ML @ Virgin Mobile Festival 2008, Review.
(As you may know, I was kinda sick so it took a few days more than planned, but here it is, enjoy).
It’s the third time ML has sweated out a weekend enthralled in great music courtesy of Baltimore’s Virgin Mobile Festival. Year 3 of the festival definitely brought its memorable moments by the horse load (pun!). Here is what this ML’s 4-pack of eyeballs (HM + I) saw:
As soon as the ML crew (including the gf and body guards) hit the I-95 we realized we were direction-less, but fear not my buster Samsung Blackjack with google maps would come to the rescue right? Sorta.. while we made it to the venue, a little later than planned, we did get a tour of most of the roadways in inner-city Bmore, the whole car “ooh and ahhed” as we recognized elements from the set of The Wire. We even saw some hot real estate opportunities:
All of this sightseeing made us hungry so we even made a pitstop at a Burger King.
We finally made it to the parking lot where America’s young people were in preparation for the music festival by studying lyrics and cue sheets, in between keg stands.
Erol Alkan
When we finally entered Pimlico we checked out the Dance Tent for a few moments which had Erol Alkan’s electronic flavorings, unfortunately it was about 12 hours too early to be listening to this music so we moved on.
Duffy
Duffy had a great percussion setup but there was something too nice about her everything- voice and image. I think she is made for home listening. I wouldn’t mind seeing her perform “Mercy (Remix)” with The Game though, maybe that can help her attract some Bloods to her fan base too.
HM: We were a little late for Saturday morning, but we arrived on time to see Duffy start. We only stayed for two songs. I didn’t enjoy it, but I’m not really into her music anyway.
Gogol Bordello
I’ve heard about Gogol for a while, but never got to experience them. Let’s just say they lived up to all the hype. From band members running around with accordions, violins, and backup singers dressed in costumes, it was a sight to see even before you heard the music. But then the gypsy punk was catchy as hell with various elements like buckets and huge drums incorporated through out. Even though it was hard to understand most of the lyrics the performance was highly enjoyable.
HM: We moved to the South Stage for the last half of Gogol Bordello. The only thing I had heard about these guys is that they were a gypsy punk band. Their sound was somewhere between the festive songs from an old Disney movie and a California hardcore band. I really liked them a lot. Plus, the stage show was insane as the lead singer kept clutching this bottle of wine and these cheerleader girls ran from mic to mic assisting on vocal duties. This is definitely I band I would see again.
Lupe Fiasco
HM & I had seen Lupe perform live once before for free.99 at last summer’s Artscape. Even thought he only had one album under his belt, we were left impressed. The bar was set high for this performance, because since we had last seen him he has released another solid album and got a live band to back him up. Unfortunately our high expectations were not met, but little had to with Lupe’s own doing. We were pretty up close for his performance, which was our first biggest mistake- people were crowd surfing like this was some hardcore rock show.. the audience was clearly not prepared for this. In fact, Lupe had the most crowd surfing going on out of all the acts we saw. Then to add insult to injury, you had 300lb morons who thought it would be cool to join in on the fun, lets just say after this bs I set an appointment with my chiropractor (NO HMO) for my shoulder. This alone made it very difficult to focus on the music coming from the stage. Despite all of this enthusiasm for crowd surfing, the crowd as a whole gave Lupe a lukewarm reception at best, doing a complete 180 on the energy they had just showed Gogol on the same stage. Contributing factors to the misery included Lupe being marred by technical difficulties that resulted in a few minutes of a painfully long pause, which prompted Lupe to make an off hand comment- “I’m never coming back here again”. When I asked a few other concertgoer’s about the comment, only few caught it though. In the end Lupe played a few minutes less than his allotted time (only 6 songs!) and he wrapped it all up with “Daydreaming” and a nice backflip. It looked like Lupe is picking up pointers from the Gymnastics at the Olympics. Even though the backflip was nice, I left the south stage bummed.
HM: Lupe Fiasco was terrible. First of all, the dude came on late and only played half of his set. His monitors stopped working half way through his set so we were forced to listen to a 5 minute sound check. The crowd was also very unresponsive; people were fighting in the front row; and motherfuckers kept crowd surfing on me. The height of lameness came when Lupe asked the crowd to shout out “god is great”, but practically no one responded and he mumbled “I’m never coming back here”. Trying to get hot and bothered festival goers excited about god after a sound check? Not a good look.
