Courtesy of virginfreefesttickets.com
This Saturday, Columbia, Maryland was once again flooded by horrific traffic and loud music from three stages as Virgin Mobile returned its Freefest to the Merriweather Post Pavillion.
Issues with ticketing for the event long-forgotten, thousands of cars crammed the tiny streets of this community, grinding three lanes of traffic to a halt, full of eager music-goers ready for a sunny day-long music festival that was cost-free for nearly everyone. Last year’s incarnation was host to bands like Jet, The Bravery, Weezer, and a newly reformed Blink-182. This year’s lineup, headlined by M.I.A., LCD Soundsystem and a newly reformed Pavement, obviously showed a new philosophy in band booking. Die Antwoord, Interscope’s South African hi-NRG hip-hop trio, was expected to play, but dropped because of unannounced reasons, as did rapper T.I., currently on parole violation.
Upon entering the festival grounds, the first thing you notice is: Trees. You’re constantly surrounded by trees at Merriweather – one part of the forest enclosing the “dance forest,” a throbbing bass-fest pushing it’s frequencies out into the rest of the festival (but not overlapping with either stage much, unless you’re too far back).
Another forest includes a wood-themed relaxation zone, filled with seats, beds, teepees and other places where hot festival goers could cool off. A Kyocera phone charging station offered patrons the ability to charge their phones on a host of universal chargers, people were rewarded with bamboo mats for recycling trash, and we were given a chance to spray-paint a graffiti mural, among other things.
The theme for the festival seemed to be corporate-sponsored fun, with many logo-etched items being given away for free, it was a refreshing way to hang around with an attempted catch-all lineup that gave a fair bit of downtime between bands. The first thing we did upon arriving however, was catch the tail-end of the new indie pop collective, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. One of the best performances of the day, the band infused the crowd with a smiling, jumping energy. After quick walk over to see Yeasayer begin their set, I was underwhelmed. It was fun and sounded good, but out in the middle of a crowd on a hot lawn, the feel of the music was mostly lost.
When Yeasayer was about to conclude we walked over to the pavilion only to be quickly tired by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (A Runaways cover band lead by Jett, apparently). We didn’t tire as quickly, though, as most of her band appeared to after only a few songs. To her credit, she was the heaviest band all day, and captivated a few young and old die-hard fans who were not ashamed to rock out to every note. Also, a security guard attempted forcibly remove a rowdy fan during the set, dropping him on the concrete and making his face blood-drenched and causing a team of medics to take up most of the room in the pit for the better part of her set.
Nothing particularly interested me at this point. I sauntered over to Thievery Corporation which was a refreshing change from the music I had been listening to all day, with world-inspired funk rhythms, a sitar and smooth vocals. The first half of their performance was very fun to watch. Eventually as the set went on though, they seemed to slowly switch formats to a more standard hip-hop show, with loud vocals overtaking the ambient music, which at the time was an unwelcome change for me.
I walked back to the pavilion to catch the end of the uninspiring tween sensations Matt & Kim, who were pushing their drum-and-keyboard pop and 80s-dance-hit covers onto those jumping in the crowd. At one point Kim decided to stand on top of fans and dance to Major Lazor’s “Pon de Floor.” Their set ended almost 15 minutes early, and we all filtered down to get close for the first big draw, Pavement. Stephen Malkmus took the stage with an oddly commanding presence. Tired-looking but full of goofy antics, he seemed to be greatly enjoying his time and ability to command the masses. Many people in the crowd knew every single word and weren’t afraid to sing along at the top of their lungs, shoving their fist in the air with every crash hit and clapping every time there was an unaccompanied drum beat. The longest set so far, encompassing some songs off all of their albums, it was a really moving experience, and shockingly entertaining to watch the band goof around and not take themselves as seriously as most of the audience.
After that, instead of going off to M.I.A. I decided to wait to get in the pit for LCD Soundsystem. I personally am not a fan of their music, but I was told by many people to try the live show before I knocked it, so I did. I have to say, I was very underwhelmed by it: the people who knew every song were having a blast as the loud bass-driven drums pushed them to jump and sing along with James Murphy, who’s look was meticulously crafted to look like he just rolled out of bed. I jumped, I danced, I got covered in glitter, but LCD’s live show was not able to get me into the music. To their credit, their show was impressive, with the band often performing silhouetted in front of flaring tiles of light. Also it was impressive to watch how Murphy (who I thought was not a very energetic performer) paid attention to the sound, frequently walking over to the bassist and tuning his instrument for him as he played. As a side note, from my vantage point, I counted 12 cowbells in use by this band.
Virgin Mobile’s Freefest is vastly improved from last year’s. The less mainstream lineup brought a much more respectful crowd, the lineup also hinged more on dance than rock which was refreshing for someone who has heard the electric guitar make just about every sound you can think of. To get in to the pit all you had to do is walk down, I never saw anyone who wanted to be in there at the time waiting in line, and it was cleared between every set so there was no waiting all day to keep your spot. All in all, for free, Virgin Mobile is really getting a hang on holding their festival and making it better than a lot of paid ones. With a diverse, on-time lineup, plenty of things to do between, and a strong focus on the fans of the music and making them comfortable, I am excited to squander many hours trying to locate a pair of free tickets for next year’s show.
