...Goes To The W.E. Fest

		Rockin' out at the W.E. Fest
	Photo: Nicole Dewald

We've just returned from our jaunt down South to play at the Wilmington Exchange Festival and we're still high from the experience. It was great to be in an environment full of people who are into (independent) music for all the right reasons. We encountered no bad attitudes, prima donna posturing or competitive urges during our stay but instead found a bunch of cool bands, friendly people and audiences that were open minded and demonstrative in their appreciation. Not to mention lots of free stuff! We'll be reading fanzines and listening to tapes/CDs for a good long time. Hope those who picked up our W.E. Fest Sampler tapes are enjoying them. We're only sad we couldn't stay for the rest of the Fest.

	Photo: Nicole Dewald

People who turned us on, in chronological order: Dumm Dumms, from Richmond, with their cranked up pop (run the Plimsouls through Marshalls) and outgoing personalities, the The Revelers, from Cleveland with a dose of Mersey inflected powerpop (loved the cover of the Flamin' Groovies Shake Some Action), Mil Mulliganos, and Ublisch with their different shades of kicking punk, the bluesy punk of Flanders from Tallahasee, FL (hi Julie!) and Jenifer Convertible from NYC (Lee Ranaldo joins the Posies). And the stage show of the year, the outrageous Punch Drunk Monkeys from upstate NY--you've never heard/seen anything like the heavy metal "sung" by a circus clown who's throwing doughnuts into the audience and inflating a 30 foot tall devil clown made of garbage bags. Their stage set included an outhouse and an electric chair. The toilet paper gun was the talk of the town the next morning and we're still laughing 3 days later.

	Photo: Nicole Dewald

Video was being shot by two different crews, one that was submitting footage to MTV's Indie Outing and one that was shooting an independent documentary. The Indie Outing broadcast was on July 14th at 12:30pm and 8:30pm. Although we were not shown performing, there was a brief segment featuring me (Dan) talking about how we'd heard about the Fest on the Net and Colin was clearly visible in his stylish tuxedo shirt in the background. I guess we need to subtract 2.25 seconds from our 15 minutes of fame. The documentary is in the works for the fall (we've received a transmission from it's makers--Hi Kristin and Tamar!).

	Photo: Nicole Dewald

Special thanks to Jimi Sin from Jivebomb, who helped us get on and off the stage and kept the whole thing rolling and Nicole DeWald, whose photos of the show grace this page. And extra, extra special thanks to Beth Anne and Merlin for putting us up (or putting up with us)--we couldn't have done it without you. And of couse a huge thanks to Kenyatta Sullivan, Lee Buffaloe, Nadia and the rest of the Wilmington Exchange Festival organizers--it's a great thing you're doing. (May 25th)

Read Jim Testa (Jersey Beat's) story on the Fest, even tho' he gave us a middling live review and hated the tape.

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