Free the Freefest!

The month of Roctober started a week early for me in Columbia Maryland as I participated in my first ever Virgin Mobile Freefest. I went to the original Virgin Fest in 2006 at Pimlico race track in Baltimore, MD back when they were charging an (at the time for me) unheard of amount: $90 for a single day of shows. But hey, it was a chance to see The Who and Gnarls Barkley amongst other exciting bands.

I must give huge thanks to Sir Richard Branson for his charitable work and ability to sign top grade bands to this show. I've been excited since I picked up my tickets during the "Freesale" several weeks ago. In spite of rapper, T.I.'s legal trouble, and Die Antwoord pulling out, the Freefest was chock full of acts to see from when I arrived.

I bought into a bus with some friends thinking it would afford for a better time. I mean Freefest with none of the responsibility? Yes, please. In hindsight, I could not have been more disappointed. I assumed that because the bus would be headed to Freefest I would be surrounded by like-minded individuals with incredible taste in music. My friend was quick to remind me that I could also be on a bus full of people who got free tickets to something and they just want to spend the whole day fucked up. Unfortunately, it seemed like it was the latter, as I watched trendy Asian after trendy Asian bring case after case onto the bus (and ugh, Jager). My agitation only grew when we were told to be there sharply at 11:30 AM, and we didn't leave until after 12:30 PM because the ORGANIZER of the event showed up late because he was hungover. Any initial snobbishness was only magnified when some idiot decided to give the bus driver a mix CD. I was then subjected to house music for the next 90 minutes of my life. While waiting in line for the bathroom, some guy says, "Oh they started the first CD over again?"

"FIRST?! There's more?! Of THIS?!"
"Well...I did make a second CD with hip-hop on it..."
"Oh! It's yours? Haha...well...let's...um...get that second CD up and going, huh?"

Luckily I was spared that horror until later because we shortly arrived at Merriweather Post Pavillion, and one of the best single day festival shows I've ever been to:

I started the day with finding my friends in the last throes of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. I had seen him before at Black Cat and didn't feel the need to repeat the experience so we moseyed on over to Yeasayer. I had been forewarned that Yeasayer's show was something to behold, but I had not expected the spectacle that was their live performance. My only experience with Yeasayer is limited to repeated viewings of Red Cave on La Blogotheque. So I was surprised to learn that the lead singer is not featured in that video. The lead singer, Anand Wilder and Chris Keating would trade vocal responsibility throughout the set (their voices sound near identical to me). I tend to zone out to their more choral arrangements from the first album, but the live versions of these songs were so full of sound and energy that I couldn't get enough of it. It gave me a whole new look on their music. People should be introduced to Yeasayer via the live show. They closed with Ambling Alps, simply stating, "This last song's been remixed a lot".

Having given Dave Sitek's solo effort, Maximum Balloon, a cursory listening on Rhapsody, my interest was piqued enough to check them out in the appropriately named "Dance Forest". I gotta tell you, the show was not much like the album. He was a HUGE fan of the air horn sound effect though. It was decent music, I could see myself dancing to it, if it were darker (something about dance music outdoors during the day that doesn't quite work for me) or in a tent somewhere. We left the set early giving up music for positioning for Matt and Kim.

Getting to the main pavilion stage early meant that we got to (or had to depending on your view) listen to Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. She played some songs I'm sure bigger fans would have known; but I was surprised to hear a bunch of songs that I suppose on some level I knew were done by Jone Jett but never really attributed them to her. I was amused when a friend of mine complained to me:

"I think I don't like this band because they're so much older everyone here. Why are they here?"
"Because she's Joan Jett. She's an icon."
"She is? What does she do?"
"Hit Me With Your Best Shot? It's on fucking Guitar Hero, dude."
"OH YEAH!! Now I know who she is. She's really old now."
"Well, yeah. She's been around for a bit."

Matt and Kim took the stage a few minutes later with their catchy brand of indie pop. I've said it once and I'll say it again: You'll never find two people more happy to be playing music in front of people...EVER. They opened with I Wanna and then ripped into Good Old Fashioned Nightmare. I wasn't sure if it was the acoustics of the lawn seats, but the sound wasn't as energetic as it normally is. My greatest fear for Matt and Kim was that their sound wouldn't translate to a pavilion setting, and I felt my fears were warranted. My friends who had yet to see them play said that they had a great time during the set. I made the most of it and danced like a maniac. I had some other friends leaving early for Chromeo, but every time I thought I was going to leave they would pull me back in with hip hop throwbacks like Apache or I Like it Raw.

Eventually I did leave and made my way back to the Dance Forest to check out Chromeo's set. This was probably my biggest surprise of the day. I'm not that familiar with the bulk of Chromeo's work; but I have been bumping the album Fancy Footwork, for some time now. I was expecting some good flow over some synthed out beats but I walked into an orgiastic sea of writhing, bumping bodies. I didn't make it out for Sharam, but I can only assume that Chromeo truly turned that place into a Dance Forest. They're sound filled the area, and all you could think about was getting your proverbial "swerve on".

