Many of the country’s large festivals (Coachella, Bonnaroo, Pitchfork, Sasquatch, Lollapalooza) have built some sort of niche, whether as a hippie festival with drugs, a testing ground for non-mainstream headliners or a reunion performance mecca. Virgin Mobile FreeFest has avoided any sort of simple descriptors, but this year there was a clear division between the types of acts on the three different stages.
While the Dance Forest has always provided solace (and shade) for electronic beat lovers, for the first time there was also a common thread going through all of the Pavilion Stage acts as well. With the exception of reunited piano pop act Ben Folds Five, everyone had a country or blues rock bent, whether they’d opted for fiddle use (Jack White, Trampled By Turtles) or whether they just knew dragged out their blues progressions and bombastic guitars with a bit of a drawl (Alabama Shakes and ZZ Top). Maybe it was coincidental, but it unintentionally cut down on the between-stage foot traffic as alt-country lovers were thoroughly catered to at the Pavilion Stage for the entire day.
The final day of Merriweather’s season started out warm but sloppy. A FreeFest announcer told crowds that Das Racist wouldn’t be performing on account of breaking up. In fact, emcee Himanshu Suri had strep throat, but that sort of merry pranking wouldn’t have been out of line for the hip-hop trio.
By 2:30 p.m., the largest and most animated crowd appeared to be at the dance tent, where local beatmaker Alvin Risk had the crowd airborne with his pulsating beats. It was quite the contrast from the Avett Brothers-esque fiddling and harmonizing of Trampled By Turtles. As such, standing between the two stage areas made for a rather bizarre combination of sounds.
The largest crowd was certainly not at the Festival Stage for the Dismemberment Plan, who had drawn several hundred very vocal fans (and their confused looking partners) saying things like, “I can’t believe there aren’t more people here!” There were still enough people for Travis Morrison to turn over vocal duties to the crowd for the ends of popular sing-a-longs like “You Are Invited” and “The City.” It also didn’t stop the band from having fun with the crowd. Morrison asked the crowd to wave with the people on the Ferris Wheel and pranced around with a shit eating grin during “A Life of Possibilities.” Although it wasn’t all fun and games onstage—their equipment predictably failed, this time during opener “Timebomb,” and Morrison joked “Safety First” after tying his shoe mid-set. Is that why we’re not allowed onstage during “The Ice of Boston” anymore?
Yet, those who missed that break of the artist/audience barrier needed only stay around for Santigold’s set. The Brooklyn singer’s former life as an A&R rep has served her well in that she knows exactly how to put on a gripping stage performance. She (and her dancers and band) had two costume changes (always into something bright or shiny) in their brief set, and she danced around stage like she was having the time of her life. “You guys look like you mean when you’re singing,” she said to the crowd. She actually did invite crowd members onstage during her performance of “Creator,” asking only that the selected participants put their cameras down and actually dance. So, girl in the blue shirt and blue shorts who repeatedly pulled out her camera phone, I’m calling you out—we all saw you.
Yet, in a day filled with people with no shortage on stage presence, The Alabama Shakes provided a jolt for the crowd at the Pavilion Stage. Singer Brittany Howard shook her guitar and her body, howling as if she was the second coming of Janis Joplin while touring keyboardist Ben Tanner pounded the keys behind her for rollicking rockabilly sound that even got the folks on the lawn to their feet.
Our biggest mistake of the day was not going with our original plan of watching M83 from the Ferris Wheel, choosing instead to take a spot close to the sound booth and off to the side at what we thought was a comfortable distance from the stage. M83’s songs and light show were beautiful and cinematic, but we must have run into every drunk person that only sees one concert a year because there were a lot of inconsiderate rookie mistakes. Shouts of “Put down your phone!” were well-warranted, and for future reference, anybody who crowd surfs during an M83 set is a jerk. There, I said it. Never have I listened to “Midnight City” and thought, “Hmm, this song is good, but it’d be WAY better if I was kicking people in the face while others grab my rear end!” I didn’t even bother to return to the Festival Stage for Skrillex if that was the crowd’s response to M83.
However, the night was redeemed by the stellar performance of Jack White. His band of lady musicians, including Autolux drummer Carla Czar and keyboardist Brooke Waggoner (who has some worthwhile solo material, by the way), put on the sort of performance that demonstrated how to headline a festival. In addition to playing material from Blunderbuss he had restructured tracks like the Raconteurs’ hit “Steady As She Goes” and the previously speedy “Fell In Love With a Girl” so that they fit an ensemble performance.
Everything sounded full and ready for the Pavilion Stage, and by the time he hit the famous opening notes of “Seven Nation Army” the orchestra pit were leaping as if they’d lost their minds and the entire Pavilion sang the guitar riff as if they were chanting at a sports event.
Considering that I very nearly did not attend after last year’s losing combination of less-than-stellar performances (TV on the Radio aside) and interminable waits for everything, my faith has been renewed that Virgin FreeFest is a worthwhile event.
