There is such a thing as over-branding.
Take for example, the mammoth corporation that is Virgin Inc. They’ve made a classic marketing faux pas. Most people (especially the younger generations) don’t even know what Virgin is. A record label? A record store? A phone company? A music festival? They are numb when they hear or read the word. Well, this weekend it’s a music festival floating a 20 minute ferry ride outside of Toronto’s downtown core.
Swarming with the hipster type, you are welcomed to the festival by a cluster fuck of sponsors and “complimentary” products thrown in your face, rubbed on your back (no joke, TD Bank was walking around with pumps of sun screen), and slurped down your throat. It’s easy to forget that you are actually there to see music. Over the two semi-rainy days I saw a few great bands, a dozen mediocre ones, and drank more maple mojito’s than I thought humanly possible… oh and saw Noel Gallagher get tackled on stage by a drunken idiot. You’ll just have to wait to the end of this report to hear more about that.
I started off my day musically with some local heart throbs, The Midway State. A guilty pleasure of mine, their simply epic pop swirls and songs about love and lust bought them a stage front filled with swooning girls waving their camera phones in the air spastically. Playing mostly new cuts off their long overdue debut album Holes that was just released this summer, you could really see the crowd come to life when they played the romantic ballads off their older EP’s – the ones that sparked a biding war over them, and finally landed them on Interscope.
As I usually do at festivals… if a band is mediocre I just keep on walking by. So you won’t get to hear too much about the sets from Stereophonics or Rock Plaza Central (I wanted their set to be good! I really did).
However, local boys The Constantines continue to make us proud. Every set I’ve seen them play they’ve played excruciatingly well. There is nothing “hipster” about Brian Webb, the ultimate super jew, fronting his team of dishevelled apostles as they abrasively rock out. They are just balls-to-the-wall hold-nothing-back rock and roll, and it’s great to see so many people getting that and letting of all the indie hipster cred bullshit that populates this festival. It was going to be hard for bands to beat such an energetic set, and it was still early in the day.
I got to catch the last song of Spiritualized’s set and was deeply entranced by their sonic post rock soundscapes. It was beautiful and I kicked myself for not being there earlier.
The sun started to peek its head out from behind the clouds just about the time Scottish rock favourites the Fratellis were beginning their set of raging pop ballads. I will admit, I was quite a fan of their debut album Costello Music so when they blazed into songs like “Chelsea Dagger” and “Henrietta” I sang along… but watching Jon Fratelli and co on stage was only was exciting for so long and despite the undeniable fact that their songs are insanely catchy, It got boring, much like their song writing did on their latest release, Here We Stand.
Up next was some London love in the form of Bloc Party. Dancing in strobes of light purples and blues, the quartet gracefully swept the audience through their set of atmospheric dance-y rock. Kele Okereke with his distinct vocal range was the main point of attraction. The band in real life looks unbelievable young. I wouldn’t have been surprised if they had to use fake IDs to get into the VIP area. However, their tunes are not so fresh faced; at least not anymore like they used to be on Silent Alarm and they came through the speakers sounding wise, romantic, and experienced.
I’m embarrassed to say I had never seen the Foo Fighters live before V fest. They came out on stage acting like teenagers: the epitome of a rock band. There before me stood Dave Grohl in all his manly rock and roll glory, being showered by screams and yelps from the crowd. He rambled on half drunkenly/ half I-don’t-give-a-shit-what-you-think inly, telling everyone that we’re all gonna have “a fucking good time tonight.” And how could you not? When Dave Grohl tells you to have a good time, you goddamn do! So the juicy sing-a-longs commenced as did the fist pumping and crowd surfing chaos. Their set chose wisely from their older releases, and of course included most of the grunge from their latest masterpiece, Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace. If there ever was a rule book on how to play a kick ass rock set, Dave Grohl would be the only artist alive allowed to write it.
