Over the past weekend we did something that has never been done
before. That's right folks, we stripped our Chief Editor, Greg Adams, of his
festival virginity. After attending Firefly Music Festival in "The
Woodlands" of Dover, Delaware for its second and third years I thought I
would share the musical love and invite Greg to join me for the adventure. And
what an adventure it was.
After trekking a ridiculous three miles to our campsite, eating
some celebratory Pop-Tarts, and struggling to set up our zipper malfunctioning
tent we eventually settled in, and were ready to go listen to some music.
This year's line-up certainly did not bring nearly as many
surprises as I would have hoped. Looking at the bills for some of the nation's
heavy hitters such as Bonnaroo featuring acts like Tears for Fears, Robert
Plant, Kendrick Lamar, Earth Wind and Fire, and even metal legends Slayer I had
relatively high hopes for the late release of the Firefly lineup (which did not
show up until the end of February). After about a month of waiting, Firefly
decided to post a lineup where the name Paul McCartney was blurred out at the
head of the bill. Thanks to various online resources, pretty much everyone who
had access to Reddit or Twitter knew that the Beatle legend would be the one to
fill the missing piece at the top of the bill unless something had gone
completely wrong with the booking agents at Red Frog.
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Eventually Sir Paul's name was added to the bill...
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Still, the lineup left me wanting more. A vast majority of the
smaller print names appeared relatively meaningless to me at first glance
(although a few of them ended up surprising me, see
Intergalactix https://www.facebook.com/Intergalactix?fref=ts and Night
Terrors of 1927 https://twitter.com/nto1927) whereas lineups such as
Bonnaroo and Coachella essentially thrived on the overwhelming strength of their
lower tier bookings.
Despite its flaws the lineup still provided for an exciting,
talent filled weekend and after a week of deliberation Greg and I decided to
collaboratively decide which of the sets we attended last week were our
favorites based on the quality of musicianship, crowd reception, and overall
performance of the artist.
Well, here we go...
10.)
Jungle:
Thursday | 9:30-10:30 PM | The Lawn Stage
Our
experience of arrival on Thursday was not exactly the best. After our
exhausting walk to our campsite and having to set up all of our gear there was
a part of both of us that just wanted to pass out and call it a day. Eventually
after regaining our composure, we decided to enter the festival grounds and
camp out for one of my most anticipated sets of the weekend: Brit-Pop veterans,
The Kooks. After trudging through the already mud filled festival grounds, we
eventually made our way over to the Lawn Stage where we attempted to make our
way up to the front of the crowd during Ryn Weaver and Jungle's sets to be in a
prime spot for The Kooks. Jungle, a band that I had only ever heard because I
received their single "Busy Earning" via an iTunes free download
ended up surprising me and proved to be one of the more fun sets of the entire
weekend. Co-Frontmen and producers Josh
Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland who released their debut self-titled album about
a year ago brought a great energy to the stage despite both behind trapped
behind stacks of synthesizers, and guitars. The whole band brought the funk to
the Woodlands and even got my tired legs dancing in the pile of mud that was
the Lawn Stage's pit. Set highlights included album opener "The
Heat", and their closing number and album standout "Time".
9.) Børns: Sunday | 1:30-2:15 PM |
The Porch Stage
After listening to "Candy", Børns's debut four
track EP from last November, it is hard for any indie pop fan to not get a
little excited for what this group had to offer moving forward. I had a slight
hunch that this band would go on to do big things, that was, until I saw them
live in February opening for The Misterwives in Pittsburgh. To give some credit
to the band, the Club Stage at Stage AE was certainly not the greatest venue
sound-wise, and I'm pretty sure that show was only the second night of their
first tour. Despite their relatively lack-luster set the first time around I
figured I would give them another shot come Firefly. Although they played
practically the same set during their slot at the Porch Stage on Sunday, I was
much happier with the quality of the performance brought by the band. Tracks
like "Past Lives" rang very well with a decently sized crowd at one
of the smaller Firefly Stages. What really made this set memorable was the
band's full cover of the Elton John Classic, "Bennie and the Jets",
and short cover of Leslie Gore's "It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want
To". The only thing preventing this set from climbing higher on our list
was its lack of depth. With only one relatively unmemorable new track, and the
set ending about fifteen minutes earlier than scheduled I was left wanting
more. This young group brings a lot of energy and fun into their set and
certainly has the potential to be a big face of indie-pop's future, but with
only four songs released to the public at the moment their future success is
certainly still up in the air.
