V-Fest, Day 2
So there's been a couple of things that I wanted to get down here. Most of it has already been written in my head and I'm just now getting a chance to put it down. There's gonna be three of these, so apologies in advance for spamming your friends' lists.
This first one is about a week late, but meh... I had the chance to get lunch with Nate and Lyz from college, and I decided to skip some of V-fest to see them. It would have been nice to check out the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, but I don't have any real regrets about my choice.
She & Him - B -- Actress Zooey Deschanel is the so-called frontman for the band, and the main reason I made sure I got to the concert when I did. She's beautiful, but her band was only alright. I liked what they were doing -- folky, bluesy, indie stuff -- but they really suffered from a bad concert lineup. A lot of the people in the audience at the time were there queueing up for the next act -- Lil' Wayne -- but the band made the most of an unappreciative, belligerent audience.
Deadmaus (DJ) - B+ -- This was the beginning of a long dance set for me, so I don't remember this guy too well. I do remember liking the creativity he put into the music, though, and having a great time so well done there.
Lil' Wayne - D -- I had to take a breather and decided to check out some of the other acts happening at the time. I caught one of his songs -- "Pussy Monster" -- and it's *so* not my music. Got out of there before anything else happened.
Taking Back Sunday - B+ -- kind of caught the end of their act, and you could tell that the lead singer was beat. He sings quite high, but must've been abusing his chops 'cause he was missing a lot of the notes. That said, it was a fairly good show and he got the crowd going, which is a lot of what I like.
Richie Hawtin (DJ) - B -- either this guy has done a lot of the techno that I've listened to, or he just played covers of a lot of other DJ's hot sets. Unfortunately, I suspect the latter but it was still a good set and everybody appreciated what he was doing.
Moby (DJ) - A+ -- awesome. Probably the best act I saw all weekend. The plan was to check him out just for just a little bit and then see Dylan and STP, but I couldn't leave. The guy is so intense, commanded the attention of the audience, and was so into his music. A problem that I had with some of the other DJ's was that it seemed like they weren't getting it or having fun -- that they were too cool for their music -- but Moby never stopped dancing for the entire 90 minutes and I felt it changed the dynamic of the atmosphere. I don't think anybody will get a crowd working like he could, either. Incredible.
Nine Inch Nails - A- -- also awesome, but I thought he could've done without all the stage theatrics... Trent spent most of the concert behind an electronic... curtain thing. That doesn't really allow you to interact with the audience too well, but whatever. They played all their best songs and had a great live sound, so NIN was still a highlight of the concert.
That said, I'm definitely going to go to next year's V-fest and maybe also Bonnaroo next summer, too. It's kind of cool being so close to all these concerts and in an area that acts actually want to play at, so I'm going to take full advantage of it.
This first one is about a week late, but meh... I had the chance to get lunch with Nate and Lyz from college, and I decided to skip some of V-fest to see them. It would have been nice to check out the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, but I don't have any real regrets about my choice.
She & Him - B -- Actress Zooey Deschanel is the so-called frontman for the band, and the main reason I made sure I got to the concert when I did. She's beautiful, but her band was only alright. I liked what they were doing -- folky, bluesy, indie stuff -- but they really suffered from a bad concert lineup. A lot of the people in the audience at the time were there queueing up for the next act -- Lil' Wayne -- but the band made the most of an unappreciative, belligerent audience.
Deadmaus (DJ) - B+ -- This was the beginning of a long dance set for me, so I don't remember this guy too well. I do remember liking the creativity he put into the music, though, and having a great time so well done there.
Lil' Wayne - D -- I had to take a breather and decided to check out some of the other acts happening at the time. I caught one of his songs -- "Pussy Monster" -- and it's *so* not my music. Got out of there before anything else happened.
Taking Back Sunday - B+ -- kind of caught the end of their act, and you could tell that the lead singer was beat. He sings quite high, but must've been abusing his chops 'cause he was missing a lot of the notes. That said, it was a fairly good show and he got the crowd going, which is a lot of what I like.
Richie Hawtin (DJ) - B -- either this guy has done a lot of the techno that I've listened to, or he just played covers of a lot of other DJ's hot sets. Unfortunately, I suspect the latter but it was still a good set and everybody appreciated what he was doing.
Moby (DJ) - A+ -- awesome. Probably the best act I saw all weekend. The plan was to check him out just for just a little bit and then see Dylan and STP, but I couldn't leave. The guy is so intense, commanded the attention of the audience, and was so into his music. A problem that I had with some of the other DJ's was that it seemed like they weren't getting it or having fun -- that they were too cool for their music -- but Moby never stopped dancing for the entire 90 minutes and I felt it changed the dynamic of the atmosphere. I don't think anybody will get a crowd working like he could, either. Incredible.
Nine Inch Nails - A- -- also awesome, but I thought he could've done without all the stage theatrics... Trent spent most of the concert behind an electronic... curtain thing. That doesn't really allow you to interact with the audience too well, but whatever. They played all their best songs and had a great live sound, so NIN was still a highlight of the concert.
That said, I'm definitely going to go to next year's V-fest and maybe also Bonnaroo next summer, too. It's kind of cool being so close to all these concerts and in an area that acts actually want to play at, so I'm going to take full advantage of it.