Festival Noob's Review of the Treasure Island Music Festival

Chester French, adorable!

Kymlee, my guide in her free InCase scarf

This weekend I attended my first music festival. I've been concerts before. I've been to various sorts of pagan and metaphysical festivals and retreats and the like. But I had never been to a music festival. I went with kymlee, who was covering the festival for her blog, She Plays Music.

Let me say starting out that I am a dilettante. I'm one of those folks who seems to be able to only pay attention long enough to pick up a smattering of the jargon and enough knowledge to fuel a long explanation by someone who does know. So I was a little anxious that she would either get frustrated with me or think I was an idiot. Also, it's been a few years since I committed myself to anything as strenuous as two days of walking around a festival. So I was anxious I would get tired fast and not enjoy most of it.

At least from my pov, the first did not seem to happen. We had a delightful time discussing things at my level and she is great at sharing what she knows. (Apparently I'm not as stupid as I think . . I thought that some of the stuff done by the Raconteurs reminded me of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pandora is feeding me stuff by RHCP on the channel I made for The Raconteurs) And, surprisingly, I think I held up as well as she did. We have Boost Mobile to thank for that. They had a wonderful booth with places to lounge so we didn't have to sit on the ground or stand all the time.

Okay, all the disclaimers and excuses are behind us. I had a great time. The venue was delightful. Treasure Island is located in the Bay between San Francisco and Oakland. Despite insistent sunshine (I'm don't REALLY believe the evil day star is trying to kill me but I like overcast better) the days were mostly cool enough to require a sweater.

I really enjoyed being to able hear all the bands. Because of the small size of the location, the stages were too close for two bands to play at once. So they alternated and many folks didn't even bother to move from one to the other, just locating themselves at a center point where both stages could be easily heard. All of the bands were new to me, beyond a bit of research I did on Youtube to try to figure out what I might like. I'm not an expert, so I'm just going to talk about a couple I liked and the one I really didn't like.

First of all, my favorite was Chester French. ^{wiki myspace} (See pic to the right.) Chester French is two Harvard grads who are incredible. I'm sure they don't want to know I think they are adorable. One of them used quite a bit of profanity on stage, but when we met him afterward he was obviously a sweet guy. They are cute and young and energetic. I enjoy all the selections they played. The word "genius" is used in many reviewed and is totally warranted. Check out their song "She Loves Everyone".

The one I most wanted to see, based on my research, was Goldfrapp^{wiki myspace}. This video is what intrigued me. Their performance was good and her ribbon festooned costume worked well as the evening breeze buffeted her. I suspect it's just because it was the end of a long day that I wasn't more impressed.

The final act of the festival was The Raconteurs. I hadn't even gotten to them in my research as I went by how they appeared on the website and ran out of time and energy looking people up. We were lucky to get into the VIP area, so we could get close enough to get some good pictures without being in the crush of people that started to build up several performances before theirs. I was ready to endure quiet misery because I knew this was who Kymlee wanted to see. But I was totally swept up in their performance. As a person who majored in theatre with an emphasis on the technical aspects and production, I was blown away by what they accomplished. Their set was simple but incredibly effective when combined with lights that just kept me going Ooooooooo. I come from the days when you hung a light and pointed it and after that the only thing you could do was turn up on and off and change it's intensity. The lights flashing every color of the spectrum and spinning around just awes me. Oh, and the music was good, too. Okay, okay . .not good, GREAT. They are extraordinary performers and turned out one of the best concerts I have seen.

Let me wrap this up by talking about the one act I really wasn't fond of, Amon Tobin ^wiki. That's not to say that under the proper circumstances I would not find his performance incredible. But in a crowd of folks, many of whom were inebriated or high, the distortions and sonics were unnerving. Added to the fact I had just read about the island the night before and knew that there were fears if there were ever an earthquake, I was very disturbed by the throbbing bass that vibrated the ground under me and disrupted my heartbeat even halfway across the venue. This video will give you an idea of what his act is like. Again, fascinating work but just . . .not something that I enjoyed.

Well, that about wraps it up. All in all, there was very little to criticize other than the facilities began to suffer about halfway through the second day, with tissue running out and hygiene deteriorating. But they did an incredible job otherwise. (I especially liked that the program was pocket size, eliminating fooling with a letter sized booklet all the time)

Oh, one last mention. There was a booth for In Case, a company that makes covers for stuff. They gave away custom hand silk screened scarves. But I doubt very many folks who stood in line for a scarf really knew what they did. As my son, the sign maker, would say, bad signage. You need three things: who you are, what you do and how to contact you. So as a courtesy, because I thought they were awesome, I am linking to them. They have some cool stuff.

So there you go. My first review of a music festival. I hope you enjoy it. I'll be here all week. ;)

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