Saturday was a day which held chaos in the festival and personally for me. This though made the event that much more fun and a bit of a wild ride. The sun did not beam down but it was still a bit hot with it consisting of a grey clouding.
It started off with Bombay Bicycle Club at the Barton Springs stage, the smaller one beside the Budweiser Stage. This band from England was finally crossed of off my list of European bands that I wished to see. They played at Lolla and also at Fitzgerald’s in Houston on Thursday. Their set was amazing and played some of their classic along with a few of their newer tracks. It was on as the same time as Zola Jesus, another band on my list to see but the mellowness of that band did not truly suite the festival feeling and upbeat sounds that Bombay Bicycle Club delivered to its audience.
The Whigs took the AMD stage afterward and put on a descent show playing harder rock tracks which pumped up the crowd to a point, but then dulled them down after the repetitiveness of their songs. The band was into the music and was good show but nothing out of the ordinary and not that much of a spectacle if there is a lack of knowledge of the songs or a liking of rock.
Following the show I went to go eat and was able to buy a coke that tasted just like a Mexican coke. There is a difference in flavor in case you didn’t know and tastes way better than American coke. (This may seem irrelevant but I love Mexican coke!)
Afterward back to the AMD stage to catch Metric, which was a great show with a sea of people behind. The crowd was into the tracks from the beginning and swayed back and forth as the band played their top songs. There was much enthusiasm from the band which reflected onto the audience. As I was leaving the show a bit early to attend Big Gigantic at the Honda Stage, which was right beside where Metric was at I stumbled upon a girl who was obviously a bit on the wasted side. After staying with her a bit outside and hearing some of Big Gigantic the rain hit hard and we headed toward the covering of the Rock Island Hideaway, which is the designated location for those football fanatics to catch their team during the festival. Although I was there taking care of someone who was bit down, I was still listening to Big Gigantic as the rain hit even harder.
The show ended and I stood by the entrance looking at the AMD stage as The Shins played various tracks from their older and new albums. The crowd was scarce and dispersed across the field as the rain lifted a bit and people left the Hideout to listen to music while others stationed themselves to watch their team. This angered me, knowing that a few yards away were amazing live bands which traveled from miles away to perform for the masses, only to be ignored by a game which can be seen later. Music to me takes precedence over football easily, and I believed that if one goes to a festival it would mean that the music is more important than what is currently going on in the rest of the world. It is easy to get lost in the music and festival environment, which to me is the intent of what the weekend was about, so to see people huddled around a television cheering for a team while this live music was all around is baffling to me.
She was finally sobering up and feeling a bit better, by this time The Shins had ended their set and Bassnectar had taken the Honda Stage with the crowd flooding from there to the AMD stage. The songs were a perfect blend of hip-hop and techno which is a rarity and only seen by very few other artists. It ended with the famous remix of Ellie Goulding’s song, “Lights.”
After taking the now normal girl to eat and then to her sister, I headed over to the AMD stage to catch the final show of the day, Jack White. With him having walked off stage at Radio City earlier in the week, and hearing the resentment that the music industry is having towards the founder of Third Man Records, I was not as excited to see his live set. I did love seeing The Dead Weather, but other than that it was just a show to see. The set its self was amazing and a mix of everything Jack White has been in and projects he was a part of. He played tracks from The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather, and the side project, “Rome,” which was a project with him, Brian Burton, Daniele Luppi, and Norah Jones. The songs were amazing live and a show worth watching, arrogance of the artist aside, there is no denying the talent behind all of the tracks he performed.
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