August 2, 2007
DCist's Guide to the Virgin Festival
When joining the fray for a big music festival, it's always important to have a game plan -- even if large chunks of it usually get lost in the wash somewhere along the way thanks to a really long ATM line or running into some dude you haven't seen since you were 14.
This weekend several DCists and at least two of our readers will be heading up to Baltimore's Pimilco race track for its second Virgin Festival. Here's our game plan for making the most of the two day fest. We'll link to reviews we've done of these bands in the past where we can. The full schedule is here — let us know in the comments who you're looking forward to seeing.
SATURDAY
Noon-ish: Arrive, get the lay of the land, wait in line for beer.
12:45: Make our way to the North Stage for Cheap Trick's 1 p.m. show. We don't care what you say, "Surrender" is and always will be an awesome, awesome song. Work our way closer and closer to prepare for the spectacle we're hoping Amy Winehouse will bring to the stage from 2:10 to 3. Her ridiculous persona aside, that girl has made some seriously amazing music that we're dying to see live. Stick around for a few minutes of teenage reminiscence as Incubus takes the stage.
3:40: Work our way to the South Stage for ubiquitous buzz bearers Peter Bjorn and John. Dance on through their set and part of LCD Soundsystem's.
6:00: Head back up to the North Stage to catch the Beastie Boys, because dammit we will finally see the band that cancellations, lightning and a host of other blocks have kept us from for the past decade or so.
7:35: Because some of us have missed their recent visits to the 9:30 Club, we'll bound southward to catch the last half of TV on the Radio, then high tail it back north and stand somewhere obscenely far away while we watch Sting & Co. do their thing.
9:30: After hearing enough of their greatest hits to sufficiently check The Police of your "bands to see" list, try and squeeze in a few minutes of Modest Mouse, then hope like hell that they'll be visiting a smaller venue near us soon.
11:00: Collapse on the floor of a kind Baltimorean friend's house.
Photos by Kyle Gustafson.
SUNDAY
Noon: Start our day at the Dance Tent and shake that hangover right off with Baltimore's own Dan Deacon and Pittsburgh's Girl Talk.
1:00: Move over to the North Stage for the sweet and soaring vocals of Ms. Regina Spektor. Claw, elbow, climb and kick our way to the front to secure a sweet spot as close as possible to Austin's Spoon before their set starts at 2:25. Properly hydrate beforehand so our vocal chords are ready to shout "I LOVE YOU BRITT!"
3:15: Head to the South Stage for another Austin export, Explosions in the Sky, and stake your space in the crowd before Bad Brains comes on at 4:15.
5:15: Shuffle over to the North Stage for a few minutes with Karen O and the rest of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs before shimmying south again and getting our skulls blown by the Wu-Tang Clan.
6:45: And it's back to the North Stage for a show that probably couldn't differ more from Wu-Tang, but will be just as amazing — Interpol. Hang around to pass judgment on 2007's version of the Smashing Pumpkins.
9:00: Make our way to the Dance Tent to end the festival with Sri Lanka's mistress of cool, M.I.A.
10:00: Elated, sunburned, dehydrated and exhausted, start our sojourn back to the District for a shower and some much needed rest before the work week starts all over again.
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Don't waste your time with PB&J.... it is all pre-recorded tracks... unless you are in to that sort of thing.
You forgot to add, "collapse in a heap from the heat" somewhere around 4 PM.
Enjoy the shows!
You mean I can die of heatstroke and listen to the Feyd Rautha Experience? How can you tell the difference?
Don't forget to dodge that typo at 6:00 on Saturday!
No mention of the Bad Brains in your plans for V-Fest? Lose two cool points.
Don't make me dock you two reading comprehension points hillrat.
hillrat -
I was about to post the same thing before looking at the article again and seeing them buried under the header of Explosions in the Sky. Because, you know, Explosions in the whoever is more crucial and noteworthy than the band that is arguably the most important group to come out of the consevrative boat-shoe hellhole known as DC.
See, if it was a fugazi reunion, dcist would be ecstatically rolling in its own excrement. But Bad Brains? Is it really safe to go to their concerts? I heard someone got hurt at one once.
Amanda...... this is exactly how I planned my itinerary. You do know what you're supposed to do if you meet your evil twin right?
I think you're going to be sorely disappointed with half of those performances. PB&J are just silly live - they are not a good live act. Neither are Explosions in the Sky or Amy Winehouse. Sure, she's got a great voice, but she doesn't have the soul or the stage presence to make for an even mildly interesting live show.
