What a night, we had two local unsigned San Diego bands (Jenix and Forensik) battling it out for a brand new tour trailer, and 2 incredible performances from Rise Against and Guttermouth.

The night started out with a last minute drum kit change for Rise Against as they sound checked (big thanks to Scott Rayner for letting Rise Against use his kit at the last minute), when that was all settled it was too late to do our traditional Chile's dinner and drinks across the street, so we had to settle for Chile's take out in the production office. Just as we finished dinner the doors opened and the 900 kids standing in line stormed the SOMA lobby.

7:45, Jenix took the stage and rocked the crowd, who were definitly there to see them and made their presence known with an off the chart decible reading. Up next was Forensik, the other Band Joust finalist, they put on a good set and made a ballsy move of performing an acoustic song. After Forensik's performance and the decible reading, Jenix was annouced the winner and we proceeded to hand the trailer over to them, they signed all the necessary papers and we hooked up the tailer to one their parent's Bronco.

So unfortunatly we missed most of Before Today's set while handing over the trailer to Jenix, but we were able catch the last song or so, and I must say this band has come a long way since playing in our Band Joust last year, and obviously others noticed that too because they just recently signed to Equal Vision Records.

With the jousts done and the room filling up for the headliners, it was time to just hang out, take pictures, and enjoy the show. Up first was Guttermouth who exploded out on the stage with a brand new song off their upcoming Epitaph/Volcom Ent. release entitled, "Eat Your Face", and for the rest of the set it was nothing short of pure pandimonium. I have never seen so much spit fly in my life, security came up to us afterwards and told us they loved the set but next time Guttermouth comes to SOMA we have to bring them rain slickers and goggles.

After they mopped up the stage and hosed down the security Rise Against took the stage to a thunderous cheer from the crowd. Rise flew down from the studio in Vancouver where they are recording their new album to specially play this show. It was Rise Against's first show in a while and first show with new guitarist, "Skippy", but no one would have known the difference because they were on. The new songs sounded solid and the energy in the room couldn't be controled, we saw kids climbing the poles in the middle of the room just to hurl themselves off of on to the rest of the crowd.

The show was a complete success and only proved how great the San Diego scene is. Big thanks go out to Lenn, Erin, Jerry, Corey, Rise Against, Guttermouth, Before Today, and all the bands that competed in this years Band Joust. See ya next year San Diego.