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2007

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What up y’all? This is your homie Scottie D here with the long-awaited (by 2 people or so) Gathering 2007 review! This was my 8th Gathering experience, and I have to say that it was a damn good one! This review is probably gonna be relatively short compared to my last several…but mostly because we were only there for 2-1/2 days. But first, let me tell you about the events leading up to it.

GATHERING 2007: THE BUILDUP
So after last year’s catastrophe of a Gathering, I had my heart set on not going this year. We had caked mud and shit all over everything after last year, the “Gathering Plague” hit just about every one of us that went from the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and there was that bullshit drama that everyone loves putting up with. It just wasn’t my idea of a good vacation. So I basically spent all of my vacation time in South Beach (Miami), where I proposed to my long-time girlfriend, Amanda. That was pretty much the nail in the coffin of me not going to the Gathering this year. I had ZERO vacation time, no want to go, and none of my homies were going.

Well, this was all before Psychopathic decided to have around 100 underground bands/groups perform. That wasn’t the sole reason for me deciding to go, but it was a big one. Every single one of the artists fromAmerican Riff Raff, Inc. had been asked to play, which in turn made a ton of my homies who AREN’T artists decide to go. Even with all of this, I felt there was no way I was going to make it. It started on Thursday, and ended on Monday. Several weeks went by. Then, one Saturday morning, I woke up and told Amanda that I think I have to go to the Gathering this year. Like I told her, it’s gotta be the Juggalo in my blood that can’t keep me away from there. I mean I haven’t missed a single one! That says something for the annual event too. Anyway, we started making preparations, but didn’t let anyone know of our decision yet. As far as Pope and AJay (of FLH) knew, they’d be riding solo this year. I had already sent them a video camera and several tapes to catch as much footage as possible.

We ended up telling my homie G Dub that we were going, because we have ridden together for the past 3-4 years. Unfortunately, we had to plan on not staying there the whole time. We all have jobs, and had not had the chance to give proper notice. So “sick time” was gonna come into play. lol. Anyway, let’s fast-forward to Thursday afternoon…the first day of the Gathering:

Thursday, August 9th
So everyone that was riding together (G-Dub, Misty, Amanda, and myself) decided to work nearly a full day on the first day of the Gathering. We chalked it up to a “setup” day, and were just hoping that we wouldn’t be missing much. After work, we met up at G Dub’s house, and got on the road. Usually, the Gathering takes anywhere from 15-20 hours for us to drive there. This year, it was “only” about 10 hours. Fuckin awesome. We headed out after grabbing a bite to eat at 7 PM or so that night. The road trip was pretty smooth and uneventful…for most of the time. Amanda had just bought me a TomTom (one of those fresh GPS things), so we had no problem finding our way there…

Friday, August 10th
Well, we get to where we’re all of 25 miles away from Hog Rock, and we hear something outside the car. You know, that repetitive *THUD-thud-thud-THUD*. We had a fuckin blowout. I hadn’t seen any gas stations or anything for miles and miles. We were REALLY in the boonies. The worst part about it is that it was around 5 in the morning, and all of the ‘los and ‘lettes were already at the Gathering. Oh, did I mention that there was absolutely NO cell phone reception at Hog Rock? Luckily, we still had a bar or 2 where we were broken down. So it turns out that the right rear tire was the culprit. We had a full-sized spare, so this should only be about a 20-30 minute road block, right? Ahh, that woulda been nice. You see, the car was Misty’s, and the wheels have those wheel locks on them. Guess who didn’t have the key? So there we are, stuck in Butthole, Illinois on the side of the road…stranded. I call information to see about getting a tow truck out there. I get a number, and of course, it’s been disconnected. At around that time, some creepy dude in a truck sees us and stops, and gets out to see if he can help. This dude was redneck to the core, and was wearing a vest with no shirt underneath it. I swear we all started thinking “Deliverance”. He told us what town we were in, just in case we got a phone operator who could help us out. So he left, and not 10 minutes later, a cop pulls up. He was pretty cool with us, after the initial ID check.

