Steph's Version Here Much credit goes out to Steph who took most of the Sloan pictures and the 'artistic' stadium shot   Snow Job or Blow Job or Snow Jam.. Whatever September 1st, 2002 Yeah, this weekend I went to Snow Jam with Steph.. Where should I begin? The beginning..? Perhaps. Friday: I got home from school and just wanted to sleep, of course I knew that sleeping would be impossible. I went over to Brent's to call my mom around 3:30 and no ones there, so, I plopped down on the couch and flipped on Trading Spaces. Now this couch is super comfy and I fall asleep almost instantly to be awoken at 4:30 by the smell of cooking gone wrong slipping through the apartment door. After fighting with myself to get up I called my mom again, she was there and we talked until 5:10. What time did Steph want to leave for Snow Jam? Yeah, 5:15. So, I called her when I got home and of course she wants to leave right away and I knew there was no way I was gonna stay awake with some food, so, I ate and called her again at 5:45. My father drives us to the stadium and we get there around 6:30. The Stadium   As soon as we got there we started our search for Chris and eventually find him working at the hotdog/hamburger grill. Well, now that we knew where Chris was we went out to see what we could see; the snow, the pipes, the booths, the Trojan man (poor, poor Trojan man), the shwag, the stage.. When we got to the stage some band (who we later found out were The Full Nine) was coming on so we decided to watch them and watch them we did.   Chris   "Moshing" in front of us was this girl with a back pack that she had sharpie-d "Punk Out" on and "Blink 182 Rox" along with some other crap band names and stuff. Anyway the girl was as far from punk as a wannabe could get and after the Full Nine show when they announced that Sloan was gonna do autographs at 8 which was also the time when Swollen Members were on which prompted Steph to say that she didn't like Swollen Members, then 'Wannabe Punk Girl' turned around and said, "Oh my god, you don't like Swollen Members..?" I believe she needed a good punch.   Guy from The Full Nine   So, out of the pit and into the line it was and when the line started moving, it was moving. Sloan was handing out posters and signing them so, it went; 'guy who was handing out posters' handed the poster to guy number one who would sign and pass it to guy number two who would sign and pass it to guy number three who would sign and pass it to guy number four; guys 1-3 wouldn't even look up it was just sign and move on, but, guy number four would actually look up at you and say (or not say) something (didn't really matter if he said something, point was he looked up), I got a smile and a 'hey' where I then nodded and said 'hey' then I got a 'your welcome' for my 'thanks dude', so, guy number four is now my favourite. I LOVE YOU GUY NUMBER FOUR!.. I think his name is Chris... I'm not too sure though.   Sloan   After getting our signed posters we headed over to see Chris who was just getting off work, so, we waited for him to clean up and 'change' then brought him over to the mosh pit where we caught the end of Swollen Members and eased our way to the front against the people leaving. So, there we are; Steph up against the metal gate type thing and me right behind her (and Chris somewhere in the back.. we lost him), all ready for Sloan. I felt really bad because there I was at the front and every time they said 'If you know this one sing along', I didn't know the lyrics and all the people me are singing their hearts out.. or not quite singing their hearts out, but, they all knew the lyrics. Meh, oh well. It started raining at the beginning of the show which made it wet and kind of cold. It wasn't that bad; I like the rain, but, my signed poster that I had rolled up and stuck in my big pocket got all wet and ruined; actually only half of it got wet and ruined, the other half is fine, but, the thing is I didn't want to fold it and if I had folded it, it would've all been fine. Damn. After Sloan we walked across the street and met Chris at Chapters where his dad picked up and gave us a ride home. Which there ended Friday.. or did it? Ha, you'll never know.   Sloan   Saturday: I woke up sometime around 12 and decided to get up and go out for lunch with my father. About 20 minutes later Steph calls and we come to the conclusion that since my father has to pick my grandma up from the airport sometime around 3:45 and since the airport is close to the stadium that we'll get a ride with him to the stadium around 3. So, 3 rolls around and I give Steph a call, of course, she's not even dressed yet, so, I stall my dad for as long as I can (10 minutes) then we're off to pick up Steph, who, lucky me, was dressed and ready to go by the time we got there. My dad decides that he was going to be late to pick up grandma if he dropped us off first, so, we went to the airport with him, picked up grandma, who gave both me and Steph $5 (score) and then were off to the stadium.   