OFFICIAL Virgin Mobile FREEFEST 2009 Q/A - Hype Thread! REVISED

We parked at the mall in a garage I knew was used for concert overflow parking, and it turned out the entrance for the fest was right there, easy in and out.  My favorites for the day were Mates Of State and Weezer (who else could bookend their set with covers and still squeeze in all the hits under an hour)?

Food was good, shade and water were great, I'd definitely pay to get the same thing next year.

what cover did weezer end with?

opening up with "war pigs" was fun… and confusing: why would they open with a cover?!?  we left weezer to catch the tail end of girl talk… who played "war pigs"!  what are the chances of hearing the a sabbath song twice at a festival? :)

Should I stay or should I go

"should i stay or should i go" …

I actually enjoyed the Weezer performance except for their lame songs like pork and beans and beverly hills. Would have been great if they did "Pink Triangle" just to shut up their fans (as they did with "The Good Life").

Really enjoyed St. Vincent, last 3 songs of Holy Fuck, and the National.

Girl Talk = same boring schtick, different day.

Public Enemy = waste of time

Franz Ferdinand = best of the fest!!!

Was a great time. Thanks to NKOTB (although I might have the wrong forumer) for the restaurant rec. and great directions. :) I parked in the mall - and the spot was maybe a 5 min walk from MPP. I even asked mall security cop where it was, as I couldnt remember for the life of me. They were super nice. Leaving was even easier - took 3 mins or so to be out of the mall. Timed it perfectly.

Managed to see near full sets of most bands I wanted to see.

Caught a lot of Jet's set - which I was pleasantly surprised with.

Public Enemy - after about 20 mins I had seen enough. Although I just love Chuck D.

The Bravery - they sounded great and I am liking their new stuff - and considering I wont pay to see them at T5, this was good enough.

The National - amazed how no one was watching them. I got over there and managed to walk up almost all the way to the front. Just love 'Fake Empire' and thought they had a great set.

Weezer - were fun. I didnt even attempt to get into the pavilion but I did manage to find a spot in the very front of the hill and had a great view, plus the help of the screens. I took off after 'The Good Life' as I had to see Girl Talk.

Girl Talk - if I never see him again, it'd be fine with me. Was expecting a bunch more (prob seen way too many videos) and felt that it didnt come close to my own expectations.

Blink 182 - I had no intention of seeing them, but after leaving Girl Talk went back to my same spot as where I was at Weezer. I was surprised I knew almost all of their songs - I never recalled listening to them that much - Ill thank the radio. They sounded great and seemed like they were having a ton of fun.

Franz - well they never disappoint! And was a great set. I couldnt get their songs out of my head driving home which I guess is a good thing.

The drive home sucked - very long and I was tired. I guess my only real complaint was - after having read it would be over at 10pm, I prepared myself for that. 11pm was a bit rough so I had to cut out on some of Franz's set.

Overall, I had a great time. Lots of good bands and I could see a lot of near-full sets. That was a total bonus. Easy enough to walk from stage to stage.

I swear everyone was watching Weezer!

Drove past the 2nd stage as Wale was on, that was disappointing. Then we sat at our spot and had a few beers. Walked about 20 minutes or so, got more beers danced a bit. I wanted the dance stage to be louder! Got free Converse size 9 left shoes, check out the booths. Didnt really catch anyone's whole set, just stayed for about 15 20 minutes for everyone. By the time Girl Talk came on we were exhausted and drunk as hell, walked back to the car and relaxed for a while before deciding to head back. Not a bad Sunday. Anyone hit the karaoke stage? Hahahahaha

was sweetcell wearing a red shirt yesterday?

Ruiner wrote:
was sweetcell wearing a red shirt yesterday?

nope, i was wearing a black NIN t-shirt.

I got there early and just stayed on the rail of the West Stage all day. I really liked the first band, Sunday's Roulette. They looked like they were still in high school but they rocked out and got te crowd moving enough to start a small mosh put. Does anyone know how they wound up on the bill? I thought Wale was hilarious, possibly the best show I saw there even though I typically don't like rap. Girl Talk, Hold Steady, Public Enemy, and the National were good as well. The only two weak acts I thought were St. Vincent, although she's not really my type of music, and Birthday Massacre.