The cop got a hold of a towing company, and he arrived probably 15-20 minutes later. After trying to get the wheel lock off with the tools he had, he was unsuccessful. So he said he’d have to tow it off to his yard where he had more tools. G Dub asked how much it would be. Are you ready for this? He was in the same city we had broke down in, and the tow to his yard was gonna put him out of pocked $100.00! What the fuck? But, we were stranded 650 miles from home, and this was the only towing company for like 75 miles. What else were we gonna do? So the guy loaded it on the flat bed, and we had 5 people in a single cab tow truck starting down the road. Guess how long we were in there? MAYBE a half mile. $100 for that long. What a fuckin rip. Anyway, we got there, and had to end up chiselling off the lock nut on the wheel. It took about a half hour to do that, and after putting the spare back on the car, we were on our way. G Dub actually TIPPED the guy 20 bucks. I called him an idiot for that…but it’s not my money, right? lol.

So after about a 2 hour delay, we arrive at Hog Rock. I’ll spare you the details on the mongoloid retard locals who were trying to direct traffic. But I WILL tell you that those parking passes that people bought for the sites were pretty much a waste of $50.00. Why? Because they weren’t even checking them. We didn’t even have one, and we drove right into the camp site. I wouldn’t try it again next year if we have it in the same location, but that’s just an FYI.

So we drive up to Camp Riff Raff. PsykoScott and the crew did it again! This was more of a compound than a campsite. We had probably a 200 square foot area covered with tarps to block out the 100 degree weather, a big ass stereo system, a huge Riff Raff banner, an FLH banner, military netting, several coolers filled with ice and drinks, and more. That was definitely the place to be this year. We got there, set up our tent, blew up the air mattress, and just chilled. At this point, we were at 26 hours without sleep. Not too shabby…yet. After meeting everybody, we decided to roam the Gathering grounds to see how the place looked. Amanda and I started on our way towards the food area, the merch tents, etc. Remember, besides the Riff Raff crew, nobody else knew we were coming. As we continued on our way, we hear my name being called. Pope and AJay had spotted us. Dammit! Naw, it was supposed to be a surprise, and they were definitely shocked to see us! Pope kept playing the “I knew you were gonna be here!” card, but we all know he’s mildly retarded…so that’s just not the case. J/k homie! Anyway, we split up from there and we grabbed something to eat.

OK, so this was the Riff Raff crew at the Gathering…so you KNOW we had an assload of water balloons. Love Train, we had your number! OK, so our aim wasn’t that good, but I know that quite a few of you felt the wrath of the Riff Raff! lol. Anyway, we pegged the Love Train, innocent bystanders, carnies working the cheese steak booth, random Juggalos camping at the top of the hill by lake hepatitis, ANYONE watching 2nd stage performers throughout the day (including Project Born and other performers), and homies coming back to the camp site close-range. I swear, that is some of the most fun shit!

So let’s move on to the performances. Riff Raff was performing at various times on various stages throughout the entire 4 days there. We missed all of Thursday, but saw Shy One hit the 2nd stage EARLY on Friday afternoon. He was up at 2 o’clock. He fuckin KILLED it! Our entire camp site was there, but when people saw the energy that Shy was putting into his performance, it drew a pretty damn big crowd for 2 in the afternoon! Pope and AJay were there to see him live too, and I think AJay now officially has a man crush on Shy One. Seriously, dude wouldn’t stop fuckin talkin’ about him. haha. The fresh thing about the Riff Raff sets were that they incorporated EVERYONE on the label. McNastee and iLL were up on stage as zombies crackin’ everybody the fuck up!

I’ll let Pope tell you about this, but I don’t know how they managed to make it over to the Insane Clown Posse seminar that was happening during Shy’s set. They filmed most of it though, so props to them!

Back to the 2nd stage…long-time homie Jason Porter tore shit up as well! Everyone who had the opportunity to be on the stage took full advantage of it! Props to all 100+ bands who rocked that shit!

