Friday April 6 -- Harrisonburg, VA.

The longest drive of the tour was going to be from Atlanta, Georgia to Harrisonburg, Virginia. It wasn't even to play a show, either. The city of Harrisonburg host the DIY based music conference Macrock, originally an extension of the college radio station from James Madison University. It was something we'd thought we'd fit in just right. Even some of our friends and bands we've played with were already listed to play. Our application was denied. In fact, no Florida bands were selected to play, whatsoever. Because final band announcements were so close to the actual conference we didn't have time to fill in an empty date in our tour so we decided to just go anyway- just to see our friends. There were about a hundred bands playing over two days at six different venues in the downtown area.

We don't have mountains in Florida. We're not used to falling rocks!

Jeffrey driving.

Forever driving. Macrock better be good!

We finally arrived maybe 7pmish. Bands had already been playing at all the different venues for a couple of hours. There was a hardcore band playing at the venue we were looking for after we picked up our badges. We chose wisely and grabbed a bite to eat next door. We missed one band from Virginia we wanted to see called The Vaginasaurs, as they played way early in the afternoon. All the bands we wanted to see were playing all in a row (Heavy Cream, Nightmare Boyzzz) at a place called Downtown 34, which doubled as a guitar and record store in addition to a rather large raised stage. All in all we only got to see three bands play making this one of the most expensive concerts I've ever been at $40 for both of us. It was still awesome, though.

We still met The Vaginasaurs.

This is two gals named Nicole and Rachel from Philadelphia and they're called Slutever. What a great name. Total fucking bratpunk! They have lots of short songs about teen moms and the seventh grade. We picked up their 7" and it totally rules.

Slutever!

We were also pretty stoked to see Alabama's new garage pop sensations Nightmare Boyzzz. Our friend Justin, also from Satan's Youth Ministers, plays guitar in this new band. We played with SYM a couple of times when they toured Florida in 2009.

Nightmare Boyzzz were instantly likeable and had the audience dancing and crowd surfing until the bouncers kicked them out.

All in all Nightmare Boyzzz are great and you need to check them out.

Nightmare Boyzzz.

I didn't punch a hole in the wall but it may look like I did.

OMG it's Heavy Cream. Needless to say these Nashville rockers blew the place up. It's been almost a year since they came through Florida. We saw them in Orlando and we played with them in Jacksonville and I still say that Jacksonville show was one of my favorite shows of all-time. Tonight I can say they are even better now.

Heavy Cream's Jessica decked out in leopard print. Meow!

Heavy Cream.

Heavy Cream.

Heavy Cream. I couldn't narrow down all of Jessica's photos so you get them all.

Seth Sutton, from Useless Eaters, is the new bassist for Heavy Cream.

Heavy Cream.

I wonder if the story of the hole is any good.

Harrisonburg band Malatese starts out the house show.

It seems the whole town goes nuts the entire weekend. After the Macrock shows they have house shows all night long with the same bands that play the festival. We went to one house, I think someone said it was called "My Mansions". It was a super old house that may have been a mansion but it was really run down. In what could have been a dining room was where bands played. Kristin and I asked if we could hop on and play a short set but it wasn't meant to be. I really wanted to play.

This is Total Slacker. This shoegaze band said they were from New York and also had slight Nirvana tendencies. They were interesting, if not goofy. The singer/guitarist was wasted really getting into the music and the drummer had a shirt over his head the whole time.

This is Chestpiece. These guys and gal were awesome. I think they were from Harrisonburg. People in the room were going nuts- crowd surfing and all. Seriously, I'm glad I saw this band.

Even the band was crowd surfing. F'ing party, dudes!

When I last checked the time it was 4am and there were still more bands to play, including another set by Nightmare Boyzzz. They were telling us the last time they played at this house out of nowhere a door opened while they were playing and people were mattress surfing into the room. Yes, mattress surfing. Unfortunately, between driving all day long and going to the shows I wasn't going to make it to the end of the house party. We didn't have a place to stay either so we ended up sleeping in the van in the parking lot. It turned out to be one of the random coldest nights of the year. The radio said temperatures dipped into the high 20's. We were not prepared :(

The next morning went thrifting (got more blankets and a tape duplicator) and went back to Macrock for the record swap. Also, we made a return trip to Downtown 34 and tried out this Yamaha combo amp that matches my Yahama 2x15 cabinet. I played it for a while and decided to buy it. It was pretty cheap and I'm soooo glad I got it as it would save my butt for the rest of the tour. More on that later!

Next time we continue on to Philadelphia to play Liberty Festival!

More Macrock links:
Review of Day One from RVA Mag.
Another house show this night.
Review of Day Two from RVA Mag.