On Monday May 16th, 2017 The Story So Far, Turnstile, and Drug Church rolled into Iowa City for a sold out show. The show was hosted by Gabe’s Bar, and for those of you who have been to Gabe’s know that it’s quite the attraction for hardcore and pop punk bands alike, as it is a fairly small venue with no barricade.

First on the list was Drug Church. My friends and I were able to catch the tail-end of an already rowdy show, and we knew this was just the beginning. After watching crowd surfers and stage dives, my heart started to race, knowing in a short while that would be me and my friends. A few minutes later and Drug Church was off the stage and a mass of bodies smelling of fresh sweat were walking by to grab a drink before Turnstile took the stage.

Turnstile didn’t let the crowd down. Taking the stage in a fast-paced, angsty rage, frontman, Brendan Yates was already in the crowd's faces. As soon as they came in bodies were pushing, throwing fists, and many were up in the air, tumbling onto the stage to get their second of exhilarated bliss standing on the band’s holy land. Still observing, I waited patiently in the back for The Story So Far.

Once the crowd cleared for the second time that night I decided to move up closer, this was the band I had been waiting for. My plan? Get up in the air as soon as the first song came in and stay there as much a possible for the rest of the night. Unfortunately, I was pushed to the ground when the first note struck the speakers. Getting up, I was able to fight to the front, getting smacked in the head with various bodies of crowd surfers, getting stepped on by the wave of people being pushed, and my hair ripped out by getting caught in the armpits of sweaty crowd members. Finally, when I was able to look up once more I was in front of Parker Cannon himself—close enough to touch—and I did. I screamed the lyrics back at him and dodged stage divers. They played my current favorite song, Solo, right when I started to feel like maybe being in the front was too much, but it gave me the strength to stay, to yell the words I have come to know and feel in my own soul right back at the man who has shaped my life with his words of anger, hurt, and truthful emotion.

Parker gave the mic to fans who knew the words like the back of their hand just as he did to yell their hearts out too, and shortly after was told that if they didn’t hang onto the mic they were being cut. Once that was established, Parker said they only had two songs left. I decided to stage dive out during the first of the last two. I grabbed a water and watched the rest of the song. When it was announced that this was the last song I ran back full speed to get in on a little more pop punk action. Knowing it was the last song, many in the crowd decided to be lifted up and crowd surf to the front. Unfortunately someone fell and others kept falling on top of them, the band stopped playing, “Whoa whoa, hold up, are you guys okay?” Parker asked them. Probably the best part of the whole show was seeing that compassion for the falling pile of crowd surfers. Back at it the band went again, once the pile was taken care of, picking up where they’d left off.