Let’s fast-forward a bit. We still hadn’t had any sleep…and this was the middle of the afternoon on Friday. We opened up our folding chairs, propped our legs up, and took a bit of a nap. I couldn’t have been out for long, but of course, Shy was lurking and he’s a bit of a prankster. For those of you who don’t know, I don’t drink, smoke, or do any kind of drugs. Everybody I know does, but I just never have gotten into it. I’m definitely not a prude. But fuck you, I don’t have to explain myself to you. lol. Well, he had a Jack and Coke in some kind of water bottle, and I was apparently dozing with my mouth wide open. He poured that shit all in my mouth and God Damn that shit is nasty. Sorry, but I don’t know how you alcoholics do it. lol. I went ahead and pretended to go back to sleep again, and a few minutes went by. He sat in a chair in front of me to talk to everyone else that had an ottoman built-in on it. Minutes later, I stood up without him noticing, dumped his ass over in the chair, and poured the entire bottle of liquor he had sitting next to him on him. His reaction was “NOOOOOOOOOOO! That’s still good!” Asshole. lol.

So then, we both said it was on! About an hour later, Project Born was on stage, and we were pelting fans and PJB with water balloons from like a hundred yards away. There were around 300 water balloons in this giant bucket filled with water. We launched every single one of them, and as SOON as the last one was picked up, I grabbed the 10 gallon bucket and dumped the entire load of water onto his skinny ass. Thus starting theScottie D vs. Shy One.

So Friday night’s concert lineup looked like this to begin with: Zug Izland,ProzakBlazeBone Thugs, and a headlining Dark Lotus. Not a bad lineup if I do say so myself. We went to the main stage to see Zug Izland‘s first Gathering set in a few years, and they definitely rocked it! Syn had a hype man that looked like Jerry Garcia (According to G Dub), and Lil’ Pigactually came back to drum for the set! The crowd was really feelin’ it, and I would bet they’ll be back at future Gatherings. I wanted to see Prozak‘s set, but earlier we had found out that he was in some kind of car accident, and wasn’t able to perform. So in his place, Tali Demon took the stage for her first performance under the Hatchet House label. I…wasn’t there. I’m sorry, I’m just not looking forward to her album because I’ve heard her prior work. She may blow shit away, and I’ll take the time to check her out when the album drops. But until then…

So we heard the music stop and figured it was intermission. Everyone that was going to see Blaze gathered their shit up and started to head to the main stage. Him and The R.O.C. performed and were the shit too! R.O.C.even did quite a few solo songs from “Oh Hell No”! He’s a hell of a hype man, and I can’t wait to hear what they bring to the table with Zodiac Mprint! By the way, if you haven’t picked up “Clockwork Gray” yet, do yourself a fuckin favor and cop it! After they left the stage, we knew thatBone Thugs were coming on. I went back to the campsite because that little nap I took earlier was for only about an hour. I wasn’t really wanting to stay at the main stage for 3 hours. We could hear Bone Thugs faintly from the site, so I was cool with that. The set went on for damn near 2 fuckin hours! They kept coming back for more “encores”, probably because Lotus wasn’t ready to hit the stage yet. Not sure what was going on there, but when you can make Grammy winners stay on stage for twice the time they were scheduled for, then more power to ya.

Next, Dark Lotus hit the stage. There are 2 albums worth of material they have to choose from, and they played a great selection from each album. People were saying that the sound was bad during the set, but I always love seeing everyone from Lotus up and rockin’ it. Oh, and if you weren’t there, just know that ABK wasn’t on the roster. We’ll see what happens next year.

By this time, Amanda and I were fuckin exhausted! I decided it was probably time to get another long nap in before the Rydas took the Bomb House stage at 3 AM. Guess who didn’t hear the phone alarm at 2:45? Yeah. I slept until about 7 AM the next morning. So unfortunately, I missed the once-a-year performance of the Rydas, with new addition “Young Dirt”. Ahh well, there’s always next year. Pick up “Duk Da Fuk Down” though if you haven’t already. It’s pure fuckin fire!

Saturday, August 11th
I didn’t mention WHY I woke up so early on Saturday. Other than the fact that we were in the middle of the sweltering sun, and our tent was like a Sauna, there were some Dumb Fuckin Cunts that were SCREAMING at the top of their lungs for Shy One, who was passed out in another tent. For real, fuck you. G Dub, Misty, Amanda and I were all sharing the same tent, and later that day, Dub threatened to shove this skull cane one of them was carrying into, and out of the anal cavity. lol. He wasn’t fuckin’ around.