8.) Bastille: Sunday | 6:45-8:00 PM | The
Firefly Stage
Bastille put out my 4th favorite album of 2013 with the
release of "Bad Blood" only behind Vampire Weekend's "Modern
Vampires Of The City", Kanye West's "Yeezus", and Arctic
Monkey's "AM". Needless to say I was a huge fan of their album and a
lot of their other work such as their first two "Other People's
Heartache" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR_tRXj28xo&list=PLzybRwsgKBq9XM6ELpWmFiJrhvb2mr44s) albums and their Miley Cyrus cover (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pZi7CXE2ac).
Unfortunately, Bastille is at a difficult point in their career. They have just
got off touring their very successful major label debut album, have put out a
mediocre at best EP, and now have to win back their fans who are searching for
more hits from such a likable band. Bastille struggles in that they
want to be more than just a pop act. Where their debut album thrives
melodically it does struggle a little bit in the variety category. So Bastille
came to Firefly, one of their only American tour dates for this year, itching
to begin the rebranding process for their second record. This rebranding began
with the decrease in reliance on backing tracks and an increase in the amount
of guitars and a harder rock sound than their synthpop origins. This is
certainly not something that hasn't been done before, but at least
they're attempting to slightly alter their sound, right? In some
spots, I think this might work relatively well for them, take the solid
new track "The Draw" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6VyDN_aGbc) off
of their extended "All This Bad Blood" album for example. Bastille's
attempt to be a "grunge" band according to frontman Dan Smith,
certainly comes short of those allegations but did end up being one of the more
moving songs of the set. What made this set great was the way Bastille was able
to weave their new tracks in with the older songs that everyone knew the words
to. I for one am not a huge fan of going to a concert where a group merely
plays all new, unreleased material. So although I am relatively undecided on whether
or not I enjoyed the new tracks from Bastille, I can thoroughly say I enjoyed
every "Bad Blood" track they brought out. I was especially pleased
with their inclusion of "Oblivion" and their cover of TLC's "No
Scrubs" in their set. At the end of the day I am still on the fence as to
whether or not I like where Bastille are headed for their next record. Despite
my growing fears, the band certainly has hits, and still know how to put on an
crowd pleasing show. For this reason they were able to sneak their way into our
list and I will be eagerly waiting to see if they can surprise me.
7.)
Sturgill Simpson: Saturday | 5:30-6:30 PM | The Lawn Stage
If
anyone asked me what my least favorite musical genre was I wouldn't have to
hesitate to tell them, "country". However, one can argue that with
any genre there will be some artists that we all are not akin to. Sturgill
Simpson was without a doubt the best country artist that I have ever seen
perform live. Although I was completely unfamiliar with his music going into
the set, I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of talent Simpson and his
band brought to the table. Simpson's voice was smooth, and his lyrics told
actual stories that weren't confined to misogyny, beer, and tractors. And
despite the lack of depth in Simpson's crowd, he was able to turn the Lawn
Stage into a glorified dance party. Greg and I were even brought into a line
dance around one intoxicated man's wife during one moment of the set. The real
highlight of Simpson's performance was Laur Joamet's remarkable shredding on
the slide guitar, which took place during practically ever song of the set and
was as fast as practically any live guitarist I have ever seen play. Between
the high level of musical talent, and just the immense level of fun the crowd
had during the set, Sturgill Simpson was able to reassure my faith in the genre
that is country music.
6.)
