new hope, pa 18938

my little drive yesterday was so fantastic! the night before i was dreading driving 5 hours in one day, but everything worked out so perfectly. i leisurely left my house around 4 o'clock, and drove straight there no problem. a nice little drive.. going through new york and new jersey is so much nicer than through connecticut. more industrial for sure, but it felt more like home. i've always felt so safe in the car, ever since i was a kid. i definitely spent a lot of time in the car as a kid, going on trips, to vermont, shopping, visiting relatives, whatever. i loved being in the car, there with my whole family, locked in, nobody in the world could get to us. then in high school driving around with friends, listening to music, smoking weed. having sex occasionally. cars are always fun. they're freedom. anytime i want, i can just hop in my car and go. anywhere i want.
so i get there, find a perfect spot, and two minutes later, craazy hail and rain and lightning are coming down, so i relax in the car for a minute, make a phone call, smoke a bowl cause nobody can see me with all that rain. then it stopped like five minutes later, i hop out, and get there in time to see the second half of ceremony. they sounded good, i had never seen them before, and it was pretty good, had a beer next door, watched ghengis tron- they've come a long way since they started. i remember them pretending to play half their instruments at sarah lawrence with an albatross way back. luis and i laughed at them, they were kinda bad, but since then they've improved a ton, and become pretty well respected. put out some really solid material. they were good, and had some really cool lighting. i liked it a lot.
then converge played, and they were wonderful, of course. they seem soo humble and down to earth. they always deliver exactly what you want, exactly what you expect. exactly what they are. they always sound amazing, they're so solid and they never stop, never change into something they're not. i respect them so much. they are so genuine, they want to be there. they love it, they aren't going through the motions. they can't be making much money, but they've been going strong for so many years. their ticket prices were 100% reasonable, and their merch not only reasonable, but much cheaper than even most bands much less known then them.
it was also nice to get out of the whole new york city show deal.... like, all in bars, or hidden in random places in brooklyn- it was in some church. i miss those just random place shows. the vfw's and churches and holes in the wall. the fact that it was an early show added to the feeling. it started like 4 or 5 hours earlier than most new york shows. it was still light for most of it. lots of young kids were there. it was all inclusive. though it would have been nice to be able to get a beer in there! hah.
so they played stuff that they always play like the saddest day (i think they've played this every time i've ever seen them) , locust reign, homewrecker (i think), concubine, the broken vow.. etc.. they always play a lot of jane doe stuff, i dont know why.. i guess it was their most successful album. and they played 2 new songs. they sounded great. they left the lights on, for some reason, which was a little funny looking after the crazy ghengis tron lights. they talked about how they were happy to be there, and they love hardcore, etc etc... classic converge/bane massachusetts bands lovely posi sweet ramblings. it's so lovely how they always talk about how much "the scene" means to them, and that kids always come out and support, and so on. it's always touching. i love it. i know it's genuine.
it was just great overall, and i hadn't seen converge in at least 2 years, so it was just what i needed. i felt right at home. very happy. and i didn't feel too old to be there at all. i felt perfect.