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=> GENERAL DISCUSSION => Topic started by: kosmo vinyl on September 23, 2006, 03:31:00 pm
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posting from fancy fone
the festival got off to rough start as the bus took 3 hours to arrive at plimco...
missed out seeing the new pornos & rjd2 and realized it would have a hoot to hear wolfmother on the huge system
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the racontuers teether on the brink of wankdom but managed to stay upright
I wonder if all the kids knew they were pumping their fists to a song sonny wrote for cher "bang bang"
up next gnarles barkley
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I go to Birchmere for the food.
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was going to go, but didn't get tickets at the last minute since they changed the chance of rain from 20% to 60%..although it still hasn't rained here in highlandtown
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found gb underwhelming too much filler for a festival... a 30 min set would have suited nicely
they came on strong but faded fasted even crazy was lackluster.... nice attempt at a greenhornes cover that went over like a lead balloon
now grooving to brazilian girls on second stage much better soul and vibe here
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the thievery corp continued the featival groove on the second stage....
however my inner mod was drawn to the end for the who... while voices maybe shot roger and pete sure have lots of drive and passions for a pair of old farts
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its official I'm not cut out for events involving so many "friends"
thumpy tents always in the background
but the lips are fun to watch in the back of the field.... the human hamster ball was fun too...
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Sounds like a disappointment.
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I just got back. I though Kasabian was very good.
Wolflmother kicked ass. Ranconteurs had some highs and lows.
Gnarls Barkley is not my cup of tea so I won't comment.
Not a Killers fan but their fandom (and there were plenty of them) seemed to like them.
The Who were great-I'm a big Who fan.
RHCP were not that good in my opinion. We left a little early to beat the parking lot traffic.
Didn't catch any of the second stage or DJ tent.
all in all I really enjoyed the festival and hope they bring it back next year. Everything seemed to run fairly smoothly and sets for the most part went on time (except RHCP who came on about 15-20 minutes late)
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Originally posted by jeffml:
Didn't catch any of the second stage or DJ tent. [/QB]
I guess you weren't there for the music then...
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Could anyone give reviews of DBT and the New Pornos?
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i am glad there were only 40,000 people and not 60,000. lollapolloza only had 60,000 per day in a much larger location.
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Quick review because i'm tired and i just got home from the show. My favorites from the day were thievery corporation, gnarles barkley, and RJD2.
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Flaming Lips although short, was the best part of the day. The Who were great and Gnarls was about 70% good. I got a VIP ticket, from where I work, but I don't know how it was any different than regular tickets. If I had paid the extra money for it, I'd a been pissed. The only thing "special" was access to buy Crab Cakes I think... yee haw.
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bottom line for is that the V fest was a success for me, setting aside somethings that didn't work out as planned... but such is life.
The Who were the definite highlight! glad to have gotten to see them live as i would likely pass on them otherwise.
the second stage was great with the better vibe, sound and space to more around without tripping over others
the thing is that the three bands i wanted to see most of the mainstage, i would have rather seen in venues where i wasn't trippin over people to get a good vantage point and sound. just two many people crammed into an area. and the sound was a anemic away from the front.
my biggest complaint was with the dance tents as they were situated between the two stages and one couldn't escape the constant thump thump that bleed from them. getting to take a break from the sonic overload is nice between bands
guess i'll always prefer a festival at merriweather, or something smaller as what was arrange for the second stage.
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Originally posted by thingsfallapart:
Originally posted by jeffml:
Didn't catch any of the second stage or DJ tent. [/b]
I guess you weren't there for the music then... [/QB]
Really...who would have you seen if you were there. Oh wait you weren't there were you jackass?
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I can't believe you were posting from your phone at the concert. All I was staring at was ass all day. I didn't even use my phone once there. I don't want people bothering me at a concert.
Traffic was a pain in the ass. Parking sucked. I thought Jack White was better when I saw him open up for pavement. Chili Peppers were better at tibetan but John has gotten a lot better. Very impressed with the guitar. The killers drummer was effin up. Theivery Corp were good. I think they should have played more marley between sets. Good times though.
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Got there around 4pm so traffic was minimal. Parked in the neighborhood across the street so we were a block from the main entrance... nice!
Main stage being as you walked in kept people up front so lines were long for food/drink. Vendors in the center & in back were a much better bet to get what you wanted & back to a stage.
