This year’s Musink festival marked its fourth successful year, and did so with some of its greatest acts so far. Suicidal Tendencies, CKY, Biohazard, Circa Survive, Thrice, The Used and Hot Water Music all will grace the OC Fair Ground’s stage in Costa Mesa this weekend. This unique festival infuses the art of tattoos and piercings, with the art of rock n’ roll. We were lucky enough to attend one of the three days, Saturday.

Saturday’s headliners were the incomparable Circa Survive and hardcore veterans, Thrice. To keep you busy during the 10 hour festival, were plenty of painful, yet artistic activities.

Upon entering the huge merch building, I heard an almost overwhelming buzzing sound; the sound of tattoos being done at more than half of the local tattoo shop’s booths. As if getting a tattoo wasn’t painful enough, just imagine thousands of passerby’s watching you trying not to cry.

Besides the ink being driven into the skin of those tattoo lovers, cold metal was also. Piercings at one booth were only $30. T-shirts, dresses, jewelry (sorry, but no Tiffany’s bracelets here) paintings, tattoo supplies and skateboards were all being sold inside the massive merch room, and trust me, you could lose track of time gawking at the amazing body art our local artists displayed.

If Dub-step and skateboarding are more your forte, a hop, skip and jump away is a mini skate park provided by Active Boardshop and a dude rapping over some pretty legit dup-step music. If you brought a skateboard and weren’t afraid to eat shit in front of a crowd, you were more than welcome to join the Active Skate Team for a turn on their makeshift park.

There was no denying that Circa Survive was one of the most anticipated shows of the night, considering they had the biggest crowd. From the start of their set with “Imaginary Enemy,” to the end of their last song “Get Out,” there was a constant herd of crowd surfers. As if the crowd needed and assistance, Anthony Green told us to sway back and forth to ‘create our own ocean,’ and yelled “Jump!” to the already hyped crowd.

Their performance was one that left everybody soaked in sweat, it was rambunctious, entertaining and made even more exciting by the dedicated fans. Fans roared the lyrics to “Act Appalled,” and “Stop the Fuckin’ Car,” and well hell, to about every other song too!

Anthony Green took some time out before the start of “I Felt Free” to yell, “Thrice! Thrice! Thrice! We love playing with Thrice.” Circa Survive definitely made this year’s Musink a special one.

Speaking of Thrice, I can honestly say it was one of the greatest performances I’ve gotten to witness so far. As soon as the first note was played the energy didn’t stop. The explosion of energy from Thrice shook the tiredness out of the crowd and quiet honestly, it surprised me. A band that’s been together as long as they have, (10 years) could have been pretty content to put on a half-assed show, but this wasn’t the case for Thrice.

They earned the right to their success with the mainstream audience along with the underground audience, and I can see why. “The Earth Will Shake,” is exactly what happened during this song. The crowd’s reaction to the song was unanimous; they sung every word and clapped, urging the song along. The great thing about Thrice is the different styles they incorporate into every album. In result to their musically drastic changes between each album, it makes for a more interesting and versatile set.

“Artist in the Ambulance,” by far got the award for loudest ‘sing-a-long.’ (Ok so maybe it was a tie with Circa Survive’s “Stop the Fuckin’ Car, but it was a close one!) As Dustin Kensrue commented that Sunday was going to be the tenth anniversary for their debut album “Identity Crisis,” he asked who had bought that album. Many hands, along with my own, shot up. Paying homage to it, they played the title track “Identity Crisis.”
Just before the set ended, all but Dustin left the stage as he played, “Stare at the Sun,” acoustically.

“Beggars,” may seem like a simple ballad for the first half of the song, but don’t be fooled, it’s just the calm before the storm. Wailing guitar riffs and desperate screams from Dustin Kensrue completely destroyed the any hope of a peaceful ending to their show. Just as any epic show ends, it leaves you wanting more but at the same time, so fucking satisfied.