As I sit here in my boxers, still covered in the dust of the great concert experience that I just experienced and returned home from, I can only think to reminisce on the events that transpired at the weekend that Was Firefly 2013.
Here we go:
Thursday: Our friends call us (my gf and I) to tell us everything is in order. We are excited to come down the next morning.
Friday: We leave super early. Great choice. We miss most of the traffic and get there by ten. Front row camping is awesome, we had to carry our stuff there since we were "companion" parking. Bands we saw that day:
Leagues - Very cool, weird out-of-place-looking lead singer. Fun Kick off.
The Spinto Band - One of my fav local indy bands who seem to have more fun being weird, playing music, and sharing fun facts with people like "today is the longest day of the year" instead of hitting it big. Almost nobody I know has heard of them. Fav track - Summer Grof.
Django Django - weird ambient-type band from britain. lead singer is irish, seems like an awesome dude. Fav track - Hail Bop (they played it first, it was awesome)
Twenty-One Pilots - Performer of the Day. THIS was the best performance of the weekend. These guys are amazing. I don't know how they did it, but they played the best hour of performance of anyone I saw, and it was just the two of them. The lead singer climbed the stage frame, the drummer did backflips, they drummed on platforms held by the audience, and were just all around amazing. Fav Track - Trees... I will listen to Holding Onto You (their single) more often, but they did some amazing things with this song live that I'll never forget.
Dr. Dog - Fun music. I was too far away to really get into it, but I enjoyed the sound.
Ellie Goulding - I had high hopes for her coming into the venue. The audio for her set was terrible, I couldn't get close enough to enjoy the music since so many people had filtered in at this point in the afternoon. We left to take a break at the campsite (front row camping is SOOOO the way to go). I heard later that the latter part of her set was solid which is good, because she is very talented.
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Freakin awesome. Anthony Keatus still has it, Flea is cool as shit, and the new guitarist was baller. Surprisingly some technical hiccups during their show... the solo during Californication, among my favorite tracks was silent. Still it was worth it to skip other artists to be an hour early for their set to be about 50 ft from the stage. Super cool, I have ALWAYS wanted to see them. Track of the night - Around the World.
Krewella - we had planned on dancing hard at Krewella's set, but were totally wiped after RHCP and just sat and watched from a distance and ate ice cream for a while. The builds and drops of House/EDM are pretty cool. Even though its awkwardly 2-3 ppl behind a DJ table the lights and thumping bass are pretty cool to see.
Bands I missed
Sister Sparrow - heard they were great
The Avett Brothers - Really needed a break when they were on, but heard they put on a great show.
Calvin Harris - wanted to get in early for RHCP, but heard his tracks were sick.
Saturday: I waited in line for an hour to get a cup of iced coffee at the hub, no joke. THEN I waited in line an hour to get a cool Firefly headband from Toyota in the festival (they were very trendy and cool, plus i had forgotten all my bandanas). This was clutch as later my scalp was sunburned, so I wore it over my head for protection. Bands we saw:
Japandroids: worst act i saw all weekend. sound was bad, singing was bad. music was eh. I am sorry, I have no idea what they were going for, or what they were doing there.
ZZ Ward - I had never heard of her. She was excellent. So good. Great Blues style heavy beat country-esque music with a powerful voice like Adele. Very fun to dance to.
A Silent Film - Performer of the Day. These guys were great. I only knew one of their tracks, which was excellent. The rest of their music was awesome, too. They played one song, then the drummer had to fix something on his kit. The lead singer kept the crowd interested with some jokes, it was very entertaining. Then he just put the mic in a stand and played a quick song on piano. "I'll just play this for you I guess" Whil the drummer fixed his kit. Awesome. little unplugged track (basically). :) Fav Song - Danny, Dakota &The Wishing Well. Their Single is You Will Leave a Mark. Very good song, I liked DDWW better live.
Alabama Shakes - Didn't really see them. they didn't sound great from a distance, so we took our break at this point.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - So many people, we couldn't get close, but the music sounded weird, too. the Main Stage was Packed. the drunk people were buzzing, and I didn't want any part of this just to see the song "maps" which I only know from Rock Band. She was made up to look like a clown and that was super weird.
MGMT - Their singles were AWESOME. The rest of the music was basically weird stream of consciousness music with no performance; just trippy video behind a stagnant band. The audience was super High. The singles were fun to dance to, but the rest was rubbish.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Classic rock fans will be appalled at what I did here. tough noogies. We really wanted to get a little tipsy and go to some EDM after seeing krewella the night before, so we only stayed for half of Tom Petty's set. We sat in the way back, layed on our blankets and just enjoyed his music. It was fun. We stayed til he played Free Fallin, and then ripped some SoCo shots at the camp site... more on that in a minute.
The White Panda - This was super fun. I'll do this again for sure. We took down about a quarter of a handle of SoCo among 4-6 people and went to an EDM show. Our friend dragged us deep into the depths of the popping glow-stick bearing crowd, and the pandas did their thing. The strange outfits, light up LED panda masks, light show, heavy driving bass. Super fun dancing, good builds... Just all around fun. Will DEFINITELY do it again.
