It’s a good thing my office is practically dead today, because I’m utterly worthless at work after spending the last 48 hours V-Festing in Baltimore. True, it was no Lolla and didn’t have the amazing draw of Radiohead like APW did, but it did fine and I was able to go for free so I can’t really complain.
I spent most of the weekend with a pair of roller skates strapped to my feet, but it made the weekend that much more interesting. I only caught about 10 minutes of Cat Power, but Chan Marshall seemed to be actually performing well for the first set on Saturday. After that I only really managed to catch Lupe Fiasco and Bloc Party. Lupe was just sheer joy and fun. He bopped around the stage and was a great break in the day. He played a good mix of tracks off his albums just in general seemed to be having a good time.
Bloc Party killed it and no one seemed to notice. The section of the crowd I was in (the front, left side) was practically standing still. Then the moshing started and the crowd surfing. Hey, at least people were finally moving. We got all the hits - Banquet, Helicopter, Hunting for Witches, etc - in addition to the new single and better stuff like This Modern Love and like Eating Glass. yayz. Later Saturday night Kele DJ’d at Sonar and continued to be amazing. Showed up Vito from The Rapture easily. Also free Sparks and Will Eastman. Awesome.
I missed most of The Silver Beats, who are adorable and fun, but I did get to see Chuck Berry in all of his red-sequin glory. Weren’t The Beats supposed to back him up. Did I miss that? Did it only last like one song? I closed out Saturday with copious amounts of alcohol and Underworld. I was a bit disappointed. I’m not too familiar with their work outside of like Born Slippy.
Sunday was all-around a better music day, beginning with The Go! Team and Chromeo. Because of the stage set up, Go! was pushed to the back of the South Stage and was impossibly far from the crowd and no one was really into it. Sorry Ninja, but I had to go check out Chromeo in the Dance Tent. For 12:30 p.m. on a Sunday, the Dance Tent was rocking, energy was high and Chromeo was fantastic. Later in the day I managed to catch the entire She & Him set which was utterly charming and adorable and everything I hoped it would be. Zooey Deschanel was decked out in a beautiful blue dress and bopped around the stage with her tambourine. She sounded just a crisp as on record and I had a smile plastered across my face the entire set. To contrast, Lil Wayne was next, he was 40 minutes late and I moved on. Sadly, I missed Iggy Pop… I was busy getting a massage. Sorry, my priorities may be a bit skewed. I was actually torn between NIN and Kanye (or Kayne West, as the typo in the program read) for the closing of the festival. I didn’t know if I would rather re-live being 13 or stand and wait for a performer who was going to be late anyway and deal with stupid stuff like women trying to get through the crowd with a two-year-old in their arms (the infant had the absolute most frightened look on its face). Trent Reznor’s crew had about 3/4 or less of the crowd Kanye had but put on a show about 843957395 times more superior. I was slightly bored by Kanye and blown away by NIN. Which is odd, because I would consider myself much more of a Kanye fan than NIN fan. Lights, sound, everything was perfect for NIN. Seriously fantastic.
the end of sunday had the best line-up the three strongest frontmen in the entire line-up right in a row. Scott Weiland was on top of his game, STP played a lot of shit from core, it really took me back. Iggy jumped across the barrier and sung 20 feet out in the audience more than once, and Trent Teznor is just the shit.
by contrast foo fighters played well but were uncaptivating, and the offspring sounded exactly like they do on the record but looked so old they could have been backing iggy. Sadly the crowd was in full state fair mosh mode as well… I caught some, Rattler was soooo much better in every way. I guess it’s just too hard to get awesome with soo many shitheads around.
August 11, 2008 at 5:43 pmCHROMEO WAS THE BEST ACT OF THE ENTIRE DAY ON SUNDAY!
having them open the dance tent was a fucking stupid move - thank god i got there early!
overall i was pleased with the music - but like every festival experience, its the people you go with that are the key ingredient - and the crazy fuckers i rolled up there with ensured an amazing experience.
August 11, 2008 at 6:22 pmI may have danced harder in the tent than all the kids rolling and had a carnal urge to ravage Trent Reznor, but neither can compare to Sharon Jones or Andrew Bird. Their instrumental and vocal stylings were apart from the norm of guitars-drums-keyboard and inspired the true band geek in me. B-e-a-utiful.
PS - Baltimore sucks as a crowd. Wait, take that back, B-more pre-teens, their parents, and Lil’ Wayne fans suck as a crowd.
When I saw BYT’s post about staying home for the second year in a row it made me wonder if some of the editors actually do have musical taste or not. I guess one of them does. Thank you for posting this review. I wanted to go, but had to work. Anyone take photos?
