More in Summer Concerts
Bonnaroo managed to land The Mars Volta to their bill, those praised as the “new” Led Zeppelin. Maybe that’s not entirely true, but they do get enough comparisons as far as vocals, guitar and overall hype so that the festival’s combination of them, Lez Zeppelin, and Robert Plant should be enough of a consellation of the REAL Led Zeppelin not showing up, despite everyone and their mother saying at some point that it HAS to happen. Who else? Chris Rock will be playing to the anticipated largest crowd for a comedy show ever.However you feel about The Mars Volta, total hype bullshit prog-rock who blathers nonsense when monosyllables would suffice and wades in senseless noise for minutes between anything worth while, or you like them, it’s definitely more incentive to buy into the behemoth neo-suburban-hippie-fest, and I’d say the most incentive you’re going to get. They do put on an awesome show, and like their music or not, to see one of the best shows around these days would be huge. But I still stand behind Coachella as the place to be this Summer.It’s a strange thing knowing what songs will be played before you go to a show, so this Roger Waters performs Dark Side of the Moon is so bittersweet. Half the fun of seeing a show is not knowing if the artist will play the songs you want. If you have to hear a song, buy an album. The sub-headliners maybe lukewarm, but the supporting acts more than make up for it. Portishead should be great, but I’ve always felt the Raconteurs have never been as great a sum as all of their parts. Gogol is one of the best shows I’ve seen this year, though every single person at the show had a moustache. Streets will be there, Holy Fuck (who I like just because I get to say their name), The National, Cafe Tacuba, Tegan and Sara, a whole bunch of bands that are really, really good stuff. By and large, the vibe of the show is a lot more indie based, a lot more based on plugging bands that are on their way in, doing some different things in indie rock, as opposed to Bonnaroo which more just seems like an excuse for corporations to put money into a concert and patrons to just get fucked up. I’m all for people getting fucked up, and in mass quantities, but when people start hiding their reasons to go, that’s just silly. Bonarroo has become more of a small city for people to get fucked up without worries than a celebration of music, so just admit that’s why you wanna go. Maybe that’s my beef: dropping acid and watching Kanye West does not sound like as fun a time as dropping acid and watching Les Claypool. That I have to believe is more a matter of nature than personal taste, but then I’m probably just talking out of my ass. Thanks for reading.
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2 Responses to “More in Summer Concerts”
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Hi Matt,
I am commenting.
I find the Coachella lineup to be a glorified club tour, the majority of these bands would heavily appeal to me in a club setting but not at an outdoor festival. Yes Roger Waters would be great to see, but he is not worth the ticket price. And Coachella is like a Pitchfork kid’s wet dream, I hardly find it less commercial than the Bonnaroo lineup. Bonnaroo on the other hand has a variety of different genres and not solely focussed on the “indie” crowd, which I can appreciate. And Sigur Ros alone is enough to sell me on Bonnaroo, I know we have differing views on them so I will leave that alone.
P.S. The National? Really? If you are sincere in recommending them please explain to me why.
The National all on the hype value, truthfully I haven’t heard them. Personally, I like the idea of seeing a band live before I listen to them if there’s an opportunity, and especially if I’ve heard such good things. The first time you hear a band is how you remember them, so given the choice I’d opt to remember any/every band in person before hearing them on a cd. Pitchfork by and large just comes up with intricate, albeit fascinating ways to belittle bands, so I don’t by that wet dream shit for a minute. But to their name, they have a good bullshit detector. And what makes a better festival band than club band? I think the fact that they are smaller bands makes people think of them as club bands, but I’d much rather see what Animal Collective does with a festival crowd than have to have to suffer through Lupe Fiasco with the ALL of the whitest people in the world. (A case in point, actually. I really liked Lupe Fiasco’s “Food and Liquor” but I saw him live and was unimpressed. I can still say I like them because I liked the way I heard it first.) I really did try to stay away from calling stuff commercial and not as it is kind of a cop out. Something is probably commercial if a whole bunch of people like it and in turn manage to get a shit load of money from a big fat record contract or some type of shit like that…but that’s not a bad thing. The most commercial thing a festival could do would be to have Led Zeppelin play, but no sane person would dare say that wouldn’t be the best thing in the world.