My
friend got tickets to Virgin Mobile FreeFest, so we headed down to Merriweather
Post Pavilion in Maryland to check it out. We entered through Symphony Woods, walking by
Sharpie-on-cardboard signs denoting the box office and other lines. Considering it was a free concert, they
couldn't be wasting money on fancy signage I guess.
After
picking up a complimentary blanket at the LG Chroma Cube, we made our way to
the Pavilion Stage to see Justin Jones.
A bartender at D.C.'s 9:30 Club, Jones became the first artist signed to
9:30 Records when he released The Little Fox EP in 2010. This year, he dropped Fading Light, his
fourth full-length of blues-influenced Americana. Styles onstage ranged from the bluesy stomper "I Can
Feel It" to the atmospheric guitars of "As It Turns Out," its
intro "Ghosts" initially sounding like when you turn on a Nintendo
Wii. I spotted next performer
Allen Stone in a seat nodding his head to the beat.
Though
I was interested in seeing Stone, I had to see if Penguin Prison were going to
play instruments or if it was just going to be a Chris Glover DJ set. Situated on a hill in the woods, the
Dance Forest Stage was located directly beneath a canopy of oak trees, with acorns
and branches dropping onto spectators as the wind picked up. We found a relatively level piece of
ground and were delighted to find Chris backed by his band. He played a similar set to when I saw him at Brooklyn Bowl, and he was killing it vocally, especially his exuberant scream in
"Don't Fuck with My Money."
It was great to finally see him perform outside again, like I did when I
discovered him in '05.
My
brother was working at the show, so we stopped by to say hi, and then ventured
over to the West Stage to catch what we could of Portugal. The Man. The transition in vibe from the
pavilion to the open parking field was substantial. Hula hoops, people on blankets, and a Ferris wheel made it
feel like a festival, not just a concert.
We made it in time to hear an extended jam out of one P.TM song and
their closer, "All Your Light (Times Like These)."
The
mass of people dissipated, and we snagged an insanely close (second row) spot
for the Dismemberment Plan. I'd
seen Travis Morrison open for They Might Be Giants back in 2004 (At the merch
table, he personally taught me the trick of unhinging the front of a jewel case
to remove the sticker on the spine.), but I'd never seen the Plan in their
heyday or since reuniting. "I wore
my special Misfits shirt just for all y'all. We're gonna do 'Mother' in a little bit," Travis
joked. Maybe they did (We had to
leave early to see Ben Folds Five.), but while we were there, we got a mix of
old favorites and new tunes. They
are, in fact, going to release a new album, and I got to hear two of the songs,
including one that is sure to be a featured member in the D-Plan canon,
"Waiting." "Can
everyone salute me?" Travis asked as they started the grooving tune. His interaction with the crowd extended to having us all greet the people on the
Ferris wheel with "Hi Ferris wheel!" And then he started picking
out specific cars: "Yeah, you in the kind of lime green one. Keep waving." As I was departing during "You Are Invited," Morrison messed
up the second verse, announcing, "I'm gonna start the verse over again." When he flubbed it a second time: "No! What is happening to me?" I trust they eventually made it through
the song, but briefly flirted with the idea that I may have been the band's
good luck charm.
As we
were walking back to the pavilion, I saw someone wearing a t-shirt that read, "Sex, Drugs, and Dubstep." I
decided it was the worst thing I'd ever seen, shuddering when I realized the
implication that dubstep has replaced rock 'n' roll. A video played on the screen of Virgin Mobile Live's Abbey
Braden announcing a Skrillex lookalike contest. "If you look the most like Skrillex, we have a prize for
you." "I hope it's plastic
surgery," I jested. (If you
can't yet tell, I didn't see Skrillex, so stop reading now if you thought I was
gonna review him.)
We
took our seats for Ben Folds Five just as Ben took his seat… and slammed it
into the keys of a Baldwin grand piano.
