Metal Lungies

We saw Kanye West perform live twice this past weekend, and no, we didn’t hop on a PJ to do it. ML didn’t make it to ‘Made In America’ this year but we took the consolation prize of streaming Kanye West performing live on back-to-back nights from the comfort of our sofa (shout out to our MVP, our Chromecast (its name: ‘Lil Plug)). With Kanye headlining both the Philadelphia (Saturday) & Los Angeles (Sunday) editions of ‘Made In America’, it was irresistible not to compare how Kanye’s performance changed and to see which would ultimately be the better show. Being able to see Kanye on back-to-back nights on a stream in today’s major-festival-streaming-performances era is unique because: A) not all big headliners make it to a festival’s stream; B) you don’t see the same big act streaming on back to back nights ever.

While the setlist was pretty much identical in the two performances, Los Angeles was clearly the better performance (from the sofa vantage point) purely because the LA crowd’s energy was a notch above Philly. They sang along at the top of their lungs– louder than Kanye at times–which you could tell he was feeding off of. The crowd made way better “circles” (Kanye’s roundabout way of getting the crowd to mosh) for Blood On the Leaves. The lighting & camera guys were on point in LA as opposed to Philly where Kanye dedicated a ‘stream of consciousness’ to those gaffes. The closing at each respective performance showed which Kanye enjoyed more– in Philly the show ended with a mic drop and an exit from the stage, whereas LA  got an extended encore and an “I love you, LA” shout out with no mic drop when Kanye exited the stage.

If you watched both, what did you think?

Day 4 was our last day of Bonnaroo which is always a bittersweet event. Our legs are tired, our skin is burnt (BECAUSE WE FORGOT TO APPLY OUR NEUTROGENA SUNSCREEN), but we’d gladly take that on the regular if it meant we got to stay on The Farm. We started off the day by making a beeline to the Comedy Tent to see Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer from Comedy Central’s Broad City. In general, the fine folk over at Metal Lungies are huge fans of Comedy Central and recently, Broad City tops the list as one of our most-watched shows. Abbi and Ilana shared their musical picks for life’s finest moments and revelations were had when Ilana announced that her pick for her first kiss would be ‘Santa Baby’. Abbi was blown away when she realized:

Comin’ down the chimney… wait… you guys… it’s a pussy you guys… a pussy!

Emerging from the cool interior of the comedy tent we caught Fitz and the Tantrums enthralled with the televised replay of the CHVRCHES show from Friday night (sorry CHVRCHES, we had to hang out with Vampire Weekend) before they performed a flawless set per usual. Arctic Monkeys took to the What Stage for a mid-afternoon set. They played hits from across their discography including ‘Do I Wanna Know?’ which marked the fourth time we heard the song during the festival. If you’re curious, Arctic Monkeys did it best.

After our last round of Amish donuts and pretzels (can you sense a theme with our tastebuds?), we caught about three songs from Washed Out before we realized that we blew it and had missed the first part of Broken Bells. The second half of Broken Bells’ set sounded phenomenal, our only regret is that we didn’t make it for the whole thing. If you ever have a chance to see James Mercer perform, whether it be with Broken Bells or with The Shins, do it. Little Dragon was up next and there’s something to be said about humble performers really resonating with a crowd. Their set was fantastic, great transitions and stage presence, but it was really the outro that got ML’s attention. They slowed down their last track while their lead singer, Yukimi Nagano, left the stage first. After a lengthy applause, all while the music is still playing, each remaining member left in slow succession and got to have their own moment to attract some love. We were really impressed with egos being set aside and everyone getting credit for their work.

Wiz Khalifa was the last act before Sir Elton John took his spot as the last headliner. Wiz is always so relaxed on stage that he’s just really fun to watch. We were amused that he performed ’23’, rapping “J’s on my feet,” while wearing Teva’s. I guess that’s fitting… you can’t really skateboard on acres and acres of grass and mud. When you aren’t rapping over your own backing vocal track, you have a pass to wear anything. Elton John closed out Bonnaroo 2014 with medleys of his hits, the crowd was definitely into it but not quite as much as previous royalty, Paul McCartney, who visited The Farm last summer.