We went and grabbed some breakfast from the grease pit that morning, and again, just chilled at the campsite. We are from Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. We are used to 100+ degree days. But we are also used to air conditioning. lol. So finally, the Twiztid Seminar was coming around. This was the talk for the rest of the weekend. Over HALF of this seminar was dedicated to dissing on ABK. I’ll let you watch that for yourself, but just know that as I’m writing this, their issues have all been resolved. In fact, there are talks of ABK going on the upcoming Toxic Terror Tour!

Things are kinda foggy for me at this point. Not that I was under the influence of anything…I just don’t remember the order of shit on Saturday. I’m pretty sure we went to chill with AJay and Pope at their campsite for a minute. They showed me some of the footage they had taken over the weekend, and told me what they had been doing since Thursday night. I may make all kinds of jokes about those 2 homos, but they are both really good guys. And I appreciate the shit they do for FLH, and Juggalos. Much love you guys!

We had gone back to Camp Riff Raff, which was right around the corner, to wait for our homie Killa C and Liquid Assassin to take the stage. Oh, did I mention that Camp Riff Raff was right across the road from the 2nd stage? It was the fuckin shit! They had SUCH a large crowd behind them, a big ass pit, TONS of free shirts and CDs that were being thrown out, and just put on a hell of a stage show. The Hatchet Rydas Car Club had their Jokers Card-themed bikes up on stage reppin as well. On a side note, as Killa C was jumping up and down on stage, his khakis just flat dropped to his ankles. Luckily, no tighty whiteys. lol. He played it off, but you could tell it wasn’t meant to happen. Still, what an incredible set! I don’t care what you think of this guy, his music, or whatever. Go watch him live, and get your fuckin mind changed!

Toward the end of the set, Daff from JuggaloNews.com flagged me down. That kid is cool as hell too! He said that a guy from Vice Magazine out ofNew York was there to cover the Gathering, and thought that since I had been to all 8 of them, I would be good to talk to. I agreed, and we went over to CRR (Camp Riff Raff) to conduct a little interview. We probably talked for around 30 minutes, and hopefully he uses a lot of what was said in the next issue of the magazine. We’ll definitely be posting it as soon as it hits news stands! He asked me questions about how the locals were treating us, what being a Juggalo meant to me, how some people who claim “Juggalo” ruin it for the rest of us by being complete assholes, the location of this year’s Gathering, and many, many more questions. Hell, I don’t remember most of them, and thank God it wasn’t a video interview. I would have probably sounded like a buffoon. After that, we parted ways, and I thanked Daff for introducing me to Thomas (from Vice Mag).

Again, not sure of the time line here, but let me just fill you in on something else. The vending companies, who were originally charging something like$5.00 for a single bag of ice, went to selling them for $10.00 a pop. They were the big 20 lb. bags, but still…fuck that! PsykoScott’s girl Oxi went back and forth to town (mostly to shower at a hotel) and brought back a bunch of bags of ice every time. Still though, what a fuckin hassle! Hopefully there are some kind of restrictions in place next year because holy shit…this isn’t fuckin Woodstock.

Let me also tell you about the pond there, deemed “Lake Hepatitis” by Twiztid, and how fuckin disgusting it was. Juggalos and Juggalettes were in and out of that shithole all day. There was a dock in the middle, and evenShaggy was swimming around in it. That’s hardcore. lol. There were dozens and dozens of fish on the side of the “lake” that were dead. I don’t know from what, but there wasn’t a single dead one that I saw the first day we were there. I even ended up hearing that some of the dead fish were used as props in the JCW ring to beat the hell out of each other. Fuckin nuts!

Here’s another interesting experience I had. Some friends and I were watching a show on the main stage, and I got separated from Amanda while going nuts in the pit. I’m pretty sure it was during ABK‘s set that night. Well, after doin’ my thing in there, I couldn’t find Amanda for anything. So I decided to go back to the camp site to see if maybe she was waiting there. On my way back, I see this big Juggalo, probably 15-16 years old standing by Lake Hepatitus. He was kicking something around, but I couldn’t tell what it was. As I got closer, I realised that it was a fuckin turtle. I looked at the kid and was like “What the fuck are you doing dude?”, and he claimed he was trying to kick him back in towards the water…and was afraid to pick him up because he didn’t want to get bitten. Well, for one, he had horrible fuckin aim. I don’t think I bought that story. But I went ahead and picked it up by the shell and put him back into the water. Sorry, but I can’t stand to see any animals being kicked around…even if it wasn’t with bad intentions.

