It was 2:30 p.m. Keyshia Cole was supposed to go on a half-hour before, and the booing was getting louder. Behind me in the far stands, a couple was talking. He: "She has a new album out Sept. 25." She: "I have the feeling if I bought it, it wouldn't start for 20 minutes."
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I've been a pretty unabashed fan of the Seattle music and arts festival Bumbershoot, which has occurred every Labor Day weekend since 1971 since I first heard of it, with the caveat that I first heard of it under rather good circumstances. An old roommate had told me about it in 1994, but I'd forgotten all about it until the August 1996 road trip I wrote about here, I defected, via Greyhound, to Seattle from the group's intended San Francisco, and I wound up at the Green Tortoise, a rooming house near Seattle Center, where Bumbershoot was underway. I went to the gate, paid my fee, and caught good sets by Ani DiFranco, Los Lobos, and the Sex Pistols without realizing I could see any of them before arriving at the hostel. (I also saw a superb Elvis Costello show—a separate ticket—that weekend, his final-ever with the Attractions.) If I have an unusually rosy view of Seattle, it was installed that day.
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I didn't make it across the river to this weekend's inaugural All Points West festival, which could have easily been retitled "Two days of Radiohead shows with lots of opening bands plus another underattended Jack Johnson show," but the festival, which was put on by Coachella presenters Goldenvoice, has opened up the floodgates for complaints about many things, from a no-umbrella policy despite rain being in the forecast to the Roots being shunted off to a side stage while Kings Of Leon (?!) got the pre-Radiohead slot. The No. 1 reason for complaining, though, was the show's policy on alcohol consumption, which was restricted not just by area (there were a few beer tents scattered around the grounds) but by volume; the 21-and-over wristbands that allowed people into the beer tent had five tabs on them, and each time a festivalgoer ordered a drink, a tab was ripped off by the person behind the counter, thus restricting consumption of beers to five per 10-hour day. On the bright side, this saved people money (beer cost between $7 and $9 a pop), but if there's one thing people who spent a lot of money for a show don't like, it's the feeling of being pushed around in order to be able to spend their hard-earned cash.
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I know this is city-based favoritism to some degree—it doesn't hurt that I live within walking distance of nearly everything going on—but the lineup for the 2008 Decibel Festival in Seattle makes the annual electronic dance music fete look like one serious party. The headliners were announced a few weeks ago, and the organizers have been sending Facebook friends the semi-final lineups ahead of their website; we've copied them below the jump. The showcases are well chosen, and the best of them are as good as anything you'll see in Europe at similar events. Pay attention especially to the "Detroit: Past, Present & Future" lineup and the final night's headliners: by themselves these should be pretty amazing, and throwing in a Saturday in the park (a park I live three blocks from; yes!) and a Sunday BBQ and you're talking a techno fest every bit as attractive as its overseas (and cross-border—holla, Mutek) counterparts.
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Festival die-hards who were waiting to traipse down to south Jersey for the Vineland Festival, the multi-day, multi-band fest that was "postponed" from this year to a summer 2009 launch date, are going to be disappointed: The festival's plug has been pulled by C3 Presents, the Texas-based company that also puts on Lollapalooza, thanks to the immediate area being too saturated with multi-day affairs.
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The inaugural Pemberton Music Festival, which went down last weekend and featured headlining sets by Coldplay, Tom Petty, and Jay-Z, was not without its problems: dust clouds that caused much respiratory distress on days one and two; the threat of rain on day three; members of N.E.R.D. reportedly getting stuck in traffic long enough to delay their sets; and bathrooms that one reporter described as "grim beyond description," which kind of makes the "well, at least they had poutine at the food stands" argument a little less appealing. [Vancouver Sun via The Daily Swarm]
Meanwhile, At Rocklahoma...
Alyson at Bring Back Glam! provides blow-by-blow coverage of this year's installment of the hard rock retrofest, which seemingly had it all: Storms! Confusion! Collapsing side stages! Jani Lane staying on pitch! And Kix reigning supreme as the best band of the weekend, although Chuck Eddy would have probably told you that outcome was a given. [Bring Back Glam]
Sure, you're outside, the sound is lousy, and he bands are terrible. But if you're one of the attendees at a European music festival, you have to admit that the experience has gone from "stuck in a torrential downpour in a field full of fecal matter" to something more sophisticated.
