Wine sold by the water bottle. Stay classy, Lolla.
Day 2 began with the brilliant Little Green Cars. I went to this young Dublin band’s show on
Easter Sunday this year on a whim (it was only $5 and I liked their song “The John Wayne”) and I got hooked. It’s easy
to fall in love with them. Their
harmonies are tight, their lyrics clever, and their songs range from
dance-party to heartwrenching. The band
informed the crowd that Faye O’Rourke had lost her voice but they were
determined to play for us. And listening
to her sing, you wouldn’t have guessed she was under the weather; she belted “My Love Took Me Down To The River To Silence Me” with as much power as ever and the crowd cheered her on. What a trooper! After their set Lizzy and I met them at the
FYE Autograph Tent, where the band signed our vinyl copies of their debut album,
Absolute Zero. It will go nicely with my signed CD and poster of theirs. ;)
Faye being awesome. What lost voice?
We crossed back to the south side of the park to settle at the main stage there for the next three bands (and the rest of the day). Mumford & Sons was headlining that night and I wanted to be close. Local Natives and The National preceded them, which worked out quite nicely. Admittedly I don't listen to Local Natives on a regular basis, but I do think they're fantastic -- what can I say, I'm a sucker for great harmonies and Taylor Rice's Freddy Mercury mustache. The National put on a great performance too; their music was gorgeous (love the horns) and Matt Berninger, their lead singer, moved all over the stage and even into the crowd. Also, and I'm not sure if this is just how he usually acts when performing, but he seemed somewhat wasted -- though musically on-point. Rock on, Matt.
Local Natives
The National
What's wrong, Matt Berninger? It'll be ok, I promise.
See? The crowd loves you.
The second The National played their last note, the push towards the stage began. We up front had to yell behind us to stop pushing because there was No. Room. Left. Lizzy and I were squished next to three VERY ANNOYING GIRLS. I'm tempted to whine about how much I wanted to duct tape their mouths but I don't want to subject you to that. Rather than deal with them, and the crazy crowd, and the heat, Lizzy opted out of the crowd. I remained, as I wanted to have a great view, especially in case they pulled off a Glastonbury-style encore (they didn't, sadly and somewhat surprisingly). Near show time I befriended a girl named Caitlin who was really excited to see them for the first time (if you're reading this, hello!). The band opened with Babel, as I predicted (it's loud, it's exciting, it's new) and the dancing began. They were at their best, I think, with Dustbowl Dance and Thistle & Weeds (I love their angry songs) and I was elated when they played Lover of the Light the RIGHT way, with loads of drums - not the toned-down album version. It's been one of my favorite songs since I saw them for the first time at Lollapalooza 2010. The band actually did get the crowd to be quiet for their stripped down, very acoustic version of Bruce Springsteen's "I'm On Fire". They closed out with The Cave, naturally. All in all, it was a good show... however, they didn't live up to their own standards this one. Maybe it was rough connecting to such a huge crowd (over half the festival came to watch) or maybe they were having an off day. Mostly it made me excited to see them at their September stopover in St. Augustine, because I know it will be much better. But on the bright side: Ted seemed to be fully recovered from his brain surgery just last June and I think he saw the "WE ❤ TED" sign I made him.
Now, I must conclude this post with Mumford & Sons most recent music video, for "Hopeless Wanderer." Because if you haven't seen it already, you're about to watch it for the first of many, many times. It's pretty much perfect:
No comments:
Post a Comment