copperjackal89
Newcomer
9 messages
joined Feb 2012
Yesterday was 🙏
Broken Social Scene offered that wonderful, pretentious indie vibe perfect for sipping a beer on a lawn (one where the bacteria had begun to colonize grass that had been neglected for two days, accompanied by a certain stench 😬).
Caribou 🙂
A magnificent man (a mathematician 😍), magnificent music, and a magnificent sight watching how the snare and the drummer synchronize. And the setlist was lovely... if they had played a few more beautiful old tracks, I wouldn't have missed the beautiful new ones so much; the curse of releasing such high-quality albums back-to-back.
After Caribou, I headed over to The Flaming Lips... my expectations were perfectly aligned with what one knows about the band, which is to say, zero. And, frankly, I actually love that Bob Dylan-esque front 🙂 and the way they handle their shows—just show up, play, and retreat to the trailer—but that little circus act they put on was truly beautiful 😍. I don't know how music lovers react to that much rambling during a short festival set, but as far as I'm concerned, they could have just fired off some confetti and spread pure joy and merriment. A beautiful final song, and a loud one right before it. As for the rest, I didn't experience it because I was too busy exploding with happiness.
Flogging Molly was a fine pub session with sympathetic people, but as always with their rhythms, interest wanes slightly after six songs. Though, I won't deny that attending their concert with enough alcohol would result in epic amounts of jumping and adequate muscle fiber damage the following day. Vomiting on tables and people is also a distinct possibility.
Massive Attack... first, I listened while hovering near a little something in the background (actually just a plastic bag), then drifted forward to see what they were doing on stage (mostly nothing). I haven't had any significant encounters with them in the past, so I don't know how it felt at Madison Square Garden, Madison Square Garden, Munich, Bristol, or even Mars (they didn't particularly impress me on a friend's cassette tape), but yesterday was quite impressive and lovely for a quiet set. A lot of people bought merch during the concert though; I don't know if they are the last Americans who still have steady jobs, or if they simply found it underwhelming. Regardless, perhaps they aren't the best choice following the sheer luck of Caribou, The Flaming Lips, and Flogging Molly, but better they were there than not 🙂
Organization: First, it is lovely that they stopped being so anal about bringing in photo equipment. Good shots of performers are recorded by accredited professionals anyway, and I have no desire to mess around with that (nor can I compete with quality from the crowd), but it’s nice to have the right to bring an SLR and immortalize a pleasant hangout with friends and buddies. Three years ago, they were snatching memory cards from digital idiots, so this is a significant step forward for civilization.
Second, the beer at $5.00 and the food ranging from ? to $12 (and $35 for a rather generous portion of delicacies from the brotherly republic of China) are very reasonably priced, and I appreciate that. I drank and ate plenty.
Third, there was plenty of everything, from currency exchange booths to tables for consuming goods and bins for their excretion.
Given how problematic the first and third points were in the past, I conclude that the organizer is learning and evolving, and sometimes that is more important than the performances on an absolute scale.
The festival itself: we can talk trash about the lineup, the Corporation, the schedule, and whatever else we want, but it is nice to have something like this within reach of the local campus area ☕
