Virgin Music Festival: Day 1
Sept. 8, 2007
Toronto, Canada

This was my first trip to the 2nd annual Virgin Music Festival in Toronto and I didn’t really know what to expect. I was informed the concert would take place on an island and I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t realize that Toronto even had an island. Saturday morning I went down to the press check in and after getting sorted out I was told to wait for the next ferry. Ferry? This is where the differences between V Fest and other festivals began. I took a short ferry ride across the water to the Toronto Island Park. I exited the boat, roamed around the grounds for awhile and saw a beautifully laid out theme park filled with rides, food vendors and four concert stages. This was trippy! It seemed to me that this was Perry Farrell’s original vision for Lollapalooza, “Come out to the island to see some great music, learn about some worthy causes, eat and drink and take a break and ride a roller coaster or a bumper boat.”

My day of music began with the 20-year-old Scot that I just can’t get enough of. Paolo Nutini took to the main stage at 2:15 in the afternoon and the crowd couldn’t have asked for a better way to start the show. Nutini and his boys played a terrific 45-minute set which included his hits, “New Shoes,” “Rewind” and “Jenny Don’t Be Hasty” along with an amazing new track “Rainbows.” The band also threw in an excellent rock cover of Moby’s “Natural Blues.” The kid is really coming into his own as a live performer. He’s always had the material but in the early days it seemed hard for Nutini to interact with the crowd, choosing to look down at his feet instead of making eye contact with his fans. These days he’s moving around, having fun, talking to the audience and the crowds are eating it up!


Next up on the main stage was K-OS. To be perfectly honest, I’d never seen the man and his band live. On stage, K-OS combined all the great elements of The Fugees, Rage Against The Machine and Bob Marley. One minute he was crooning like Lauryn Hill with Pras and Wyclef backing him and the next he’d fire up the political stance like Zach De La Rocha with a less aggressive Tom Morello on the axe. It would be hard to classify K-OS into any musical category because he doesn’t define himself. From rock to reggae to r&b and hip hop, the man put on a show that I consider to be one of the festival's best.

Anticipation boiled over as M.I.A. was taking the stage. She’s played at so many festivals that I’ve attended but, for whatever reason, I’ve never had the chance to watch her perform. While I really enjoy her recorded work it just didn’t seem to translate well live. The songs were there but the energy was lacking. That special something just didn’t seem apparent. That being said, the lady’s outfits were bangin’! Pink sunglasses and black leather daisy dukes will go a long way when it comes to remembering what to write in a review. It is hard to forget such a memorable ensemble.

While sitting on the shore I took a much needed break and enjoyed my slice of pizza and a hot dog. The venue offers up the most amazing view of the downtown skyline. The break was short lived, however, because the Arctic Monkeys were about to take the stage. I really wanted to see what the hype was all about. I loved the Arctic Monkeys debut album but was less than impressed with their recent follow-up, Favourite Worst Nightmre. The kids from Sheffield were quite impressive as they ripped through an hour long set that included the wonderful “I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor” and the current hit “Brianstorm.” It was a much needed energy injection near the end of a long day. It got the crowd riled up and everyone wanted to see more! One of the highlights from the festival occurred hours later when I listened to the boys playing acoustically outside of their trailer. They played with assorted friends, drinking Strongbow cider and singing James Blunt’s “Beautiful.”

As with all festivals, multiple acts play at the same time and you’re forced to make decisions as to what band(s) you’d rather see. Interpol vs. Mute Math was case in point. I decided to see the second stage headliner, Mute Math, and keep up my streak of skipping Interpol festival performances. This was the best decision I made all weekend long! I’m new to the phenomenon that is Mute Math but I’m a definite convert. Without hesitation I will tell you that this was the best performance all weekend long. For whatever reason, these guys remind me a lot of The Police during their heyday but with added pop sensibility. Terrifically catchy songs combined with a great light show made for the most memorable performance of the day.