Also I thought the crowd control was very good. Compared to previous Virgin Fests, there was a lot less pushing and shoving, and I was way up in the front. The only two acts where I saw any was Public Enemy and Girl Talk and that wasn't too bad.

wow me too!  with front saying 1989-2009?  :P

sweetcell wrote:

Ruiner wrote:
was sweetcell wearing a red shirt yesterday?

nope, i was wearing a black NIN t-shirt.

yup, and the wrong dates on the back.

sweetcell wrote:
what cover did weezer end with?

opening up with "war pigs" was fun… and confusing: why would they open with a cover?!?  we left weezer to catch the tail end of girl talk… who played "war pigs"!  what are the chances of hearing the a sabbath song twice at a festival? :)

I was listening to Sabbath on the way home, including War Pigs.

I didn't stay long.  Watched the Hold Steady then Public Enemy and that was enough.

I thought the setup was really decent, there were just not that many bands I wanted to see.  But I really did think that Merriweather was a great spot for this sort of thing.  Getting in and out was a piece of cake.  A few assholes during PE's set, but nothing too bad.  We were right up front and after a few too many crowd surfers we bailed from there. 

I give the lineup a "C-", but give Seth and Merriweather an "A".

sweetcell wrote:
yup, and the wrong dates on the back.

it was totally possible that i said something to you, as i talked to people wearing NIN t-shirts (mainly just talking about the last shows they've done)

betao wrote:

sweetcell wrote:
yup, and the wrong dates on the back.

it was totally possible that i said something to you, as i talked to people wearing NIN t-shirts (mainly just talking about the last shows they've done)

yup, a random person came up to me at the 932 and asked me about which show(s) i saw - must have been you (i answered that i was at both T5 shows).  there were 4-5 of us sitting at a table in the near corner on the left (near the stage) as soon as you walked in the 932.

dammit, planning fail on my part.  next time i'll let y'all know what i'm wearing or some other way of ID'ing the gang.

betao, i think you spoke to me after the Holy F**k set…we also talked about MBV in Richmond….was that you?

I didn't have my great, just great shirt on, maybe next time  so any of you got converse it seems like they were just handing those out  ;D  Also did Richard Branson sky dive onto the top of the pavillion?

hutch wrote:
well I did show up at the 230 932…I got in about 232 actually.. but I don't know what any of y'all look like so I kind of looked at everyone, walked around and looked at the stuff on the walls and walked up… I didn't feel comfortable yelling "MEETUP!!!!!!!!!"

sorry about that..next time

I stopped by the 932 for a little while, but I'd lost track of whether there was a specific meetup time, so I didn't get there 'til 6:15ish.  I've never met most forumers, so I'm not sure if any were there then.

Overall, I enjoyed the festival, esp. (in order of performance times) Holy F*ck, Lee Burridge, Public Enemy, and Weezer.  I was a little sad that the dance stage was so dominated by trance music – I found Pete Tong unlistenable.  I felt a little sorry for Chuck D that Flavor Flav got way louder cheers than he did when Chuck introduced the band.

I parked in one of the satellite lots and it was fairly easy – took a shuttle bus to the site and then back.

I had a really good time as did my friends, BUT I do have a few gripes.

MERRIWEATHER….. I love that place when i'm actually in the pavilion.  but the sound up on the lawn sucks. Maybe someone can tell me if it's always like this because I rarely do lawn, but what was up with the sound? Guitars way down in the mix and the overall mix was just QUIET… I could barely hear the music on stage much less the banter in between songs. There should be some speaker system set up behind the pavilion for the lawn people to get the full rock experience.  When I can hear the drunken mess a few people over clearly talking about how much of a ho she thinks the girl a few rows down is over what should be the most raucous song of any bands set is not good.

The Video screens were completely out of sync with the live on stage.

I still would have preferred that it be somewhere that I could get the full GA experience (no seats)

Lastly…We had to park down near the Community College and the shuttles were no where to be found at least when we arrived or left. We waited for one for 25 minutes and ended up finally walking the 15 minutes to get to merriweather and walking another 15 -20 minutes to get back to our car at the end.

I know that sounds really whiny but really… Seth and Richard Thank you so much for a good time. My friends and I all donated to the re-generation fund and look forward to next years Virgin Fest wherever it may be.

> Also did Richard Branson sky dive onto the top of the pavillion?

They used a cherry picker to bring Richard Branson and some of Blink-182 up on top of the pavilion, then we waited as a helicopter climbed higher and higher and we watched a video feed on top of someone's head in the copter, then two guys jumped out of the copter.  It was cool to watch them coming down at the same time as we watched the live feed as them falling.  They pulled their chutes and managed to land right on top.  Richard Branson then came over to the crowd with them and sprayed some champagne, then welcomed everyone and said something to the effect of "Wouldn't it be nice if it was free every year?"

hmm wouldn't that be cool if Seth had done that and sprayed everyone with Guinness  ;D