“I’m high on Total Fest [...] scooting around on clouds, knockin’ out turtles, collecting coins.”
- overheard on Saturday night from Niki, co-organizer of Total Fest.

Federation X comes together for their only show this year, capping off a blury Saturday night.

I neither have any photos of the event, nor any ground to write a worthy review [several times during the event, impressed, I would ask someone nearby, "Who the hell is this?"]; so, I’ll just start by pointing you to those with photos and credibility:

Total Fest Saturday: Get Naked and Dance
Jeff Kirby for Seattle’s “The Stranger”

Total Fest Day 3
Total Fest Day 2
Total Fest Day 1
Release the Kraken Please

Total Fest VII: Arrr, We Miss Ye Already.
Total Blog

—
As for myself, it’s rare I ever get very far outside of my box, so come Sunday morning I had a hard time deciding if I hadn’t had a little too much fun. My head feeling like hammered shit, I poured some coffee and put the needle on Side A of “All I Need,” my new Wäntage released Miss Lana Rebel record, and found the lonely drunken cowgirl crooning to be the perfect fit for me to try to assess the aftermath of Total Fest 7.

Most of it now is a wash of one loud garbled memory. On Friday, I remember Titan and Nudity both stood out to me, but perhaps I wasn’t liquored up enough to step outside of my simple toe-tapping head-nodding box just yet. Arriving late on Saturday, 4 Cold Smokes already down, I found myself shaking my head to The Narrows like it was serious business, quickly seduced by their slow but intricate, spot-on, spine-grabbing riffs. Maybe I should pay more attention, as I’m not even certain of all who I witnessed totally killing it, but I know I exhibited my best fist-pumping several times throughout the night. Kingdom of Magic was one of those bands that I caught the name of only after I finished with my gratuitous hollering. I may have played a part in instigating the moshing in front of their performance, but it was out of my control - something the music just made happen. But, I’ve decided that if I spilled my drink on anyone, or stepped on anyone’s toes in the sea of people hopefully as entranced by the music as I was, it’s only testament that I was having a great f*cking time, in fact, just the perfect amount of fun. Thanks Total Fest, and all of you who know who you are.