I'd seen Ben solo way back in the Jenny Eats Something days, and was
amazed by his energy. I suppose
Darren Jessee and Robert Sledge subdue him a little because the stool-hurling
was the most raucous he got. While
the mixture of fuzz bass, jazzy drums, and staccato piano was still captivating
after all the years apart, it didn't sound too good due to some technical
issues and the bleed of Nervo's set from the Dance Forest. However, that didn't stop the crowd
from singing along on "Underground," "Song for the Dumped," and their biggest
hit, "Brick." "It's good to be
back in this part of the country.
We used to play the 9:30 Club a lot," Ben told the crowd, many of whom had
probably seen BFF there sometime in the '90s. Other songs included Folds' "Landed," latest single "Do
It Anyway," and the closer, "Army."
After
being impressed by Santigold at StePhest Colbchella, I wanted to see her again,
but needing nourishment and wanting to keep our fourth row seats, I stayed in
the pavilion. On the roof, Virgin
owner, Sir Richard Branson poured champagne on concertgoers to thank us for
coming and flaunt how rich he is.
In his defense, proceeds raised from previous Virgin Fests have built a
homeless youth shelter in D.C. called RE*Generation House, and this year's
donations will open its doors. My
friend went to get our dinner while I saved the seats.
A
girl seated next to me chose me as her Alabama Shakes comrade. I told her about how when I saw them at Summerstage in June, I was impressed by the musicianship, but not their stage
presence. They'd have to win me
over, and guess what, they did.
While bassist Zac Cockrell still only moved slightly more than a
well-timed bobblehead, Brittany Howard was absolutely magnetic. She was wearing a blue dress with red
dots and sporting a straightened hairdo, but you couldn't take your eyes off
her face. If you were a deaf
person, you could've learned all the vowel sounds just by the way her mouth
moved, soulful howls bursting out of the gaping hole. She also backed away from her mic stand to move around more
when not singing, which was an improvement. As "Be Mine" started, the girl beside me grabbed
me by the hand and shouted, "This is our favorite song!" I'd only just met her, but judging by
this performance, she was right.
Brittany went guitarless, walking around the stage with purpose and
shouting the lyrics with passion.
The crowd roared its approval at its close.
Unfortunately, and this was the only problem I had with the festival, my
friend was trapped outside of the pavilion for every song but the final
"You Ain't Alone" because security wasn't letting anyone in. This would've been justifiable if it was
at capacity, but there were still some seats available, and they kept the
whole left canopied section empty for the entire festival.
We
sliced our way through the thickening crowds to head back over to Nas at the
West Stage. We made it time to
hear some of his hits like "If I Ruled the World" and "Hate Me Now,"
the crowd performing Lauryn Hill's parts on the former. Nas was only backed by a DJ, a live
performance technique that I've never found very visually arresting, so I spent
much of the set watching my hand wave up and down in the crowd shots on the screen. "It's because of you that I made
music all these years. You and one
little person," Nas confessed before the recently released "Daughters." He closed it out with "One
Mic" followed by a singalong of the Wailers' "One Love."
We
returned to the amphitheatre to find it packed for ZZ Top, the entire crowd on
their feet for the first time. We
were standing in the aisle for a minute before security told us we had to move,
and miraculously, I found two seats on the end of a row. The bearded rockers chugged their way
through a set of newer songs and the classics. After a one-handed guitar solo by Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill
raised the question, "How's that guy playing guitar with one
hand?" Billy flipped the
guitar around to reveal the word "BEER" on the back of its body. Although I have no clue what that's
supposed to mean, it sums up the Top perfectly: authentic hard blues rock with
a campy white-trash exterior. They
conveniently modified "My Head's in Mississippi" to "My Head's
in Maryland," and introduced new number "Chartreuse" as "so
new I've gotta have Elwood bring me the words," with their longtime guitar
tech taping the lyrics onto the stage.
After the crowd-pleasing "Sharp Dressed Man," they busted out
their Persian cat-looking, furry guitars for "Legs." An uninterrupted threesome of
"Tube Snake Boogie," La Grange," and "Tush" ended the
show with cheers for an encore.
We
squirmed through the forest to see what was left of M83. The opening notes of "Midnight
City" were met with shrieks of delight, only topped by the explosive
saxophone solo at the song's end.
The light show for M83 was the best I saw at the festival, and
keyboardist Morgan Kibby's boob was the only one I saw at the festival,
sneaking out from the inside of her flowing, white dress.