Bands I missed:
Young Empires
Imaginary Cities
Blondefire - Heard all good things about these three bands while I wasted my time at Japandroids. :(
Sunday: Final Day. Miraculously not hungover, but body is sore. Still excited for the last day.
Bands:
The Last Royals - Like the band name! Not super original, fairly vanilla music, but good. solid singer, good solos and beats, pop-rock style music.
The Apache Relay - Big group band. Very neat sound.
Trails and Ways - wasn't super impessed by them
The Last Bison - I had never heard of these guys. They were awesome. Very cool folky music. I bought their CD and got them to sign it. It POURED rain, they played right through it. I danced my heart out with my friends for this family band from Virginia. Great experience with violin, cello and alternate percussion and a pipe organ.
I MISSED MATT AND KIM for the signing. I was very sad that I did. I heard they were great.
Capital Cities - We risked missing half of the Dispatch set for this much to my Gf's chagrin, but we were both happy we did. These guys were cool. Performers of the day! Their song Safe and Sound was so cool. I had been so tired during their set, and they hyped it up and got everyone dancing with an organized dance for one of their tracks. The trumpet mixed with the synths and dual male vocals was SOOO cool and weird. That trumpeter was very talented. Fav Track - Safe and Sound.
Dispatch - I got to hear "the general" as the last track, so I was happy. We missed most of their set for Capital Cities which I did not regret.
Passion Pit - We tried to go see them, but the crowd was humungous as it had been every time we tried to go late-ish to a main stage event. I heard the lead singer lost his voice in the middle and ended their set early which sounds kinda weak. Glad we left early to get close for Vampire Weekend.
Vampire Weekend - Last band we stayed for. They were good. A few of my friends went all the way to the front for their set. I got close enough to see the band well, good thing because the Sun behind us was glaring out the big screens. They played well, their music really drives their show but they aren't the most energetic performers, honestly. Fav Track - Diane Young.
We wanted to leave a touch early to avoid traffic, so we left mid-set. I chose the fastest route out which was CROWD SURFING. I passed my friends in the front, and they took photos. My other friend took a video which I am excited to see. I did get dropped in the beginning, but I was ready for it and popped right back up for the rest of the journey.
Every concert goer should learn the fun fact that if you can't handle the heat, the fastest way out of the kitchen is up. Just ask a big dude near you to put you up and off you go. I recommend for guys doing the superman method, hands forward on your stomach so you can tap the people ahead of you so they are ready since everyone is looking toward the stage (some ppl are dicks and try to ball tap you, assessed risk) Girls can do that, but for obvious reasons prob are not comfortable with that, so just flip to your back, but Be as stiff as a board, and be ready to twist if you start to feel a drop. It happens. girls maybe go feet first instead. Crowd surfing is super fun, somewhat dangerous, but totally worth it. Make sure you are helping by keeping your muscles taught, and if you weigh more than 180 Lbs, you should probably not be crowd surfing. The only thing worse than having to help push a huge overweight person forward is watching them crush some poor 5'1" girl who wasn't ready for it.
Bands I missed:
Delta Rae - Heard they were really good
Matt and Kim - I could hear them from the line for The Last Bison's signing. They sounded very good, I am sad I missed them, probably one of two regrets, missing them, and going to stupid Japandroids.
Foster the People - I didn't stick around for the headliner. After 36 of 72 hours being spent listening to music and battling crowds and dancing my head off, it was time to go home. Not a huge fan of them anyways so, we left a tad early.
Honestly, it was the best musical experience of my life, and maybe the best weekend of my life. It was super cool. Front Row camping was Perfect, Ideal for the situation. The weather was great. Hot, but with a breeze. It poured rain for about 45 minutes total the whole time which only added to the music of The Last Bison.
It was a stellar weekend. Very excited for next year. Suggestions to the out door concert-goer,
Stay sober...ish, Just have a little for a buzz, you should be there for the experience, not the drugs.
Take breaks. You can't possibly see everything, sit down for a while in the shade, take a 20 min nap somewhere cool so you can rock it for someone you are excited for.
Embrace the pain. 12 hours on your feet, you are going to be sore, just ignore it and dance. don't complain you will feel better later.
Go Early for the music you REALLY want to see. The earlier shows, you can get close enough to feel the pump of the music if you arrive on time. Bigger names, you must get there at least 30 minutes before their set starts to get close enough to really enjoy it.
Try something new. my friends were very in-tune with the music ahead of time, so they had some good music in mind to go and see. I was happy I followed them because the music was great. Found some Gems and had some really great experiences to meet some really great people.
Embrace the music. If you feel like other people are embarrassing themselves by dancing, you probably shouldn't be there. Short of fighting, or getting kicked out for drug abuse, you can really do no wrong at an outdoor concert. Move your body, have fun. There is nothing embarrassing about singing your heart out in a crowd doing the same, or dancing among strangers and friends. Let yourself go. its why you are there, the perfect break from reality. I promise, reality will still be there when you're done, but for now live in the music and the moment.
While there I remembered how to be care free again, I remembered how to enjoy music and how to express emotion through more than words on a page and tears down a face. I remembered how to live like a leaf on the wind, dancing through life as just a small shining light. How to live like a Firefly.
Firefly.
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