June 12, 2008

BFD
NY2LON Festival Review
by Lauren R from San Fran

Ben from MGMT and Dan from The Kooks have similar hats.

BFD, Live 105's radio festival, only cost around ten dollars this year. Tickets sold out. That being said, I never planned on going, but when things happened to work out in my favor, I couldn't have been more delighted. The fest is held in the parking lot/ground of Shoreline Amphitheater (where I saw Earth, Wind and Fire and the Arcade Fire last year), where the sun beats down, bands interact, and fans pay nine dollars for a beer. In fact, everyone has to pay nine bucks for a beer, since there wasn't any backstage (you should have seen the talent freaking out over this fact).

We arrived at BFD in style: two rented minivans packed with MGMT and crew. As soon as we spilled out of the vans it was time for reunions and hugs with friendband, the Whigs. Middle Class Rut, whom we had talked to in Sac, played a really good set at noon. We also recognized some more faces (pennywise??) from the previous day's festival in Sacramento, though I can't say the tattooed, older men were ready for hugs. The long period of waiting started. It wasn't even noon, and MGMT didn't play until 2:50! It gave me time to check out the bands, take a few notes, and munch on the free fruit.

Drive A was one of the first bands on the mainstage. I'm sorry that I could not have seen more of their performance, because I found them fascinating. The band is made up of young teens, I guessed between 14 and 16, and I was obsessed with them backstage. They looked like little punk rockers of the late 70s style. I even drank my Gatorade extra fast so that I could grab another one while one of the little Drive A boys was in the tent that held the sugary beverage! My friend really looked down on me for this (basically pedophilia, I guess) and said that he saw the kids giving away shampoo or some commercial product at a different festival (sellouts)... anyway I finally mustered up some courage and talked to one later in the day. It was disappointing because he actually was just a regular teenager who is homeschooled, probably because he has to tour all the time. Made me a little sad.

A more successful attempt at making friends came with the band Hottub, from Oakland. The brightly clothed youngsters (not teenagers, thank god) attracted us easily, with their blanket and tail gating mentality. The band, who has opened for MIA recently, was busy having fun, putting on makeup and outfits to hit the Scion Subsonic stage (sadly at the same time as MGMT, so I would have to hit the pavement several times during both bands sets). The three girls and two boys made some of the freshest tunes I've heard live since my encounter with the always wonderful Juiceboxxx. And they were some very BOLD girls. They taunted security guards, jumped into the crowd, and then made a bunch of people jump on stage with them. I laughed a lot at the expressions on security's face, a mix of happiness and bewilderment. I cut out before the last song so I could run backstage to watch the end of MGMT, but I am sure that Hottub rocked every moment.

I saw the beginning of MGMT's set from the huge crowd. I observed several people smoking illegal substances, heard many people say nice things about MGMT (one said that they were the only reason they came to the festival, others complemented the band's style). It was a far cry from Sacramento, which was a much more forbidding landscape (I'm relatively sure someone said "what you lookin' at, hippie??!" in a threatening manner there). The band played all the usual hits ("Time to Pretend", "Electric Feel", etc.) and ended with the ever popular "Kids". At this point Hottub had joined me backstage and we all had the pleasure of dancing in front of the crowd on stage for the song.

The Kooks, the last band I wanted to see, didn't come on for another forty minutes, so I killed some time exploring the festival and eating, and trying to talk to the teen from Drive A. When the Kooks hit the stage, I recognized one of them as the guy who I almost accidentally talked to because he was wearing a hat similar to Ben from MGMT (how the convo would have gone - Me: Ben, I didn't know you had a tattoo and dressed like Indiana Jones, weren't you wearing orange pants a second ago?! Him: uh...). In fact, most of the Kooks donned really nice hats! Probably a good idea, since it was still a very sunny day, and these guys looked pretty fair. The UK band, which formed at a music college, played a forty minute set of rock and roll. They were quite good looking, and I think the crowd was picking up on their vibe. I saw some heads bopping. It was fantastic. I could only imagine what this band's day was like. As far as I could tell, they were the only British act, and were pretty out of place in genre as well, sandwiched between Anti Flag and Everlast. I hope they had fun, and high tailed it out of there once they were done, perhaps to swim in the pool of whatever hotel they ended up in.

While we were packing up to leave I heard a familiar song... "Jump Around" by mothereffin House of Pain?! Everlast, frontman for the now defunct hip hop group opened with the classic hit that came out when I was four! Soon after he played "What It's Like," and I was sad that I couldn't go see it since we were leaving. Nostalgia hooks me every time. Lucky for me, there was a pool where we were headed, so I could drown my sorrows.

What I learned during my festival weekend:

Gas prices are over $4
Men are really attached to their beards
I should probably get a Mac
Sacramento is a scary place to be if you don't look like everyone else
Going to Chevy's at night on tour calls for pitchers of margaritas

Middle Class Rut Myspace

Drive A Myspace
Drive A Website

Hottub Myspace

MGMT Myspace
MGMT Website

The Kooks Myspace
The Kooks Website

Everlast Myspace
Everlast Website

Posted by ny2lon at June 12, 2008 01:12 PM