To end the night I needed to catch a glimpse of Bjork’s performance so I could leave with a smile on my face. The queen of Iceland always makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and this was no exception. She took the stage wearing a golden dress and it seemed as if she had painted her forehead green. The cast of characters behind her reminded me of the Polyphonic Spree on acid. Like the Spree, multiple members donned multi-colored robes but these backup performers had painted their foreheads, as well. It was awesome! I stayed long enough to hear the first couple of songs and then hightailed it to the ferry for fear that I’d be stuck on the island all night long.

Stay tuned for a report of Day 2 of V Fest...

LOLLAPALOOZA DAY 1
Friday August 3rd, 2007 – Grant Park – Chicago, IL

And so it begins…

The first day of any music festival is when you settle in, acclimatize to your surroundings and get really, really drunk while schmoozing with friends, colleagues and rock stars. This course of action inevitably makes you miss a lot of music, so when you’re getting paid to attend a festival you have to change up your game a bit and lower your alcohol intake from 12 Tito’s-and-Vitamin Waters to six Tito’s-and-Vitamin Waters. (Tito's Handmade Vodka and Vitamin Water were two of the great sponsors of Lollapalooza and kept me quite happy all weekend long!)

In addition to the never-ending beverage supply, I am only one man and though I’d love to have superhuman ability and be at multiple places at once, I just can’t. I did, however, try to catch as many bands as humanly possible to let those who couldn’t attend know what they should be upset about missing and what they should be thankful for staying home about.

For the first time, I was able to wake up early enough to get down to the park to catch one of the festival’s first bands. The Fratellis had the misfortune of landing the 11:45 a.m. time slot, which pretty much guarantees that you’ll be playing to tumbleweeds. To my surprise, thousands of kids seemed to have gotten a good night’s sleep in order to catch the Scottish rockers and the band did not disappoint. The Fratellis roared through their 45 minute set and were definitely the highlight of an otherwise, mild-mannered, Friday afternoon schedule.

That is until the 5 o'clock hour rolled around and a band from Silverlake, CA killed the festival! Silversun Pickups took the stage and whipped the crowd into a frenzy from the outset. Often described as a melding of My Bloody Valentine and Smashing Pumpkins, SSPU have taken the shoegazing swirl of MBV and combined it with the best of Corgan’s songwriting to create something that just flat-out works -- fuzzed out, melodic rock that you can sing along with. In my opinion, it was one of the top three performances of the entire festival.

The early evening concluded with Perry Farrell’s latest project, Satellite Party, actually doing a pretty good job of playing Jane’s Addiction covers along with cool originals, as well as Mickey Avalon strutting his stuff on a very small stage that barely gave him enough room to vibe with the two hookers -- I mean professional dancers -- that he brought out. LCD Soundsystem was slotted to play from 7:30-8:30 p.m., making them the perfect opening act for French duo Daft Punk. Needless to say, they absolutely destroyed it! There is something so utterly cool about James Murphy’s beats combined with his catchy lyrics that keeps you moving the entire time. Though I will admit I had to duck out early to get “hydrated” before Daft Punk took the stage.

Now to be fair, I had zero intention of seeing Ben Harper, the co-headliner on Day 1. However, I did hear he put on an excellent show that included a duet with Eddie Vedder of Dylan’s “Masters of War.” That being said, the main reason for attending the opening festivities was to see the French duo perform and perform they did. I’m sure by now you can go on YouTube and see it for yourself, so without wasting both your time and mine, allow me to say this -- Daft Punk fucking rules. Their costumes, the light show, the stage, the music, everything about this performance was just incredible and no words can do it justice. It was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen and the perfect ending to a Friday night.

Stay tuned for Day 2 and 3...

With Lollapalooza X taking over Chicago's Grant Park this weekend with Ween, Gnarls Barkley, and Queens of the Stone Age among those leading the charge, it might feel a little early discussing the next one before this one is over. But, Perry Farrell is no superstitious man. He's fearless. He wears girls pants.

And makes them look good.

In an interview in this week's NME, the Festival's founder talked about bringing the show to England. While the Festival will be enjoying its first jaunt across the pond, most of Perry's picks for who'll grace the AT&T and Bud Light stages are locals. Farrell revealed to NME:

He also spoke of lining up Paul McCartney and David Bowie. A pretty decent line-up thus far, but right now it's all just party talk.

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