virgin mobile freefest 2010

I'm torn as to how to approach writing about Virgin Fest this year. It was a lot of things--good and bad, great and horrific, life-changing and soul-crushing, often simultaneously. I guess I'll just start from the beginning.

I had been to Virgin Fest in 2007 and 2008, both at the Pimlico Race Track, a large, open venue with plenty of free space to move around and tons of room for all the vendors, stages, and tents they felt like putting up. Since 2009, the year I was too late to get tickets, Virgin Fest has been at Merriweather Post Pavilion, a venue I know very well at this point. I was there for the last HFStival in 2006, I went to several Warped Tours, and saw R.E.M., Modest Mouse, and the National a few years ago. I'm probably missing a few, but you get the point--I've been there a lot. I remember laughing out loud when I heard Animal Collective had named an album after it.

This place is not festival material. It's just not. For a single concert, it's fantastic. Between the pit, pavilion seating, and elevated lawn seating, there's not a bad seat to be had. But for a constantly shifting audience, numerous headlining acts, and multiple stages, it's a disaster area. The place was congested everywhere you went by 1 pm. The wooded area offered some respite from the crowds, but even there it was a madhouse by the late afternoon. Just too much. It's hard to call that kind of environment a festival--it was just a really big concert.

The pit was a disaster area. We arrived early, met up with some friends, and came up with a traditional festival plan: we would get up front early for the opening band (Brite Lite Brite--they need to stop making music immediately), stay for Jimmy Eat World, who we kinda wanted to see, and snag great spots for Edward Sharpe. Right after the opening band came off, however, the pit was emptied by a crew of security guards, and a new batch of people were allowed to go in.

So imagine this scene: You've just sat through a horrendous DJ/female vocalist duo waiting for the next band. They leave, and you're suddenly told to go back up the stairs, filing past a line of people who got to the pit after you did, and get in line behind them. Two minutes later, the line is allowed back into the pit, and you're ten feet behind your original position. I don't think I've been more frustrated in my entire life.

I was pissed. Here's what I furiously sent in to Twitter at the time:

"The crowd setup at Merriweather for Virgin Fest is truly scary. This has disaster written all over it."

"30k people and they're trying to clear the pit after every set, without letting people out through the pavilion seating."

"Meanwhile people are already lining up for the next band. People running to get into the pit while an entire crowd is being pushed out."

"This is Who seating on steroids."

Obviously I was overstating with that last part, but it very easily could have turned bad. I definitely ended up trampling somebody on my way to grabbing a spot for Pavement, but to the best of my knowledge no one was seriously injured as a result of the system. Still, it was fucking ridiculous and completely against the nature of music festivals. It's common practice to wait in line at the opening gates, sprint to the main stage as fast as you can, and stand there the entire day waiting for your favorite band to play. Hell, it's a tradition as old as music festivals themselves. If you don't get there early enough to see your favorite band upfront, too bad. Plan further ahead next time.

As a result, people were frequently lining up hours ahead of performances to get good spots. We were in line for about two hours to see Pavement, and even then, we were a good 20-30 people back in line. For people who didn't understand the system or didn't see it early enough to plan ahead, they were screwed. Oh well. Go to a real festival next time.

The entire venue was saturated in advertisements. It was disgusting, especially after going to a festival like Whartscape, where they didn't even sell brand name beverages, let alone have advertiser-funded vendor stands at every corner. There were some cool elements to it, like the Ferris wheel, or the beds and tents set up in the forest (the tee-pees were hotboxed instantly, no doubt), but even then it was THE KYOCERA MOBILE DANCE FOREST or whatever they were calling it. And yeah, I know the whole thing was free, I'm not that naïve, I know there's going to be advertising to pay for it, but I still ended up spending $70 on food and beer, so forgive me if paying $8 for a Shock Top distracted me from the kindness of Virgin Mobile for paying attention to my needs at a time of economic hardship, or whatever bullshit they were selling us.

And then there's the fact that the show wasn't even entirely free. Merriweather roped off the better part of the pavilion seats and charged $50 for them, but a bare fraction of them were sold, leaving them empty for the vast majority of the festival. During LCD Soundsystem's set, the last of the day, James Murphy said something to the likes of "it's the end of the day, so thank you to the organizers for letting the kids come into the pavilion seats." What he didn't realize was that people had been allowed to sit in the upper pavilion seats all day, and that they were still stopping people from coming down from the lawn. Why, I have no idea. There was no money left to be made, there was only an hour or so left in the festival, why not let them come down? It was just disgusting to watch, honestly.