Foster The People: Saturday | 8:15-9:30 PM | The Firefly Stage
After seeing Foster the People on their Torches tour at the Mann
Center in 2012, I did not think I would end up seeing them three more times in
the following 4 years. It was pretty cool being able to grow up with the band,
and literally watch them flirt with being a headlining act during their Firefly
2013 set. Unfortunately their 2014 sophomore LP, "Supermodel" ended
up flopping pretty hard from both the perspective of critics and of some of
their fan base that was familiar with Foster's work on Torches. As a primarily
guitar driven album rather than electronic, Foster The People took a leap of
faith and came up a little short with a record I personally enjoyed, but not
one that would put them at the top, where Firefly had prematurely anticipated
them to grow in 2013. This album was certainly a grower and after watching them
perform songs from it for the third time at Firefly 2015, you could see that
the band has indeed matured, along with their songs that are now over a year
old. Unfortunately we missed the first few songs of FTP's set, as we made our
way over from The Lawn Stage from Spoon's set. But there wasn't a much better
feeling that hearing the lovely piano riff from "Life on the Nickel"
as we approached the stage from a distance. Mark Foster and Co. went on to play
a set that was fifteen minutes shorter than anticipated due to the weather
adjustments Firefly set in order to try and get Kings of Leon's headlining set
in before the storm (which, of course failed). But they did bring the heat with
great renditions of Houdini, Call It What You Want, and Are You What You Want
to Be. All of which were supplemented with tasteful jams during extended
bridges and outros that made Foster The People feel like they have really
molded themselves into a great live band. After giving a great speech about the
deconstruction of honor in our modern day social media saturated world,
supplemented by shout out to his family and his Father for Father's day,
they closed out their set with a electric guitar driven rendition of Don't Stop
(Color on the Walls). The song rang throughout the Woodlands and ended up being
the closing number for The Firefly Stage Saturday as Foster The People
unintentionally obtained and earned their second headlining Firefly
performance.
5.) The Kooks: Thursday | 11:00-12:00 PM | The Lawn
Stage
The Kooks are a band that my girlfriend actually introduced me to
not too long ago after "Naïve" came on the radio one day and I had to
ask her what band played the song. Not too long after, I grew very fond of
their debut record "Inside In/Inside Out" and a lot of the other
singles off of their newer records. Then last year they put out another new
record entitled, "Listen", that did not exactly have me falling head
over heels, but had some solid singles that had me excited for their
pseudo-headlining slot on Thursday night. Luke Pritchard ran the show, and
proved to be one of the most entertaining frontmen of the weekend with his
quirky stage antics and his incomprehensible stage banter attributed to his
thick Worthing, English accent. To my luck, with the exception of a few deep
cuts, the band stuck to the hits, moving from single to single from each
record. Set highlights included renditions of classics such as "She Moves
in Her Own Way", and rocker "Always Where I Need to Be". I also
never knew that Pritchard played the keyboard, and was pleasantly surprised by
how much I enjoyed some of the newer tracks that featured it such as ballad,
"See Me Now" off of their new record. The Kooks ended up playing
fifteen minutes longer than their allotted set time, and closed out Thursday
night with thunderous singalongs of "Junk of the Heart (Happy)", and
of course "Naïve". Their set left me with no complaints (maybe except
their exclusion of Seaside from their setlist), and satisfied me from start to
finish. The band just provided a solid, fun, high energy set, and because of
this have earned a prime spot on our list.
4.) Walk The Moon: Friday | 5:00-6:00 PM | The Lawn
Stage
Walk The Moon are a Cincinnati, Ohio based indie-pop band that put
out my favorite album of the Summer of 2012 in their self-titled, major label
debut. And after catching them play a brief set at the 2013 104.5 Winter Jam in
the freezing cold, I was left wanting more. About three years later, I finally
was granted the opportunity to see them again last weekend at Firefly. Now the
band is now two albums and a #1 Billboard single in, and I am halfway done
through college... Despite my lack of interest in the majority of their new
album I was still pretty blown away by the band's energy and performance of the
new tracks and the old tracks alike. Songs like "Up 2 U", and
"Avalanche" faired pretty well with the crowd, and sounded much
better live than on the record. After opening with "Anna Sun" we all
knew we were in for a treat. Despite the set being heavily saturated with
tracks off Talking is Hard, I don't there were many better moments throughout
the weekend then when Nick Petricca lead the crowd in a massive dance party
during the final chorus of "Jenny" taking the sexually connotation of
the line "I'm not going to take it from you unless you give it to me"
line literally as he urged the crowd to give the band more and more energy. The
band closed their set with their massive 2015 hit, "Shut Up and
Dance", and left the crowd very pleased with their performance as they
left it all out on the stage. Even though I prefer their older material, I am
excited to see where this band can go in the future, and I wish them all the best
on their journey.
