First off we left New York Midnight of the 4th to beat the traffic getting down there. We had a rather uneventful drive, and to my car's credit, it ran like a champ all weekend. Special thanks to Brother Par for helping me change my oil and filter the day before. We pulled into a 7-11 in West Philly for a late nigh snack. We ended up buying a pack of Phillies and two Dijorno Pizzas. After arriving to Patt Attack's pad, we warmed up and consumed a french bread pizza and went to sleep. The pizza reeked a bit of havoc on our stomachs, as a result Patt's bathroom was occupied for most of the morning.
We arrived to the park that held the Punx Picnic. What a great sight it was. Beer openly being swilled, meat being devoured at a rapid pace. The punk kids swimming in a municipal pool reminded me of Caddy Shack when they let the Caddies swim in the club pool for 15 minutes. Unfortunately no one released a Baby Ruth into the abyss. My favorite part of the afternoon was playing softball. Jordan(Vinny) brought a garbage can full of softball supplies. He said that there a a weekly punk softball game in Philly. This motivated me to consider relocating for about a second. Instead I think I will just recruit a team of rag-tag ball players to take on the Philly kids one of these days.
So after yet another full summer day in the fun and sun it was off to South Philly for a show. I guess the original plan included the show taking place at the BBQ, but the kids organizing the event could not attain the proper permits. This could not have worked out better because the venue was fucking awesome. I am not just throwing f-bombs around for the hell of it, the show was held in what seemed to be a Unitarian Church. Everything was new and clean. No one who actually ran the place was there, it was kinda on loan to who ever booked the show. There were couches with passed out kids to draw on. Mugs and I even found a stair well to smoke blunts in, granted we were looking for roof access to shoot fireworks, but it wasn't a bad "door" prize. What kept on blowing me away was the lack of interest the Philadelphia police showed in a hundred kids drinking on the sidewalk and lighting fireworks. Granted they more than likely had bigger fish to fry, but I am so used to New York's Finest busting chops at the drop of a hat. I saw so many squad cars role by and not even look twice at what was going on. Meanwhile upstairs in the venue Hip Cops, Nothing is Over and Vexed Youth among others churned out a killer show. The mayhem outside found it's way inside for Partysaurus Wrecks. There was a lot of talk about this band while I was in Philly, I wanted to see if the band lived up to the killer logo Patt Attack designed for them. (Tyrannosaurus-Rex riding a Bones Brigade board, eating Dorritos, smoking a blunt and a bong, snorting coke while wearing a flip hat and Vans...epic)
Partysaurus Wrecks were real great. The energy and enthusiasm of the Philly kids was intoxicating. I think everyone in that room was into it, and a good majority of them made that perfectly clear. Musically they are a party punk band whose riffs, vocals and mentality follow those of Murphys Law, Municipal Waste and No Redeeming Social Value. No reinventing the wheel here, just getting it really drunk and making it go fast and hard.
The night eventually ran it's course and we ended up at Cassa de Patt for another night and another Dijorno Pizza, pepperoni this time. Patt could not partake in the Block Party out side of Disgraceland on day 2. He had to go make the doughnuts. On our way to South Philly we hit up a record store. Mugs got Anthrax's "Among the Living", I got "1960" from the "Cruisin" compilation series. Jordan and Andy went way above and beyond, smoking three pork shoulders for over 8 hours. Aside from that, Marco and a cast of dozens held it down on the grill serving up some real good steak, pork sausage and grilled pinapple. At some point a Red Bull car pulled up and started unloading cases of the stuff. In addition to general rowdiness that often mimicked a mosh pit there were several water balloon fights. Pictured bellow is Jordan at the very moment one of his water balloons struck a 6 year old girl. Look at how happy he is.
Finally, after eating a pile of pulled pork and sobering up from the few beers I had that afternoon, it was time to hit up Cheese Steak Vegas. I prefer to eat at Pat's Steaks, however my car was parked in front of Gino's, as you can tell. It started raining once we were on our way to 95. The fireworks had also ended around this time, and every Joe Jersey who can to Philly for the evening was clogging up 95 north and south. Between traffic, rain, and me going to wrong way a couple of times, it took over an hour to get out of town. All the while I am trying to figure how many miles we had till I needed gas(my gas gauge does not work), and why the hell in all this rain was my car heating up so bad(could it be due to lack of gas). Eventually the rain cleared, the roads emptied and we made it home. As Mugs kept saying while we were still in the middle of nowhere New Jersey, "It was a successful weekend". Of course I kept saying, "It'll be a successful weekend when my car is parked and I'm asleep".
Many thanks to Mugs for taking a ride, and Patt for putting us up. And of course to the organizers of Punx Picnic. Shit was sick.
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