a coupla weeks ago james turned to me and said, “hey ol coz, im ready to do some festin’”. “festin’”-playing music at festivals, drinkin beer and red bull at festivals, eatin 2 to 4 heaping plates per meal of free organic food at festivals, watchin bands at festivals, wearin sleeveless button up shirts at festivals. i said, “you’ve done it again ol james, another one of your bright ideas”. we jumped off the summer festin’ season hittin up wakarusa then bonnaroo. we were very excited to be a part of these two festivals. in addition to the guvs crew we had badland pictures (the murph and dearmanian) with us to grab footage from our trips. it was exciting times for us as we set out on the journey of ages.

the wakarusa festival is located on this mountain in the ozarks. the ozarks are very far away… from everything. to remedy the situation of a long drive we stopped at gus’s fried chicken in memphis for some chicken and 40’s. it was aaron’s birthday too, i think he just turned 14. i bought him some gummy worms and the first season of rugrats on dvd. next year he’ll get his learner’s permit, im so excited!!!! gus’s is the best fried chicken any of us have ever eaten. it’s the crispiest and the juiciest of all time. they give u beans and cole slaw with the fried pickles and ranch sauces for your dipping pleasures. we feasted like kings until none of us could really move that well, then dearmanian drove like the wind and took us to little rock where we slept for the night.

the next day we continued our trek to the mountain. we finally arrived and it looked really awesome up there. it was the last day of the festival, but people were still goin strong. we put the mule in its temporary resting spot beside our stage and threw some football for a while to work out the kinks. justin chugged a bottle of pepto and disappeared for a while. it was time for lunch and i was hungry so i ate three plates of vegetarian lasagna and a couple of salads. i drank a classical coke and ate a few cookies too. we hung around in the artist tent for a while where we had air conditioning and brews. martin guitars gave us a sponsorship and they had a booth set up in the artist area so we got to meet some of they’re reps and get some free t-shirts and acoustical guitars. thank you martin for hooking us up. there was also this dude running around there dressed up like peter pan.

we finished up lunch and headed over to the mule to start dealing with our gear. on the way over we were informed that 60mph winds and a hail storm was on it’s way and was scheduled to hit right before we went on. awesome. after hearin the news we took cover in the mule. i kind of wanted to get struck by lightning because i thought it would be a cool facebook update but they wouldn’t let me stand outside. the storm passed over and the mule kept us safe. once the storm was over the fans banded together for a celebration and we played a rock show for them. we jammed the good jams into the night while a girl on the side of the stage, that was dressed like an indian, danced and blew bubbles out into the crowd. twas a rockin set.

the next day we headed back towards knox and had to stop in for some 87 gasoline and some chips. we pulled into this exxon off the interstate that had a really weird vibe about it. little did we know it was gonna be the worst gas station stop we’ve ever experienced. all of us were delirious and in goofy moods when we got there. we all walked into the gas station like a bunch of punk kids out of an eighties skateboarding movie. the gas station attendant was givin us the hairy eyeball. the line was long for the bathroom so james decided to go in the women’s. the attendant got mad and she didn’t speak english so she yelled some gibberish at us. while all this was goin on, jenkins decided it would be cool to juggle some orange gatorade bottles and fumbled one of them. the bottle crashed on the floor and spilled everywhere. personally i think it was just a design flaw on the bottle so i blame gatorade but she blamed us. she yelled some more gibberish and started mopping up the floor. in the meantime, doody found an undersized red cowboy hat in the “cowboy hat” section of the gas station with a chinstrap. he perched it on the back of his head and strutted through the aisles of the gas station. he kinda looked like a dude version of little debbie and i could picture him on the side of a box of swiss cake rolls. i was laughing uncontrollably as i purchased my big grab of funyuns. after completely dominating the gas station we all piled in the mule and it was my turn to drive. i pulled off and heard this loud pop. i seem to have forgotten to pull the gas pump out of the mule so i ripped the hose right off and it was dragging behind us like a tail. at this time the lady ran out and her face was so red because of anger. she started yelling at me and i couldn’t understand her so all i said was yeeeaaaa the whole time.

the following weekend we did the magnificent bonnaroo music festival. we were scheduled for three shows and one of them was on the main tent to open the entire festival. we arrived on the scene and the excitement started to settle in. immediately we did a performance on radio bonnaroo that went really awesome. thank you radio bonnaroo for letting us play on your station. after we finished up there we had a few interviews then went and ate some lunch. i made a salad mountain and a five inch wide sandwich to eat. i also drank a throwback dewski cuz they’re made with real sugar. the food and drinks were unlimited so i loved it so much. we went to our stage and did the soundcheck to a pretty big crowd. the crowd was hungry for music and i could definitely feel it. after soundcheck we went back to the green room to discuss the setlist and get loose for the show. they gave us the 10 minute warning so we walked over behind the stage. we couldn’t see the crowd but you could hear them. it sounded like a ton of people but we didn’t know exactly how many. at about the 5 minute mark the crowd starts clapping in sync with each other and it sounded like an army out of lord of the rings. it was a huge sound. they told us “the time is now” and we walked up on stage. the crowd started yelling and it was the biggest sound i think ive ever heard. there was a huge sea of people packed in shoulder to shoulder that were ready for a rock and roll facial. we delivered hot fire for an hour and it was amazing. jenkins and james wore muscle shirts for the show. we couldn’t believe we just kicked off bonnaroo in front of 5 figures of people that were cheering for us. the other two shows we played were rockin as well with thick crowds of music lovers. we played jams o’plenty for many eardrums that weekend. i also got to watch some awesome music. the avett brothers murdered it and so did radiohead but i really had to pee cuz i was double fistin cheerwine all day. the word and moon taxi tore it up as well. we left on saturday so i didn’t get to catch the rest of the festival. in addition, justin and aaron did an interview with our friend david koechner on his podcast and we ate lunch with the avett brothers. they actually sat about ten tables away from us but i did make eye contact with them sometimes while i ate my lamb meat. thank u ashley capps and the rest of ac entertainment for giving us this opportunity to play and eat all your food. i gained 5 pounds.

cozmo