Almost a month later, I'm posting about the Virgin Festival that Liz and I went to at Pimlico Racetrack in Baltimore. Here are a few pictures, and I've also posted a short video clip of the Who. The video clip is kinda big (11 MB), so be patient if you download it.
We had a good time at the show, and for us, the highlight was the Who. I'm not sure if I can do a festival again though -- we were there for 8 hours about, and that wasn't even the entire festival. So, here's the rundown...
We got there around noon, and Kasabian was playing the main stage. As Liz can tell you, I was very anxious to get there when it started because I didn't want to miss anything. But everything worked out, and we walked in a few mins after it started.
Once we got in, we went to go check out the Drive-By Truckers, who had just started on the second stage. And by this time we had hooked up with Ali, Stephen, et al. Stephen came over to watch the Truckers with us. They played a good set of tough, redneck rock. At one point, they had three guitars and a lap steel guitar. It was a pretty full sound! They also played "Daddy's Cup" from the Dirty South album, which at this point is my fave song by them. Their final song was a cover of the Jim Carroll Band's "People Who Died" which they performed pretty faithfully.
Next, Wolfmother played on the main stage, which we listened to while we grabbed some food. The key word there is "listened" because on the main stage you could not really make out the band so much on the stage. They were tiny. Wolfmother seemed okay -- mix of heavy Zeppelin and Black Sabbath stuff with Robert Plant styled vocals over the top. During the Wolfmother set we hooked up with Travis and Rosana who had just come in.
Liz and I went over to the second stage after Wolfmother to watch the New Pornographers. We caught about a third of their set because we went back to the main stage for the Raconteurs. The NPs were good as always -- we've seen 'em a few times -- but one disappointment was that Neko Case was not with them this time.
The Raconteurs was actually very good. Not that I was expecting them not to be, but I guess I wasn't sure what to expect. They sounded really good, Jack White appeared to be a little pumped up (physically that is), and they played pretty much the whole album plus maybe one or two songs not on the album -- maybe b-sides or something.
We stuck around the main stage after that to see Gnarls Barkley who were a lot of fun. That "Crazy" song is crazy-catchy. They came out wearing Roman costumes and introduced themselves as "this evening's entertainment: Chariots of Fire!" Glad we caught them.
The Who was next, and I felt like a 15-yr old waiting for them to come on. I've never seen 'em. As a matter of fact, when I was in high school, Bill and I had tickets to go see them, when Kenney Jones was still in the band. But I got myself grounded, and of course could not go to the show! That sucked. So, even though this was maybe *a* version of the Who, they were great. The line up was Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend; and Zak Starkey (Ringo's son) was on drums, Simon Townshend (Pete's son) on second guitar, and Pino Palladino on bass. They did almost all the "hits": My Generation, Baba O'Riley, Won't Get Fooled Again, etc, plus they did one new song (I think it was only one) -- they have a new album out called "Endless Wire". They played for almost 1.5 hrs.
So we left after that. Yea, we skipped both the Red Hot Chili Peppers and/or the Flaming Lips who were simultaneously the last bands to play. By the time the Who was done, it was around 8:00 or so, we were both pretty wiped out and knew we had about an hour's drive to get home. Plus I wasn't all that keen to see the Chili Peppers and I don't really know the Flaming Lips stuff. I think they may be one of those bands that I want to like more than I actually do. Made it an easy decision to head home.
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