More Green Apple Festival Wrapup
A lot of places do weird really well. But when D.C. does weird, it usually just ends up being pretty uncomfortable and confused. That was the case with Sunday's Green Apple Festival on the National Mall. Rather than an informative, inspiring, musical call to action, it felt more than anything like a high school assembly.
Some of the biggest problems were mistaken assumptions about what brought people to this event in the first place. The organizers seemed to think that everyone was there to pat themselves on the back for being part of the "green generation," (a term they stuck anywhere they possibly could) rather than, ya know, for a free Flaming Lips show. (I didn't get the impression that the girl yelling "I LOVE ACID!" was there because of her devotion to lowering her carbon footprint.) The organizers missed an opportunity to really connect to an assembled audience about the issues it stood for. Instead of useful tips or motivational facts, they gave us long winded eco-cheerleaders, a sea of brochures, and a few text message-based trivia questions. There were signs that they wanted to connect to the younger people in the audience -- an inspirational tagline, frequent mentions of Obama. But mostly it felt like your dad trying to sound hip. Congressman Edward Markey, co-author of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, offered awkward metaphors, like, "the earth is running a fever, but there is no emergency room for planets." He then urged people to send a text to show support of the bill -- which would then later be turned into physical letters sent to congress. So close, and yet so far away.
The mall was lined with booths, and anybody who was giving away something free got a line of their own. This fact was drenched in a sad sort of irony, considering that the tchotchkies these folks clamored for all afternoon will probably end up in a landfill in the not so distant future. A note to organizers: paper handouts and branded plastic giveaways are anathema to a "green" festival.
So is, for that matter, an event that stretched several hours beyond what it should have for the sake of inviting every sponsor and every head of any tangentially eco-conscious organization to get up on stage and give a speech. There were about six speakers at each between-set interval, all of whom said more or less the same thing, and none of whom gave any actually useful advice or calls to action. This was frustrating for a couple of reasons. It was pretty boring to hear different people giving the same speech over and over again (many of whom didn't get the memo about not needing to yell when you're using a microphone), but also in the respect that without these needless buffers, the entire show could have ended earlier and used a lot less of that stage-supporting electricity. The Green Apple Festival seemed to lack the presence of mind to edit, to stay on message or to keep its crowd engaged. And as the temperature dropped and the rain began to do the same, it made for a pretty unsatisfying afternoon.
And we haven't even begun to talk about Chevy Chase yet.
The comedian was listed as the event's host, and they used him about as well as an award show does -- giving him scripted moments to introduce the many-too-many speakers. Chase's appearances were cringeworthy, and I can only assume he was heavily under the influence of something or another. After sitting through this trainwreck, I think I can comfortably say that his one-time tagline of, "I'm Chevy Chase and you're not," is no longer something to be concerned about. He would come out on stage, start to think about telling a joke, ("You know, when I was shooting Fletch... nevermind"), then read the bio off of his clipboard, and awkwardly point out the script writers' attempts at jokes. After a painfully long set from moe., he never returned to the stage. We had more fun guessing what caused his exit. Maybe whatever was making him so incoherent took the better of him. Maybe he loathes jam bands as much as we do. Maybe the hecklers who seemed to be lining the front row got the better of him. Whatever it was was a blessing in disguise; Chevy Chase's appearances were terribly uncomfortable to watch.
But enough about the missed opportunities to use innovative and eco friendly methods to inspire a crowd. Enough about the shortfalls in organization and imagination. Enough about the depressing appearance from a former funnyman. What about the Flaming Lips!?!?!
The Flaming Lips put on a great show. That's what they do. Seeing them was nothing short of exhilarating; the giant bubble that Wayne Coyne gets inside before rolling around over the crowd, the streamer guns, the swinging lights, the phalanx of dancers. It's all joy and excitement. It's also been their schtick for several years now, which made us wonder if this band known more than anything for being wildly creative are boring themselves a bit. It's a minor quibble; they put on a great set, though they've taken to playing most of their big hits in a slower tempo, which can be pretty frustrating for an audience that's just waiting for a big drum burst to cue a dance party. But they still put on an engaging show. The festival format meant they stuck mainly to the hits -- "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots," "She Don't Use Jelly," "Do You Realize?" They peppered in a few surprises, too. A cover of Madonna's "Borderline" was arguably the drab day's brightest moment. Being that this was a big rally set in between the Capitol and the Washington Monument, they took a moment to note how appalling the wars we're in are. Right then, Coyne took out a silver trumpet, and the band joined him in playing Taps. The entire crowd earnestly threw up peace signs in one of the only truly inspiring moments of the day. Of course, being Wayne Coyne, there was a tricky element to it; he pulled the trumpet away from his mouth to reveal that it wasn't him playing it at all. It was an auto-playing recording that the band was accompanying. But it was still pretty tremendous. They moved from there directly into "The W.A.N.D.," spraying the crowd with colored smoke coming directly out of the distortion megaphone Coyne was using as his mic. The Flaming Lips are never lacking when it comes to stage antics and gimmicks.
All in all, the organizers of this Earth Day celebration need to think things through some more for next year. But I've certainly done less exciting things on Sunday afternoons than seeing the Flaming Lips play for free a few minutes away from my house.