Last weekend I went to the Virgin Mobile Music Festival outside of Baltimore. It basically was a huge music festival with a wide variety of music playing on two stages (North and South) plus one dance tent.
On Saturday I drove up and arrived at 11 a.m. and wandered around to see the layout and what was there. Basically everything I wanted to see was on the South Stage At noon I saw KT Turnstall who was actually a really good performer, she told funny stories and was just generally cool. She's also British, which I didn't know. After that there wasn't much I wanted to see so I wandered around and ended up at the dance tent where all the cool people seemed to be. I just watched people dancing and then went and got some food. After that I went to the South Stage and caught a band called Lupe Fiasco, who were a pretty cool rap group (or was it just one dude which makes him an artist? I dunno). After that came bloc party and I don't even know what I did during that show... I must have watched it since I wanted to be in position for the next band but I don't remember them at all. Then came the Offspring, a nice blast from the past. They were actually very good, playing a lot of their old hits, and the crowd went NUTS. Lots of crowdsurfing and mosh pit behavior. After that there was the Japanese Beatles, who were... just that. They were awesome and very accurate and full of smiles which was adorable. Then there was Chuck Berry, who was hilarious and wearing a sequin shirt. Then the band that I was there to see: the Foo Fighters. By the time the Foo Fighters came on I was able to position myself about 3rd 'row' center. I basically was on the board that is attached to the railing, which is a good position to be in. I had a lot of fun rocking out and holding on for dear life haha. Foo Fighters were awesome. They played a lot of their hit songs. Dave Grohl ran around like a madman and was generally hilarious and basically it was a great way to end the day. To top it off though I got really lucky. After the show was over there were a lot of leftover guitar picks on the mic stands. So the people tearing them down just tossed them out to the crowd and I managed to pick one up! It is grey and has a little symbol w/an FF! Very cool. A guy asked me to sell it to him because it was 'the only reason [he] came' (which is a really weird thing to say) but that would have been very lame, even though I did feel sorry for him because he seemed awfully upset.
Sunday I arrived at noon preparing to camp out at the north stage w/out moving the whole day (as in no getting food, water or going to the bathroom). To prepare for that I put in my contacts (a rare thing indeed) and brought 2 Liters of water and a bag of chex mix. I also ate a big breakfast of eggs and toast. I got there right before the first band on the North stage started, the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. They had a pretty rabid following (though small) and this lady managed to push in front of me, but I let her because I got the impression she would leave after the first band (and boy was I right). After the show I asked her if she was leaving, she said yes, and then I asked her if I could have her spot, so we traded rather smoothly, no having to fight for a spot (there are often fights and lots of squishing when someone gives up a front row spot on the bar). So after the first band I had my coveted front row and practically dead center spot. I had to watch a host of bands I knew nothing about: Shudder to Think (weird DC band... the singing too weird really, but great music), Paramore (a girl rock band that also inspired quite a lot of crowd surfers but they were all tiny girls so it wasn't too big a deal), Taking Back Sunday was next, which a lot of people were there to see... not quite sure why though the lead singer was cool, they really just weren't that good for me I almost fell asleep haha. But then the show I wanted to see finally began. First there was Iggy and the Stooges. Iggy Pop!!! It is amazing that that man is still alive. His first big hits were in 1969 and he has done so many drugs since then he should be dead. But know he is alive and KICKING a true rock star. It was awesome to see all these people who had no idea who he was rock out to his music (especially the youngins who were there to see the bands that came before Iggy). But nobody could deny that they were AMAZING. Experience really does show. After that came the STONE TEMPLE PILOTS. The show was amazing, though really short (only 1 hour!!! sadness). They played basically all of their hits, they were amazing, Scott Weiland was all over the place and it was just sublime. After that came Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor is just great! They played a very wide range of music, which makes sense given the wide range of stuff from album to album. Some people whined during the 'slower' bits but I just ignored them because they were so wrong, all of it was great. Though admittedly by the end I was in a bit of pain because crowd surfers kept running into me and apparently I'm getting a bit older for this standing for 12 hours straight and getting pummelled and squished and stuff.
The only problem with this festival was that there were too many good bands playing at the exact same time. For example during Stone Temple Pilots (who I would never miss) played at the exact same time as Bob Dylan AND Moby. So while it was an easy choice (especially w/NIN coming afterwards) I did really want to see Bob Dylan and Moby as well. And during Foo Fighters I had to miss Underworld. And during Offspring I had to miss Citizen Cope. So I mean that part was sad. As I said they were easy decisions to make, which is good, but it'd be nicer if they spaced some of these bands out a bit more, or tried to match up bands people would want to see so that it is an easier choice.
