Alrighty, the day in a nutshell:
The VIP area is amazing. Really great food all day long, including a fajita bar for today's dinner. Excellent stuff. Tons of booze, but you're not supposed to take it out of the Grove. This was easy circumvented. Air conditioned restrooms are a godsend and make for a good venue to move your beer or mixed drinks into a bottle to hide in your bag. So the VIP experience is excellent. Looking forward to breakfast, lunch, and dinner there tomorrow and Sunday.
The weather was perfect. I walked out of my apartment this morning and it was chilly, so I was thrilled. There were a few parts of the day (Phoenix especially) that got toasty, but with this cold front moving in, I'm going to go ahead and say this thing should be in October every year.
On to the music...
School of Seven Bells were excellent. Definitely piqued my interest and I'm looking forward to getting into their records.
Blitzen Trapper were a lot of fun despite some early sound issues. "Wild Mountain Nation" is my jam, so I thoroughly enjoyed that one. The terrible mix was tough to get past for the first few songs, but they fixed it. Good show.
I missed Dr. Dog, but was pleasantly surprised by the loquacious Todd Snider in the same time slot. Watched about half his set and half of the Walkmen. "The Rat" is still one god damn hell of a song.
PHOENIX. Oh man. What a show. Dana Carvey said it was the biggest crowd they've ever played to, and they absolutely killed it. They closed with an extended "1901" which sent the crowd into a frenzy. Laz will be happy to know they played a lot of It's Never Been Like That tunes. Completely floored by them. And they signed my Wolfgang LP and couldn't be nicer about it. Dana Carvey signed it "Pour Impy," although obviously with my real name. Frogs...
Then I had dinner and kicked around behind the stage Andrew Bird was about to play on. He walked right by me, so I verified what Shouter has been saying: dude is fey. We headed back around the front of the stage and caught the first half of his set, in which he only played one non-Noble Beast song ("Opposite Day" off Mysterious Production of Eggs). Left that early to get a good spot for YYY.
YYY.... Christ almighty. Unbelievable stuff. I said this on my facebook, but KO is one of the most fascinating performers I've ever seen. I had been waiting since Fever to Tell to finally see them and they didn't disappoint. So damn good. I can't wait to see them on their own someday.
My group and I got right in to the first show at this newly renovated abandoned power plant, BSS. My third time seeing them, and they were just as great as always. Strange thing is, though, that we got the No Girls Allowed version of BSS. KD said they had planned on having one or more of the girls come with, but things didn't work out. Still really great. The lineup: KD, a beardless Brendan Canning, Spearin, Peroff, Whiteman, and a dude who's name I don't know but looked like Martin Starr. And their new album will be out in the spring. Setlist time!
Lover's Spit
KC Accidental (with Munaf from Explosions)
Stars and Sons
Fire Eye'd Boy
Churches Under the Stairs
New song
Looks Just Like the Sun
Frightening Lives
Superconnected
Another new song
Cause = Time
It's All Gonna Break
And some jam to end it
Well, that's my day. Awesome.
And Gaffer, I have nothing else to see when Arctic Monkeys are on, so I'll go ahead and catch them Sunday for your sake.