August 12, 2008 at 11:07 amBlack Rebel Motorcycle Club blew me away. I was racing between them and Go Team which I enjoyed as well. I wish Go Team would pick up in the US. They’re super fun. STP was by far my favorite. Bloc Party was def in 2nd. They sounded incredible. Iggy was scary but fantastic at the same time. If he was only wearing a shirt… well… it just wouldn’t have been the same. Soulwax blew me away. They were on stage in white tuxedos… didn’t realize they actually set up a whole band and mixed recs. Too cool. I thought Duffy was very classy and sounded amazing. Rodrigo y Gabriela were a pleasant surprise. Gabriela - unbelievable on the classical guitar. Lil’ Wayne was 45 min. and sucked ass. Citizen Cope had a great set. They had a good vibe and everyone in the crowd seemed like a fan. Gogel Bordello I heard were insane. I had a bunch of friends tell me that they couldn’t get over how good they were on stage. Paramore, give me a break. Teenager with a microphone. She’s cute, has a ton of energy but… annoying as anything. The Key’s of course rocked it but they didn’t play long because of Lil’ Wayne and his shenanigans. I know everyone gave Kanye a lot of shit but I actually enjoyed his part of the show. It dragged a little when he beefed about the music industry but… when he actually started playing his hits it was a good time. His set up was amazing but he needs it to be fully entertaining.
That’s my recap… in a nutshell.
August 12, 2008 at 11:19 amSTP. Seriously?
Hard to believe Pretty Hate Machine is almost 20 years old…it is still one of the best solo-artist albums ever created.
August 12, 2008 at 11:36 amThe advice to stay home was not an indictment of the music but the event itself — a two-day ‘festival’ at a racetrack in the middle of nowhere.
If you want to see blockbuster acts, great, but if you value smaller club performances, as BYT does and I do, it ain’t worth the sweat and overpriced concessions.
With the 175 dolla I saved, I can see ten concerts in small/medium clubs — Andrew Bird, Sharon Jones, Gogol Bordello, etc.
Glad that some folks had a fun time, but I’ll save the sunscreen for the beach.
August 12, 2008 at 12:17 pmThe festival was fucking awesome. Come on… I don’t see Lolla knocking on DC’s door. Here’s an internationally renowned event that is an hour from DC getting tons of press, loading in the talent, and covering all decades and genres of the spectrum… the haters should shove it.
August 12, 2008 at 1:00 pmLG - Thank you for covering everything I didnt.
As an aside… so people know why there are no photos and the review is rather choppy and short… I was already going to Virgin as an “act” in the program. I wouldn’t have paid for the passes to go.
So Svet asked me to do a quick and dirty write-up Monday morning. I saw what I could in between when I was bouting and working. All in all though, I think I covered what mattered. Although I do regret missing Iggy .. and sorta the Swell Season too.
August 12, 2008 at 1:23 pm“a racetrack in the middle of nowhere”
Hardly. There’s a vibrant north Baltimore neighborhood surrounding Pimlico–not exactly in a field somewhere–um, and it’s the home of the Preakness!
Dance tent was worth it alone. And the Silverbeats are awesome. I want them to play my wedding.
August 12, 2008 at 1:41 pmmost people who go to shows have seen all the “indie” type band they’d want to see at vfest at a club. so why pay 200 bucks to see corporate headliners like the foo fighters? i totally understand why people wouldn’t wanna go to this.
August 12, 2008 at 5:48 pmOverall it was mediocre (I’m thankful I got to go for free), but some acts really did shine. Rodrigo y Gabriela were the sleeper hit of Saturday.
I would be careful when saying Lupe Fiasco enjoyed his time on stage given the fact that, after mic and monitor problems, he repeatedly said we would never come back to Baltimore, and that he would never return to Virgin Festival again.
I would also be cautious when using V Fest of as a gauge of Baltimore, given the untold amount of out-of-towners. Though, I go to about 3-4 shows a week and I saw none of the usual show kids around–just a lot of bros and their attendant bro hoes.
I skipped Underworld (already seen them at enough WMC’s) in favor of seeing Small Sur’s release party. Wow. What a good band. It was held in Baltimore’s 2640 space, a crumbling church now controlled by a left wing collective that also allows shows to be run out of the space. Small Sur creates rustic, folksy music that hits universal emotions in a way that almost seems divine.
I know this site has no love for Electronic Dance Music past Taxlo fare, but the dance tent was the place to be Sunday. I mean Richie Hawtin? Even after his lame Contakt Cube concept failed, he’s still an amazing DJ with a lot of history.
Be on the look out for the in depth review of the weekend up on Aural States.com, as well as the Small Sur release party review and album review (already up- have a listen too!!!)
August 13, 2008 at 8:37 am
iggy was nasty. he spent 2 or 3 whole songs in the middle of the crowd, beyond the two pits just left and right of center stage. he egged on the crowd, telling us “c’mon, c’mon, rush the stage, take over the stage.”
Weezy did not do it for me. Besides being super late (I wandered over late, so I guess it’s only fair), his act just didn’t work on the gigantic stage.
I agree about NIN. The multimedia thing could’ve gotten waaay out of hand, but I think it mostly enhanced the show. The crowd had no idea what to make of the marimba/xylophone interlude in the middle.
I felt bad that I didn’t have any way to help the crowd standing outside the gate towards the end of Kanye’s set, especially after one of the crowd offered me opium, e, or yayo if I desired.
August 11, 2008 at 5:41 pm