In the end though, it's hard to complain. I paid a shit-ton of money on beer, but I got to see some great bands. Mainly I got to see Pavement. Like the Pavement. The real reunited line-up and everything. It was tremendous. The only downside was the horrible scheduling between the two main stages, meaning I had to miss Yeasayer, M.I.A., Ludacris, Sleigh Bells, and a ton of other Dance Forest bands I would've loved to check out. But that's just classic Virgin Fest right there--I had to miss out on TV on the Radio, Bob Dylan, Stone Temple Pilots, the Black Keys, Kanye West, and a lot of other acts because of similar problems. but let's get to the bands I did see.

8. Brite Lite Brite - Good fucking lord were they awful. It was a DJ and a female vocalist. Apparently a lot of people voted for them. No one I know did. He was a pretty great DJ, all things considered. I was digging the beats. But she was completely tone-deaf. It was hard to sit through. And since we had to leave our spots after their set, it was all for nothing.

7. Matt & Kim - This is a tricky one. I love "Daylight," but I absolutely hate every other song they have. We forced to sit through them during our wait for Pavement, and when they played their original music, it was truly painful to watch. But as a live band, they're pretty damn good. They know their audience--energetic tweens who love that crunkcore ironic bullshit--and they gave them what they wanted to see. They took the stage to "Where Brooklyn At" by Biggie, jumping around the stage and hyping themselves up. I even got a little excited for them, I'll admit, but then they started playing their own god-awful shitty hookless synth music and I was lost. They frequently stand on their instruments, lead the audience in fist-pumping sessions, etc., etc., all corny attempts at getting the crowd into it that completely worked. They were the most energetic crowd their. It was astonishing. When they played a short instrumental cover of "Let Me Clear My Throat," the place went absolutely insane. And I'll admit it--when they played parts of "Just a Friend," I got into it. They got me.

6. Neon Indian - This is a very solid sixth place. There was nothing wrong with them at all. They were mesmerizing to watch live, really. We just didn't stay very long for them. If you get a chance to see them live, do it.

5. Thievery Corporation - I'm one of the countless people who only know this band from the Garden State soundtrack. I'll admit it. But their performance made me want to really get into them. They have a bassist, guitarist/sitarist (I'm almost 100% it was the same guy who played sitar with Edward Sharpe at this show), two DJs, a saxophone, trumpet, and percussion player, who created a steady stream of flawless funk/jazz/dub/reggae/rock as guest vocalists came in and out between songs. It was fantastic festival music, stuff you could enjoy from half a mile away with a beer in hand. Which I did.

4. Jimmy Eat World - They were great, in the sense that they played lots of great songs with a great band sound, but man do they lack in stage presence. Lead singer/guitarist Jim Adkins sends every ounce of angst riveting through your body as he performs, but the other guys just do nothing. But they played a bunch of songs I love, and I had a blast seeing them. Side note though: the crowd was atrocious. There was a mosh pit running during the opening of "23." "23." Quite possibly the most depressing song in their catalog. That was a real buzzkill to watch from afar.

3. LCD Soundsystem - They might've gotten bumped up to #2, but several factors came into play about half an hour into their set. 1) I was drunk. 2) My companion/D-D was very, very sober. 3) We still wanted to party when we got back on campus. 4) They played "All My Friends," which was the song we both desperately wanted to see. So we left early. Their stage setup was simply incredible, creating a multi-tiered setup of 7 musicians surrounding James Murphy, who guided them through each song. They were tight as hell, never missing a beat, and the songs were catchy and fun as always. I'd love to see them again.

2. Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros - I'm not going to top what I wrote about them here, so I won't try. They were great, again. The crowd was terrible though, and I missed a great deal of Alex's wonderful monologues because of the endless screaming of the pre-pubescent girls who wouldn't know what to do with Alex even if they got him. He was delightful as always, walking on the crowd barrier, getting as close to the audience as (I'm guessing) Merriweather would allow him to. Jade was subdued, which was disappointing, but the rest of the band was a vibrant as ever. This time around, however, I came to the conclusion that I really don't like any of their songs beyond "Home." They're still incredible live though.

1. Pavement - Not the greatest show I've ever seen, but definitely one of the most memorable. I mean it was fucking Pavement. Stephen Malkmus was everything I ever thought he would be live. The band was just as sloppy as I had dreamed they would be. I knew every song they played, and I knew at least the choruses of 90% of them. They played "Summer Babe [Winter Version]," "Cut Your Hair," "Two States," "Stereo," "Grounded," "Gold Soundz," "Shady Lane," and so many more amazing songs. It was a brilliant greatest hits show. Knock this one off of my bucket list. I can die a little happier.