Kittenfest '08!

Like the good girlfriend that I am, I follow my boyfriend around to all of his gigs night after night. Dating someone in a band? You know what I’m talking about then. The only thing is, it’s a little different for me, because not only is my beau in a band, but so are a lot of his very close friends, and so we’re constantly out and about, driving from one obscure bar to the next, rooting our troupe on and showing our support.


Well, this Fourth of July weekend was no different. Another gig, another bar-at least to kick things off, that is. Things took a little turn this time around and we ended up at a house party in Lake Hopatcong called Kittenfest. Now, I had never heard of this before, but apparently it’s an annual thing. At first I was a bit skeptical, I have to admit, I thought it would just be another lame drunken group of kids milling around and acting like asses, and while I was right in one respect (we were the drunken morons, I’ll get to that), I was quite wrong in many others.

This actually wasn’t lame at all. In fact, I have to give credit to Sarah, the girl whose home we invaded Saturday afternoon, because she was quite organized and put together a well executed event. This was a proper display of DIY at its best. First of all, as I said, the show was in Lake Hopatcong. This was my first time there, so I didn’t realize that there was so much property to many of the homes along the lake. We pulled up and herded all of our cars into the parking lot which precedes the grounds where the show was. As we walked toward the area that was designated for the bands and the guests, I noticed a few things. First of all, the homeowners went through so much trouble as to provide Porta Johns; totally didn’t expect that. Next, it was a rainy day, so there were two makeshift stages set up on opposite sides of the property, both amply covered with tarps so as to keep the bands’ equipment dry while they played. There was a bar set up where they were selling drinks and pizza slices, and, the best thing of all, is that they actually had wristbands that you had to pay for to get in, which makes total sense-you should be able to get a bit of your money back after going through the trouble of setting this up for other people to enjoy. So it turns out that Kittenfest is a two day deal. Show goers camp out in the yard of this hospitable person’s home and just hang out and listen to music for the duration of the weekend.


As I approached the stage to the far left I noticed an actual band schedule posted with at least 15 or 20 names on there, each allotted a set amount of time on stage. All local acts, I assume that the way these bands are booked is by word of mouth, really-a friend of a friend of a friend, you know how it goes. That’s how my friends’ bands, Something About Champions, Satterthwaite and The Big Dangerous booked the show-apparently The Big D played here in the winter for a similar show called Mittenfest. Who would’ve thought?

Anyway, so it turned out to be a great time. Something About Champions killed it on stage with a kick ass clean set and a crowd that thoroughly enjoyed their performance, Satterthwaite rocked it as usual, and while the boys of The Big Dangerous didn’t get to actually play the Kittenfest stage (the cops came and shut us down), they graced us all with an instrumental show at our good friend Scott’s house who happens to live on the other side of the lake.
Ah yes, the lake. So, as I said earlier that there were some idiots there, well, that would be me. My crazy neighbor and I, in all of our drunken glory, decided that it would be a great idea to jump in! Some of the boys were kind enough to lend us their swim trunks and off the roof of the boathouse we went. Well, while the water was nice, it was rough as all hell, and the 50-or-so-foot swim from the dock to the neighbor’s floating trampoline was a tough one. It was worth it when we got there, but the aftermath far exceeded the fun. I woke up on Sunday morning, barely able to move, and sick as a dog! I was already fighting something off and my little excursion in Lake Hopatcong did not help the situation at all. In fact, its more than two weeks later and I’m still coughing, sniffly and feeling ill. But, at least I know in my heart that I’m not the only person who’s ever done something stupid due to the influence of alcohol and that comforts me.


So, in conclusion, I have to say that out of all the DIY-type shows I’ve been to, Kittenfest takes the cake (well, that is if we don’t include my parents’ house parties). This is a new age-not house parties, but creating your own little version of an overnight music festival right in your own backyard is, so cheers to Sarah (last name?) for hosting us all and setting up a pretty badass concert!