So Mushroomhead was going to the main stage next, and I had no intentions of watching them. We went back and chilled at the campsite for another 30 minutes or so before that night’s headliners: TWIZTID hit the stage. I can’t remember if that was the night that PsykoScott cooked some good ass burgers and bratwursts, or if that was the night before. But holy shit they were the fuckin bomb! Thanks Scott! Anyway, we went back to check Twiztid out on the stage. They ripped shit up, of course! I think their set was a little short…especially for a Gathering set. They also only had a banner for their “stage props” this year. Hopefully they’ve got something big planned for their upcoming “Toxic Terror” tour.

So, now that all of the main stage acts were through for the night, it was time to get ready for Bloody-Fuckin-Mania! I was feeling pretty tired at that point, but only because I kept waking up at like 7 in the morning from the blazing hot sun. Before BloodyMania, we knew that Shy One had a performance at Club Chaos at around Midnight. So I planned to catch that, and then right after his set, head over to watch the JCW matches. Club Chaos had moved from wherever they were, to right by the vending area parallel with the Main stage. It was a prime location to say the least! I watched some of the performances as we waited for Shy. We all kinda took a seat in the grass. That was it…I was out of it. I must have slept for a good 2 hours waiting for Shy’s set. It’s funny though…as soon as the first note hit, it woke me up. We watched Shy One tear Chaos a new one as probably 30-40 people knocked each other around in the mini-pit. It was definitely a lot of fun. But after his set, it was already around 2:30 AM. Yeah, I had pretty much slept through the entire Bloody Mania. But I wasn’t all that upset. I know they’re supposed to be coming out with a DVD of it soon. Just like that Gathering DVD that we’ve been promised for 8 years. lol.

There WAS one more thing I was looking forward to on Saturday night. That was seeing the world debut of “Go to Hell with Twiztid”, which was showing about 50 feet away from Camp Riff Raff at the 2nd stage. A few of us grabbed some chairs and went to wait for it to start. They kept saying it would be starting soon, but that they wanted to wait for some of the crowd from Bloodymania to come over to join us. Finally, Twiztid, Blaze, and ROC drove up on a golf cart, and we knew it was getting close. The show started, and it was pretty fuckin funny. I think it may have gone on a little too long, but I was also told afterwards that it wasn’t the final cut, as you’ve now seen online at Twiztid.com.

Juggalos, I must be getting old, because I was ready to pass the fuck out after that…and I did shortly afterward.

Sunday, August 12th
It was now the final day of the Gathering, and guess who came by and started shouting yet again? Those cuntrags that did it the day before. Luckily, they were “whisper-shouting”, but it was still about Shy One. Shy, I swear to God if you know those twats, I’m gonna have to continue to not have a section up for you. lol.

There isn’t really much to tell about Sunday. Myself, Amanda, G Dub, and Misty all had to be back at work early the next morning, so we had to miss most of it. Yes, we went to a Gathering and couldn’t stay for the ICP set. I know…it sucks. But as I told you at the beginning of this novel, this was all planned very last minute. After the fun that we had this year though, we definitely plan on staying there the entire time next year. Hopefully, it won’t be in August.

I also want to commend the place, Hog Rock (aka Hatchet Landings), who was nice enough to host the Gathering this year. This is one venue that I wouldn’t mind having the remainder of our Gatherings at. Seriously, get those fuckin rip off vendors replaced, and things will be PERFECT. Juggalos and Juggalettes who plan on going next year, PLEASE pick up your shit. That was the ONLY complaint they had this year. Pick up your trash, and we won’t have an issue, ya fucks.

So that’s it for this year. That was my Gathering review. I didn’t expect for it to be nearly this long, especially since I was only there for 2-1/2 days. But hey, this is what came out of my fingertips. Before I end this though, I need to say 1 thing:

 

R.I.P. SHANE BARNETT
That’s the ninja who was found dead at the Gathering. They still haven’t announced what the official cause of death was, but whatever the case, it shouldn’t have happened. Our thoughts and prayers are with your friends and family homie.

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