Best of the day: Little Dragon

NBA Jersey of the day: Charles Barkley, USA Olympic Team ’96

Fitbit steps on Bonaroo Day #4:

Dj01:

Meaghatron:

Most Played Song at Bonnaroo  (by various acts): Arctic Monkeys’ ‘Do I Wanna Know?’ and Disclosure’s ‘Latch’

Day 3 of Bonnaroo 2014 was our most grueling physical test yet. We started the day with a daytime dance session courtesy of the electro-pop duo Classixx who played a dance-worthy selection of their original songs as well their remixes of songs such as  Yacht’s  ‘Psychic City’.  Later we caught Cake which was a trip back in time as everyone at the Which Stage  seemed familiar with their 90’s run of hits, and we’re talking a huge crowd. As we heard the iconic brass section on the ‘Going the Distance’, we couldn’t help but wonder if they also helped father some late 90’s rap-rock. We had a brief intermission where we stopped to check out some of the food trucks and bake in the direct sun to watch some of the Italy vs. England World Cup mega-match. When wandering the Bonnaroo Food Trucks, you can’t go wrong with veteran Roti Rolls, 2nd year in a row that their spicy asian flatbreads made our mouths happily on fire. Refueled and not sunburned (THANKS NUETROGENA SUNSCREEN, PLEASE SPONSOR THIS RAP BLOG) we went to catch some shade with the soul (and really like 5 other genres) legend, Bobby Womack. He hit the stage late with his band dressed to the nines. There’s something nice that there is no mailing it in and wearing dad shorts and t-shirts for musical legends (lookin’ at you, Jimmy Buffet). We only got to see Bobby and his band warm up before the Comedy Theater called. That’s where Craig Robinson showed the festival that not only is he hilarious (Hot Tub Time Machine, anyone?) but extremely musically inclined. At times it actually seemed there was more music than humor which worked in his favor.

With the sun setting, it was the perfect time for the self-dubbed ‘Funk Lordz’, Chromeo, to hit their biggest stage yet in their 3rd Bonnaroo appearance, Which Stage. The duo have boiled down performing to a science with their electro-synthy laden funk tracks arriving in perfect sequence. Dave-1’s energy and interaction with the crowd assured that everyone was grooving for the duration of their set. After Chromeo it was still time to dance (it’s always time to dance), but in a more down-tempo manner, with James Blake. James Blake is an artist who has done an extremely good job of transforming his electro-r&b songs to be just as captivating live as they are in recorded form. Next up was Ms Lauryn Hill, who we were very intrigued to see perform. We were wondering how would she fit in a music festival like Bonnaroo and she answered us loud and clear. She reminded The Farm that she can fit right in and is one of the most talented musicians of our generation. Hitting all sorts of sounds from rock to reggae as she belted out her hit songs (both solo and Fugees)… it’s one of those sets you don’t want to end.  Her massive band, which included 3 back up singers, had the crowd going crazy, and displayed a well rehearsed and executed set list. Ms. Hill still has the voice AND can still rap her ass off, which we think some people forget sometimes.

Not wanting to leave Ms. Hill’s  set early and not wanting to miss any of the SuperJam, we were only able to catch a handful of Jack White’s headlining set which spanned his solo and group material. His whole image and sound is specifically orchestrated, from the outfit down to the mic, and makes it sound like a concert from more than a few decades ago. All of this results in a great rock package. Outside of the music Jack White’s anecdotes and random observations he really had us amused. Including the quote of the day, which came after White observed some floating lanterns that were lit by lasers inside, he thought the contraptions were like

China meets the internet

Passing up more rock and really amazing observations from White, we headed to the Skrillex–hosted SuperJam to cap the night. This performance reminded us that SuperJams are really moments that can’t be missed, simply because they can never ever be replicated again, and that’s something truly unique to this festival. Skrillex had a huge bundle of artist come out, including but not limited to: Mystikal, Mike Einziger (Incbuus), Lauryn Hill, A$AP Ferg, Damian Marley, Jonalle Monae, Matt Shultz (Cage the Elephant), Fatman Scoop, Big Gigantic, Craig Robinson, Robby Krieger (The Doors). There were too many songs to list in the over 3 hour long performance, from covers  (Ferg doing Juicy) to some of the artists’ biggest hits (Monae’s Tightrope) often reworked into longer jams. It was really an experience that you know you’ll be thinking back on years later. By curating this sort of lineup and playing guitar throughout, it also changed our whole perception of Skrillex showing that he is much more than just an EDM DJ.

Best of the day: Ms. Lauryn Hill

NBA Jersey of the day: Bobby Hurley, Sacramento Kings

Fitbit steps on Bonnaroo Day #3:

Dj01:

Meaghatron: 

On day 2 of Bonnaroo, Seun Kuti started off a delayed 2 PM set by leading his late father’s band, Egypt 80. They sounded fantastic but had a crew of the most apathetic facial-expressioned musicians. After deliberation we agreed that the shekere (think gourd-maraca hybrid) player won for least-enthused. We then headed over to see Sam Smith perform who, as shy as he may seem, had an amazing vocal performance for an outdoor venue. As it was overcast with a threat of rain we headed over to the Comedy Tent to catch TJ Miller’s (HBO’s Silicon Valley) set that had just started. We lucked out because we got there just in time to have Rory Scovel have us laughing so hard that it hurt. More than half of his jokes were centered around a keyboard that was hanging off to the side of the stage… but we weren’t mad. Once that let out we hurried over to see Ben Howard (Amish donuts in hand, as you do) perform a really heartfelt set that we couldn’t tear ourselves away from.

