[EMc]

Rock The Bells is an all day festivalm typically hip hop acts, help in Randalls Island, NY, which is in Manhatten, but not the Manhatten everyone knows.

My journey starts at about noon, as my friends say they are arriving at 2pm and it takes about hour and a half, 2 hours on the train from where I live. The ride in is smooth, listen to my Ipod and enjoy a few brews on the way in (which is legal on the LIRR). I get off at hte Queens station, where there is a chartered bus, and arrive at like 1:30. Friends get there about 2:15, we meet up and go in. The line to go in is long, but everyone is peaceful, and alas, at 300, we are in, just in time for Talib Kweli and Mos Def.

I only own 1 cd from these 2 artists, but enjoy their performance quite a bit. We head to the concession stand, to grab a brew and some water. The beer is 7 bucks, and warm, and they are out of water there. Damn, that sucks. My friends at this point are in "dire" need of some "meds", a quick search and they are in business. I dont smoke, but they enjoy, and we head to the floor for Public Enemy. They put on a good show, we enjoyed seeing flavor-flave in action. After that we head to a different booth, as for some water, none. Fine, coke it is. Its hella hot out. The Roots come on, Im not a fan and neither were my friends, so we just chilled on the lawn, waiting for the next act.

Cypress Hill was up next, and during The Roots my friends rolled a huge joint to enjoy, and it mixes well with cypress hill. Their set is good, enjoyable, but [censored], we are thristy. Its hot. Go to a few more stands, NO MORE WATER(bottled) inside. Period. [censored] [censored] [censored]. Wu Tang clan is next, they put in a isck show but id say about 85% of the crowd was there for one artist: Rage.

When its time for Rages set, its like 900, and weve been there for a while, are a little tired, unbelievebly hot and thirsty. Once Rage came on, that really didnt matter. We were all close together and rocking out, I will say it was a sick performance and they sound just as good if not better live. They play for about and hour, we start peacing toward the back before the encore, all SOAKED in sweat. I mean soaked as in ring your shirt out. It mustve been like 125 in the crowd. Rage finishes a SICK set, time to head home. On the way out we see a few porterpotties and a fence didnt fare so well.

The bus to get back is nuts. There are no rules, shoving, pushing, grabbing. When I finally got close I placed one hand on a rail inside, and ojust pulled myself in, knocking like 5 ppl out of the way (stupid line cutters anyway). The ride there is BRUTAL. Its like sauna in the bus, and still, NO [censored] WATER. THe ride is interesting, a buncha thirsty, enraged 20-somethings that are inebriated. We got a chick to flash some titties, so that was an added bonus.

At the train station, every mobs this bodega across the street, I just go one block over to a fruit market, get 4 gatorades and a litre of water. THe first gatorade is done before im even done checking out. When I hop on the train, I hear the dreaded "all stops change at Jamaica." YOu dont ever wanna change at Jamaica, but [censored]. Some dude yaps my ear off for 10 mins trying to tell me a sob story bout how he cant avoid the train, I give him a 20 just to leave me the [censored] alone. THe rest of the ride is uneventful, and alas, I am home now.


For tomorrow:

-If you just wanna see rage, show up late, like 8.
-Water shorts, and one layer of shirt. No undershirt, trust me.
-If you are getting there early, sunblock and FFS stock up on water when you can
-If you require meds, they can EASILY be snuck in
-Driving didnt seem too bad, I heard there wa a ton of parking. There is some road work though getting out
-If you are going into Manhattan, the bus service sucks but itll do.