No clams were actually baked, as far as I can tell.
I went to the WFNX Clambake with pvfirenice this past Sunday. It was a music festival on Landsdowne St. and the House of Blues. I had a blast.
We got there during Against Me's set, having decided to miss Henry Clay people and not particularly caring about Against Me, either. We found a good place to hang out and proceeded to watch Matt & Kim's set. They were quite the energetic act, dancing around and climbing about during their performance. They played some of their songs, and did instrumental covers of Apache (Jump on it) and The Final Countdown. They also had fun interacting with the audience; they threw a bunch of balloons out before one song, and told a story about a streaker at their last concert. Apparently Kim was naked in a music video, and someone decided to run on stage naked at Cochella. Sadly for him, Cochella was all-ages, and the person is now a registered sex offender in California. Kim did point out that the clambake, however, was 21+. I enjoyed their set a lot.
Next up was Gogol Bordello. Apparently many of my friends are big fans, but I've only heard about one song from them. They were playing an acoustic set, so Mandi went to get closer to the stage while I held the fort. I liked their sound (given the band features an accordion, I would have been culturally amiss not to), but I likely would have enjoyed the set more had I been more familiar with their music. I didn't get into the set until the last song, American Wedding, had me stomping my foot with it. I certainly understood the sentiment, having grown up going to several Polish weddings and hearing stories of same. I'll have to give more of their stuff a listen.
The final act on the street stage was the Silversun Pickups. I like their music, but the 1.5 hour set seemed quite long. It would have helped if I listend to their album some more and knew more than the four radio singles. That said, hearing the four radio singles I knew was quite awesome. Of course, one of these singles (the Substitution) came on during the fake encore. Look, if you omit one of your most popular songs from a set, there's a good chance to expect an encore. The same can be said of ending your set 15 minutes earlier than scheduled. Anyway, the crowd sucked and didn't give terribly much applause at the end. (Mandi tells me that Boston crowds suck in general). Anyway, we didn't deserve the encore, but we got it anyway. Enough people left at the "end" of the set to let us get closer to the stage without too much trouble, which was nice.
Between the street acts and the House of Blues acts, it was time to get food. The food was overpriced, but not absurdly so. The drinks, however, were another story. $4 for a 20oz bottle of diet coke? I'd also paid $7 for a pint-sized (literally!) can of Bud Light. This made the $8 cape-codder (made w/ Skyy) seem like a bargain. We also wandered into the Landsdowne St. Pub and the Bleacher Bar to see what was going on. Since I'd never actually been to Fenway, this was the first time I actually saw the field. I should get around to fixing that at some point.
Finally, it was time to hit the House of Blues. Thankfully, we had seats. They weren't bad, either; third row of the stadium section next to the aisle. The first two acts, Rogue Wave and Nada Surf, weren't anything too special, so I'll just talk about Metric. I'm a big fan of their last album, so it was cool to see them live. Emily Haines was definitely the focus as the lead vocalist while bouncing around the stage with her tambourine or at her keyboard station, a strategically placed fan blowing her hair. I shit you not, there was a fan at under her keyboard whose sole purpose must have been to cause her hair to float upward. Anyway the set was pretty awesome, and I'm looking forward to seeing them again when they open for Muse in October.
We got there during Against Me's set, having decided to miss Henry Clay people and not particularly caring about Against Me, either. We found a good place to hang out and proceeded to watch Matt & Kim's set. They were quite the energetic act, dancing around and climbing about during their performance. They played some of their songs, and did instrumental covers of Apache (Jump on it) and The Final Countdown. They also had fun interacting with the audience; they threw a bunch of balloons out before one song, and told a story about a streaker at their last concert. Apparently Kim was naked in a music video, and someone decided to run on stage naked at Cochella. Sadly for him, Cochella was all-ages, and the person is now a registered sex offender in California. Kim did point out that the clambake, however, was 21+. I enjoyed their set a lot.
Next up was Gogol Bordello. Apparently many of my friends are big fans, but I've only heard about one song from them. They were playing an acoustic set, so Mandi went to get closer to the stage while I held the fort. I liked their sound (given the band features an accordion, I would have been culturally amiss not to), but I likely would have enjoyed the set more had I been more familiar with their music. I didn't get into the set until the last song, American Wedding, had me stomping my foot with it. I certainly understood the sentiment, having grown up going to several Polish weddings and hearing stories of same. I'll have to give more of their stuff a listen.
The final act on the street stage was the Silversun Pickups. I like their music, but the 1.5 hour set seemed quite long. It would have helped if I listend to their album some more and knew more than the four radio singles. That said, hearing the four radio singles I knew was quite awesome. Of course, one of these singles (the Substitution) came on during the fake encore. Look, if you omit one of your most popular songs from a set, there's a good chance to expect an encore. The same can be said of ending your set 15 minutes earlier than scheduled. Anyway, the crowd sucked and didn't give terribly much applause at the end. (Mandi tells me that Boston crowds suck in general). Anyway, we didn't deserve the encore, but we got it anyway. Enough people left at the "end" of the set to let us get closer to the stage without too much trouble, which was nice.
Between the street acts and the House of Blues acts, it was time to get food. The food was overpriced, but not absurdly so. The drinks, however, were another story. $4 for a 20oz bottle of diet coke? I'd also paid $7 for a pint-sized (literally!) can of Bud Light. This made the $8 cape-codder (made w/ Skyy) seem like a bargain. We also wandered into the Landsdowne St. Pub and the Bleacher Bar to see what was going on. Since I'd never actually been to Fenway, this was the first time I actually saw the field. I should get around to fixing that at some point.
Finally, it was time to hit the House of Blues. Thankfully, we had seats. They weren't bad, either; third row of the stadium section next to the aisle. The first two acts, Rogue Wave and Nada Surf, weren't anything too special, so I'll just talk about Metric. I'm a big fan of their last album, so it was cool to see them live. Emily Haines was definitely the focus as the lead vocalist while bouncing around the stage with her tambourine or at her keyboard station, a strategically placed fan blowing her hair. I shit you not, there was a fan at under her keyboard whose sole purpose must have been to cause her hair to float upward. Anyway the set was pretty awesome, and I'm looking forward to seeing them again when they open for Muse in October.