Having
no desire to stick around for Skrillex, we joined the march of fans heading
back to the pavilion for Jack White.
Finding the seats to be blocked to anyone but VIP ticket holders (and
the invisible people in that left section), we stationed ourselves on the
hill. Accompanied by a band of
women dressed in white, Jack took center stage dressed in black. Blue lighting cast a spooky glow on the
scene, transforming the women into specters as White enchanted them with his
guitar. Starting with songs from
Blunderbuss, "Sixteen Saltines" and "Missing Pieces," Jack paid tribute to ZZ
Top by injecting a bit of "Jesus Just Left Chicago" into the mix. A duet with Ruby Amafu on "Love
Interruption" was followed by the rollicking "Hotel Yorba." The set continued with songs spanning
White's career with the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, the Dead Weather, and
solo, concluding with "Ball & Biscuit." The encore started with the rocking "Steady, As She Goes" right into "Freedom at 21" before taking a gentler turn with "We're Going to Be
Friends," "Blunderbuss," and Jack taking a seat at the piano for "I Guess I
Should Go to Sleep." The evening
came to its end with "Seven Nation Army," the Maryland crowd chanting the
guitar riff "Ohhh-O-O-O-O-Ohhh-O" as much for the Baltimore Orioles making the
playoffs as the man onstage. "God
bless you so much. Thank you. You've been wonderful," White
obliged. After last week's Radio
City walkout, I felt special to have gotten the full show, for free, with so
many fantastic openers.
JUSTIN JONES – 10.06.12 –
MERRIWEATHER POST PAVILION, VIRGIN MOBILE FREEFEST (41 minutes)
SET –
Fading Light / Little Fox /
Grandma She Can’t Hardly Get Around* > I Can Feel It / Racine / Miracles
/ Ghosts > As It Turns Out / My Father’s Gun
PENGUIN PRISON – 10.06.12
– MERRIWEATHER POST PAVILION, VIRGIN MOBILE FREEFEST (42 minutes)
SET –
Golden Train / The Worse It
Gets / Something I’m Not / A Funny Thing / Fair Warning / Hollywood / Don’t
Fuck with My Money / Blue Jeans / Multi-Millionaire
THE DISMEMBERMENT PLAN –
10.06.12 – MERRIWEATHER POST PAVILION, VIRGIN MOBILE FREEFEST
SET (incomplete) –
Time Bomb / The City / A Life
of Possibilities / 3AM (The Window)* / Gyroscope / Girl O’Clock / Waiting* /
The Ice of Boston / Following Through / You Are Invited
BEN FOLDS FIVE – 10.06.12
– MERRIWEATHER POST PAVILION, VIRGIN MOBILE FREEFEST (52 minutes)
SET –
Michael Praytor, Five Years
Later / Jackson Cannery / Hold That Thought / Erase Me / Underground / Landed /
Magic / Kate / Brick / Do It Anyway / Song for the Dumped / Army
ALABAMA SHAKES – 10.06.12
– MERRIWEATHER POST PAVILION, VIRGIN MOBILE FREEFEST (50 minutes)
SET –
Hang Loose / Hold On / Always
Alright / I Found You / Rise to the Sun / I Ain’t the Same / Boys & Girls /
Be Mine > On Your Way / Mama / Makin’ Me Itch / Heavy Chevy / You Ain’t
Alone
JACK WHITE – 10.06.12 –
MERRIWEATHER POST PAVILION, VIRGIN MOBILE FREEFEST (1 hour, 24 minutes)
SET –
Sixteen Saltines > Missing
Pieces > Jesus Just Left Chicago > Love Interruption / Hotel Yorba / Top
Yourself > Weep Themselves to Sleep > Cannon > Dead Leaves & the Dirty Ground > Cannon > I’m Slowly Turning Into You / I Cut Like a Buffalo
/ Fell in Love with a Girl > Ball & Biscuit
ENCORE –
Steady, As She Goes >
Freedom at 21 / We’re Going to Be Friends / Blunderbuss / I Guess I Should Go
to Sleep > Take Me with You When You Go / Seven Nation Army
