Virgin FreeFest Recap
This past sunday I headed over to the Virgin Mobile FreeFest at Merriweather Post Pavilion and proceeded to have a day full of great music, friends, and weather. First off it’s amazing that Sir Richard Branson was able to put on a free festival for that many people. Sure he probably made out non-monetarily, and even monetarily if he was involved with concessions, but regardless of that everyone there was being entertained all day for free, which is pretty bad ass.
The festival grounds themselves were small in comparison to the likes of uber-fests liks coachella or bonnarroo, but that’s not exactly what virgin was going for anyways. Quaint and filled with three stages (along with various other art installations and activities like kereoke, etc) in the green woods of Columbia, MD it was the perfect location (and weather) for the days events. There was enough shade for everyone, I never waited in line for a porta-potty (thanks to strategically always going to the ones by the west stage), and it was nice to be able to have a couple beers and not be stuck in a beer garden (coachella – i’m lookin at you). The people were generally in good spirits, i mean they DID get in for free, and for the most part i didn’t notice many idiots roaming the grounds preakness-style, mostly everyone was there to enjoy the music.
Here are my thoughts on the bands i was able to catch:
I’ve seen this canadian-based electronic dance “band” before when they opened for !!! a couple years ago. They were good back then, and have only gotten better since. I walked into the tree filled dance stage area around 2pm, where they were already into their set. The crowd wasn’t into it at first, but was definitely intrigued as there was a lot of stuff going on stage. I don’t seem to remember so many instruments involved the last time i saw them, but it certainly helps fill in the sound and create more texture to go along with the swelling bleeps and blips.
Their set only got stronger as it went on and those swells and beats eventually got a good amount of people moving, especially considering it was in the middle of the day and it didn’t seem like that many people were familiar with the band. I thought about leaving to catch the end of Mates of State, but i’m glad i didn’t, as they closed off the set with one of their best songs yet, “Lovely Allen”, which built up into epic proportions and got a good amount of the crowd into a good sweat to start out the day.
Holy Fuck – Lovely Allen (MP3)
Wale:
I headed over to the west stage (which had probably the best sound of any stage all day) where wale was in the middle of one of his songs. Now i’m admittedly not the biggest rap/hip hop fan, but this guy couldn’t stop talking throughout the set. Something about jay-z, then something about the redskins, etc. This went on throughout the set, which was kind of annoying, i mean i am all about some stage banter, but his seemed a bit excessive. But i will say he had one song that sampled Justice, and another that sampled Nirvana, so he has that going for him…which is nice.
Due to a less than good live review from brent a couple years ago, I kind of went cold on these guys, and seeing them at coachella this year didn’t exactly change my opinion, so I am glad to say that sunday they won me back. I was listening in the background while i ate an (amazing) chicken gyro and they sounded solid, with a lot of energy, and great delivery. I was reminded why i loved songs like “Party Pit” and “Chips Ahoy” to begin with, which was refreshing. And although it was weird hearing the insanely-catchy chorus to “Massive Nights” at 4PM in the broad daylight, it still kind of made me wanna get shit faced and make some bad decisions.
The Hold Steady – Massive Nights (MP3)
Like i said earlier, i’m not a big rap guy, and when i saw these guys at coachella I wasn’t exactly impressed (although I will admit, my brain was still recovering from My Bloody Valentine, which I had just come from), but for whatever reason I really enjoyed this set. There was a big crowd that was generally into it, my friend behind me is a big PE fan and was rattling off the song titles, and flava flav was hysterical with his nonsensical rants. I mean Chuck D even got me to put up my fist in the air, then peace signs, then waving arms back and forth, the latter of which he had the entire crowd doing. Call it nostalgia, it was still good to hear some old school hip hop with someone scratching records and a drummer, guitarist, and bass player (headless – yah 80’s) to back them up.
Flava was all over the place: in the crowd, on the speakers, up the scaffolding of the stage, and even made an ill-advised (although comedic) jaunt over to the drum set, where he tried his best to whack away at the cymbals and snare without smashing his massive clock dangling around his neck (no easy feat).
