May 13, 2008
Click Click: The 2008 DC101 Chili Cook-Off
As we touched on earlier today, there were plenty of concerts around the area this weekend that weren't centered around inclement weather. On Friday, you had your choice of a three-hour, catalog spanning marathon by the Cure at the Patriot Center in Fairfax as well as a raucous set by the Drive By Truckers at the 9:30 Club. Saturday night's big event was the Kanye show, but during the day over 21,000 people made their way to the site of the old Convention Center to rock out for a good cause at the 29th annual DC101 Chili Cook-Off, benefiting the National Kidney Foundation.
With bands like Finger 11, Chevelle and Staind, this year's musical acts leaned a bit more into the modern rock territory than last year's bill, which featured Jet, The Bravery and Silversun Pickups. A long, and we mean long, entry line wrapped around three sides of concert site until after 3 p.m. but once inside, in addition to the music, concert goers had their pick of over 50 kinds of chili along with a wide array of other food and, of course, beer. The main event for the food vendors was the International Chili Society-sanctioned cook-off, which was judged by celebrities like local FOX 5 anchor Will Thomas, former America's top model contestant Sara Albert, DCist food editor Eddie Kim, and Joe Wooten, who donated one of his kidneys to his father, basketball legend Morgan Wooten.
The clouds looked ominous a few times during the day, particularly before Seether's set, but the weather held up and was actually much more enjoyable than last year's 90+ degree temperatures. The crowd, the biggest ever, was relatively well behaved, but the lines at the port-o-johns got a bit testy and impatient as the empty beer cups littering the site multiplied. The day's highlight for me was watching crowd surfing wheelchair dude do his thing, just like last year.
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I had some friends who went and had to wait about an hour and a half to get in and then another 30 minutes once inside to get a beer. This is pretty ridiculous. Instead of the draught beer, they should just have plastic bottles to hand out rapidly. They left after they finished their first beers. I think they would benefit in moving this debacle to RFK.
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Seether and Staind? That's not modern rock, that's just crap. Maybe they should move the festival to Waldorf.
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Ah, memories. The first event I went to in the District, about a week after moving here. I remember wondering if I had somehow entered a wormhole that had whisked me back to Alabama. Even though Silversun Pickups are from Alabama, the C.C. wasn't quite what I expected.
There was a ton of chili, though. No surprises there.
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Shitty music and a bunch of drunk people with lots of chili in their stomachs being pushed around in a pit, sounds like a recipe for disaster
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Rukasu, I would venture to say recipe for apocalypse. Or NASCAR. I think the level of fumes was equivalent.
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You'd think being the only game in town DC 101 would have some more pull to get better artists for such an event, a charity event especially.
I mean Chevelle? Staind? Finger 11? It's like HFStival 1999 for christ sake.
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I'm pretty sure Buck Cherry was at Chili Cook-off last year with mind blowing songs about coke and crazy bitches. But I may have just been drunk.
Btw, what noteworthy thing has Staind done in the last 8 years to be called modern?
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No mention of Live? They alone were worth the price of admission, drunken rednecks and all. For the same price, I had the choice of metroing into the city and also enjoying chili outside on a nice day, or driving an hour to Baltimore on a Friday night.
The rest of the bands, even though generally not what I give a rip about on the radio, put on decent shows as well (except Finger Eleven, but that was prime time to hit the port-o-johns and get some bottled water). For the most part, the rowdiness was what would be expected at a show like this, and well, that's part of the fun. There was a handful of douchebaggery, though, but overall it could have been worse.
~EEE~
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Why is anyone surprised at the bands that play. Go in your car and turn on DC101 and listen to the drivel they play...it's not modern at all. Now drive your car to Richmond, VA Beach, even dank OC and listen to the diverse and even modern music that they play. Radio in DC has always sucked...which is why talk is the preferred format in this area.
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Yikes! I think it is amazing all those bands played for only 20 bucks! Yes the PP lines were long, and the beer lines were long, but who cares if you were there with friends enjoying the music??? And it was a perfect day for that sort of thing-so come one! Nobody freakin' twisted your arm! Quit bitching!
Also want to know what your definition of "modern rock" is. Bubble gum bullshit that all the stations play?
Examples......oh yeah, and VA Beach is really a rockin' town! Make me laugh!