Another September, another FreeFest.
I continue to be surprised each year that Virgin Mobile and other corporate sponsors continue to bestow a free music festival on the DC region, the biggest event held at Merriweather Post Pavilion each year. After countless days of rain, it was finally a beautiful day, even if plenty of mud was left over, particularly at the second stage. Despite the traffic, we were able to navigate our way through a side street or two and into a parking lot fairly quickly, for the first time ever, actually arriving in time to see most of the first act of the day that I wanted to see. In this case, it was indie rockers Okkervil River. Even after the torrential rains of the past weeks, the sun had burned off most of the moisture from the grass at the main stage, making the lawn a pleasant place to camp out in the sun and start the day. Okkervil River was a good intro as well. Following on the main stage were Grace Potter & the Nocturnals with Grace playing a barrage of instruments. The show also marked the second time that I had seen Grace Potter in under a year.
We next headed over to the second stage, set up in an adjoining field on the grounds, for Australian dance punk band Cut Copy. Again, it was the second time in less than a few months that I’d seen Cut Copy and again I wasn’t disappointed. No one else in my group was really familiar with Cut Copy when I dragged them over to the adjoining stage. But they were all pleasantly surprised, always a good feeling, despite a bit of not-so-sweet-smelling mud. Next up on the same stage was Cee Lo Green, who gained fame as half of Gnarles Barkley but then struck gold on his own with the smash hit, “Fuck You,” despite only a heavily edited version ever being played on the radio. Cee Lo was so-so, but he played the song everyone wanted to hear. I was also surprised that he also played “Crazy,” a Gnarles Barkley song, since in my experience, artists frequently avoid playing collaborative songs during solo sets.
We walked out before the end of his set in order to head over to the other stage for Brooklyn-based indie rockers TV on the Radio. Extensively familiar and a fan of their entire catalogue and their live performances, I was right in my expectation that TV on the Radio would be the highlight of my day. My day ended with blues rock duo The Black Keys. Though I had seen them at Bonnaroo, I wasn’t in the best state of mind at the time to enjoy them there (no, not drunk or anything else, just exhausted, dehydrated, and starving after wrapping up ten hours in the heat of the front row of the Which Stage). So it was a treat to get to enjoy The Black Keys sitting in the cool grass of the Merriweather lawn, dead center and only thirty or forty feet from the jumbotron screen.
Black Keys Setlist:
Thickfreakness
Girl Is On My Mind
The Breaks
Stack Shot Billy
Busted
Act Nice and Gentle
Everlasting Light
Next Girl
Chop and Change
Howlin' For You
Tighten Up
She's Long Gone
Ten Cent Pistol
I'll Be Your Man
Strange Times
I Got Mine
Your Touch
I continue to be surprised each year that Virgin Mobile and other corporate sponsors continue to bestow a free music festival on the DC region, the biggest event held at Merriweather Post Pavilion each year. After countless days of rain, it was finally a beautiful day, even if plenty of mud was left over, particularly at the second stage. Despite the traffic, we were able to navigate our way through a side street or two and into a parking lot fairly quickly, for the first time ever, actually arriving in time to see most of the first act of the day that I wanted to see. In this case, it was indie rockers Okkervil River. Even after the torrential rains of the past weeks, the sun had burned off most of the moisture from the grass at the main stage, making the lawn a pleasant place to camp out in the sun and start the day. Okkervil River was a good intro as well. Following on the main stage were Grace Potter & the Nocturnals with Grace playing a barrage of instruments. The show also marked the second time that I had seen Grace Potter in under a year.
We next headed over to the second stage, set up in an adjoining field on the grounds, for Australian dance punk band Cut Copy. Again, it was the second time in less than a few months that I’d seen Cut Copy and again I wasn’t disappointed. No one else in my group was really familiar with Cut Copy when I dragged them over to the adjoining stage. But they were all pleasantly surprised, always a good feeling, despite a bit of not-so-sweet-smelling mud. Next up on the same stage was Cee Lo Green, who gained fame as half of Gnarles Barkley but then struck gold on his own with the smash hit, “Fuck You,” despite only a heavily edited version ever being played on the radio. Cee Lo was so-so, but he played the song everyone wanted to hear. I was also surprised that he also played “Crazy,” a Gnarles Barkley song, since in my experience, artists frequently avoid playing collaborative songs during solo sets.
We walked out before the end of his set in order to head over to the other stage for Brooklyn-based indie rockers TV on the Radio. Extensively familiar and a fan of their entire catalogue and their live performances, I was right in my expectation that TV on the Radio would be the highlight of my day. My day ended with blues rock duo The Black Keys. Though I had seen them at Bonnaroo, I wasn’t in the best state of mind at the time to enjoy them there (no, not drunk or anything else, just exhausted, dehydrated, and starving after wrapping up ten hours in the heat of the front row of the Which Stage). So it was a treat to get to enjoy The Black Keys sitting in the cool grass of the Merriweather lawn, dead center and only thirty or forty feet from the jumbotron screen.
Black Keys Setlist:
Thickfreakness
Girl Is On My Mind
The Breaks
Stack Shot Billy
Busted
Act Nice and Gentle
Everlasting Light
Next Girl
Chop and Change
Howlin' For You
Tighten Up
She's Long Gone
Ten Cent Pistol
I'll Be Your Man
Strange Times
I Got Mine
Your Touch
No comments:
Post a Comment