Virgin Mobile Festival, Day 2

Somehow, day 2 of this year’s Virgin Mobile Festival was even better than the first. While I was still on a high (all natural!) from the Foo Fighter‘s set the previous night, each of the sets I was honored to see on Sunday blew me away, especially that of the closing act performed by the one and only Kanye West (the other major reason along with Lupe Fiasco, I needed to hit VFest). Again, I was a bit of a late arrival, but only missed Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and The Go! Team this time, making it to catch half of Shudder To Think‘s set.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – 12:00-12:45 // North Stage

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

The Go! Team – 12:20-1:05 // South Stage

The Go! Team

Shudder To Think – 1:05-1:55 // North Stage
I kind of missed the Shudder To Think train when it first came around (to be fair, they did form when I was just a year old and disbanded while I was still in my middle school girl power pop phase), but after a ten year hiatus, a quasi-reunion occurred last year and the band pulled off a solid set at Virgin Mobile Festival.

Shudder To Think

Andrew Bird – 1:25-2:10 // South Stage
Andrew Bird, whose 2007 Armchair Apocrypha I (and many others) adore, played a phenomenal set last Sunday to a packed South Stage. He’s recently sold out 2 New York City shows in just 2 hrs for his upcoming tour! Not surprising in the least. Get in on some Andrew Bird tour action, if only to see him rock out with a violin — it’s magnificent.

Andrew Bird

Paramore - 2:15-3:05 // North Stage
One of the most touted national acts, I was disappointed with how boring Paramore’s set was. Haley and the guys had fierce energy, but every song blended together making the set feel like one long song. Then again, that’s what pop punk usually is.

Paramore

She & Him – 2:35-3:25 // South Stage
Having seen this magnificent duo before, I ditched Paramore and made my way over to the South Stage to be as close as possible to Ms. Zooey Deschanel and her counterpart Mr. M. Ward. The set list was almost exactly the same as when I’d see the band headline at the Trocadero in Philadelphia, but it was just as good the second time. The one noticeable change was a cover of “I Put A Spell On You” which wonderfully displayed Deschanel’s vocal range, and the addition of an original song by back-up singer Becky Stark, who’s also got a great set of pipes.
Why only these two pictures of Deschanel are available, I can’t say, but you can check out some pictures from their Philadelphia performance here.

She & Him: Zooey Deschanel

Taking Back Sunday – 3:30-4:20 // North Stage
Taking Back Sunday was totally my jawn in high school. For nostalgia’s sake, and I still really dig Tell All Your Friends and Lazzara’s mic swinging action, I caught out part of the band’s high energy set. An oldie but still a goodie.

Taking Back Sunday: Adam Lazzara

Lil Wayne – 3:50-4:30* // South Stage
The asterisk on Lil Wayne’s set time denotes that this time line was not accurate since Lil Wayne showed up on stage 40 minutes late, making fans wait almost two hours, as many staked out their spots during She & Him’s set. I don’t like to be kept waiting, so I opted to catch a good spot for Iggy & the Stooges over at the North Stage instead. I’d seen Iggy at Download: Philadelphia so I knew I was in for a great set. I’m bummed to have missed Lil Wayne’s performance, but if I ever get the chance to see him again, I hope he’s prompt.

Lil Wayne

Iggy & the Stooges - 4:50-5:50 // North Stage
If you want some punk rock and roll, no need to look further than Iggy and the Stooges, or just Iggy. The man, in his sixties, has more energy than an entire kindergarten class. He ran around the stage, jumped on amps, and yelled at the crowd to ‘get the hell up on stage!’ and went so far as to demand that security allow the crowd to jump the barricade and thrash about on stage. Sadly, these demands were not met, so rather than accept defeat, Iggy jumped down and engaged himself with the crowd running around through the open space that was barricaded off from the stage, since security also refused to let him actually jump into the crowd.

Iggy and the Stooges

The Black Keys – 5:15-6:15 // South Stage
I also skipped over The Black Keys in favor of staking out a spot for Stone Temple Pilots as I figured my future opportunities to see STP was far less great than the future potential of catching a Black Keys set.

The Black Keys: Dan Auerbach

The Black Keys: Patrick Carney

Stone Temple Pilots – 6:20*-7:35// North Stage
No pictures have been made available for Stone Temple Pilots.
The band arrived on stage 20 minutes late, but rather than have their set extended like Lil Wayne’s on the other stage, they were forced to finish up at 7:35, keeping at least one stage on schedule. They powered through their hits and Weiland — who was layered to the max with clothing (t-shirts, vests, 3 or 4 ties) — removed a piece of clothing with each new song played. The crowd eagerly sang and moshed along for the entire set.
In addition to making their fans wait 20 minutes to begin their peformance, with maybe 15 or 20 minutes to go, STP left the stage for 5 minutes — maybe they needed a hit? — in which Weiland removed his t-shirt and put on a black leather vest before coming back out to perform their last two songs. Perhaps it was supposed to be an encore, but making the audience wait 20 minutes initially should’ve sent a red flag to Weiland and co. that we wanted more songs, not a lame attempt and a pseudo-encore.
Despite time issues, all and all a decent set.

Moby - 6:30-8:00 // DJ/Rave Tent
Never actually went into the DJ Tent (though everyone referred to it as the “Rave Tent”) for fear of club kids and getting molested by those on X, but walked by slowly during Moby’s spinning session. It was fab and had I not been rushing to catch the legendary Bob Dylan, I probably would’ve stopped and raved it up for a bit.

Moby

Bob Dylan – 6:45-8:00* // South Stage
No pictures have been made available for Bob Dylan.
I’ve never seen Bob Dylan perform before. I think that perhaps since I’d been building him up in my mind for the 23 years I’ve been alive, I expected too much. He was great, no doubt, but it wasn’t the magic I’d expected. And he didn’t even let the cameras (neither photo nor video) get close enough to even show his face. So for all I know, it wasn’t even Dylan. Just saying.

