On Friday we did the early thing with the rest of them and while it was cool to see Gui Boratto playing some really nice techno (with a bit of prog house thrown in) and then We Are Scientists on the main stage, I think I got a bit too much heat and too little water so I wasn't feeling great later in the evening. After We Are Scientists we headed to the dance tent and caught the end of Steve Aoki's set which was terrible, and then the beginning of Felix da Housecat's set which was also terrible. Having heard good things about The Hold Steady we headed over there, but were similarly unimpressed. Walking past we heard Los Campesinos! and they were actually playing an awesome set that we were lucky to hear the last half of. One of the highlights of the day in the whole "band I've never heard of being really fucking cool" way.
After Los Campesinos!'s set, we headed to the Outdoor Theatre to see Conor Oberst. I like Bright Eyes but hadn't gotten much into his solo stuff and while it's not what I would generally listen to on a regular basis I liked the part of the show we saw. We left halfway through to catch Franz Ferdinand which was awesome. They're one of those bands I never think much about but then realized I knew and liked all their songs.
Next stop was the dance tent for Ghostland Observatory which was awesome, intense, and weird. The one not-so-great spot of the set was when they played one song that went on about 10 minutes longer than it really needed to, but the awesome lasers and rest of the set more than made up for it. Next up was Girl Talk who I was ridiculously excited for, but the area in which we were standing got really crowded, hot, and intense and the sun/dehydration from earlier in the day really started to catch up with me, so we left a few minutes into his set. No great loss though, I've seen him play three times before.
Unfortunately it started to get extremely cold at this point, so we found the metal/fire dragon/snake sculpture to huddle around for warmth. From this area we could hear and see most of Paul McCartney thanks to the giant screens on the side of the main stage.
Learning from my mistake of getting there too early on Friday we waited to get in on Saturday until around 4 which was an excellent call since it was MUCH hotter on Saturday than on Sunday. We met up with our friends at the Outdoor Theatre where we parked for most of the day, hearing Drive-by Truckers, Superchunk, Calexico, and Fleet Foxes--all of which were awesome. Some weirdness during Fleet Foxes though, we were watching the show when halfway through some kid just collapsed right next to us. His eyes were wide open, it was kind of freaky--he didn't have any friends around or anything, some guys carried him off hopefully to find a medic. I've seen sooo many people getting carried off this year--people need to learn that drugs, alcohol, and dehydration don't mix. In any case, spending most of the day at one stage was really relaxing and chill and a nice way to spend the day instead of running all over the place to see this act and that act.
The sun went down during the (amazing) Fleet Foxes set, and we headed out to check out Junior Boys which I really wasn't feeling especially after the soulful acts we'd been seeing all day. Got to the dance tent just in time for the Chemical Brothers DJ set which has been one of the high points of the festival for me so far. They went on with no introduction, no fanfare, and started playing really awesome banging dance music. It was such a refreshing change of pace from most of the stuff I'd been seeing there this weekend, no 80's hair metal, no giant breakdowns every three minutes (I'm looking at you Felix da Housecat). It might have been a little minimal/hard for some people but Brad and I were digging it. After an hour of dancing though I was parched and we had to leave to get water, so we ended up heading over to see the Killers which I wasn't digging at ALL (neither was this
Hoping to get there today to catch Lykke Li, Peter Bjorn and John, My Bloody Valentine, Christopher Lawrence (who I loved when I saw perform ten years ago but realistically I will probably bitch about today. I've gotten so freaking picky about electronic music it isn't even funny!), The Kills, Public Enemy, and maybe a few minutes of the Cure.
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