Okay one annoying thing about Friday at Parachute is that you have to arrive early to score a good camping spot, but for the rest of the day there is not that much to do, and it is always blindly hot with little shade. This year the first band took the stage at 5pm which is even worse than the 4pm that it was a few years ago. It would be nice to have some chill out music starting at 1pm or something like that, and they could so do it, the rest of the weekend is so packed that you miss other bands due to clashes.
Anyway, the first band that I saw perform was Late 80s Mercedes on the Mainstage at 8.10pm. Late 80s are a great Ska/Jazz covers band and are always a lot of fun. For the last few years they have played the Mainstage after packing out the Palladium beyond capacity for a few years prior to that. It was a little disappointing that there was no front of house sound for Late 80s because about two minutes into their set they blew out a speaker or something. Luckily there was enough noise coming off the Foldbacks on the stage and people shouting lyrics that you could still rock out to them.
Mumsdollar followed Late 80s and knowing the Moshpits would be nuts I stayed a little back in the crowd. The circle pits that formed were worse then I was expecting, and it wasn’t that fun holding people up who were being pushed back by them. Also Mumsdollar were not as good as other times I have seen them, it was a good performance, but only an average one, nothing to write home about.
Following Mumsdollar was Rapture Ruckus, as the moshpit emptied out between the two bands I snuck forward to around 5 rows from the front. Rapture Ruckus as always was great. With fireworks both opening and ending his show. I got completely crushed in the moshpit from the crush of people behind me (but that was nothing compared to Kutless the next night).
When Rapture Ruckus finished I quickly moved to the Palladium where Family Force Five were playing their first gig for the weekend. All I can say is there is something not quite right about a bunch of ripped males, wearing black mesh singlets and bright white pants playing songs that sound like they could belong in the 80s. Overall they were a great fun bad, but not exactly my taste.
Photo from Parachute Music
At midnight I headed back to my tent and made a hot chocolate before heading to bed a little before 1am
