Franki Chan's blurb on Friday's party

...from iheartcomix.com

i landed and went straight to the liquer store to buy all the booze for the party and made just in time for doors. the shit packed up quick. kids everywhere, and once the music kicked in and the clock ticked past midnight, it turned into a scene from gremlins 2. people were mutating, shedding clothes and grinding in such a sexual fervor that i found myself wishing i was 13 watching a rated r movie with my mother again, when she'd cover my eyes during the sex scene. i hated it then, longed for it last night. i stood, alone, pondering the next party track, staring out into a sea of make-out. i forgot my camera, but i entertained myself pretending i had one, clicking the invisible contraption and framing the action.

...Fast forward about 6 hours and I’m riding in the backseat of a car about to pee my pants waiting in agonizing anticipation to see THE PROMISE RING (a special one-off reunion show for FLOWER 15). Hands down, that show was one of the best of my life! They played with the same vigor and energy as they did in the hayday. DAVEY pulled out all the dance moves, they played all the hits and to round it off, there were guest vocal appearances by JIM of JIMMY EAT WORLD and TIM KINSELLA (closest thing to a CAP N’ JAZZ reunion we’ll probably ever see). They totally blew me away. I wept with happiness and left with a sore throat and less of a voice, covered in sweat. Awesome.

DAY 3 consisted of a day full of meetings (you don’t wanna hear about those….) and a long overdue trip to the comic book store (my fave!). basically, all of it was a buildup to what would ultimately be the climax of the trip, our 2nd CHICAGO party of the weekend: the FLOWER 15 closing party. I really don’t know how else to describe it other than calling it a, “smashing success.” It was rad, bad, killer, awesome, totally rocked (pick your own adjective and add it here). Kids were going ballistic on the dance floor! I met so many awesome people and had such a great time, part of me longed to never leave.

A big part of me is still and always will be Midwest (Bloomington, Indiana native, thank you very much). There’s the weird, instinctual calling that seems to happen everytime I go back there. Maybe it’s just the cornfields humming my name, but everytime I leave it feels like I just got dumped. There’s a certain innocence and enthusiam that the Midwest has that the coasts seemed to have lost a long time ago. I don’t think I could get into conversations discussing the politics of the underground in this new day and age full of major label signings and corporate sponsorships or debate the downgrade and revitalization of my fave magazine, ‘punk planet,’ here in LOS ANGELES, at least not with the same vigor or understanding from ‘that’ point of view. That’s the part that the kids in the big coast cities will never understand, we’re always shooting for more, but what’s wrong with loving what you have?