Hello, old friend.
The main topic of this week is the Slam Dunk festival. If you are not aware, the Slam Dunk festival is an event that happens around the third weekend of May in the UK. It happens in two different locations, Hatfield and Leeds on Saturday and Sunday respectively. I wouldn’t say it is a Pop Punk festival because there is a wide variety of genres in the bands that play the festival, but it’s an alternative music event.
Last year when we visited the UK we had the chance to go and saw a whole bunch of bands that had been on my bucket list for the longest time. I was taken back to 2014 to the time I started immersing myself to Guadalajara’s music while watching The Wonder Years set. I cried with The Ghost Inside when they played Aftermath, a song that has been an anthem to me when I feel like I can’t move forward with my life. “Triumpth over Tragedy” is a belief that I try to keep present in my life. Getting to listen to bands such as The All American Rejects, boyslikegirls, We The Kings that were so present in my teenage years was an experience I didn’ think I would have the chance to have.
One of the things I like the most about this festival is that it was very easy to find a place to sit down and still enjoy the bands playing.
This year we weren’t sure if we wanted to go because there weren’t as many bands that we really wanted to see. Something that has started happening more often is that we are becoming more comfortable missing events since they are more frequent here in the UK. I don’t particularly like this, but it keeps us out of sticky situations when we run low on money.
I think we changed our mind when we found how expensive were the tickets of some of the bands that we wanted to see that were also going to the festival. For example, Hot Mulligan is coming later in September with Pierce The Veil, so we thought of maybe going later in the year to see them. When we started looking at the tickets they were already at about the same price as the late bird tickets for Slam Dunk. That was what convinced us on going, which I am very glad we did.
Knuckle Puck
We got to the festival just in time to get the last part of Knuckle Puck’s set. They played the two songs I was really hoping they played which were Pretense and Untitled. They closed with Untitled which was SO GOOD to listen live.Imminence
We then catched the end of Imminence’s set. The kind of energy that Eddie Berg’s shares with the crowd is AMAZING. I often forget that he also plays the violin on their songs. I was very captivated by how he would scream and sing into his violin’s microphone. There was something so raw about this that really resonated with me. I will be keeping an eye for any further shows they have in or close to the UK.Movements
We went back to the West Main Stage to catch Movements’ set. We didn’t particularly like it as much because the crowd didn’t really react to the band. It was a much different experience from when we saw them in Bogota last year where everyone was crowd surfing and moshing. I still liked seeing them live for a second time.The Starting Line
Hot Mulligan
Hot Mulligan came next, and man I loved their set so much. They have such a chaotic and goofy energy that I really vibed with. They didn’t play “I Fell In Love with Princess Peach” which I was really hoping they did, but I kind of knew they weren’t going to play it. Before going to the festival I looked at their most recent setlists and it didn’t include the song 😔 Oh, well! They played “How Do You Know It’s Not Armadillo Shells?” and it was AWESOME.As It Is
Our next band was As It Is, which I hadn’t heard a lot from before, but they have a couple of songs that I LOVE. They played one of them! I was hoping that they played I MISS 2003, but they unfortunately didn’t. They closed their set with Dial Tones, though! I was so stoked.Neck Deep
We then went back to the West Main Stage and waited for Neck Deep. I listened to them a lot back in 2015/2016, but I was a bit out of the loop on their newer material. They played “A Part of Me” which is in Sofi and I’s wedding playlist, and closed their set with “December” and “In Bloom”. Even though I didn’t know a lot of the songs they played, the energy they had onstage was contagious. Ben Barlow really knows how to give a show. He also gave a really great speech of how we needed to be kind to each other. That we all matter and that we shouldn’t let some political asshole tell us otherwise. He was so real for it.A Day To Remember
At last, A Day To Remember took the stage. It was our first time seeing them live, and man, what a fucking show. Their stage presence is absolutely amazing. I don’t know how, but Jeremy Mckinnon still sounds the same as he did 10 years ago. Maybe even better. They had to cut their set short because he kept speaking to the crowd and messing around. Honestly, I didn’t mind it. He was really, really funny.Their setlist consisted in a lot of songs from their Homesick, What Separates Me from You and Common Courtesy albums. Then a few other singles that they released over the last few years. And, a few songs from their most recent album, Big Ole Album Vol. 1. To me it was a dream come true because I can’t remember the amount of times I played Homesick from start to finish in my car back when I played in the band I had in Mexico. “If It Means a Lot To Me” became the anthem of our road trips when we went to play to other cities. Even friends from other bands took a liking to it and loved when we played this song when we got together.
A few friends that I met through playing music back in Mexico actually DM’d me on Instagram after I posted a story of “If It Means a Lot To You” live.
I feel like they are a band that I will never get tired of going to see live. I am definitely looking forward to the next time they come to the UK!
Well, that’s the end for me today. I’ll be back next week with more stories!
Don’t be a stranger!
This is your digital ghost signing off.
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