3.) Spoon: Saturday | 7:15-8:15 PM | The Lawn
Stage
Britt Daniel pretty much has the perfect rock n' roll voice, with
just the right amount of grit and edge to his vocals he really sounds even
better live than he does on their phenomenal recordings. And his Austin, Texas
band is just as solid, having been together and been putting out critically
acclaimed albums and hits since the early 2000s. After their 2014 album,
"They Want My Soul" ended up being my favorite album of last year, I
knew that I had to catch their live set before they hit the studio again. And
to my luck they also appeared on this year's Firefly lineup. After being
pleasantly surprised by Sturgill Simpson, Greg and I made our way up to the
front of the crowd as we waited 45 minutes for Spoon to take the stage.
Eventually we crawled out way up to the second row, dead center. Spoon opened
with "They Want My Soul" opener, "Rent I Pay" as Daniel
essentially growled the lyrics, "And if that's your answer, no I ain't
your dancer" at the crowd and really set the tone for the remainder of the
set. They proceeded to kick into a great hits filled set full of tracks off of
2007's "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" such as "Don't You Evah",
"Don't Make Me A Target", and closing number "The
Underdog". Other set highlights included new tracks such as two of my
favorite tracks from 2014 "Do You" and "Inside Out", and a
classic singalong off 2002's "Kill the Moonlight", "The Way We
Get By". The band was beyond tight, and despite an overpowering mic on the
bass drum for the first half of the set, everything sounded very clear even
from the second row. The chemistry of the group especially between Daniel, and
Guitarist/Keyboardist Alex Fischel was also very heartwarming. It was awesome
to see guys who have been playing together for over 13 years having so much fun
up on stage. And it was even more fun sitting second row with a bunch of sweaty
fans singing along to a diversified list of solid tracks from all over the
band's stellar discography.
2.) The Killers: Sunday | 9:15-10:45 PM | The Firefly
Stage
The Killers could have easily been #1 on this list, but after
considering them being over twenty minutes late for their festival closing set,
and competing with Paul McCartney it was tough for them to take that spot.
However, despite these factors, The Killers proved to us all on Sunday night
that they are in fact headliner material and one of the best live bands out
there today. Four years after their headlining set at the inaugural Firefly
festival (that unfortunately, I was too young to attend at the time) The
Killers returned to The Woodlands and brought all their hits and more. Opening with
Mr. Brightside was probably the best thing the band could have done to make
their slightly aggravated crowd forget that the band was late and certainly set
the tone for the remainder of the set. This show was also special in that it
served as one of the band's only shows of the entire year, and their only
festival appearance of 2015 due to Brandon Flowers devoting a vast majority of
his time to his brand new solo record, "The Desired Effect". Set
highlights included Sam's Town classic "Bling (Confession of a
King)", an extended version of Battle Born single, "From Here
On Out", covers of CCR's "Bad Moon Rising", Kings of Leon's
"The Bucket" and "Use Somebody", and a set closing
singalong of "All These Things That I've Done". I was skeptical when
I read Brandon Flower's ballsy claim that The Killers were the greatest band of
the past 15 years. I wasn't too fond of a decent amount of material off of Day
and Age and Battle Born, but the band has done a great job of making their
newer tracks sound even better in a live setting. And as cheesy as I thought
the track, and first single off Battle Born, "Runaways" was at first
listen, it has actually grown to be one of my favorite tracks the band plays.
The Springsteen influence is certainly more prevalent in the live setting as
well. The Killers may not be the BEST band of the 21st century thus far, but
sets like their headlining performance at this year's Firefly festival
certainly keep their name in the running. It's kind of hard to imagine thinking
about When You Were Young or Mr. Brightside as "Classic Rock Songs"
but something tells me that in a matter of a decade these records will be some
of the songs our generation is remembered for.
1.) Paul McCartney: Friday | 10:00 PM- 12:30 AM |
The Firefly Stage
"New" is the title of Paul McCartney's most recent solo
record, and one can argue that one of rock n' roll's greatest living
figureheads makes even his records from the 1960s sound brand new on stage.
Although various relatively famous artists took the Main Stage throughout the
festival, literally no act came anywhere close to the magnitude or atmosphere
during Macca's two and a half hour Friday night performance. The now 73 year
old legend, had his birthday the night before his set, and decided to open up his
headlining slot with the White Album classic, "Birthday" to celebrate
with the crowd of around 90,000. Paul let his lengthy list of classic songs do
most of the talking, but when he did communicate with the crowd he always had
something interesting to say. After breaking into a jam of the riff of Jimi
Hendrix's Foxy Lady at the end of Wing's song "Let Me Roll It", Paul
told a story about how he witnessed Jimi play back in the sixties. After Jimi's
Bigsby tremolo bridge forced his guitar out of tune he called upon an
embarrassed Eric Clapton who was sitting in the front of the crowd to come up
on stage and retune his guitar for him. Paul also loved to play his ballads,
which is not necessarily a bad thing. He gave a shout out to his wife Nancy
(who was in attendance) before jumping into a rendition of "My
Valentine", only to follow it up saying, "And this one was for
Linda" as he jumped into the crowd pleasing, "Maybe I'm Amazed".