Sound at the main stage was sadly lacking if in the back & it was too crowded to get up front so I found it hard to really get into anyone there which was disappointing. A second pair of speakers behind where the sound board was maybe would have helped that. The stage in the back was fine... more open & less people so sound was good.
The Freak Lounge was virtually empty when I went by there although the DJs playing were good. The DJ/dance tent had a decent amount of people in it but I wasn't feeling a vibe during Digweed's set at all.. just saw people wander in & out dance a bit then stumble on to the next thing. Saw a lot of stumbling there btw.. by 8pm people were laying all over the place which were hard to see with little lighting so walking around was a bit tricky at times. By 9pm EMTs were driving people out on cots so I guess they had a long day. Back to the DJ tent.. Carl Cox on the other hand tore it up! He was def the highlight of my time there. My only problem by that time was my head was so stuffed up from the grass/hay/manure that I could barely breathe so I couldn't stay in the tent (where the "aroma" was heaviest) itself which was kind of beat but I totally enjoyed what I heard of his set!
I do have 2 suggestions though.. trash cans (I hate throwing trash on the ground even if people are being paid to pick up after me) and portapotties with toilet paper & sinks in them. Probably 2 of the most common complaints I've ever heard about any festival but I understand why.. I couldn't wait to just go wash my hands!
I am glad I went, saw some great acts I probably wouldn't other wise & met some people that I probably wouldn't have anywhere else. Overall it was an interesting & fun experience.
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Fantastic day. A successful event all around and I thank all involve for making it happen. Glad the rain stayed away. 24 oz Red Hooks for $9 weren't a bad deal and I was happy not to be drinking Bud Light all day.
I'd never been to Pimlico before. It was a pretty good space for this sort of thing. It was crowded, obviously, but not so packed that you couldn't move around or find a place to lay around. Very tough to get near the mainstage after about 3pm though I think that's to be expected.
Getting in and out wasn't bad. We drove to the owings mills metro and took the shuttle bus from Rogers station to get there by 11:45. Walking back to the metro afterward was a little dicey but we were happy to not deal with any traffic.
Here was my lineup:
Kasabian
New Pornographers
Racontours
James Holden
Brazilian Girls
Thievery Corp / Who
Scissor Sisters (while napping in the grass)
Flaming Lips
The highlights were definitely Racontours and the Brazilian Girls. Great sets. My first time to see Jack White live and I thought he was great. Good chemistry with Benson. Brazilian Girls are just a jam. Between them and Thievery, you didn't need to hit the DJ tent to get good dance music.
Kasabian was ok. It's tough to kick things off when they don't have the sound turned up enough yet. I like them better inside.
Would have liked to see Wolfmother again, but I had never seen the New Pornos. Pretty good. Nothing to write home about really but good songs and nice vocals.
I only saw a few songs from the Who. We walked up after they started and didn't have a good spot at all. From that distance, it's hard to get into it. Cool to see Baba O Riley though.
I had to make a tradeoff with the Flaming Lips. They were great, but I had just seen perhaps the exact set a month ago at the Osheaga Festival in Montreal and had never seen RHCP. At that point though, I knew there was no way I was getting near the stage and I didn't want to fight the crowd on the way in or out.
So, good times.
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I got to Vfest towards the end of the Wolfmother set and walked around, checking out everything the festival had to offer. I thought it was a really nice set up, lots of different options for food.
The Raconteurs were great, it was my first time seeing Jack White as well, and he definitly lived up to my expectations.
I checked out the DJ tent for about 20 minutes with James Holden and was quite entertained, he was pretty good.
Gnarls Barkley was a disappointment. I expected a lot more energy, but they just seemed to fall flat. Terrible flow, Cee-lo talked way to much.
The Killers exceeded my expectations, great stage presence and a nice set list.
At the end of there performance, my friends and I decided to start moving our way up front, which meant we would not be able to see the Flaming Lips, but I think it was well worth it.
The Who were incredible. We were maybe 10 rows back to the right and the crowd was way in to it. They went from hit to hit seemlessly, with little chatter in between. They definitly still have it.
To be able to see a full set from The Who and then from the RHCP alone was worth the price of admission for me. RHCP did not dissapoint, amazing show, very entertaining. They did play a little to much of the new cd and it would have been nice to see a few more of there hits, but it was not that big of a deal to me. Tiny Dancer for the encore was a nice.