Stuck around at the west stage to see these guys, who i’ve seen plenty of times, but it’s been a while. A lot of the crowd had left at this point to catch the bravery (really?) and get prime seating for weezer, but i was happy to move closer and get a good spot for a band that couldn’t be better for the sunset time slot. Singer Matt Berninger even started off the set with some humor, noting “Did you enjoy public enemy? Yah we do the same kind of thing” (ba-dum-bum). Their intimate, yet exploding at times, vibe really benefited from the superior sound at the west stage and the added brass section really added warmth to a lot of their songs.
I haven’t seen a bad set from these guys, and the same was true for sunday. They even treated me to the song “Available”, which I had never heard live before and had the chilling lyrics “Did you dress me down and liquor me up to make me last for the minute” sung/screamed repeatedly by Berninger. Whoa. I think that song had my mouth somewhat agape.
After The National, I headed over to the already underway Weezer set. First off it was way over-packed by that point, so i had to stand about 3/4’s up in the lawn, where the sound was less than stellar (especially after coming from the awesome sound over at the west stage). Not only that but the bass of the dance stage, located directly behind the lawn, was bleeding over into where we were. Sound issues aside, I was actually pretty impressed with the 4 or 5 songs I stayed for.
I saw Weezer about 4 years ago, and their set was less than inspiring, with Rivers Cuomo basically just standing there going through the motions. This was certainly not the case at Virgin Fest. Dressed in red, Cuomo wielded his guitar all over the stage, making faces and generally getting into pretty much every song. The normal hits were played, the crowd responded accordingly, and for some reason i felt like i was back in college again annoying my roommate with repeat plays of “island in the sun”.
I skipped out early on Weezer to catch the second half of Girl Talk’s set. I was determined to give this guy, whom everyone i know absolutely adores, another shot (or 4th). Walked over to the west stage to find his normal stage full of neon-party people and the rest of the crowd getting a pretty good sweat on. He filled his set with various props used to keep things interesting: toilet paper blowing guns, confetti spray, inflatable balls, huge inflatable “pillows”, and a video screen that featured various witty messages and 1997-era .gif images of pot leaves, etc.
I was skeptical as hell walking into his set, but I have to say when he mixed Rye Rye with Journey I think my head exploded and i was IN. From that point on, i gave into his A.D.D.-filled set of samples and beats (mostly consisting of what sounded like baltimore club). This isn’t something I would probably listen to by myself, but i can see how under the right “fuel”-filled circumstance, in a large crowd, he can be pretty fun. So i guess consider me in…for now.
After Girl Talk ended, his neon tribe swarmed over to the main stage, leaving a ton of space for me to get front and center, about 15 feet back, for Franz. I’d seen these guys at coachella (i know…it’s a theme), but was never close enough to truly enjoy it. That wasn’t the case Sunday. The band came on stage with a pretty big (and very knowledgeable) crowd and pretty much blew the lid off. I don’t remember front-man Alex Kapranos being so good at getting the crowd into it, but he had people clapping, jumping, arm swaying, and chanting every lyric throughout the set.
Maybe it was because i was close (or “in the fray” as i like to say), but when “Take me out” came on, i swear the entire crowd was full-on jumping up and down. I still say their last album Tonight: Franz Ferdinand is criminally underrated, and catchy as hell. Almost every song they played from it had the crowd dancing, including set-ender “Lucid Dream”, which was closed out with a 5+ minute electronic club style trip out session. A great way to end the day at a great fest.
Sir Branson – I salute you. And thank you.
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Tags: Uncategorized , franz ferdinand , Girl Talk , holy fuck , public enemy , the hold steady , the national , virgin fest , wale , weezer
great review. also really enjoyed the national. I heard about some Virgin Mobile $10 120 minute deal.. does anyone have any more about that deal? a friend told me its some wefare offer??
on September 25th, 2009 at 6:47 am