Midnight Juggernauts Riverfire Fathers’ Day Weekend (MJRFDW!)

Woah!

Fucking top shit. It was excellent.

Firstly, on Friday afternoon after work, I made my way via public transport (two buses and a train to travel 7.8km from Aspley to Northgate – oh my!) to Northgate, whereupon I met with Soph, Brett, Kate and Annie, in preparation for one of my best weekends ever.

The plan was and happened as follows:

• Friday night – Midnight Juggernauts @ The Tivoli
• Saturday morning – recover, chill out
• Saturday night – Riverfire!
• Sunday – rest and relaxation

Good plan, eh? I thought so. I don’t think that’s an unfair self-assessment.

After arriving at the girls’ house Friday afternoon and getting changed into my new clothes, we hung out for a while and waited around for everyone to show. After much mucking about and waiting around and generally piss-farting about, we departed their house around 7.30PM; by the time we’d negotiated QRs Brunswick St Station refurbishments, Bruce and Ash’s hunger, and the streets of the Valley, it was around 9PM when we arrived finally at The Tivoli.

Unfortunately this meant that we missed the first support act, Young & Restless, who it seems would’ve been quite good live. Damn Arms were pretty good. Although initially, I didn’t particularly like any of their songs, as they basically sounded like tryhard Midnight Juggernauts impersonators, by the time they played through their headline track Homewrecker, I was jumpin’ and thumpin’ just as hard as the next indie-synth-rocker.

Indubitably, Midnight Juggernauts were the show stoppers, stealers, and wreckers. With their first LP, Dystopia just released, they have a veritable lengthy playlist to rock through.

We all went pretty crazy, me especially.

It was fucking awesome.

Not eating all day, combined with my drinking and few hours of non-stop jumping around makes for a fucked up Owen! Hell yeah!

We made to back to Northgate just fine, and hung out for a bit before people started to droop one-by-one like unwatered plants, only the strongest surviving into the early hours of the morning to keep the chattering and the good times rolling.

Saturday morning everyone woke late, except for Carly and I, who stupidly woke up around 8.30AM, after being asleep for at least four hours. We sorted ourselves out and a short few hours later, we all headed to the RE for a wholesome hearty lunch. I had the RE burger, which was awesome, and filled my empty, gurgling stomach just nicely. Bruce and Ash peeled off to go see The Bourne Ultimatum (which is pretty damn good), while Scott, Soph, Annie, Brett, Kate, Carly and myself headed to the Brisbane river, whereupon we happened across some ice cream and general mucking about.

Kate and Annie went to meet a friend of theirs at West End, Soph and Scotty went to meet Soph’s family somewhere else, and that left Brett, Carly and I to our own devices. We decided to head to our usual Riverfire enjoyment spot, and along the way we picked up a doughnut or two from Dreamy Doughnuts and enjoyed them thoroughly. I had a Lindt chocolate covered doughnut, and it was fucking awesome. Two thumbs up!

We arrived at our spot for Riverfire rather early, around 5PM. We had two hours to kill before much of anything happened, or so I thought. Fortunately for our sake, the RAAF Roulettes made some interesting flyovers; I never realised just how awesome the turboprop engines sound.

In between conversation, and entertainment provided by small kids and some helicopters, the time flew by, until Bruce and Ash arrived, and it was almost time for the main event. The first F1-11 flew over, rather high I thought. In years gone by, the dump and burn was executed at a lower altitude; one year, I swear I could feel the heat from the flame! This year, not so. However, the fireworks display was brilliant; they must have implemented some new techniques, or used different fireworks, because it seemed to be a lot more spectacular than last years’ display.

After Riverfire, we all headed awkwardly home, with QRs rail transport flailing under the strain of transporting the several-hundred-thousand-strong crowd out from the Brisbane CBD. Ash, Carly and I did eventually make it back to Northgate station, after which we bought ourselves some Maccas and chomped heartily while having a bit of a chin-wag. On account of our late-night-drinking-and-partying-then-trecking-around-Brisbane-induced-tiredness, Carly and I opted to get a lift home with Ashley, to save ourselves the walk from Petrie station. We said our farewells and headed back to my place.

Sunday, Carly and I hung out for a bit, and generally spent time relaxing. We had lunch with my family for fathers day, which was an excellent mixture of freshly cooked mackerel, fresh prawns, salads, breadrolls and softdrink. It was a good lunch, as my family don’t oft have time for each other these days. I thoroughly enjoyed myself today, despite the lack of action-packed-ness as compared to previous days this weekend.

All in all, I had a hella good time, and I have all my friends and family to thank for it! You guys fucking rock!