Great event overall and I would love for it to return to Pimlico again next year!
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Thought is was a good show. Still think prices (for everything) were too high. Nine dollar beers?? I moved between both stages throughout the day but mostly stuck to the smaller stage. Scissor Sisters and Flaming Lips were great to end the night and both really had crowd going. Saw about 1/2 of Who (they overlapped with Scissor Sisters, unfortunately) and was really impressed. New Pornographers were very good - I'd never seen them before. Missed Driveby Truckers and RJD2 becaused they were on so early. I really wanted to see them.
I was really surprised that they only sold 2/3 of tickets because there were alot of people. Getting close to the bigger stage was a pain. I can't imagine how it would have been with 20,000 more people.
If they have it again next year I hope they keep the lineup respectable and (please) lower the price of a cup of beer.
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I had a good time. The weirdest part of my day was looking up to see Richard Branson and Seth walk by with a big group of people following.
Not a bad show for their first go in the US. I expect bigger and better things next year.
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Upset that I had to miss it, but I did have fun at the Black Cat last night.
Did Neko play with NP?
Also, setlists would be great, especially for RHCP. I'd be interested to see what they chose to play.
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no neko.
but the NP's were good as always, but being so early and they looked pretty tired, i've seen them better. Carl is just one not funny dude! but he tries!
Clap your hands was ok, boy are they ugly. still cant figure out which band they sound just like.
from then we hung in the middle area, checking out 2manyDJs, though not many mashups like i thought i'd hear and caught (by accident) Gnarls and they were just as boring as they were at Lollapalooza. :(
we got close to the killers and i really did like them, but sooooo many johnny-come-latelys barging, tripping and spilling beverages on us the entire time made us want to head out of there.
saw the who from way too far since we were with so many people we didnt figure we'd get too close, so they didnt impress me. it was my only regret...for like 20 minutes, til the scissor sisters came on. awesome, i love them and me and my friends were dancing like crazy.
the flaming lips....well, i dont know. i've seen them before and liked them. and these guys in front of us were smoking some weed, offered me some and i took it. havent done that in like 6 years and man....the lips got waaaay cooler, lol.
Yoshimi and Yeah Yeah Yeah song were my highlights. great way to end the night, though, the stage was sorta small for them....but i would rather have them on a small stage at night than at 4pm on the big one.
overall it was a blast...saw LOTS of friends, hung out with many people and saw a handful of great bands...and spent $300 for me and my fiancee altogether!! not bad for a day of rocking out!
for next year....more bathrooms, more sound for the main stage , more ATMS and those handwashing stations outside of the portapots are a godsend, though i did have some sanitizer with me.
oh yeah, and make it two days next year.
oh, and scrap the DJS, put a 3rd stage of bands in that tent!!!!
but mainly, thanks to seth and all for bringing this event here!
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V-fest: not bad if you don't mind huge crowds and standing for hours in a field full of garbage, but all day festivals are always a test of endurance and tolerance. Pimlico not a good venue for music -- too flat -- sound going everywhere. New Pornographers played a good, if efficient, set. Pleasant suprises, for me, were Clap Your Hands and Thievery as I had never seen either. But the highlights were definitely Townshend's windmill (even though he was a tiny ant from where I was standing) and Wayne Coyne's plastic bubble!
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I was also a bit disconcerted about not being able to wash my hands and it would have been nice if there had been another drinking fountain setup by the second stage.
Personally if the show had been sold out, I would have been miserable. It would have been a nightmare for traffic and getting back and forth between both stages.
My ideal festival would have been to lop off the top three acts and redistribute the rest between two medium sized stages. Get 20 to 25K of my closest friends together to hang out, enjoy, bounce around to great hour long sets from the likes of Brazilian Girls, Thievery Corp, New Pronos, etc... Having to deal with that mass of humanity tripping over each to cram in front or cranking their necks to see the stage just isn't my idea of a good time.
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To the ones who saw Brazilian Girls, what was Sabina wearing? :)
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Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
My ideal festival would have been to lop off the top three acts and redistribute the rest between two medium sized stages. Get 20 to 25K of my closest friends together to hang out, enjoy, bounce around to great hour long sets from the likes of Brazilian Girls, Thievery Corp, New Pronos, etc... Having to deal with that mass of humanity tripping over each to cram in front or cranking their necks to see the stage just isn't my idea of a good time.
