CHAOS IN TEJAS 2012

Chaos in Tejas 2012 line up

The weekend that I had long waited for finally came and went, and boy, was it something else (I mean this in a good way). I've been to music festivals before, but the Chaos in Tejas experience was about a million times better than....Coachella will ever be. The amount of punks from all over the place that came down upon Austin was huge. There was no shortage of people wearing black and vests in Austin's downtown area. Chaos in Tejas was one of the most amazing experiences: we met cool people, saw some familiar faces, ate really good vegan food, saw 54 bands in 4 days, and walked who knows how many miles to and from the venues underneath the hot, HOT Texas sun.
Usually I'll try to take as many photos as I can on my trips or outings, but taking a shit ton of photos of every little thing becomes more of a chore for me. These are the photos I took throughout my weekend in Austin, I was too busy walking, drinking warm Lone Star, and watching some really cool bands play.

Criaturas kicked off the weekend.

The 2 balconies at Mohawk were rad.

We saw Negative Standards 3 times and they were always good. This show was at Trailer Space, there were a ton of things to look at and felt more like a cool hang out spot than a record store.

Outside Trailer Space. It was cooler outside than it was inside.

Cheer Up Charlie's nice shade. You can't see it in this photo but it was the prettiest shade of light purple I've ever seen.

The Texas State Capitol building is a MASSIVE piece of architecture. And we didn't even know it was a block away from our hotel until we went on a beer and food run!

Probably one of my favorite things I saw during this trip: VESTS, VEST, VESTS!

Places we visited:

Jackalope

The Hot Dog King

Arlo's

Me So Hungry

Mohawk

Red 7

Cheer Up Charlie's

The Scoot Inn

Beerland

Club Deville

Trailer Space

TX state capitol building

Metal girl/woman stereotypes

Ever seen that show That Metal Show? If you haven't cause you don't like metal or even if you do but haven't gotten around to it, you're not really missing much. They show the same metal dudes from the same metal bands all the time. Unless they one day interview the members of Ghoul, Kylesa, Municipal Waste, or Venom, or whoever, then maybe I'll watch willingly. But this isn't what bothered me about the show, it was the fact that they found the most stereotypical Sunset Blvd metal girl you could imagine to do some segment (what the segment was, I can't really recall cause I wasn't paying attention). They just had her for show, didn't ask for her opinion on anything, just treating her like eye-candy for all the burly metal bros.
Who am I to judge this woman, maybe she really does like really good metal and not just.....Motley Crue. I just didn't like that she wasn't more involved in the show. She was just brought in and out.
As a person who goes to metal shows quite often, I can tell you that girls who love metal come in all shapes, colors, hair colors, backgrounds. Some dress one way, others dress another way, but we are not just one cookie cutter way: think of every woman in the mid to late 80s hair metal scene, that's who they want to portray as "metal women" but really, it's just a fucking stereotype.

Pen Pal-ing it up

This year I want write letters and spend less time lurking my friends and relatives on Facebook. Call me old fashioned all you want, but I get way more excited when I receive a letter or a card in the mail rather than some little red check mark telling me that I have a new message or comment on Facebook.

I'll be sending my uncle Jimmy a package full of metal goodness to start off my pen pal extravaganza in this new year.

Bands I listen to on a regular basis

At the Drive-In

Kylesa

Majority Rule and this album in particular

Black Tambourine

Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins (not a band, but still)

Black Flag

There are a ton of bands and almost 8000+ songs on my ipod but these are the go-to bands I listen to when I can't decide on what to listen to. It's so easy to just go to one of these bands and sing (or scream) along to all of their songs that I already know by heart. Sure it's good to discover new music, but these bands are comforting to my ears. You know you have your own go-to bands!