The Stadium   We arrived there around 4:30 and got to the stage just as Sonic Bloom played their last note. Seeing as what there was to mosh to was finished and our next moshing experience couldn't begin for another 45 minutes we went off to see Chris who told us to see Robin Black, who I'm sure we were going to see anyway, but, here I am, not knowing who the hell Robin Black is, thinking that he's going to be some awful cross between Sloan, Joel Plaskett and Mason Jennings.. Unless Sloan, Joel and Mason are secretly glamed-up-self-proclaimed worlds greatest rockstars; then I believe I was completely off. They start playing and I believe their first song was nothing but screaming and it wasn't good screaming, it was more annoying screaming, but, they played some more, better songs, some of which I've even heard before... somewhere.   Chris People eventually started crowd surfing and I'm wondering if they were retarded some way or another because this pit was not a surfing pit it was more blotchy; everyone was more less spread out and in some cases there were big gaps between people, so, most of the first surfers fell (idiots), then, the pit started moving together a little more and the light people got by okay, but, some of the heavy guys weren't sustainable, people just weren't strong enough to keep them up. Whatever. Now, I'm sure this Robin Black guy was brain washing us in some way; after every song "Are we you're favourite fucking band yet?", "After the show you will march to the back and buy our album and we will be at the booth and sign every last one of them". After the show Steph says that she's going to buy the album.. I almost slapped her, but, I didn't. She bought the album and then we stood in the autograph line for at least an hour and a half and of course I had nothing to get signed, except for this dirty bag I found on the ground, which I thought was original, but, later as we neared the front of the line decided was too dirty to get signed, so, when we got to the front I stepped out of line and waited for Steph, who got 2 hugs and a kiss from Robin and both her album and bra-type-thing signed. The guys seemed really nice, well, I thought (and was assured that they were by Steph), especially compared to their onstage persona and because of that I kind of regret not getting anything signed, but, hey, what can ya do? After Steph got her signatures, we walked over to the Power 97 truck and intended on following through with our mission to get Chris a sticker. Unfortunately for him, they were all out, but, the lady, who was super nice, gave us Snow Jam shirts instead. It was great and all because of Chris; thanks bud. After all that it was about time for Gob to take to the stage, so, we got into the pit, again and made our way to what was a few rows back from the front, but, I got a bit closer and lost Steph behind me. I guess I would've lost her anyway, fuck, it was awful. I mean, it’s punk; what was expecting? To be able to breathe, is what. Gob started playing and of course it's about 27 out, slightly overcast and I'm surrounded by tall guys. By the time they were done 2 songs, I was drenched in sweat and praying for rain, because I could breath in was hot air or for someone to throw some cold drink around; it didn't happen. By about the 4th song I'm noticing half of the people aren't even there for Gob they were just there to mosh, every time the band would stop and say something all could hear around me were a bunch of different voices, "Just play the fucking song", by the 6th song I was super dehydrated, feeling as though I should say and prove my punk-ness (even though I was sure I was going to pass out) and wishing I had brought some water with me or something, and thinking about Wannabe Punk Girl and how I'd like to see her survive in there, then, from behind me I hear Steph, I can't remember what exactly she said, but, it had something to do with getting out of the pit, so, wanting my life spared, I followed her out and ran over to the slushy stand and bought a severely overpriced slush thing. Steph then decides that she wants to get out of the venue, so, we walk across the street to Subway and decide that we didn't want to see the Headstones; we may as well go home and catch SNL. So, before calling my dad for a ride home, I bought a drink and noticed the guys that just walked in, drenched in sweat; it looked like they had been outside in the rain. It was somewhat, gross.   My Sock (because it's just that irrelevant) All in all, I think it was a truly unique experience.. well, it was different nonetheless. Good or bad? I don't know. Different, I said. It was something to do and it wasn't boring, so, it already counts as a much more interesting weekend then I would've had otherwise. Steph's Version Here