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A chicken in every pot, and a festival in every state: Live Nation is looking to bring a three-day music festival featuring "family-friendly" acts to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in lieu of the area's annual Fort Lauderdale Air & Sea Show. They're even paying for extra police! Given recent touring conditions and the fact that last November, a festival in just-down-the-coast Miami was canceled the day before it was set to begin, you might think that Live Nation would be cautious, but I guess a "Kidzapalooza of Florida"-type deal could be different enough to skirt the Radiohead/Jack Johnson malaise that's hovering over the summer of '08. [Miami Herald via Coolfer]
Looking for another summer festival to hit, but not wanting to go much farther than say...Jackson Hole, Wyoming? Well get psyched for the weekend of August 16th, when the Black Crowes, Medeski Martin and Wood, Kaki King, Wilco AND Son Volt entertain folks at the inaugural two-day Jackson Hole Music Festival. Wilco and Son Volt, people. Wilco and Son Volt. I smell the unthinkable. [Jackson Hole Music Festival]
Sure, Coachella attendance was soft, the Vegoose festival went under, and San Diego's Street Scene festival is scaling down, but the city of West Hollywood believes that this is the perfect moment to announce a new festival. Not only will does the initial lineup of the Sunset Strip Music Festival include Soul Asylum, Everclear, and something called "L.A. Guns featuring Jani Lane of Warrant," it'll feature a kickoff event hosted by Mark McGrath and a roundtable hosted by Larry King. What more could you ask for? Mark your calendars now!
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A statistic that I probably could have ballparked solely from my personal observations of this year's Coachella Music & Arts Festival: Year-to-year ticket sales were down by 30,000, with 150,000 people attending the three-day sweatfest, according to promotion company Goldenvoice. The last-minute addition of Prince to Saturday's bill reportedly helped swell that day's attendance to 60,000, and Goldenvoice founder Paul Tollett claimed that Roger Waters' litter-filled set was one of the festival's "best ever," so I'm guessing that the tumbleweeds rolling through the Empire Polo Field on Friday (headlined by Jack Johnson) were not, in fact, desert mirages. All this number-crunching brings up the whole question of sustainability in the festival market once again, since "oh, why don't we just book Prince one more time" is not a viable long-term plan if only for reasons of crippling cost. (Just ask the people who book the Super Bowl!) [The Desert Sun]
Two music festivals slated for Farwell, Mich., this summer have been canceled "to restructure and reorganize debt, while continuing to look for new investors." The Mountain Country and Rock Music Festivals had an uneven slate of headliners—the rock fest was going to have the Yardbirds and Starship atop its bill, while the country concerts were to be headlined by bigger names like Miranda Lambert, Trace Adkins, and Dierks Bentley—which probably contributed to the chaos. Last year's country fest, which had Carrie Underwood leading the bill, attracted 12,000 people. [MLive.com]
If you've scrolled through the festival line-ups we've been posting of late, you may have noticed the words "The Ting Tings" a few times and said to yourself, "my, I wonder what kind of people would think to name themselves The Ting Tings?" only to be distracted by a leak from some popular band you don't even like. I know have! The Ting Tings are a male-drummer/female-everything else duo from England that may be the next big iPod ad sensation or Britain's very own Boomkat.
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Aat this point, you're probably so sick of festival news (although the lineup for the London Auto Show has been announced!) that a festival un-announcement at least represents something of a reprieve. So! The Las Vegas mini-Bonnaroo Vegoose seems to be kaput, with attendance in recent years never quite reaching the heights of its 2005 inaugural run. To the organizers' credit, Vegoose ran a slightly different show, with the festival itself running during daylight hours and ticketed concerts taking place in local casinos and theatres at night. Clever enough, but sort of crappy for the dude who spent all day in the sun and then is forced to buy another ticket to check out Dave jamming at the Hard Rock. The acts that have played the festival during its short run are relatively impressive, with Daft Punk bringing its giant pyramid last year. But if you were hoping to check out Widespread Panic this year in Vegas, you may want to start seeing if you can change your flight to another city. [Las Vegas Sun]
Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry and The Stooges have been added to the line-up for Baltimore's Virgin Fest, to be held on August 9-10. The Foo Fighters, Nine Inch Nails and Stone Temple Pilots have already been announced as headliners, so it looks like new parents as well as new grandparents will have acts they enjoy. For the kids, there's Paramore and Lil Wayne, and a dance tent featuring Moby, Underworld and Richie Hawtin! Actually, that dance tent's probably for the parents too. Full line up after the jump.
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Not only is My Bloody Valentine playing the just-announced All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Monticello, N.Y., this fall, they're curating the damn thing, and among the bands they've hand-picked to play include Built To Spill (performing Perfect From Now On), Polvo, the Meat Puppets (playing Meat Puppets II), and Low. And there's more to come! Tickets are limited to 3,000 and go on sale Friday, a.k.a. the first day of Coachella, which should make the festival-junkie action on Craigslist very interesting over the coming months. The announced lineup after the jump.
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