Musink, the Orange County based tattoo and music festival, is rapidly approaching it’s tenth year and with each year the festival manages to find a way to outdo itself. Having been to about half of the 8 total Musinks to date I can personally attest that those involved have taken any all steps to make sure each year is better than the last. Whether it’s crafting a more impressive festival line up or even just making the space more aesthetically pleasing; the powers that be are actively making sure that the show never gets stale and as a promoter that is your number 1 job. This of course comes as no surprise with Travis Barker now being a dominant player in Musink. If you’re going to be performing at a music festival you own stake in you want it to be the best it can be, otherwise what’s the point? This year’s line up was rather stacked as well, with the likes of Rancid, Bad Religion, and Blink 182 with Matt Skiba as headliners. Not to mention the tattoo artist and vendors area has doubled in size since the last time I went.
I personally don’t have any tattoos but I think they’re awesome. At some point I would like to get at least one but I am so indecisive I am not sure if I’ll settle on a design anytime soon. However, getting a glimpse of so many tattoos on display in one spot always gives me a plethora of ideas for what I might get. Seeing people getting work done on the spot from some of the best in the industry is always a bonus just simply due to the fact that I am so intrigued by the whole process. In fact I actually sat down for a minute and watched some of the artists tattooing and they were more than ok with that. I almost doubled down and decided to pony up for a tattoo right on the spot. The only thing keeping me from doing this was the fact that I wouldn’t be able to go in the pit for any of the bands had I done this. Perhaps next year.
Speaking of the pit, every band I saw that weekend killed it. While I was unable to make it to the 3rd day I heard from many in attendance that Blink played with energy that hadn’t been seen from the band in years; that Skiba had helped Travis and Mark find new life within themselves.
As far as bands I did see I have to say Rancid easily stole the weekend. They played what might have been the best set I have seen them put on in the past 10 years. With their upcoming performance at Punk Rock Bowling not too far away and this being the bands first show of the year I can only assume they’ve been practicing nonstop to help set the bar as high as possible. The added touch of the organ player from The Interrupters definitely helped flesh out some of the more ska tinged songs, giving the crowd a little bit more energy to skank their hearts out.
The only major complaint I had was that there weren’t many security guards towards the back of the crowd enjoying the music. Due to the lack of security in the area some neo nazis were able to cause some problems during Bad Religion’s set. After a scuffle and some staring the boneheads eventually left but for a while things were very tense. Had there been some security in that area things might have been handled sooner. Not the worst complaint but having an easier time to get these Nazis kicked out would have made things easier.
As Musink grows I can only expect to see way more rad stuff going on. I’m still holding out for some food trucks to be brought in which would be rad but even without the festival is pretty fucking awesome.
Until 2016!