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.

Lollapalooza @ Grant Park, Chicago

Despite some rain late Thursday night, the weather in Chicago’s Grant Park was perfect for this year’s 2008 Lollapalooza festival. A nice breeze off the lake made this the perfect weekend to host the excellent and diverse lineup of music. The park was kept in pristine conditions as crews constantly walked around encouraging recycling and a cleaner environment. This festival knows what it’s doing and is one of the best organized and most considerate (they even had lots vegetarian options at the food booths!) shows in the business.

Lollapalooza by Jeff Gentner

The whole weekend was sold out for the first time in the history of the festival. Friday had a record-breaking turnout as headliners Radiohead drew a sold out crowd of 75,000. Although, the earlier portion of the day wasn’t quite as packed, a solid crowd showed up to see the fine bands performing at the different stages leading up to Radiohead.

Starting off my day was Butch Walker on the PlayStation 3 Stage. Walker started his set solo with some fun loops on two new songs off his highly anticipated new album Sycamore Meadows before his band joined him on “State Line.” Walker performed a solid set showing that he is just as good an artist as he is a producer. If the new songs from his set are any indication of his new album, it is going to be phenomenal.

Butch Walker by Adam Bielawski

Any act following up the strong set by Walker would have a hard time not falling a little flat. Sure enough, the next act on the Bud Light Stage The Go! Team did just that. Maybe it is all that jumping around, but just because you want to be energetic in your presence doesn’t mean you should let the vocals suffer. Instrumental tracks like “Junior Kickstart” were just fine, but anytime Ninja would open her mouth I kind of wanted to go ninja and karate chop her throat.

Ninja of the Go! Team by Alberto Trevino

After the poor pitches of the Go! Team, Welsh singer Duffy‘s soulful vocals were a welcome refreshment at the PlayStation 3 Stage. The young singer definitely has some pipes, but her stage presence could use a little work. Her hand motions quickly got repetitive, but maybe with a little experience, her set will get a little fresher.

Following Duffy, I caught a few songs by rockers Louis XIV over on the Citi Stage. Despite a few technical difficulties, the crowd went wild over radio single “Finding Out True Love Is Blind.” I didn’t stick around too long for Louis XIV because I didn’t want to miss a second of gypsy punk group Gogol Bordello over on the AT&T Stage and this was definitely not the set to miss. This raucous set was exactly what the crowd needed as an energy boost to get through the rest of the day. After walking around all morning in the sun, Gogol Bordello brought the crowd back to their feet for a big dance party as the band played through their accordion rock set.

Gogol Bordello by Chase Agnello-Dean

Next up was Lawrence, Kansas indie rockers Mates of State. Their gentler set on the MySpace Stage was beautiful and it was a nice touch when the couple was joined by some strings. The crowd loved them, but it was hard to settle into their set after jumping around with Gogol Bordello.

Playing at the same time as Mates of State across the venue at the PlayStation 3 Stage was songstress Cat Power. Cat’s voice was just as great live as it is recorded. It is a shame that her set had to be the same time as Mates of State because they attract the same crowd.

Cat Power by Alberto Trevino

Toward the end of Cat Power, the crowd quickly scrambled for a place to see The Raconteurs perform on the Bud Light Stage. Jack White and crew sounded great, but there was something a little off about their set. It could have been that they weren’t in their usual uniform, but street clothes or it could have been the technical difficulties causing Brendan Benson to drop out during the vocals of “Level,” but it just wasn’t as tight as their club performances.

Jack White of the Raconteurs by Stephanie Janisch

I stopped at the Citi Stage for a few songs from Brazilian electro group CSS. Lovefoxxx must be tired of looking sexy because she sported a bright red spandex outfit with ruffles wrapping around it. CSS sounded a lot better live than their recording, surprisingly, and the crowd loved dancing around to their beats.

CSS by Abbey Braden

Radiohead closed out Friday on the AT&T stage. Thom Yorke and the rest of the guys thrilled the crowd by combining their tight instrumental skills with an amazing light show and fireworks as they performed songs like “Airbag,” “Fake Plastic Trees” and “There, There.” Friday’s crowd went home pleased after Radiohead’s double encore.

The crowd during Radiohead by Alberto Trevino

Radiohead by Alberto Trevino

Radiohead wasn’t the only reason to attend this festival and Saturday looked just as packed. British group The Ting Tings was the perfect start to the day. Katie White (Interview at Diesel U Music Lounge at the Hard Rock Hotel) easily draws the eyes of the crowd as she energetically moves around singing their hits, but Jules de Martino should not be overlooked as he plays and sings with precision.

The Ting Tings by Alberto Trevino

There was a little lag after the Ting Tings. Dr. Dog took to the MySpace stage, but was unmemorable. Foals played some fun dance songs over at the Citi Stage, but didn’t stand up to the high standard for other electro dance groups set by the Ting Tings. MGMT sounded phenomenal live, but their disinterest in a majority of their own set detracted from the performance. They finally loosened up and started bantering by the end of their set.

MGMT by Abbey Braden

Brand New was the band to beat for best performance of the day, although Jesse Lacey‘s attitude may have detracted from the musical experience causing many to quickly forget just how good this performance was in actuality. Joined by Kevin Devine for their first song, they took to the AT&T Stage and put on the most powerful performance of the day. Jesse Lacey’s performance is better than ever, but he appears just as moody.
He seemed to be in a good mood at first as he seemingly jokingly told the crowd, “You should all be at Explosions in the Sky. You’re all fools.” But as the set progressed through “Sowing Season,” “Sic Transit Gloria,” “Jesus Christ” and a new song (tentatively called “Bride”), Lacey grew more and more frustrated with a pocket of disinterested crowd members before finally climaxing and throwing his guitar into the drum set and leaving the stage a full fifteen minutes before the set was meant to end. Despite this mishap, this was still one of the best performances of the day and the part of the crowd that was interested was left confused and chanting for an encore.

After Brand New, I caught some of Okkervil River‘s set across the venue at the PlayStation 3 Stage and their sweet indie rock was a nice respite. They were followed by Broken Social Scene over on the Bud Light Stage, but BSS is more suited for a smaller setting where their fun instrumentations can completely engulf the listener. As great as Okkervil and Broken were, they just couldn’t match the amphitheatric power of Brand New’s set.

Okkervil River by Amrit Singh

To be quite honest, the crowd gathering for Saturday’s headliners Rage Against the Machine didn’t really appeal to us and we headed out early to get a head start home, which is lucky we did because the Chicago Transit system got backed up by three hours from the large crowd leaving Lollapalooza.

Lollapalooza continued on to Sunday and featured the usual buzz acts like Black Kids, but the real buzz swarming the venue all weekend was the suspected appearance of democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Unfortunately, Obama didn’t put in an appearance, but there were still plenty of special guests present at the festival. While Stars member Amy Millan joined the boys in Broken Social Scene on the Bud Light Stage, guitarist Slash joined festival co-founder Perry Farrell for a few songs. Plus, there were plenty of celebrities to spot like Lindsay Lohan and the Wentzes if you just kept your eyes open. This festival was filled with fun surprises and definitely not a weekend to miss.

Lollapalooza: website | schedule | setlists

Written by: Bethany