The Good:
1. Heart: Why oh why were the lovely Wilson sisters not the headliners of this 80's themed concert instead of Journey? Who knows, but after blazing through a set of greatest hits, Ann and Nancy proved two things: female rockers can still play guitar and wail out their hits just as good as any of their over-50 male counterparts, and that you definitely don't need to be a headliner to steal the show. The set highlights? The sisters pairing up to rip through a cover of "Battle of Evermore" and their hit "Crazy on You" during the encore.
2. Noel Gallagher of Oasis: For keeping his cool during a high stress situation (see Ugly), and after a brief hiatus, taking the stage once again to play the highlight of not only the Oasis set, but possibly the whole day, with an acoustic version of "Don't Look Back In Anger" that left the entire crowd in awe. The rapturous applause afterwards for Noel were certainly justified, not only for the incredible performance, but for doing so in such a relaxed manner in the face of a stressful predicament.
3. "Lazy Eye" by the Silversun Pickups: The entire Silversun Pickups set was pretty incredible, as the L.A. based group knows how to make zone-out guitar shredding tantalizingly hypnotic, and did so no better than on their popular single, which closed out their entertaining late-afternoon set.
4. Spiral Beach and Sons & Daughters: The two winners of the award for Bands We Discovered and Loved While at a Music Festival. Spiral Beach opened the main stage, while Scottish group Sons & Daughters headlined the alternative stage. Both were incredibly catchy and had great rapport with the crowd. In the case of Sons & Daughters, that rapport was so good that it reached us even from inside the buzz-happy depths of the beer garden.
5. Jason Tait of The Weakerthans: While the entire Weakerthans set was fantastic as usual, particular kudos go to sometime Broken Social Scene contributor Tait, whose talents on all things percussion raised the performance from live to lively.
For The Bad and The Ugly from the two concerts, take a look after the jump!
The Bad:
Paul Weller: One could blame this on my demographic being not exactly the one Weller goes after. Or you could blame it on me not knowing any of his songs previously. Yet I enjoy many acts much older than Weller, and not knowing any songs was the same case for Sons & Daughters, and they were wonderful. My issue lies with Weller's inability to get the crowd riled up. Heck, Weller failed to even keep the crowd interested, which was noticeable when they barely registered his exit. If Virgin was gonna go for an aging British rock star to add to the lineup, couldn't they at least have gotten Iggy Pop, like they did for the Baltimore V-fest?
2. Lineups: They're always a pain at concerts and music festivals. However, this weekend two were particularly brutal. The first being the sluggish traffic line we waited in for over an hour to get parking at the Amphitheatre, causing us to miss Cheap Trick entirely. Seriously, what's the point in holding a concert if you can't have adequate parking for it? The second was the lineup to get into the DJ tent to see Moby, the lineup for which was longer than the bathroom and beer garden lines combined. While this proves that the Mobster still has some popularity holding over from the late 90's, waiting that long to see only a DJ set bordered on ludicrous.
3. Journey: After witnessing this debacle, I may have to reverse my previous feelings in the Journey vs. Boston debate. While "Don't Stop Believing" was of course a highlight, the rest of the 80 minute set was mixed at best. While new lead singer Arnel Pineda certainly sounds like Steve Perry, he, along with the rest of the band, did very little to connect with the crowd. By the time they had walked off for the stage (and barely even greeting the crowd with any acknowledgment), it was as if the band had lost its favour with the crowd. Plus, out of their 30 year career, the band often focused on the new stuff. Who wants to hear the new stuff?
The Ugly:
1. The Moron Who Tried to Attack the Gallagher Brothers: So the Gallagher brothers of Oasis got into a fight at V-Fest. Oddly enough, this time it wasn't with each other. Whoever the turd was who decided to rush the stage and attack Noel Gallagher, it was obviously not the smartest move. The Gallagher brothers are notoriously prickly when things don't go their way, and many in the crowd (myself included) attributed the band cutting their set short (by almost 30 minutes) to the fact that someone had tried to physically assault them. With a set that focused primarily on new stuff and was surprisingly singles-lite, I'd like to thank Noel and Liam's would-be attacker for not letting me hear "Don't Go Away". Or "Do You Know What I Mean". Or "Champagne Supernova". And I'd like to thank them with a smack on the face.
2. Danko Jones: I've never been a huge Danko fan, and clearly Danko himself is having issues with people not being big fans. While it was humorous at first that Jones took a few jabs at his own band for not being the headliner, it turned awkward when Jones spent over five minutes urging the crowd to "pretend he's Oasis" and cheer louder for him. While it worked at first, the schtick went on too long, and it became pretty clear that Jones has personal issues with his waning popularity. Sorry Danko, but maybe you could take a lesson or two from Sisqo, and learn to accept your waning popularity graciously by appearing on Gone Country.
3. Liam Gallagher of Oasis: For throwing an obvious temper tantrum after the above-mentioned attack on brother Noel, and leaving the stage angrily throughout the rest of the set. Um, Liam, last we saw, the guy attacked your brother, not you. Chill dude, concert temper tantrums involving your brother are soooo 1997.
And now, for some clips from Oasis, including one showing the brief attack on Noel, check out below. Enjoy!
First, here's Noel getting attacked at 1:29
Which he then returned from and sang "Don't Look Back In Anger".
"Wonderwall"
No comments:
Post a Comment