Thus begins the portion of the night where we stood in mud for four hours… and it was worth it. Vampire Weekend performed every possible song you could want to hear from their discography on the What Stage. While Ezra was crooning we decided that we would forgo moving stages and try to get a good vantage point for Kanye.

To warm up the crowd, Kanye blared Pink Floyd’s ‘Time’ which was a fitting, because it was time for Kanye to return to The Farm. Opting to not use the two big screens most headliners use, Kanye used a stage high monitor that displayed a mostly inverted color image of  himself. The sides of the stage were draped in stage high curtains which displaced VIPs to the soundboard. The first mention of Kanye’s infamous 2009 ‘Glow In The Dark’ era performance at Bonnaroo, was about there being ‘F*** Kanye’ written on the portapotties prior to his show. The song list was a slight variation from the ‘Yeezus’ arena stateside run. Differences stood out included Mike Dean’s solo guitar shredding on ‘Say You Will’. It would be very un-Kanye to not address his previous Bonnaroo. And he did. The highlight from Kanye’s always unscripted rants was mentioning dead historical figures levels he was trying to reach ranging from Henry Ford to Shakespeare. He went on to mention Elon Musk, which Kanye realized was still alive, and was “his boy”. He went on as he reflected on his career singing “They told me I would never play the Super Bowl, not until I’m super old”. Dj01 caught a chin to the back of the head during ‘Touch The Sky’, when Kanye asked the crowd to test something he was told about the ground shaking if 100,000 people jumped together. He lived and the ground shook.

After stretching our legs and trying in vain to scrape the mud off our shoes we caught Ice Cube announcing “If you think I’m just about Coors Light and kid movies” as an intro to ‘Check Yo Self’. Next, Disclosure brought out Sam Smith as the worst-kept-secret surprise guest to perform ‘Latch’ which, obviously, the crowd went crazy for. Rounding out the night, Skrillex‘s performance felt as if you were in a video game (it even featured Windows XP blue screens).  He brought out  Damian “Gong” Marley as sneak peak of sorts for his day 3 SuperJam.

Best of the day: Ben Howard

Bonus best: TJ Miller’s response to an audience member yelling “Your girlfriend’s hot!”:

No shit, bitch. I was in Yogi Bear 3D

NBA Jersey of the day: Mike Bibby, Vancouver Grizzlies

Fitbit steps on Bonnaroo Day #2:

Dj01:

Meaghatron:

Day 1 of Bonnaroo 2014 for ML started off with checking out the one band man Robert DeLong who continued to impress by playing a mix of electronic instruments (including a Wii controller) along with drums and keys. With time to kill we stumbled across Quickie Mart at the Silent Disco which is new and improved for the 2014 season. Quickie Mart is a DJ that is new to us but his mix of trap beats and his Simpsons referenced moniker were all fine by us. Next up was MS MR, who drew a huge crowd with their sound that felt to us like a perfect blend of  Broods, Florence & The Machine and Paramore at times. Their cover of LCD Soundsystem’s  ‘Dance Yrself Clean’ was the highlight. Later in the night we checked out Poliça who, if you didn’t know, is made up of members from Gayngs, Bon Iver, and Doomtree.

Best of the day: BANKS. The young singer had a voice that delivered live.  Her cover of Aaliyah’s ‘Are You That Somebody’ did the masterpiece justice, encore worthy. Calling it now, she’s got next.

NBA Jersey of the day: 94-95 Mookie Blaylock Away.

Meaghatron and I are slightly obsessed with tracking the amount of steps we take during a day and last year we hit our respective all-time highs at Bonnaroo. To track just how much fitness you get from just attending Bonnaroo (and to see if we can reach new highs), we will be posting our daily step counts.

Dj01:

Meaghatron:

Our bandanas are ready, we are fully lathered in Nutregena SPF-30 sunscreen and we are off to Bonnaroo. We’ve lost count on how many of these we’ve been to. Here is a quick and easy cheat list of acts you should see. We’ve picked 5 acts per day outside of any headliners.