You would have liked the Osheaga festival in Montreal last month. That was the most user friendly big show I'd ever been to. Big space and probably only 20k or so in attendance. Instead of one main stage, they had two side by side so that one act could directly follow another with no overlap or downtime. It wasn't so crowded that you couldn't get decent position for every band, but you could also get great position on either stage if you wanted to scope out a spot early.
There was also a third stage a short walk away sequestered in the trees, so you always had a few choices.
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Did no one see DBT? I realize this wasn't really their kind of crowd, but I figured at least a couple of the diehards would have paid $97.50 to see them.
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my 2 cents:
Wolfmother - only heard a little bit of their record and wasn't too impressed going in, but good energy, and I'm glad I caught a little of it.
2 Many DJ's - best live DJ's I've ever seen, holy crap, but it also helped that it was at the beginning of the day and I wasn't tired yet... no, they really were that good.
Raconteurs - boring.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - still one of my fav records, saw them the first time at Black Cat and was entertained but felt they needed to work on their live act, they haven't.
Gnarls Barkley - stage/crowd seemed to big for them, would have probably worked better in a smaller indoor venue or at least at night, but enjoyed it for the most part.
Killers - even more boring, I'm not really into them to begin with, and their show didn't change anything
The Who - better than I expected, but still old
VHS or BETA DJ's - no crowd, nobody dancing, but these guys are great DJ's, although I'm a little biased since I'm buds with them, put on a rockin set afterwards at R&R Hotel
Scissor Sisters - was looking forward to this as I hadn't seen them before, lot's of fun even though by this time I was tired, smelly, and wanting to go home, new songs sounded great
Flaming Lips - always great live, this was no exception, great way to end the night, they got all the freaks from the freakshow tent up on stage + the usual psychedelic shenanigans from Wayne & Co
Overall: not really worth it, too much effort to drive up there, park, deal with the crowd. Half the time it just feels like you're watching a live DVD. I guess I'm just spoiled by small intimate venue shows.
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I wish I saw DBT. That was a band me and my friends were looking forward to seeing. We missed them and most of NP though because we were stuck on the OnTap bus for so long. So I'd say the bus was my only true gripe, which is not a VFest problem. I thought the festival was good. It was kind of strange being on the field for something other than the foulness of Preakness. Everything was relatively accessible, food/beer prices were what I expected (meaning expensive), but the place was very chill from what I saw. I wish there were more water refill stations though. Suprisingly, I didn't see any fights, but I saw a few too many people in need of EMT services. Thievery took the cake for me. What a great set. Lips were solid too.
The story with the bus was that we left DC shortly after 11:00 am. It didn't take long to realize that we'd be missing the Truckers. When it started getting into the Porno's set, people were getting antsy on the bus. We saw folks from the same trip walking down the street to the field, meaning that they were allowed off the bus. We unfortunately were not allowed to get off. So that kind of sucked. The ride home was long, but I'd rather sit on a bus for a few hours than have to drive. All in all, good first effort for a festival.
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Originally posted by thegazelle:
We saw folks from the same trip walking down the street to the field, meaning that they were allowed off the bus. We unfortunately were not allowed to get off. So that kind of sucked.
I had friends on the On Tap bus that let them get off -- they walked the last 2.5 miles. Got to the racetrack around 2:30? Sounded insane, and is exactly the reason I didn't go -- imagine if it had sold out.
SxSW is my kind of festival -- tons of shows in small venues. Just what I'm used to. While I would have loved to catch the Who, most of the other bands (that I want to see) I have or will be able to see at smaller places.
Anyone have any idea if the sales figures are enough to make the event profitable? I'd think 40,000 was a pretty good number. But at only two-thirds capacity, I could be wrong.
