All it takes is an SMS. Just text ROADTRIP to 68405, and get down there if you win. There's the Dragon Bus that runs right to downtown from midtown, plus there's always pathetic busted old Amtrak. See you down there - I'll be the sunburnt kid who looks more townie than cool. Maybe I'll even dig out my old 98 Rock cutoff tee and try to get my accent back. Yea hown!

P.S. That's my pup modeling in front of the wall-o-bills near my house. To bad she ain't going.

Comments

WHFS was actually bought by infinity, now called CBS radio, and had been for a while before it was suddenly switched to its new Spanish format. HFS is now 105.7 broadcast out of b'more but is the god awful Free FM most of the day with the music format only playing weekends and after 7pm on weekdays. Hfstival is also still around, but really hasn't been anything to talk about for years, still a damn important right of passage for local high schoolers.

Posted by: Brian Drew at September 22, 2006 3:11 AM
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