October 18th started at out as one of those really good days. You know the kind where it's nice and dark outside from all the rain that keeps pouring down. There was a nice chill in the air which brought on the benefit of getting to wear cold weather clothes. Then to make things even better I had half the day off so I could make it to the Plea For Peace / Take Action Tour.

I started my journey at about four pm. The road to Dallas was long and swarming with idiots who couldn't figure out how to drive above twenty miles per hour in a storm. After a long grueling journey I finally made it to Deep Ellum at about a quarter till six. After about another thirty-five minutes of standing in the pouring rain, the doors of the Gypsy Tea Room were finally opened and I was allowed to enter. I then spent another thirty minutes or so being soaked inside a building that had it's thermostat set to ten below zero, all the while being confined to a ten square foot space reserved for people who were old enough to drink.

The show opened up with Lawrence Arms. I was rather impressed with this groups blend of pop and old hardcore punk. After there set my hopes were set high for the next band to take the stage which ended up letting me down greatly.

I don't keep up with the punk scene as much as I used to, seeing as how these days "punk" has become a synonym for words like "pop", "trend", and "mtv". So I was unfamiliar with who exactly Common Rider was. The most I knew about them was that one of the members was once part of the great band Operation Ivy. Common Rider's set was a painful fourty-five minutes that couldn't be cured by an extended stay in the box and perscription of massive amounts of alcohol. Try to imagine if you will a ska band without the ska. That pretty much sums up their entire sound.

Cursive was the third band in the show's lineup and something about their live performance left me feeling conflicted. I like this band quite a bit, but something just didn't seem to fit right with the set they played.

Poison the Well came up fourth in the lineup. I'm not the biggest fan of the judeo-christian / straight-edge hardcore movement but there are a few bands that I like. Poison the Well just happens to be one of these. The fourty-five minutes of their set gave a nice build up for the things to come later that night.