Yesterday was The Point’s annual music festival. This was my forth consecutive year attending. Going in I felt the lineup was not as good as it has been in the past, but there were a few bands that I wanted to see. We got there around 10, but they weren’t letting anyone into the parking lot so traffic was really backed up. About 20 minutes later they finally opened it up and we then waited in line for the doors to open at 11. The way things were set up was really different from the way things were done in the past. There was the side stage near the gates (B), but this time there was another stage behind it in the parking lot (A).

The first band Supercrush was voted into the show by a poll on the website. There were apparently 23000 votes and the band won by just 50. I have no idea who was number 2. But this first band sucked. They were a punk band, which already a minus in my book. Stage (B)

They next band, Shamans Harvest, played on (A). Followed by Adair on (B). Then, The Adored on (A). We didn’t really watch any of these bands. We saw a few minutes of Adair and they weren’t bad. They reminded me of Finch who played Pointfest last year.

It was now about 12:20 when Crossfade came out on (B). They were a mixed bag. They had some really kick ass, hard songs. But they had some that just really didn’t seem to fit in. Mainly the ones where DJ/vocalist was doing a majority of the vocals. He was rapping more than singing and I feel the other guy fits in with the band much better.

Next was a local band at 12:55, moderndayzero on (A). This was their seventh Pointfest with the same band members, but their first wit this current name. They were originally known as Mesh, but there was some really bad Sweedish techno group, or something like that, so they had to change their name and they went with MeshSTL. They did play one sang from their old band,but the rest was new. They weren’t bad.

The next bands preformance at 1:30 surprised the hell out of me, Apartment 26 on (B). They came out with a ton of energy and the lead singer was bouncing all over the place. He even climbed up the stage and came out to the barricade. I only know the one song their had on the Mission Impossible 2 soundtrack, which they did not play. But I still thought they were amazing. They really got the crowd into it. People were surfing all over and a few really good size pits took place. Also the Crossfade guys were hanging around signing stuff and hanging around with the fans.

At 2:05 Flaw came out on (A). I know a couple of their songs. They were pretty good. The crowd got into them a lot. And we learned one thing; crowd surfing while wearing a skirt, not a good idea. I’m not saying I minded.

Now it was time for a nice little two and a half hour break. We had no interest in seeing the next four bands; Auf der Maur, Von Bondies, Sugarcult, or Lit. So we went and checked out our seats. They weren’t too bad. We were about 15-20 rows back in the left section. We hung out there until about 3 when we left to go grab some food. Where a hot dog, fries and a soda ran me $12.25 which is ridiculous. We went back to our seats, ate and waited around until a little before 5. We started to make out way back to the 2 side stages when we ran across this fan that blew water. That thing was amazing. It felt great.

At 5 Thornley came out on (B). The lead singer had issues with his guitar, but they got straightened out after the first song. They were pretty good. I feel bad for them though because the next band was Story of the Year, who are a local band, so people began migrating to the other stage where they were playing next. We were not one of them, we stayed for their entire set.

Story of the Year played at 5:35 on (A). This stage was in the parking lot and had a small opening in the fence to get to the stage. We decided to stay on the outside of the gate becuase the crowd was huge. Also my friend ran into a couple people that he knew so we just hung out there for a few songs. Where we saw Ben from Breaking Benjamin. He was making his way to the stage with a few ladies, go Ben. Anyway back to the band. I am not a big fan of theirs, so we decided not to stay for their show. Plus I had already seen them live before.

They were the last band to play the side stages. Now it was onto the main stage.

6:35 Papa Roach was the first band up on the main stage and they kicked ass. This was my second time seeing them live. The first time was way back in Nov. of 2000 on the Anger Management Tour. Coby came out into the crowd during a few songs. They had a lot of energy and just seemed to be really glad to be playing live. They played some news songs that will be on their new cd which will be out September 14. They also mentioned that they will be starting up a new tour for about 3 months where they are gonna play small clubs that hold in the neighborhood of 300 people. So that should be really cool.

• SET LIST (Not in order) I got this from a post on their message boards, so if any of it is wrong don’t blame me.
  • Deadcell
  • Broken Home
  • Last Resort
  • Angels and Insects
  • Blood Brothers
  • She Loves me not
  • M-80
  • Born With Everything die with nothing
  • Getting Away with Murder
  • Done With you

8:00 Now comes the band I was waiting for, Breaking Benjamin. This was my third time seeing them live. The first time was a year ago at the last Pointfest. Then I saw them just a couple months ago at Mississippi Nights where they were taping the show. That show was unbelievable. They played for about an hour and a half. And I was dead center only one person infront of me. Anyway back to last night. They kicked ass as usual. StL loves them and it showed. When Ben asked how many owned the CD, the response was atleast 75% of the people. And there was about 18,000 – 20,000 people there. Ben dedicated the last song to all of us shallowbay.net users, which I am a member. My username on the forums is artimeg. They only had an hour to play which sucked because there was no Tool cover song.

• SET LIST: (In order)
  • Home
  • Wish I May
  • Medicate
  • Water
  • Phase
  • Natural Life
  • Skin
  • So Cold
  • Break My Fall
  • Polyamorous
  • Shallow Bay

Last up was the last show for The Urge. Not well known outside of St. Louis, but they are huge here, because they are a local band. They actually broke up a couple of years ago, but got together for a few shows and decided to do one more at Pointfest. They say they won’t be doing anymore shows ever, but we’ll see in a couple years. They were amazing as usual and played all of their big songs. They were scheduled to play for 1 hour but I knew there was no way they would that long. They played for about an hour and a half, which is well short of their 2 and a half to 3 hour shows in the past.

I guess that’s about it. All in all it was a great show.