"Because the Night"

Virgin Free Fest was last weekend and it was awesome, just like last year. I didn't get to go to as many concerts this summer as I did last summer, but I'm in a better place this summer, so you get details.

Once again, tickets were free (you could pay $50 to get a bag, with a poster, cups and other stuff; plus early entry) on the web or you could volunteer your time to get them. Kevin and I went last year, so we got first dibs on tickets this year and took advantage. Once again, like last year, no one wanted to go with us bad enough to volunteer, so we went just the two of us. The entry line was long, but once they opened it up it moved quickly. I had a pretty good sized bag with me because it was hot and sunny, but it had rained 3 days prior, and it was supposed to rain later that day; so I had extra shoes, rain gear, a jacket, a hat, water bottles etc. I was an Eagle Scout. When I got to the front of the line, bag open and ready to take 5 minutes with some gruff security guy checking every little zipper pocket, I was surprised to find a 18 year old kid checking us in on my row. No pat down and a glance towards my bag was all I got. I could have snuck in my half my weight in Turkish hash if I wanted to.

We walked the whole venue first off, noticing that the dance pavilion had moved since last time, and the the second stage smelled unmistakably of manure. We walked back to the main stage and sat down under the pavilion just in time to see Bombay Bicycle Club hit the stage. They are a four piece modern British guitar driven indie rock band. They were who we thought they were to steal a phrase, and after half way though their set, we walked back to the second stage to see Two Door Cinema Club. They are a three piece Irish guitar driven indie rock band. After joking with each other that they insisted upon being very upbeat we decided the stage area smelled really bad and so we went back to the pavilion stage. We decided to get under the actual pavilion and take a break from the sun. We sat down for Okkervil River with no expectations.

Holy crap they really hit a home run. "River" is a indie/alt-country band out of Austin Texas. They were a six piece band I think, and had a trumpet of all things. Really good sound out of all members, but special mention has to go to their guitar player. That woman can shred. Plus she whipped out a little slide guitar action on stage in a skirt no less. After their set, we were about ready to stand up and head for the other stage to hear Big Sean, but something awesome happened. Merriweather post pavilion began to live cast the other stage on the big screen TVs. We stayed put, listened to a few tracks, and realized we were better off staying where we were. That changed our whole concert experience. We moved to good seats with a clear view of the stage and didn't move for the rest of the day.

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals are not a Wizard Rock band despite the fact that they sound like cousins of Harry and the Potters. Okkervil River were such a huge success in my head, the bar was set very high. Well Grace Potter leapt over that bar and turned a somersault over it just for fun. The band is hard to nail down completely. They have country influences, and real classic rock influences as well. Sometimes they sound like The Band, and sometimes they sound like Led Zepplin, but they always sound like they are fronted by Janis Joplin. They were rockin', they were funky, they were sweet, and everyone fell a little bit in love with them. After a straight up blistering set I looked at Kevin and told him I would pay good money for a Janis Joplin bio pic staring Grace, and The Nocturnals as Big Brother and the Holding Company. The big hits off the most recent albums have videos on YouTube. Do not watch them. They suck. they make her out to be the only member of the band (Gwen Stefani anyone?) and so vanilla. Like a county tinged Jessica Simpson or something. Just barely any hint of the awesome that this band is. check out Sugar, Goodbye Kiss, Medicine or anything they play live.

Patti Smith is a legend, and she had a lot of fans at the show. She is still a proud punk/social justice/spiritual person, and she can rile a crowd of teenagers-grandparents up like very few 60 somethings can. After Patti Smith, the venue put Cee-Lo Green on the TVs and he was not in any kind of costume, so once again, I feel like we made a good decision staying at the main pavilion.

Kevin had tried to introduce me to TV On The Radio for a few years and every time I liked them, but not enough to rush out and declare for them. This concert changed all of that. There were like 6 guys on stage, and they kept mentioning that the bass player was playing his first night with the band (their bass player died of lung cancer in April) but he sounded tight to me. The waves of sound were enough to push me back into my chair. And not like My Bloody Valentine or other shoegaze bands, but real depth with a lot going on. The crowd stood all concert long and the band filled us all with energy. The rocked hard and left everyone excited for closing act The Black Keys.

One of the best "moments" of the show was while waiting for The Black Keys to start they were playing old soul and blues over the pavilion sound system; they started playing The Beatles: I Want You. The entire pavilion, and I'm sure most of the lawn seats began to sing along. We were polite but clear. They should come out right now.

The Black Keys were amazing. They played like six songs from the as yet unreleased album due out near the end of the year. They played their biggest hits. Thy played a few covers. [Side note, more bands should play covers in concert. It makes everyone in the audience happy. That is all.] All in all, they were the hand-clappingist kick ass part of a great day.

We left without going to checkout Deadmou5 because we were rocked out, and because we are a little old. Judge us not too harshly, it was a long long day of awesome.