I'm Back

I took 10 days off. How was it?

The last time I was away from work for ten days was back in February 2020. That was not my choice; I was stuck in the hospital with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes. Since then, I've had a number of short breaks, but nothing longer than 5 days. This break was something I really needed. Vacations are tough for a content creator of any size, as they can cause large amounts of both algorithm fall-off and fickle audience forgetfulness. As of Monday, October 27th, I'm back here in my chair at my computer blogging. Thus, I'm back. So, how was my break?

The first thing I did was pack my backpack and fly to Las Vegas. I met up with some friends from the internet, and we stashed our stuff in an Airbnb after having a beer at the airport. Then we spent the day getting dinner at a diner and catching up because the following day was a festival for which I bought my ticket almost a year ago: When We Were Young 2024.

This same group I met up with went to the same festival the year prior. TwitchCon was in Las Vegas at the time, and it just made sense to attend. We had such a great time that we wanted to go again. This time, we bought VIP tickets. Was it worth it? I say yes. The main difference between VIP and GA is that everything is easier to access. There were multiple VIP sections around the festival grounds that made access easy. There were also food and drink stands in the VIP sections. This made the lines significantly shorter, and refilling water in my CamelBak or buying another round of beer was a lot less of a hassle. Regardless of whether you were in VIP or not, getting into the festival itself was a breeze. Drinks were obviously more expensive than they should be, but the actual event itself was great. The sets I saw out of the rather large schedule were great, with one exception. But I'll get to that as I go through who I saw in chronological order. Photos will be at the bottom.

LS Dunes was the first set we saw. They were on the main stage, and we just happened to be next to them as they started. They were kind of fantastic. They had a solid groove to their set, and listening to them as we walked toward the side stage at the other end of the festival grounds made me look them up. Taken from their Wikipedia page:

L.S. Dunes is an American supergroup fronted by Circa Survive, Saosin and The Sound of Animals Fighting vocalist Anthony Green, with My Chemical Romance guitarist Frank Iero, Coheed and Cambria guitarist Travis Stever, bassist Tim Payne, and drummer Tucker Rule from the band Thursday. They made their live debut at Riot Fest 2022 and released their debut album, Past Lives, on November 11, 2022, preceded by the singles "Permanent Rebellion", "2022" and "Bombsquad". The band played their first UK tour in January 2023, and their first US tour in July 2023.

Yeah, way better then I expected.

Emery was the second set we saw after L.S. Dunes. We were rather far away, but the bits I heard impressed me. They are a band I’d heard of but never really listened to. The full set was a pleasure to hear. However, we were not at that stage to hear them; I wanted to hear Anberlin, who were up next. They were... disappointing. We left early. Anberlin is a prolific post-hardcore/pop-punk band who I’ve been a fan of for over a decade. I had never had the chance to see them play, and as time went by, their original vocalist left the band. For this show, he was returning to play their full album, Never Take Friendship Personal, and to put it simply, he was out of breath and under-rehearsed. You could tell he still had the vocal Instead we saw the end of Cartel. Their set was much better, and I even recognized a few of the songs!

After that, we went on a mad dash to get back to the main stage. This is not actually that big of an issue because getting from VIP section to VIP section was a breeze. That was where we saw Underoath! Now that is a band that I have a history with. I've listened to them for as long as I can remember. They performed They’re Only Chasing Safety in its entirety! We stayed for roughly half of it, but I'm glad we did. It was like watching a wall of nostalgia in the best way possible.

Yeah, they were one of the bands that helped coin the rather unfortunate term "screamo," taken from screaming and emo. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Underoath, as they were my gateway drug into heavy music. I still listen to the stuff they put out, and I own a few albums. It was my first chance to see them, and I'll see them again if the opportunity comes up.

While Underoath was still playing, we slowly walked to the "Verizon" stage. It was roughly 1:00 PM at this point, and we were, of course, in Las Vegas. It was hot and dry. Verizon was the only stage in full shade, and The Devil Wears Prada was playing there. I've seen them before, and they did not disappoint. We watched their full 38-minute set of their heavy-hitting album Plagues; it was great. Here is a recording of the mosh pit from the second day, with decent sound as well! This stage was great because the slight desert breeze was pushed through it, and it was nice and cool.

After they finished, we wandered over to the main stage again because Coheed and Cambria were playing Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV. Not only is that a fantastic album, but their performance was on point! It is always a worry with these extremely technical vocal parts that they won't hold up as the years pass. I'm happy to say that they performed well, and the notes he could not hit were made up for in harmony.

Cobra Starship was up next. While I'm not a huge fan of them we used the set as a chance to find a spot to sit and relax. Till their guest guitar player jumped and broke his knee? Kind of nuts hope he's okay.

Just so I don't take too much longer with this blog post, I'm going to put the rest into rapid fire. Simple Plan was fun; I've seen them before, and it was nice to see them again. Taking Back Sunday felt kind of like a Christian youth pastor pretending to be in a band. Fine, but not my thing. The Used were great. Pierce the Veil was FANTASTIC!

Absolutely a band that I forgot I liked. Since the show, I've been listening to them a lot. Next up was Jimmy Eat World. I do still actively listen to them, and their set was great. Bleed American is an awesome album, and I'm glad I got to see it.

The last set I was looking forward to was A Day to Remember, They did not disappoint. It was a little shocking hearing them say how little they had played some of their songs on Homesick. It was a blast, once again. I've been catching up on their discography since the show.

The final sets I saw were Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance, two sets that I did not care for much, unfortunately. I never really listened to Fall Out Boy, and MCR has a few songs I like. I did hear most of them, so that is cool. At this point, we retreated to the cover of the VIP cabanas. While we could not go in them because they were for people with far too much money, the bottoms of them were set up like bars with tables and chairs where we could sit. The crowd was loose, so moving from place to place was easy.

All in all, it was great! lots of time spent with friends and drinks. The next day, we went to Omega Mart in Area 15. I won't say anything aside from that you should go see it if you get the chance. I also want to give a shout-out to the person who showed up and recognized me inside Omega Mart! It is always cool to run into people who know my work.

After I flew home I spent a night in my apartment. It felt like I'd walked into a fog of nothingness. I decided I'd book a last minute trip to Victoria on Vancouver island. I had to marvel at their bike lanes and well lit downtown. I spent three days out there and have since made the trip home.

I'm back in the saddle. Tomorrow we start a new fort after I explore the Ruins of Ghostcandy. Vods from the Halloween streams should start being uploaded soon. I'll do a stats report next week. Wednesday the 30th is my 5 year Partnership anniversary on twitch. so I'll see if I can cook up something interesting for that. Schedule this week for streams is Tuesday - Thursday as I have some appointments on Friday.

I did Upload one video during my break. If you missed here is a link.