That said, I'm not sure what else I would put on your schedule instead - not all that excited about the V Fest lineup.
monkeyrotica,
To be fair, the Bad Brains have been a very unpredictable live band the past few years or so. And I don't mean unpredictable in the "is HR going to do a backflip off of the speaker cabinets in the middle of How Low Can A Punk Get" way but more in a "is HR going to get all dusted and sing into a Handicam at arm's length while wearing a motorcycle helmet as the band plays nothing but half-assed reggae" sort of way. Sadly, I have passed up the opportunity to see them once or twice and reports indicate that I made the right decision.
But still, if I were going to Virgin Fest, the Brains would be the #1 band for me, especially seeing how pitiful this Police abortion has turned out to be.
Bad Brains will either be wonderful or absolutely miserable. The last time i saw them was at traxxx2000 about a decade ago in support of the album they released on Madonna's Maverick label.
The best thing you can say about that show was that they showed up.
Also, if you miss dan deacon you're really doing yourself a very, very sad disservice.
Hillrat-
I'm not going to the festival, but having heard the new Bad Brains record, I'm not sure I'd check out their set either. If it's just going to be HR singing slow, dubby, reverb soaked vocals over bass-heavy nu-metal-ish riffing, that's really more disappointment than I'd want to face.
Then again, that whole debacle might just be Adam Yauch's fault, and they might be amazing live. I'm not optimistic.
Or say Screw this festival and head up to Gathering of the Vibes next weekend for a much cooler scene...
Damn it I can't go. Anyone wanna buy my extra 2-day pass? Pleeease?
Man, the photo under Sunday of that sweaty sausage fest really makes me want to head up there.
Good idea... I'll just go ahead and return my ticket and head up to BRIDGEPORT, CT?! I'm sorry, but I vowed never to return to CT unless it was to help my parents move out. At least Baltimore has plenty of redeeming qualities.... Bridgeport on the other hand..... at least their minor league team has a funny name (Go Bluefish!).
No one is making you go to the festival this weekend. No one.
Amanda - My bad, I'll take my two reading comprehension point deduction with no further comment.
"is HR going to get all dusted and sing into a Handicam at arm's length while wearing a motorcycle helmet as the band plays nothing but half-assed reggae"
I hear you, but I've seen one of those totally weird Bad Brains shows and it was definitely entertaining in its own way, but that probably had more to do with the Louisville Slugger sized joint we smoked beforehand than the music being played. I think this close to home HR and the boys will bow to the pressure to stick to mostly Reagan-era material.
I'm jealous of my friends going to this, I think the lineup is fucking awesome. Damn my living in New York this summer! I saw some of these bands at Bonnaroo and they were pretty awesome, Spoon especially surprised me. The Police were meh. But then again their Bonnaroo stop was pretty early in the reunion tour, maybe they've gotten their shit together since then. Would loooooooove to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs!
6:00: Head back up to the North Stage to catch the Beastie Boys, because dammit we will finally see the band that cancellations, lightning and a host of other blocks have kept us from for the past decade or so.
-They played at the Patriot Center 3ish years ago.
laaaaaaaame. PB&J is lame. get close close close for LCD.
-- morrissey
I wanna do one too!
BYT's Guide to the Virgin Festival
I wonder if Rod's will have their mobile glory hole bus in the parking lot again this year.
Virgin Fest is gonna rock!
I have one little problem, the rest of my crew is going down friday night, and I have to work late friday and wont be able to get a ride with them anymore.
Is anyone going from the dc area that has an extra spot in their car?
Ill throw in for gas!
Drop me a line on the email below!
jefferyschulte@hotmail.com
Why all the hate for PB&J? I guess if any band parlays a song into any major success they automatically suck.
An emergency blog to stop the spread of the Swedish band Peter Bjorn and John
Ps. i like their latest record, saw them live at 9:30, wasn't anything special, Fujiya & Miyagi were way more entertaining
Yeah I've seen that stupid blog. Brilliant.
Also, lol @ Fujiya & Miyagi being more entertaining than PB&J at 9:30. I've never seen a less interesting live performance than F&M. What world do you people live in?
Let me clarify - the music was more entertaining, it was their first show in that large of a venue and they were obviously not as confident as they could have been stage presence-wise. But the actual music was far more interesting than what PB&J did IMO. Here's an old interview I did with them (with guest appearance by Ian Svenonius) prior to the show.