April 1, 2008
Headliners for 3rd Annual Virgin Mobile Festival Announced
It seems like just yesterday we were scratching our heads and wondering what this mythical "v fest" creature we'd heard of could possibly be. A large-scale music festival that doesn't require a plane ticket? Our brain grapes were smashed at the thought! The first year (a one day event headlined by The Who and the Flaming Lips) went over well, and last year's bigger, better and greener approach was another notch in Richard Branson's belt. We already knew that this year's festivities would happen on August 9 and 10, once again returning to Pimlico racecourse in Baltimore. Now we've got the first signs of life: a list of headliners.
This year's event will feature the Foo Fighters, Jack Johnson, Kanye West, Nine Inch Nails and Stone Temple Pilots. Wait, what? STP? One of the Virgin Festival's favorite tricks has been a big reunion (see: last year's Smashing Pumpkins performance). This will also be the second year in a row Scott Weiland comes to Charm City; his other band, Velvet Revolver, knocked DCist Kyle's socks off last summer. Of that lineup, I'm personally most excited about Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor's "hot because he's kinda scary" appeal hasn't dwindled in the past decade. I'm also kind of hoping Kanye is still giving out those venetian blind shades at his shows.
The remainder of the lineup is still a mystery. Any tour-checking detectives out there care to warrant a guess? (We're looking at you, The Upstate Life.)
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Please please please let this be a sick April Fool's joke. That has to be the most boring lineup they could think of.
For reez. Kanye is pretty good live but its due mainly to theatrics which won't be doable at V Fest. On top of that, he'll singlehandedly bring he under 18 crowd up from 60 to 90%. Fighters and NIN were great in their era but are no longer relevant. Same goes for STP when Scott Weiland was on the H-Bomb. Jack Johnson, well he might just be the worst musician of my generation.
According the Wikipedia's best guess, Rabbit in the Moon and Deadmau5 will be entertaining the ecstasy tent at some point over the weekend.
Count me among the naysayers, if these are the "big" names in a 2-day festival lineup. None of these bands are anywhere near the magnitude of the Police or the Who. And is there really anyone out there clamoring for a Stone Temple Pilots reunion these days?
are you freaking kiddinge? jack johnson? he is the headliner for every freaking festival this summer and he SUCKS.
sorry, in my rage i couldn't spell "kidding me"
Trent was hotter before he got all beefy...
I generally hate big outdoor shows, and I don't see anything here to lure me out of my cave.
Wow. That has to be the most underwhelming festival lineup ever.
Trent was hotter before he got all beefy...
Agreed. I wish he'd stop writing political songs (who doesn't hate Bush at this point) and let someone degrade and spank him again.
And by "someone" I mean me.
Back in 1999 when STP's No. 4 came out I was all giddy. "Down" sounded like a blast from the past and I couldn't wait to get my hands on the new album. I called up a CD store in Pittsburgh that often did midnight sales and asked if there would be one "for the new STP album."
The response: "STP?"
"Yeah, Stone Temple Pilots. Are you having a midnight sale?"
"Hmm? I think we might have ordered a few of those. Let me check."
That put my naive fandom in its place.
echoing the previous comments: awful lineup. foo fighters - think they're led zeppelin live (too much jamming out), kanye - stick to producing plz, jack johnson - zzzzz, nin - farting computers, stp - totally irrelevant.
the only thing that may make this worth attending is if the recently-reunited-for-summer-festivals face to face gets added to the bill.
Virgin Festival... featuring the hitmakers of the mid-90s AND the early 2000s.
jack johnson is everywhere this summer. what an attention whore.
this is the same weekend as the "coachella east" festival taking place up in jersey, right? the one with radiohead. i think, if i wasn't going to be over in tunisia that weekend, i'd be in jersey.
trent is hot whether he's beefy of waify.