What drives one to travel to North Jersey from Philly to see a band? It could be obsession or eccentricity, or maybe a bit of both. A scorcher of a day made this trip seem even more outrageous, but in the end it was worth it.

I decided to opt out of driving for the day, so Jarret drove, and Elizabeth accompanied us, too. We arrived well after the start of the show and missed a few of the local openers. Hot Rod Circuit was one of the two bands that I wanted to see. If you don't already know, HRC play hard, driving rock without pretense. I feel as though I have been following them around. This is the third time I've seen them in the past month. The set consisted of all of the favorites, including "Weak Warm," "Slacker," and "Irish Car Bomb." Casey was up to his normal, ape-like antics running around and getting crazy while coaxing out some fucked-up rhythms from his guitar. Jay was his normal inebriated self, and entertained the crowd with stories, as well as a challenge to fight. On my current HRC fave, "Remover," Casey did his bit of singing with the absolute cutest "I'm sorry." They also played a new song, which will be on an upcoming split with the Anniversary, plus a song that I did not recognize.

Piebald are one of my favorite bands to see live. They only thing that disappoints me is that they frequently play the same setlist, alhtough it is infused with an energy that is unique to that night only. They kicked things off with "Giddy Like A Schoolgirl," which set the evening's events into motion, than the danceable, fucked-up "We Believe in Karma." Two older songs were played before "American Heart" and "Grace Kelly With Wings," which led the crowd to accentuate the guitar notes in the beginning of the song. Everything that was building up to that point exploded as soon as thirty fists went into the air and shouted, "And you've got those sexy legs." The set was rounded out by "Still We Let It Choke Us," "Where Have All the Classics Gone?", "Location is Everything," and "Fat & Skinny Asses." The night was capped off by what has become their standard closer, "Shook Me All Night Long" (by AC/DC).

After the show, the three of us were headed back when we heard a bumping sound coming from the bottom of Elizabeth's car. After much delibeartion, we figured out that there was a piece of plastic on the bottom of the car. We went back to the firehouse in hopes of getting duct tape from one of the bands for a quick solution until we got home. We started heading home again until we convinced Elizabeth that she wanted to stay with Piebald for the night. After dropping her off, we were finally on our way back for some much needed rest.