Thursday

• MS MR
• BANKS
• Pusha T
• White Denim
• Hannibal Buress

Friday

• Seun Kuti
• Sam Smith
• Danny Brown
• Ben Howard
• CHVRCHES
• BONUS: Kanye West

Saturday

• Classixx
• Damon Albarn
• Chromeo
• James Blake
• Frank Ocean

Sunday

• Fitz & The Tantrums
• Broken Bells
• Little Dragon
• Capital Cities
• A$AP Ferg

If you scrambling last minute to pack be sure to check out, our suggested things to bring we’ve written about in the past. In addition to that we reflect on years past here are some additional #protips:

• Buy the Bonnaroo Soccer jersey, seriously, it’s the most original  festival merchandise we’ve seen.
• Eat a lot of Amish Donuts and Pretzels, after trying them you will be daydreaming about these diet-ruining treats all year. and contemplating driving down to Ft. Lauderdale just to have some (it’s where the company is based out of, we’ve done extensive research on the matter.
• We’ve mentioned this in 2012, but, pop a lot of….  Vitmain C or Emergen-C. You don’t want that “Bonnaroo plague” hitting you on Monday.
• Speaking of Monday, don’t rush to leave Tennessee, hang out in Nashville. There are so many delicious places to try to eat at, if you like coffee and biscuits, check out the Barista Parlor.

Not going to Bonnaroo? Don’t worry, the stream is back again this year (also available on the XBOX app). Meg & Dj01 will both be on twitter, and their instagrams to make to report on what they see, and to make you feel  little a bit of FOMO. Instagram: Dj01 / Meaghatron Twitter: Dj01 / Meaghatron

Budweiser’s (and Jay Z’s) Made in America festival is back for a 2nd year, this year headlined by Mrs. Jay Z (Beyonce) (Saturday) and Nine Inch Nails (Sunday). Shockingly, Metallungies is getting to go.. because we blackmailed a lot of people! As a public service, ML will be on the instagrams, the vines, and the twitters to help you decrease your levels of FOMO.

ML’s must-see list is: Beyonce, Nine Inch Nails, Queens of the Stone Age, Pheonix, Calvin Harris, Empire of the Sun, Imagine Dragons, Kendrick Lamar, Public Enemy, 2 Chainz, A$AP, Walk The Moon, Nero, Porter Robinson, Wolfgang Gartner, Fitz & The Tantrums, HAIM, Schoolboy Q, AB-Soul, GTA, Robert DeLong, Redlight, Jay Rock. Sounds like I listed about 80% of the lineup, which sounds like some good concert lineup curation to me, ML tips our new era cap.

It will be interesting to see which of the days has a bigger/more hype crowd, ML is betting on Saturday. Also assuming this festival comes back next year, can Jay be backed by Illadelphonics? Thanks in advance.

Note: The Wavves were added to the lineup and they don’t appear on the image above.

If you can’t make it Philadelphia, you can watch the stream via youtube which is embedded below. Also, the documentary about last year’s Made in America by Ron Howard has been acquired by Shotwime, and will air October 11, 2013.

Full lineup and set times after the jump.

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I should have known the evening was doomed when I saw that Olay was a sponsor. Really, any sponsored show that isn’t a festival is usually pretty questionable. As soon as we walked in it was clear that only a small group of people were going to show up. The people that are still living as if it were 2008, constantly talking about how cool MGMT is (nope) and “have you heard of this band called Passion Pit?” (stop it). Even the band members themselves seemed tired, dated. This all came as a surprise to me, the last time I saw CSS was actually the first time I ever went on an adventure in the name of Metallungies and I honestly had a blast. How much can a band change in two years? Or have my tastes really changed that much? Reflectively, I think it’s one of those situations where you grow centimeter by centimeter over the course of a year and by the time summer rolls around your tall tee has become a crop top. Music has changed pretty drastically over the last four or five years speaking from a stylistic production level. CSS’ sound just isn’t “in” anymore. They sound more like a show you stumble upon in a local neighborhood rather than a band that has been producing albums for years. They haven’t evolved. I expected more from the show in general; a slightly less lethargic crowd, a slightly more energetic band… if you’re playing the guitar, I want to feel that you know how to play it well. It was a strange and disappointing evening, salvaged only by the bartender trusting me with real glass when I ordered a drink, a testament to how thin the crowd was and therefore how lacking the fan base is.

Another June is here and what do you know, MetalLungies is going back to a farm south of Nashville in Manchester, TN, yet again.

As long we even have 56k-esque data service on our phone we will try to vine, instagram, twitter as much as possible as FCC regulations allow.

Not braving the best farm of ten-a-key? Ustream will be streaming all weekend long a pretty comprehensive offering of the acts performing live.

Instead of just listing a bunch of names like we have in years past, or hyping up some scenester dude name Paul McCartney, Meaghatron & Myself picked out some #protip picks to see at the festival.

Check them after the jump.

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Click to enlarge.

If you’re going to be in LA this Sunday and you’re cultured, check out what promises to be an amazing tribute to 70s soul. Names that pop out: Miguel-Atwood Ferguson, Seu Jorge, Questlove. Someone tell Andrew Lojero that New York needs some hot buttered soul in between Bieber concerts.