9:30 AM

I wake up, take a shower, get dressed, and eat a granola bar.

11:30 AM

Darrell shows up and we say goodbye to my younger brother, since he's going to be watching the house (he doesn't like concerts).

12:00 PM

We stop and get some french fries (or freedom fries if you're an idiot) to eat so that we're not hunry during the concert.

12:30 PM

We're in the parking lot of the UMB Bank Pavillion, and there's a line of at least 200 people from the gate to where we are. We payed $18 for "premier parking", but we can't find our spot to park. So we ask the guy directing trafic what we should do, and he says, "Drive through the line of people and find a place on the other side. We make our way through the crowd and get to another traffic director who tells us to go through the crowd again and park on the other side. We slowly go through the crowd and get to a section of the lot that's barricaded.

1:00 PM

Darrell and I are getting out of the car and moving barricades so we can get through the places we aren't supposed to be, much to the delight of the people in the line nearby. We get to another person in charge of traffic, and they tell us to "just park anywhere"... Why the hell did we pay for premier parking then?

1:30 PM

We're sitting in the car waiting for the line to get shorter, and we finally decide to just go wait in line. Then a guy walks by and says, "If you have "premier parking" you can walk to the gate and skip the line. Yay! Finally some good news!

2:00 PM

They're supposed to be playing already, and the security team won't even let people into their seats. So we just stand there in 95° F heat.

2:45 PM

We're allowed in our seats, and my parents leave to go to their comfy 3rd row seating under the shade of the pavillion.

Some Time Later (We didn't have our watches on)

Why the hell am I sweating my ass off and no one's playing music yet?

Even Later

Some band called 'Evan's Blue' from Canada starts playing.

A Few Songs Later

They tell everyone to add them to their Friend's List on MySpace. Then, they get off the stage, which made a lot of the crowd happy, as they were... bleh.

A Loooong Wait In Very Hot Weather Later

'Buckcherry' comes out and plays a song, then his mic stops working half way through the intro to "Crazy Bitch", and I'm sure you can imagine the hostility in the crowd . They finally get things working again, and play a few songs that, because of the bad speaker setup, were hard to understand. Darrell and I get up to buy some soda, right as the guy in front of us whips off his shirt and climbs the scaffolding. He walks around on the beams about fifty feet above the crowd before being arrested. We get back to our seats as they finish their set, and te next wait begins.

An Even Looooooooonger Wait In Even Hotter Weather Later

'Blue October' takes the stage, and after the first song, I'm officially a fan. I'd only heard their song "Hate Me" up until the concert, and I liked it, but their other songs are really great live. After one song, these two idiots in the pit start flipping the band off. The lead singer dubs them the "Abercrombie Twins", and tells them to "shut the fuck up and enjoy the show". We all cheer in agreement, and the show continues. They finish up their set of songs and get a standing ovation. That's how an all day concert should start, with a great band.

An Even Longer-er Wait In Volcanic Weather Later

'Hurt' begins to play. They have one good song, and about 3 or 4 that aren't all that interesting. A fight broke out, which was cool. So we head to the restrooms and try to get over to the "Slackers" booth to see if there's anything worth buying, but there was a long line.

A Long Wait Later As The Sun Goes Down

'Three Day's Grace' comes out, and from start to finish, has the thousands of sweaty, burnt-up people, myself included, in the palms of their hands. When they played, "Riot", the crazy bastards on the lawn started throwing stuff, flashing people, and crowd surfing, which was really fun to watch.

It helped a lot that I knew the lyrics, because singing along with that many people sounds amazing. The only downside is that goosebumps + sunburn = HOLY-MOTHER-OF-FUCKING-GOD-THAT-STINGS!!!!!!, but I didn't care. I was just so damn happy to be there at that moment. Then they leave after what seemed like a short set, but it was just beacause no one wanted to stop partying.

A Wait That Didnt Seem Long, Because Of The Cooler Weather Later

'Breaking Benjamin' started playing and it was finally dark enough that we couldn't see much without lights on. So, of course, they periodically turn the lights off and on during songs. Which, if you haven't seen it live, looks incredible. You really get a sense of just how many people are there when you see every last one of us jumping at the same time as the light sweeps by. After playing some really great songs, and letting us sing the chorus to some of them (which is so fucking cool to hear), the lead singer asks us if we've ever played 'Halo 2'. That gets a lot of cheers (one of which is from me ). So he says, "OK, then I have a song for you at the end of our set." We go to get a soda before the mob of people do the same when 'Staind' sets up, and we get back in time to here the song that was inspired by 'Halo 2'. As expected, it has a lot to do with shooting and running.
When they leave, almost everyone gets up to get drinks at the same time, which makes me laugh, because Darrell and i were sitting there drinking our sodas that we didn't even have to wait for.

One Last Wait Later

'Staind' comes out to a huge ovation. I had no interest in them going into the concert because their latest stuff sounds less like rock and more like whining, but they stuck to their older stuff for the most part, and I actually remembered the lyrics to most of them. So they ended up being one of my favorite acts of the night, and it definitely left the most lasting impression when the entire crowd sang the ending to "It's Been A While". The last sog they played was the first song of their's most of us had heard, Mudshovel!!!

Imagine thousands of people screaming the lyrics,

"Cause you can't feel my ANGER!
You can't feel my pain.
You can't feel my torment,
Driving me insane!
I can't fight these feelings!
They will bring you pain.
You can't take away.
Make me whole again!"

while jumping in unison and banging their heads like their neck's are made of rubber, and you have one hell of a lasting image.

11:30 PM, Show's Over

Now, Darrell and I are waiting for my parents, who sat so far away from us that we hadn't seen them since 2:30 PM. My dad walks up alone, which I figure meant that my mom was using the restroom. Turns out she was ing because she managed to get shit-faced during the 10 hours we were here.

We start heading for our car, and my mom is reeeeeally drunk. She's giggling like crazy and walking all wobbly. She only gets drunk at concerts, but she more than makes up for lost time when she does. At least she's a happy drunk .

12:30 AM

We're on the highway. My mom is asleep. Darrell had been up since 5:00 AM the day before and was slowly dozing off. I let my bangs hang in front of my eyes for just a second, and passed out.

1:30 AM

I wake up, and we drop Darrell off at his house. He says he had fun and goes in to get some sleep.

2:00 AM

We get home, and my brother is passed out on the couch.
i walk into the bathroom and I take a really cold shower to ease my sunburn and get rid of the smell of second hand pot and beer. Then I microwave 2 mini burritos, because I haven't eaten since before we got to the pavillion, and then I pass out watching TV in my brother's room, which is where I woke up the next day.

I had an amazing time.