After the set, I dashed over to the west stage to catch a bit of Luda's set before coming back to the Dance Forest for Sleigh Bells. I'm not really familiar with Ludacris' music outside of radio hits, and I'm not really inclined to work on it now. I'm always skeptical of live rap shows because of the use of hype-men, and it translated into the little bit I heard from Ludacris. I'm not sure if I'm just not used to it, but a lot of people were pleased with his set, while everyone else I was with was somewhat underwhelmed with his performance. Perhaps these people are more familiar with live rap shows than I or my friends.

I was truly upset that I only caught brief glimpses/sound snippets of Pavement as I bounced between the Dance Forest and West stage. I was curious as to whether or not Sleigh Bells enormously loud shows would translate to a wide open forest. I was not disappointed as the group with whom I was traveling made it back to the forest and could hear the last bits of Infinity Guitars pouring through the main gates to the forest. I had a great time at the Rock and Roll Hotel show back in July; but this show was so much better. They seemed louder and more comfortable to improvise and interact with the crowd. Lead singer, Alexis Krauss encouraged the crowd to scream with her as she set forth a shriek that would make the Banshee's hair stand on end. I have a really good friend. He's one of those stoic, strong and silent, still-waters-run-deep types. Needless to say, he doesn't really dance at shows. In fact, at the evening with CAKE he told me that while he had not danced, it was the closest he came to dancing at a show. That being said, he danced to Sleigh Bells. His girlfriend and I couldn't believe it, and we went to join him in a thrashing little dance party.

Back out to the west stage for M.I.A.'s set. With LCD Soundsystem's set looming in my future (I was at Freefest primarily for LCD), I was disappointed and impatient to find that M.I.A. was not on stage 5 minutes past her posted start time. I was fairly certain that LCD would open with Dance Yrself Clean and I would not miss it for anything. When M.I.A. finally took the stage with The Message and proceeded with a very house music sounding beginning, I was already half-checked out. With 10 minutes until LCD, She was working her way through World Town, and I just bailed with my friend upon news that they were letting people into the pavilion for LCD's set and I should, "Get my ass down to the pit".

Unfortunately, the pit was at max capacity by the time we made it to the pavilion. We took to standing positions in some seats a few rows behind the pit and waited. When James Murphy took the stage with his collective of instrumentalists you just knew that there was something epic about to happen. The telltale drum beats started that kicked off the slow build to Dance Yrself Clean. I lost my mind and waited with the rest of the crowd with bated breath for the breakdown that comes in minute 3 of the song. When it hits, the pavilion and the surrounding lawn area explodes into a golden dance party, glow sticks flying, and everyone moving in unison. Continuing with This is Happening, the band played Drunk Girls, to a crowd that was now thrashing with the pop-punk power that was hammering from the stage. One of their first hits, Daft Punk is Playing at My House, came next and I could already feel my becoming complete. Perhaps my second favorite song off This is Happening, I Can Change, was played next. I had completely lost myself in the show. It was as if there were no one around me. This trance-like stage only became apparent when it took a direct yell into my ear from my friend that the rest of our little troupe had arrived on the other side of the pavilion wall and were trying to get our attention.

In order for you to understand what I felt in the next two minutes I would like you to imagine the following: Gentleman you are spending the night with the most beautiful woman you have ever met. Ladies, you are with the most handsome man you've ever met. You've had dinner, coy small talk all night and now things have moved to a more intimate setting. You've made your way through some intense foreplay and you are in the gasping throes of mind shattering love making. Now imagine your father comes in, grabs you by the hips, and rips you out of her (or him out of you) and throws you into a cold shower. This is what happened to me when my friends yell into my ear, "The bus is leaving soon, we have to meet up with the rest of the group".

After some failed attempts to contact some other friends at the show in a last ditch effort to go home with them instead of being relegated to a bus bumping shitty house music all the way back to Virginia, I resigned myself to the fact that I was not finishing this set. We very regretfully walked out of the pavilion to the sounds of You Wanted a Hit. The bus was just as disorganized leaving the show as it was getting there and as a result I sat on the bus waiting for an hour or so for some jackass I saw turn back to the venue on our way back to the bus. I could have stayed, finished the show, and still have likely beaten this guy back to the bus. What more? We were told that we had to get on the bus because we would be forced to pay an additional fee for going past the time of the booking. No one told us that this fee would amount roughly to $2-5 (which I would have gladly paid if it meant that I could watch the rest of the show). Lesson learned, never trust amateur douches with the totality of responsibility of me being able to enjoy my show.

I'm never riding a drunk bus anywhere unless I know the people who set it up, personally.

Overall the experience was great. I am however continually brought back to two particular instances in the festival. During Matt and Kim mentioned that they were charging for the pavilion seats and that maybe Virgin should consider freeing the Freefest. As I stated above, they eventually opened up the pavilion to