So I had a pretty sweet weekend. Me and 8 friends went down to 'The Gorge Amphitheatre' in Washington for a 3 day music festival/crazy sweet roadtrip. The 9 of us were all friends from highschool (2 of which travelled with me to Fiji last year) and it was CRAZY fun catching up with all of them.

The Gorge was a sweet venue.
"The Gorge Amphitheatre located in George Washington for the ninth time in the past ten years has been voted the best major outdoor concert venue in North America. The Gorge Amphitheatre is an outdoor amphitheater near the Columbia River in Central Washington" (from the sasquatch festival website)
There was beatiful scenery all around us and the weather..... oh man, the weather was insane.

The weather was smoking hot one minute, then a thunderstorm would roll in really fast... I think it's time for a story.
On Friday afternoon there was a light drizzle as me and some of the guys headed over to see 'the Constantines' play on one of the smaller stages. I tossed on my Kaleo hoodie (which would soon endure a beating). We could see lightning splitting the sky in the distance as we made our way closer to the stage. Every so often thunder would boom louder than the band and we'd all smile cuz it seemed like we were about to get soaking wet. Suddenly my friend Mark looks at me with a curious/confused look, he's rubbing his head and looking around, and I'm even more confused until something smokes me in the head too. It's HAILING! And this isn't some sissy small-sized hail, we're talking about a hailstorm of biblical proportion! It was the most intense hailstorm I've ever seen. Quickly, Hood went up (thanks for the hoodie Kaleo). So the Constantines were going nuts on stage, the storm was feeding the intensity of the crowd and the band. Right as the song was getting super loud and intense, Lightning strikes in the gorge behind the band. WOOOOO. It was so incredibly rad that words don't do justice to it. But the hail was getting harder and harder, and it was starting to rain at the same time. It was hillarious at first (for some reason), but after about 15 minutes it got old (and hurty). So after about 3 or 4 Awesome songs, we pansied out and ran for shelter. EVERYONE was drenched thoroughly and many people had welts. Hahaha, that kaleo hoodie was worth more than Gold at that point, (Best $13,000 I ever spent). So yah, the hail and rain passed, and the crazy concerts were delayed because eventually the bands had to stop and the stages were dryed as best as possible. Poor Poor Neko Case was performing main stage and didnt have any suitable cover (or a hoodie... she should have thought ahead and gone to Kaleo).
to sum up... weather was crazy but totally made the concerts memorable. Good times.

I know you're asking yourself 'But Brady where did you stay?' . Ah, Good question, my friends. The Answer: Cars, Tents, Cardboard boxes...wait What???
Yah the first night traveling down to washington, me and three other guys decided that sleeping in vehicles is for chumps! So we parked our two vehicles the appropriate distance apart to tie a tarp across and then went on a stealthy fence-scaling/ dumpster-diving covert mission to recover Dry Cardboard (something rarely found outside on the westcoast). (P.S. Thank you safeway for recycling). So we laid down cardboard, unrolled sleeping bags, and curled up for our night outside in the rain. The police even stopped by and after a short conversation we were complimented for our clever shelter constructed out of tarps, shopping carts, and vehicles. Good times. At the show we all grinned knowingly when Sufjan Stevens sang Chicago. The line : "We slept in Parking Lots." never made more sense...

This Is TOO LONG.

So to sum up, some highlight bands were: Sufjan Stevens, Iron and Wine, DeathCab For Cutie, Ben Harper, Beck (oooh I feared for my life in that crowded pit. I jumped, danced, and shuffled all over the floor, though none of it was voluntary)...etc

Anyways I had a good time, and made some fun new memories. I just really wanted to share it all with you guys.
I love you all.
Wish you all could have come.
You guys are awesome!
You're way cooler than all the bands in the world put together.
God Bless you guys,