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Originally posted by Joe M.:
To the ones who saw Brazilian Girls, what was Sabina wearing? :)
only thing i remember is that she was wearing white face paint and some sort of body-hugging lycra suit with colorful bits. they didn't impress me much, didn't stick around for too long.
other thoughts:
late departure for ontap bus was indeed annoying. i was willing to show up earlier and leave earlier. bummed that i missed kasabian and wolfmother.
thumbs up:
new pronos
thievery
killers
rhcp (from fairly close up we got good sound, and my god is john a talented musician)
(... and the fact that the rain held out!)
only so-so:
cyhsy
brazilian girls
the who
boring:
raconteurs
gnarls
painful:
the sound in the DJ tent. i went to check out RJD2, and the high end was distorting while the bass was anemic. hurt my ears. maybe it improved later, but i didn't want to risk that experience again :)
festival pet peeves:
- trash everywhere
- crowd-surfers. not only is this retarded activity dangerous to non-surfers (getting kicked in the head), it has obvious taken a toll on the IQ of those who practice it: idiots asked for a lift up in areas where the crowd wasn't dense enough to support them. predictable effect: their asses got dropped, and hard.
- real estate hogs: folks who threw down a blanket and think they have a god-given right to that space for *the rest of the day*. if i show up when the doors open, run to the front rail and throw down a blanket at the front row by the stage, can i expect to have that spot all day? of course not. the look of indignation on people's face when crowds got thicker and started stepping on their blankets (but refused to budge) was hillarious.
there was some serious drinking going down. i wonder how many people's drinking got in the way of them enjoying and/or remembering the festival... what's the point?
despite the above kvetching, i had a great time. definitely hope there is another edition next year.
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Originally posted by You go, Judge Alito:
Did no one see DBT? I realize this wasn't really their kind of crowd, but I figured at least a couple of the diehards would have paid $97.50 to see them.
I saw a couple of songs toward the end of their set, and I thought they sounded great, especially considering they had pretty much just woken up. They closed with Jim Carroll's "People Who Died" just like their last show at the club and rocked it out. There was a fairly good-size and enthusiastic crowd for them too. They gave a really nice shout-out to Rodney Henry & his Dangerously Delicious Pies. The Truckers love Baltimore.
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Thanks, Twangirl. Just like the dedication of Heathens to Rodney at the Recher a couple years back.
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Originally posted by sweetcell:
i wonder how many people's drinking got in the way of them enjoying ... the festival
yeah, that's always the problem i have when i get really drunk, i just don't enjoy things :roll:
my two cents = thank god i didn't go to this thing
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Originally posted by HoyaSaxa08:
yeah, that's always the problem i have when i get really drunk, i just don't enjoy things
my two cents = thank god i didn't go to this thing
hoya, i hope that i'm missing your sarcasm/humor. i'm sure you can drink responsibly, i.e. have alcohol increase your enjoyment, not impede it. that's the case with most people.
however, my original comment wasn't about happy drunks - i commenting about the minority of passed-out wasted, bordeline alcohol poisoned and catatonic drunk. i don't think that's a good time, it's certainly never worked for me. maybe i'm being closed-minded or maybe i just have a low tolerance for the blind drunk.
maybe there is a philosophical argument here - if you have a good time but can't remember it, was it still a good time? :) (probably not to those around you...)
and while you did miss out on a few drunks, you missed out on a lot of great music :)
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Originally posted by sweetcell:
passed-out wasted, bordeline alcohol poisoned and catatonic drunk.
Baltimore -- Get In On It!!!
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Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
Originally posted by sweetcell:
passed-out wasted, bordeline alcohol poisoned and catatonic drunk.
Baltimore -- Get In On It!!! [/b]
yeah, i saw a LOT of passed out folks with Steelers hats on, lets not forget our friendly neighbors to the north (and NO i dont mean Canada!!)
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Originally posted by HoyaSaxa08:
my two cents = thank god i didn't go to this thing
seriously? why? i can understand not wanting to go, but thanking god?
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Here are some photos: http://web.mac.com/photoroo/ (http://web.mac.com/photoroo/)
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I looked at some of those photos. Those great bands of the sixties are all dead now. Jimmy, Janis...The Who are long dead. That's not Pete Townshend & Roger Daltry! It's robots.
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And what's worse, the robots are wearing lame-ass hats!
Originally posted by Surly Bonds:
I looked at some of those photos. The Who are long dead. That's not Pete Townshend! That's not Roger Daltry! It's robots.
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Here are some photos from the photo pit:
http://flickr.com/photos/leafblower/sets/72157594298641332/ (http://flickr.com/photos/leafblower/sets/72157594298641332/)