Soulwax
This Belgian act was one of the best acts to show up in the Dance tent during the weekend. Even though they were a little late for whatever reason, the 4-piece electro band simply rocked out with their tightly organized electronic sound and made it worth the wait. Their rendition of Daft Punk’s “Robot Rock” was pure dope. When I ran into their Bass player, Stefaan, near the racetrack after the set he said he was happy with how it all turned out despite the fact they rarely play this early in the day.
HM: We took a short break then moved on to Soulwax. I had seen these guys at a prior Virgin Festival performing as 2 Many DJs. They were great then, and they were great now. They performed a lot of remixes from their old and new stuff. I really enjoyed the live drum element, and they had an intense amount of stage energy. They ended the show with crowd pleasers like their cover of Phantom by Justice, and Robot Rock by Daft Punk.
The Offspring / Chuck Berry / Citizen Cope,
The Post didn’t like The Offspring much, but I did. Because they were a part of the music I grew up on, I will always have a soft spot for them. I’m not going to say they are the most deep or technically amazing band, but they do have a pretty large catalogue of fun catchy jams that know how to rock a crowd. When I heard “All I Want” during the set all I could think about was flashbacks of that song blaring as I played Crazy Taxi on the Sega Dreamcast for the first time. The band was having fun with themselves as well as with the crowd, a solid act for sure. We decided to grab some food after this while catching parts of Citizen Cope & Chuck Berry. Citizen Cope was on the North Stage, the same stage as Duffy & Jack Johnson aka the take-a-nap-on-the-grass music. His music was fine but it was just kind of boring when listened to in such a huge venue. Chuck Berry on the other made us pay for not being too close for his most of his set as he rocked out, playing his hits and Beatles covers (with his Japanese Beatles cover band). He finished the set with a bunch of young girls/women dancing on the stage, showing that the mans pimp hand is still strong.
HM: After another break, we caught the second half of the Offspring. I was never a huge Offspring fan in my younger days, but I liked them enough. They played a great set with all the hits, and they sounded fantastic. I started to get tired again so we chilled and watched a bit of Citizen Cope, Wilco, and Chuck Berry from a distance. My favorite was Chuck Berry because of his captain suit and the mob of girls he brought on at the end of his set. Dude is my hero.
Foo Fighters
It was a no-brainier decision to watch the Foo Fighters close out Saturday as we didn’t want to listen to the songs from the Curious George soundtrack. The decision paid off as Foo Fighters showed they are true American rockband that simply kicks ass. Playing their semi-homecoming show (Dave Grohl is from Northern Virginia), they seemed really happy to be at the festival. Grohl was ready to go, as he told the crowd he just got back from the beach and was ready to “rock our asses out”. He joked about playing longer then we can stand on our feet or endure without going to the bathroom. Marking about the 1-year mark since the band reunited with original guitarist Pat Smear (sidenote: In elementary school one of my best friends, Vivek, was obsessed with Pat Smear for whatever reason so I’ve always been following him closely), they ran through all of theirs hits with huge amount of crowd interaction and energy. When they played “Cheer Up, Boys” the 3rd single off their last album, complete with music breaks, it really came across as a classic rock-n-roll jam. Through out the night I noticed that Taylor Hawkings plays like the drums like a mad men, puffing a cigarette during quick breaks, the man is easily one of the top 5 active drummers. There was prolific playing on all the instruments on stage including the triangle (the instrument you played in the 3rd grade as Grohl called it), as a band member played a triangle solo. The crowd also provided some personal entertainment courtesy of some frat bros who failed miserably at attempting a mosh pit near where we were standing. After the crowd stepped back to laugh at this foolery, the bros soon left. Even more laughter was delivered via Grohl who dedicated an acoustic “Skin & Bones” to all the kids in the rave tent “kissing people they don’t know”. A perfect band to end day 1 of VMF.
(Sidenote #2: The Foo Fighters were supposed to be my first concert when they played in the parking lot of Tower Records in 1997ish, but I was late and missed it due to some family reasons, so more than 10 years later it all came full circle.)
HM: Closing up Saturday, the Foo Fighters performed. Their set was one of the best of the festival. Dave Grohl swore whenever possible and they really encouraged crowd participation. When he introduced the band he spent extra time on his drummer and made a point of calling him by his government name, Oliver Taylor Hawkins, instead of Taylor Hawkins. Dave Grohl also kept saying that they were going to play until they were asked to leave, but they ended their set right on time. It didn’t matter though. They were great anyway, and Sunday was ahead.
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