Nine Inch Nails – 8:05-10:00// North Stage
I’m not big into Nine Inch Nails. What?! Yeah. It’s true. I can only take at face value what Ajay told me in regards to this: I’m “a happy person.” I stuck around for a good portion of their set and I was impressed by the ridiculous light show they put on, but I was definitely eager to get over to the South Stage for Kanye West.

Nine Inch Nails: Trent Reznor

Kanye West – 8:30-10:00* // South Stage
No pictures have been made available for Kanye West, which is unfortunate because his stage show was a visual assault of lights, colors and fog. If I owned a point and shoot digital, I’d have pictures of my own to show you, but I always manage to drop them. A lot. They don’t last long in good working order in my possession.

Lots of VFest attendees shared my enthusiasm for Kanye’s performance and packed out the lawn in and around the South Stage to dance and sing/rap along with the oft-controversial rapper. His set list was long and inclusive featuring “Good Morning”, “Champion”, “I Wonder”, “Get Em High”, “Through the Wire”, “Heard Em Say”, “Diamonds from Sierra Lione”, “Touch the Sky”, “Good Life”, “Flashing Lights”, “Homecoming”, “All Falls Down”, “American Boy”, “Put On”, “Jesus Walks”, “Gold Digger”, “Can’t Tell Me Nothing”, and “Stronger”. He also spit some original lines on the spot — or so it seemed, anyway.

I was definitely impressed with West’s set and cannot wait to see him again. He mentioned that he was bummed out to have to be put up against Nine Inch Nails again (the first being at this year’s Lollapalooza) because he wanted to be in the crowd for their set. He did, however, praise VFest for their choice of venue since those who couldn’t afford tickets to the event (think in the hundreds) were still able to see and hear many acts through the fence. He was very honest in his sentiments about loving his fans and never wanting to do anything more than perform for them because it’s what he loves and lives for. I absolutely walked away from VFest with a greater admiration for Kanye West.

Here’s looking forward to Virgin Mobile 2009 — I can’t wait to see how they try to top this year.

Things That Don’t Make Sense

Rap mogul Kanye West has decided that rapping just isn’t enough these days, thus he’s launched Kanye Travel Ventures. The site is in the same vain as those such as Orbitz, Expedia, etc, BUT this is Kanye’s, and is therefore infinitely cooler. It’s been a year in the making and it actually looks pretty kickass.

You can book flights, hotels, and cars and find last minute deals or search attractions and activities in any given location. Check out the website here.

If anyone’s used it, let us know what you think! We’ll get a PopWrecker to use the site and see how it goes.

2008 Virgin Mobile Festival: Headliners, Dates

Aug 9th & 10th at Baltimore MD’s Pimlico Race Course, see the Foo Fighters, Jack Johnson, Kanye, NIN, and STP at the 2008 Virgin Mobile Festival. The full line-up will be coming soon!

The festival, one of the most eco-friendly in the US, is now in its third year and looking better than ever!

More info at the Virgin Mobile Festival website.

Glow in the Dark Tour

Kanye West / Rihanna / N.E.R.D. / Lupe Fiasco tour dates now scheduled:

April 2008
16 – Seattle, WA – KeyArena
18 – Sacramento, CA – ARCO Arena
19 – San Jose, CA – HP Pavilion at San Jose
20 – San Diego, CA – Sports Arena
21 – Los Angeles, CA – Nokia Theatre LA Live
24 – Tuscon, AZ – McKale Memorial Auditorium/U of AZ
25 – Las Vegas, NV – Red Rocks Casino Resort
26 – Albuquerque, NM – Journal Pavilion
27 – Denver, CO – Pepsi Center
29 – Oklahoma City, OK – Ford Center
30 – Austin, TX – Frank Irwin Center

May 2008
1 – Dallas, TX – Superpages.com Center
2 – Woodlands, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
4 – Duluth, GA – Arena at Gwinnett Center
5 – Tampa, FL – Ford Amphitheatre
6 – West Palm Beach, FL – Sound Advice Amphitheater
8 – Charlotte, NC – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
9 – Raleigh, NC – Walnut Creek Amphitheatre
10 – Bristow, VA – Nissan Pavilion
11 – Virginia Beach, VA – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
13 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
15 – Mansfield, MA – Tweeter Center
16 – Hartford, CT – Meadows Music Theatre
17 – Camden, NJ – Susquehanna Bank Center (formerly Tweeder Center)
18 – Scranton, PA – Toyota Pavilion
20 – Montreal, Quebec – Bell Centre
21 – Toronto, Ontario – Molson Centre
22 – Auburn Hills, MI – Palace of Auburn Hills
23 – Chicago, IL – United Center
24 – Minneapolis, MN – Target Center
27 – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan – Credit Union Centre
29 – Edmonton, Alberta – Rexall Place
30 – Calgary, Alberta – Pengrowth Saddledome

June 2008
12 – Manchester, TN – Bonnaroo

ZOMG, Yes Please!

No dates scheduled yet.

Beyoncé Beats Kanye

Not only is Beyoncé a talented singer and actress (maybe not so much the latter), the girl is an ace at Connect Four.

Kanye West explains in his blog that while spending time in Europe with the likes of Common and Consequence, among others, he played a ton of Connect Four because it helped him “zone out.” He was told that Beyoncé was a legendary Connect Four champion, so when they met at Jay-Z’s new Las Vegas club 40/40, he had to challenge her to a game or 10. Turns out she beat him 9 times, and pictured (left) is the only game in which Kayne beat the Dream Girl.

Don’t ever play Beyoncé in Connect Four for money.