in 2006, i saw Family Force 5 three different times. all three shows were awesome. they’re kind of a love/hate band i think for some people. you either think they’re awesome and love everything, or you think they’re dumb. i love them. i got my sister hooked by lending her a copy of the first cd and taking her to see them that summer. i hadn’t seen them since October 2006 until Sunday. they did come through to NOLA one night in April, but i was in Charleston. if you hate FF5 or something, then you might want to skip to the last paragraph.

i saw they were going to be playing with TobyMac and Relient K in nearby Mobile on Sunday, and it worked out my sister and i could go. the plan was to show up right before showtime and buy tickets off a desperate youth leader, but that backfired when we showed up 15 minutes late. i figured since there was some rapper guy also on the bill, he’d be going first. unfortunately, we heard FF5 playing as we walked in. we walked into the arena part and i yelled “THIS IS SO AWESOME!” as they were playing D-I-E-4-Y-O-U. we walked over to some seats and watched the rest of the show. unfortunately the way the show was set up, they didn’t get very long to play.

apparently Nadaddy is playing a new instrument called the Family Force 5000! what a great name! it was like window panes that he punched and as he hit each ‘pane’, they lit up. (this picture i took you can see it pretty good) it’s a drum machine laid out like that. it was amazing! i got the low down on what the instrument is from a music insider i know. Soul Glow had the hulk fists and everything! he started using those after the last time i saw them, so it was the first time i saw them live. i so wanted a hulk fist bump! i was jealous of the people down front, i’d have been pushing kids aside for one!

when they left the stage, both me and my sister were bummed that we each paid $30 for an abbreviated short set. however, it had been so long since we had seen FF5, and the show was fun anyway. i did want to stay and see Relient K though, so waited around for them to play. we walked around before they came on stage and took pictures in front of the banner FF5 would sit under when they did their meet and greets.

FF5 in mobile

i don’t even know what that thing is on the banner, maybe it’s a dance monster. i’m not sure if my parents would want to use this picture for a Christmas card though.

i thought Relient K was good. i only have one of their albums, but i know they’ve been around a long time, and i thought they got cheated only playing about 35 minutes. i get that the show is going to be mostly kids and youth groups, and maybe the show should end early so they can all get home, but people are showing up to see a show, not snippets. after Relient K finished, my sister said she didn’t want to wait around for Toby Mac. i don’t know any of his stuff, so it didn’t really matter to me, i had seen the two bands i wanted to see.

on the way home we stopped off for dinner at a truck stop Subway. (the building with the black roof) i came to the road that i thought would take us to the side of the building so i could park. there were no signs, so i turned down the road. apparently it was the 18 wheeler exit road, so we’re traveling the wrong way up a one way street. just as i realized this, a truck started to make his way to the road. thankfully he saw us and let us go before he turned, or i’d have been having to hop a curb or something.

this adventure brought my weekend to a close.