virginfest, 09.23.06, baltimore, md

"remember when we covered this song in camp and made a few six year-olds cry?"
i believe they were referring to either rage against the machine or korn.

virginfest was one of those experiences that encompasses all societal behaviours with interactions between small groups of people, very big groups of people, and most of all, with yourself. i've always had a love-hate relationship with festivals of any kind. the nostalgic part of me knows that these bigger-than-life parties are chock full of things you don't want to miss: great artists, great songs, great stories at the end of the day. the other part of me, the antisocial side, hates the masses of (insert scornful term here) people who inevitably manage to piss me off at least a few times. let's not even mention the choice of food and sustenance festivals tend to have in addition to scorching sun and the trash floating around everywhere. but all-in-all, the love-side wins, and i'm always happy i took the risk and managed to get myself off my haunches to head on out. this wasn't an exception.

we all woke up and packed ourselves into the saab. it was a long drive down, with a pitstop at upenn to pick up some mic stands. when we finally arrived in baltimore, the festival had taken over the city: there was heavy traffic, nowhere to park, and streams of people walking everywhere. we managed to find a house that was charging $5 for parking not too far from the racetracks, so we set the saab next to a vicious, foaming pitbull (the caretaker told us he was "nothing to worry about." right.) and lugged approximately 8 water bottles, one digital camera, and four pairs of cramped legs down to the arena.


a method to the madness?
when we arrived, i was hit over the head with the reasoning behind my hatred of large gatherings: people. people everywhere. people milling, people drinking, people hanging out by the port-a-potties, people smoking, people lying on the ground so awkwardly that i had walk on my toes for fear of crunching someone's body parts under my shoes. on top of it, i had a heavy backpack, an intense reaction to the humidity, and had a random girl make me hold her soda for her while she climbed on some guys back "to look for her friend" for ten minutes.

but then i was also given the chance to revel in why these particular events are awesome: the music. gnarls barkley was the first show we saw, and keeping up to his reputation of having a bizarre "theme" for every performance, was dressed up as a gladiator with a roman populus backing him up, complete with his own choreographed string section. following his final song of "crazy," we trekked over to the second stage where the brazilian girls were playing. i really enjoy the brazilian girls, but there was something about their performance that wasn't flowing right with me. granted, they tend to be a very abstract kind of group, but all i really felt i was getting out of them was house music, which was boring, and sabina sciubba was wearing one of her infamous face masks on stage and it began to freak me out a little (i can't explain it, maybe a little too much surrealism for the day). we then decided to head back over to the first stage in order to get good spots for the killers.

when the killers finally came on, they played a great set. brandon flowers was relatively quiet in regards to the audience, but gracious. playing most of their hits, such as their new single "when you were young," "somebody told me," "mr. brightside," "jenny was a friend of mine," and ending with "all these things that i've done," the band managed to keep up their energy and charisma. people crowd surfed as attractive girls from the crowd were shown overhead on the virgin megascreen (i was not one of them). basically, it was kick ass.

then the who came on. the m.f'in who. pete townshend and roger daltry... there can be no words. despite the fact that these guys would be in retirement if they had any other career, they totally rocked the shit out of the joint. townshend still windmilled and roger still had a stunningly strong voice and countenance in his performance. "teenage wasteland," "my generation," and "you better you bet" all came out loud and clear as films with an acidic twist projected behind them. unfortunately, i was standing next to the vip area and was harassed by some old, flabby probable concert reviewer for rolling stone who thought my finger tapping to the beat was "cute." whatever, roger totally made up for it.

after that, we made our rounds to the scissor sisters. although initially amusing, i realized that it was just like watching a couple of nyu students prance about onstage. while i believe that the scissor sisters have talent and a definite hook, i wasn't feeling it so much in their performance. it seemed like normal disco-alterna-pop and not the completely trashy balls-out kind. and believe you me, this should be a band that's all balls out when it comes to their music. if sir elton john is going to recommend you, i want to see, hear, and know why-- and then i want to be blinded by the glitz of it all.

we then meandered over to the final act of the evening, the red hot chili peppers. i had never seen them live before, but had heard several varying reactions to previous concerts. they came out with tons of energy, anthony kiedis jumping and flipping around on stage, but its apparent that they're not as tight and fit as they used to be. along with the parental warning flea gave about "not making any little girls cry as they're pulled out on a stretcher because you're crowd surfing" speech (which as a little girl, i agreed with), kiedis was completely out of breath and barely hitting any notes on key after three songs. the energy dropped considerably for the next few songs, and then it began to take speed again. it was a rollercoaster (of love) ride throughout the evening. mostly playing songs from their last three albums, i was a little disappointed that "under the bridge" didn't even get encore status, but you can't win them all.

the real stars of the show, however, were john frusciante and flea, whose apparent musicianship has transcended most mortals' capabilities. throughout the evening, we were treated to a few songs sung by frusciante, who, by the way, has an amazing voice. clear, beautiful, and with a great range-- let's not even get into his guitar work because its even more miraculous. flea also started out a song on his bass with a solo in baroque style; it could have been a minuet written by bach, but it was played as easily and simply as though he were working off of a six string. you don't normally hear bass parts like that. then, frusciante came in and they held a veritable dialogue between their instruments. this in itself was probably the best part of the evening.

the set, and the festival, ended with "give it away," which made everyone happy. unfortunately, one of the brothers mims got his face knocked by someone's boot, and we had to beat the rush and find him. he handled the situation well (even getting the guy's name!) and we headed out. when we returned to the car, the snarling pitbull was housed up inside, asleep in his bed, and we were able to get out without any major issues, except maybe some crankiness.

a long drive it was, but i managed to stay awake and enjoy the ride through maryland and new jersey. we finally arrived back around 3 AM, so quite the adventure it was. i'm glad i managed to make it down, and more importantly, overcome my intense need to be antisocial within a crowd long enough to enjoy and take complete advantage of what was going on around me. barring the really gross $9.00 "sausage on bun" i had (the $9.00 falafel line was too long), it was a really great experience, and one i hope to repeat next year. you should too.



/jen/