Saturday, while still enjoyable, didn't quite live up the standard set from the previous day. Sure the weather was much improved, with higher temperatures and barely a cloud in the sky. But when you factor in the unexpected sound issues & a line-up that didn't look that strong from the start, you are going to get mixed results. Here is run down of the good & bad.
STRFCKR, whose most recent album Reptilians has been on constant rotation in my car stereo since it's release back in March, was the first band to come up short. Plane and simple, the sound mix was god awful. When the keyboards weren't annoyingly loud, the vocals were teasingly quiet. Add a few sporadic moments of feedback and it was enough for us to give up and move on to another band. That type of thing was bound to happen sooner or later, so it we'll have to reserve our true judgments of the band for another time.
We then had an up close encounter with new age folk rockers Veviter at the Free Yr Radio Prius Tent. The band's short but sweet two song set sounded crisp and well rehearsed. It honestly was the perfect remedy to the STRFCKR sound issues still fresh in our minds. The guys then invited everyone to catch their full set at The Sutro stage in a half hour if we wanted to hear some more awesome tunes. We graciously accepted.
Arctic Monkey's provided the best concert of the evening with a sunny, day time set that had a very large crowd consistently entertained. There are two elements to the Arctic Monkeys that instantly set themselves apart from the rest of the line-up the minute they walk on stage. They're loud. And they're very British. Lead singer Alex Turner's accent was noticeably thick during the brief moments of banter and you couldn't help but think to yourself that this band is a long way from home. The group's music seemed to touch upon all the famous British bands of the past from The Clash, to the Sex Pistols to even Led Zeppelin, but with the sharp and minimal post punk song structure of modern day indie bands like The Strokes. Songs like "Florescent Adolescent" "Crying Lightning" & "I Bet That You Look on the Dance Floor' filled out a long set that touched on ever stage of their career.
If the Arctic Monkey's provided the best show of the day, The Roots definitely provided the worst. Instead of set filled with Roots classics, the crowd was treated to 50 minutes of classic rock covers. From "Sweet Child of Mine" to "Immigrant Song", The Roots preferred to put on a show that accentuated the "rockness" of the band and neglected the genuine free flowing hip hop styling of Black Thought. In a lot of ways, it was more like a Lenny Kravitz show then it was a Roots' hip hop performance.
Local DJ/Producer Eskmo impressed us with his ingenuity in creating live electronica. The dace music mastermind would create live loops on stage making noises with seemly ordinary objects, like opening a beer can or pulling a vinyl record from it's paper sleeve. He would then manipulate the sound and incorporate it into his consistently evolving form of up tempo dance music madness. A modern day Frankenstein of the turn tables.
The night ended with a Girl Talk set that was boringly predictable. Apparently, not much has changed since 2006. Yes, there were a ton of people on stage dancing along side Gregg Gillis, and yes it was kind of cool to listen to Busta Rhymes rap over Vampire Weekend. But in the end it just feels like the same old party that's been going on way too long. After 30 minutes or so we wandered off to to catch a little Muse before heading home. For whatever reason, Muse's arena rock anthems never did appeal to me, so after 15 minutes, we decided to call it a night and try and catch a bus before the rush.
Play Fort
Veviter
Muse
that muse picture is awesome. indicative of these big festival's biggest problem, that's for sure
It's "Crying Lightning" not "Quiet Lightning."
:)