Other ballads included Let It Be's "The Long and Winding Road" which
he devoted to the victims of the Charleston shooting, a stringless rendition of
Revolver's "Eleanor Rigby", "Let It Be", "Hey
Jude", and of course the Abbey Road Medley including "Golden
Slumbers" and "Carry That Weight". But with the inclusion of
some of the Beatle's and Wing's hardest hitting tracks, such as "Live and
Let Die", "Helter Skeleter", and "Paperback Writer" no
McCartney fan was left disappointed. My personal favorite moment of the set
came from McCartney's rendition of the classic George Harrison tune,
"Something" which he played half of on a ukulele, and finished with
the full band. Even with all of the emotional ballads in the set, I would have
to say the most emotional moment for me was when Paul and the thousands of
people around me belted out the song's bridge, "You're asking me will my
love grow, I don't know, I don't know". Paul is a superstar, and he's a
relatively humble superstar as he allowed a younger fan to come on stage and
sign her tattoo of his face on her arm. He also held a great amount of
endearment towards his past with his old bandmates, and truly expressed all of
his emotions as if he didn't play the same songs every night. Paul brought
fireworks to his Firefly set, both literally and figuratively, and played a set
that I will remember for the rest of my life. And for these reasons his set
remains the top performance we witnessed this summer at the 2015 Firefly
Festival.
Honorable Mentions are owed to Modest Mouse, whom
unfortunately we missed due to camping out for Sir Paul. I saw them perform
this April in Pittsburgh and can honestly say they are one of the best live
bands I have ever seen live. I am sure they would have been a shoe-in for our
list had we seen their set. Unfortunately, Firefly had to stack their Friday
line-up and priority had to be given to Macca as we figured we would stay in
the front 10 rows after watching Morrissey's set.
And Morrissey also cannot go unmentioned. Moz was certainly the
most out of place act on this year's Firefly lineup, and I still can't exactly
place my finger on why exactly Red Frog decided to book him. Regardless, as a
Smiths fan I was excited to see him. Unfortunately, a vast majority of the
Firefly crowd had little to no interest in Smiths or Morrissey. Morrissey
played the opening set for Paul McCartney, and was unopposed during his set. He
also played to one of the least dense crowds of the entire festival, with a
decent amount of the crowd making various comments such as, "Who is
Morrissey?", "I hope Morrissey leaves so Paul can start
earlier", and at one point in the set when Morrissey asked the crowd
somewhat jokingly, "Would you like us to go?" a decent amount of the
crowd responded "Yes". Between Moz's crowd and overhearing one random
girl say, "I was so upset when Paul McCartney didn't play
FourFiveSeconds", I was a little upset with some of the people at this
year's Firefly as a good amount of those in attendance seemed like they were
only in there to see Zedd, the Chainsmokers, and Aoki jump around to their
Spotify playlists. I would like to thank the Firefly lineup curators for
attempting to keep some sort of artistry in the festival, and would like to
encourage them to keep the festival moving in that direction going forward.
Morrissey played a solid set, and his voice sounded excellent! I certainly
commend him for actually making it through the whole performance without just
quitting after the lack of reception from a lack luster crowd. I have never
felt so uncomfortable at a concert before, and can only imagine how Moz felt
watching it from on stage. Had the scenario been different Morrissey would have
certainly been well near the top of my list, but due to the surrounding
factors, the performance just left me being more upset than anything and for
that reason he did not make my top 10 this year.
Besides a few blemishes, cancelled shows, and a whole lot of mud,
overall Firefly 2015 was a success. Please feel free to comment and let us know
how your experience was at this year's festival! Or just comment about
anything! We would love to hear what you think, and discuss what's on your mind
in the world of music, festivals, and other general happenings of life.
Thanks for reading!
Until next time,
Jake Sternberg
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