Lyrikhan
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Met up with Katrina, her good friend Amanda, and Lizzie for VMFest yesterday at the Pilmico Race Course. The girls had spent the weekend up in Baltimore and surely have things to report from Saturday’s musical outpourings, but I’ll give a little recap of what we saw on Sunday. Of course the main reason for attendance was NIN. Katrina and Amanda are absolutely nuts for Trent, and I’ve seen them in action a few times myself, not to mention this would be Lizzie’s first live NIN experience….but more on that later.
We met up around noon to catch the first act of the day, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. It had been about 7-8 years since I’d seen them, but I had much more of an appreciation this time around. Robert Been, still rocking his leather jacket in the summer heat, admitted this was the earliest he had even been up, but the band showed no signs of grogginess as they ripped up their set. Now both times I’ve seen them has been in a festival atmosphere, and they can certainly outshine a lot of bands in that setting, but I hope to catch them at a club venue sometime in the future, as it seems it would best fit their style.
So after that nice little pick-me-up, we wandered a bit and I scoped out the lay of the land. We didn’t really have anybody we were dying to see for a few hours (Iggy!) but I had hoped to go by and see She & Him for a bit. Zooey and M. Ward moved through a few of their songs, and mixed in several covers including Smokey Robinson’s "You Really Got a Hold on Me" and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’"I Put a Spell on You". I believe "adorable" would be the best word to describe Zooey on stage.
Lizzie, Katrina and I then moved into position for The Stooges, weaving our way to the stage. Little did I realize that if we wanted to be close to Iggy, the stage was not the place for that. Iggy and the boys rolled out onto the stage; Iggy, of course, a ball of energy. I never know what to expect of an artist late in their careers, and I have no personal experience of what Iggy was like in his prime, but he didn’t disappoint; humping amplifiers, drowning himself in water ever chance he could, thumping the mic on his chest, and wandering on and off the stage, meandering through the crowd as his "handlers" attempted to feed the mic chord to him. At one point, he was about ten feet or so from where we stood. They tore through the classics, and had a particularly rousing version of "Fun House". As they ended, Iggy remained on stage and proclaimed "I don’t know what to do"….then proceeded to smash his mic stand a few times, gave a goofy wave, and walked off. It would have been a hilarious ending if that had been it, but they of course returned for an encore of "Electric Chair".
After Iggy got my juices flowing and warmed me up for the pit, I was ready for NIN. But there was one more act to catch before that. Lizzie and I decided to chill under the shade tent for this one as Katrina and Amanda went over to catch Bob Dylan. It’s a good thing we didn’t go into the crowd for STP, as Weiland and Co. were about twenty minutes late. Upon arrival, they moved through their hits in a pretty mediocre set. Lizzie and I looked on in wonderment as Scott attempted to talk to the crowd in-between songs. His incoherent mumblings would subside when the music started and he sang fairly well…but I have a NEWSFLASH for everybody: Scott Weiland is a mess. I know….shocking.
NIN time. The Kanye crowd moved to the other stage, and we had plenty of room to get up pretty close before the masses filed in. After some serious stage set ups were put in place, Trent and the new lineup (Alessandro Cortini, Robin Finck, Josh Freese, and Justin Meldal-Johnson) took the stage. They mixed up some new with old. I was excited to hear some stuff off of Year Zero as I hadn’t seen NIN since the With Teeth tours. The old favorites like "Wish", "March of the Pigs", "Terrible Lie", etc. never fail to rev the crowd into a frenzy, and things were active in the pit. So with one eye to the side to watch out for the moshers, one eye to the back to watch out for the crowd surfers, and one eye to the stage for the band (yeah I’m a freak)…I was on full alert. I think I have the most fun laughing at crowd surfers at these kinds of shows. I mean seriously, maybe 5 percent of crowd surfing ends well. The rest is just hysterical; the mid air collisions, the scared shitless facial expressions, the topple-overs…it’s fantastic. But back to the music: The new lineup rules. Josh Freese is absolutely sick on the drums and Robin Finck (still rocking the same haircut he had with Nails back in the mid-nineties) seems at ease back with NIN, and is extremely entertaining to watch. As far a the new NIN setup: Trent had talked about totally changing things up on stage in an effort to make it no longer just the basic rock setup of four or fives guys with the usual rock instruments. Instead, now it is more an experience beyond just a live show. Screens are lowered as a cage around the band at times that allow for some groovy visuals. It would be hard to explain, so just go check it out. You won’t be disappointed. Also Trent has incorporated different instruments into the mix, including a stand-up bass, various percussion instruments, and there was even a moment of Robin Finck tooting away on the recorder. The result is more worldly sounds, and an interesting break up in the action at times from the hard rocking, industrial sound we’ve come to know and love. Trent closed things with a little speech about how enjoyable it was to play for this crowd and how he felt more satisfied on stage with the new direction. Then announced he was going to play something "really depressing" and went into "Hurt". Before the final song, "In This Twilight", Trent told us all to go by and see Kanye on the way out cause he heard nobody was over there. We walked by quickly as Kanye was whining about something or another.
So I sit here now, nursing my aches and sunburn, fully satisfied with another wonderful musical experience with some of my favorite kids on the MOG street. Ahhh....doesn't it make you feel better?
Comments
BRMC, The Stooges AND NIN? I've never seen either one of them! I'm blinking all my five eyes (what, you're not the only freak) slowly. Thank you for sharing it with us!
3 out of 3, that's what I'm talking about...
"Trent told us all to go by and see Kanye on the way out cause he heard nobody was over there" ahhahahahahah
a quote from the the Washington Post on the divergent headliners:
"Does Kanye love himself more than Trent Reznor hates himself? Probably a coin flip."
ahhahahahahahahhahahaha
But you have to love someone/yourself a little bit in order to hate him/her/you.
But best not to go down that road...
Hope you're taking good care of the ladies!
The King's beloved peacock jumpsuit sold at auction yesterday for $300k, the largest amount ever for a piece of Elvis memorabilia.
Hot, ain't it?
From the AP article:
Presley paid $10,000 to have the outfit made by Los Angeles designer Bill Belew, who created all of The King's stage wardrobe between 1968-1977. It captured the rock 'n' roll legend's fascination with peacocks as a good luck symbol and the auction house said it was among his favorite Belew designs. Elvis first wore the costume at the Forum in Los Angeles on May 11, 1974, and later for the cover of his album "Promised Land."
Comments
I'd say for which thing a peacock really is a symbol for, but I'm not going to ;)
Instead, I'll just blink at the amount one more time.
ok Anna EVERYTHING goes outthe window when Elvis is involed
KING OF RAWK
(me pimp)
The King's beloved peacock jumpsuit sold at auction yesterday for $300k
To the best of my knowledge Chuck Berry, the one true king, never wore such an abomination.
Comments
Love the BJM - Mutton Chops on tambourine there - A.K.A. Joel Gion, just, well, ROCKS it ...
Sounds like they slowed _this track down, threw a different chord or two in there, and of course, dropped the end of each phrase...
Mike - a mashup?
haha good god...
i gotta admit that could be a pretty damn good mash up
fuggin RAWK?
argh.