Well yesterday, in a last minute decision, Senor Six and I decided to go to the V-Festival.

The line up was staggered, so depending on who you felt like seeing you could make your way back and forth between the two stages.

We saw:
- Phoenix
- (a little of) Buck 65
- The Hidden Cameras
- The Dears
- (part of) Muse
- Kid Koala (he only played for 20 mins)
- Gnarls Barkley
- the Flaming Lips

The day was alright overall . It looked like it was going to be very rainy, but ended up being dry all day (thank god). The crowds weren't too crazy--no crazy line-ups for food, drinks or bathrooms--although they did have some scary security dudes carding people at the drink areas.

The overall vibe of the people was alright, but the corporateness of the festival was so gross: advertising everywhere, even on the stage screens. At one point we passed a tent full of fancy cars--guess it was some kind of contest, give-away thingy. It just all had a very corporate vibe to it. It felt a little like: "Okay, you pay $60 to get in, then we bring you to this island where we hit you with as much advertising as we possibly can."

Anyway, the music...

- Phoenix: Alright. I was happy to hear "If I ever feel better". They sound great live. Most of their music is alright in my books, maybe a little boring.

- Buck 65: I still have trouble taking him seriously. But wow, what a great stage presence. This was my 2nd time seeing him live. Very impressed again. I love his more serious, sad, orchestral stuff. Great performer.

- The Hidden Cameras: Very fun. Great sweet melodic pop. Great energy live. Very enjoyable to watch & listen to.

- The Dears: I always love seeing them. A little weird to watch them in such a large venue. Strange to think I used to feel the need to tell people how great they were and to really "support" them when they played live. Heh. They speak for themselves: amazing music, amazing musicians, all stars. They played a lot from their new record, which I don't have a copy of yet. I'd say about half half for stuff I liked from it. Some of the new stuff sounds wicked--Murray getting more into soul singing. And the other half sounds kind of metal-y which is a little weird.

- Muse: Apologies for any fans on here but: EEEEWWWW!!!! Holy wanky goth-metal Batman! They were hideous. Not only did we not stick around to watch them, we actually walked the extra 15mins to the other stage area just to get away from them!

- Gnarls Barkley: Interesting. So the guy really can sing like that. No soul samples a la Moby. Whoa. Back up singers and a string section. Pretty crazy. Not sure what I thought of it all in all. Great performance, no doubt about that. I guess I was a little put-off by his personality. He seemed a little confrontational, which was weird because he was preaching love and "letting loose". Anyway, I'm curious to hear the rest of the record.

- Kid Koala: I love this man. A bit of a Coldcut remix, mixed with "Close to Me", cute samples about ninjas and koalas, his friendly talking with the audience, and then the gorgeous "Moon River". My only regret was that his set was cut short.

- the Flaming Lips: My first time seeing them. Senor Six's maybe 8th or 9th time (maybe more). It was just as great as I thought it would be, better even. So wonderful. I can't really make very informaed comments here, as I don't really know their stuff very well, just starting to get into them. I do know they played "Yoshimi" and got us all to sing along, which was fun. Such wonderful people. Such good vibes... and large balloons! And crazy aliens!

Now here's the sad part. They only played about 4 or 5 songs!!! Then Wayne told us they had to get off the stage because their the festival was closing (noise issues, had to be over by 11pm). So so sad. It was really really lame and sad. The crowd stood there for another 15mins, cheering and waiting to see if they'd come back. But they just weren't allowed. At one point Wayne came back onstage and shot out some more rounds of steamers and confetti. But that was it.

Torontonians are too polite. There was a handle of people screaming "fuck yous" at the organizers, but that was it. Today on the local music boards the promoters promised there would be some kind of compension for people, but god knows what it would be.

Anyway, overall great show. But very very dissapointing end to it. There's another full day of performances today... but I won't be there. Oh well.

Wow. I had people pressuring me to go but I told them there's no one I especially loved playing. Not for $100 or so at least. If I had gone, it would've been mostly for the Lips and Hidden Cameras and I would've been furious if they didn't even get half an hour in.

I don't know. I'm just a cheapskate. Like, I went to Lee's Palace instead, it cost me about $12, and I quite enjoyed myself.

Well, a one day pass was $57. Still pretty steep.

Yeah, that's the thing. $60 for only two bads that I'm really interested in. And then to find out that one of them only got five songs in? I'd be demanding a refund.


My friend's going today for free, though. Her band opened for the Strokes on a series of dates this spring, so the guys got her band all free passes. Yeah, I'm jealous.

Weak. Sounds like a whole festival building up to a climax that would never happen. Toronto has a curfew of 11PM for outdoor concerts, which they should've prepared for a little better.

The Osheaga festival here last weekend was a little different, though very similar lineup. Minimal corporate presence, a lot of people comp'ed tickets, clockwork scheduling. Festival organizers chartered a flight for $14000 for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah to get to the show from somewhere where they were stranded by Ernesto, just because!! Cool enough to be able to metro down to a festival for free and hang out on the island, but I wish they'll be a little ballsier with the lineup next time.

Please see the G. Love vs. Wolf Parade thread.

Wow really... ? I love Muse, and seeing Muse live only made me love them more. In my opinion they are one of the most talented, creative, and fun bands going right now. They aren't afraid to be odd, or be "wanky" which so many indie-er than thou bands wont admit to....

Everyone likes different stuff... )

I'm a Muse fan too. It appears I'm gonna have to break up with Polly.

That's actually a common thing for FLips shows these days; fun time, but thin on music. When I saw them in 2003 it wasn't like that and it was one of the best shows I've ever been to - like a circus, church revival, birthday party, disco party and spaceship landing all in one. Lots of songs from all across the catalog and you couldn't have asked for a better atmosphere or crowd.

2004 @ Coachella (the year of the hamster ball stunt) was fun, but the extracurricular activities meant they only got to play 5 or so songs then. Kind of a buzzkill and at one point you want to tell Wayne "Less talk, more rock!"

But it hasn't gotten better and when I saw them last month they did 10 songs in 70 mins, with LOTS of Wayne's a-little-goes-a-long-way motivational metaphysical psychobable thrown in. Again, it's fun at first, but not as good as hearing some stuff off of "Hit To Death In The Future Head".

Glad you liked Hidden Cameras. I discovered them a couple months ago and really want to see them live.

Thanks for the recap.

Interesting. A V Festival for here got announced a while ago, with all the attendant Branson schtick, but nothing's really been heard of it since, apart from a rumour that it's been cancelled...

How many bands total were playing in Toronto Polly?

Noooooo!

It really wasn't their fault. Although Senor Six did say he's had a similar experience before: a giant goldfish short tripped on a cord and short circuited their entire stage set-up, they had to stop playing after only a couple of songs (kinda cute/funny/sad).