Virgin Festival! Finally, Vancouver gets to be part of a multi-day musicfest. Okay, so it's not quite at the level of camp-out-in-the-boons-with-100,000-people, but it's still cooler than yet-another-Warped Tour or the somewhat strangely-run affair that is Arts County. Apparently, though, Thunderbird Stadium out at UBC is absolutely the only possible location in the lower mainland for festivals. I get the whole ease-of-transport and convenience factor, but one of these days, we gotta shake it up a bit. Maybe Swanguard Stadium for a change! Yeahhh! This is the closest we have to a Vancouver-centric uberfest, and it seems like it was fairly successful so hopefully it'll stick around. A sister festival exists in Toronto, so we aren't as awesome as, say, Coachella, but really, Coachella's just overwhelming, isn't it? Yeah okay, I know, I'm reaching.



So, two days worth of pretty cool selections of bands were on the menu, but even I was not prepared for the level of completeness this thing would turn out to be, even compared to EDGEfest way back in the day. Of course Virgin nearly controls the planet along with Disney and Microsoft and... Fox?... and they really seemed to spare no expense. A couple of lessons perhaps to be learned for next time, like if someone is going to be so kind as to bring halogen floodlights to the media tent to 'give us some light,' it might be worth noting that the grass under said media tent does not come equipped with power outlets. Anyways, day one was gross. It was rainy and soggy for the vast majority of the day, so much so that it became fruitless to even attempt to remain dry or warm. Because of this and a relatively inexpensive ticket price, the audience was pretty sparse on the first day. A lot of the crowd spent much of the time filling up the covered bleachers on the side of the main field.



The set-up of the festival grounds was great. The main stage area was typically outfitted with the back half full of food vendors, the hillside opposite the bleachers was half beer-garden and half VIP hospitality zone, and the backstage area was filled with large RVs for the bands to hide out in (lengthy clusters of cables snaking across the wet ground and all the safety issues that went along with that notwithstanding). Enormous video screens flanked the stage to show concert visuals during sets, and to showcase schedules, informations, stupid cartoons from Heavy.com (The Superficial Friends is my new favourite - go look it up y'all), and audience-submitted scrolling text messages. Up the stadium stairs and across the plaza into another field we go, where the marketplace was set up. Tons of vendors, selling everything from weird blinking pens and rubber hamburgers, to showcasing Hybrid vehicles, to a giant tent full of Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero games, to your shot at being in an advert for Lee jeans or something like that were up there. CFOX radio was broadcasting on location, just beside the smaller second-stage. This stage had very little hoopla associated with it, but since the arriving audience all had to be herded past this area on their way through the gates, it still managed to attract a lot of attention. Also up there was the B-Live tent, the Bacardi-sponsored DJ area, which was liscenced, oddly enough, and was housed in a complete opaque bubble of a tent that just had one little doorway. This place was awesome respite on rainy, chilly day one, as the dancers' body heat steamily filled the space, it was dark and sexy, they had a mojito bar, and there was a little lounge set up with palm trees and couches.





Okay, right, there was music too. The first thing I saw when I was there was Neurosonic. I didn't get the world's greatest bead on them, as I was escorted backstage to have a chat with Mutemath. They were finishing up an interview with MuchMusic's oh-so-dreamy Devon Soltendieck before retreating to the dryness of their RV. It was great to be able to hunker down in a warm RV for a bit, though it was crowded and loud in there, and my recorder experienced the first of many wretched and ill-timed failings of the weekend by running out of battery juice. Wicked. Mutemath themselves may have summed up the darkly-clad and make-upped Neurosonic best when, overhearing a band member yelling some obscenity at the crowd ("You're all motherfuckers!" or something to that effect), they exclaimed, "I don't get this. What audience member wants to accept this sort of abuse? 'Yeah, we are! YEAH!'"



I think after this I went up to the second stage to watch TV Heart Attack for a bit. I caught their last song - the crowd up there was small but enthusiastic. I suppose you'd have to be to be standing in that mudpit. It didn't take long for the high-traffic zone from the front gate, past the second stage, and to the concrete plaza beside the actual stadium turned into a slippery, gushy trail of pudding. At some point throughout the day, some genius finally decided to put down big pieces of matting to help the situation out and give it a bit of traction. This just became odd - the squishy ground yielded to each step but of course didn't actually give because of the mat over top, giving the impression of just walking on a big sponge. With nothing yet going on back down at the main stage, I decided to check out what my shiny wristband would score me, and wandered into the VIP zone. Redbull, and an ever-changing menu of really great food. This was far beyond the tiny bags of potato chips and granola bars offered at Sasquatch! last year. I loaded up a plate with pulled pork sandwiches, cole slaw, caesar salad, and Peak Freans cookies, then settled down to wait for Stars of Track and Field to fire up.



So, this is the second time within a month that I got to see this band. I love 'em. Their set was wracked with problems, but they worked through it with a vibrancy that belied the lameness of playing on a dangerously-wet stage to a tiny audience of people who mostly don't know yet who they are. A perfectly-timed glitch seemed almost intentional, as the band launched into an instrumental bit, the suddenly-wailing guitar cranked out a stream of crackly fuzz. It wasn't until the same thing happened later in the set that I realized it wasn't supposed to be there. There were many bands throughout the day but the most important thing about this show was just the general vibe of everything, the full experience. Mute Math went on later and performed the hell out of their set, even doing their weird acrobatics on a keyboard that wasn't theirs. Danger! I had a chance to speak to the drummer from Stars of Track and Field later, who was an wonderful gent, bringing me a beer and then taking me out of the line of fire to his 'new favourite spot,' a hammock that had been strung up underneath the stage by someone, for the interview. Crowned King was a late addition to the second stage - another local band that seems to get famous in waves. Vancouver's maybe just not the best city for them - even though the weather was better at intervals and there were more people than had been around for the earlier day, there really weren't too many people up here for CK. I think it may have been here that a huge screaming mob erupted to the left, where My Chemical Romance was trying to make their way to the CFOX booth for an interview while one of the VJs was trying to bat the fans off of them. Yikes.





By around this time, it was getting tiring and cold, my company for the day had arrived, and we took some refuge in the B-Live tent and downed a couple B-Live specials or whatever the hell those fantastic white grape juice things are called. I was on par to have a chitchat with Vancouver's own Pride Tiger as well, which was pretty fun. Nicked a couple cookies, then watched the bizarre musical style-melding of Enter Shikari. Neat stuff - a little disjointed maybe, but really bloody interesting. Wandering around brought us back to the sparse main stage to catch part of Rise Against, and the tail-end of dinner. Herbed chicken, baked salmon, corn on the cob, salad. Mmmmm. The corn was a bit of a mistake, because I really just wanted floss afterwards. Billy Talent played the main stage. They were... Billy Talenty. It's a good band that makes a lot of sense for the kids to like. But they really don't change much. The audience, still grossly small for being this close to the end of the day, was into it.



This was capped by My Chemical Romance. You know, they're dark, but they're pop, they're evil, they're heartbroken. And tonight, they're boring. I couldn't believe it. Given this huge stage to perform on, they fell flat. The crowd was well-behaved, which seemed out of character, and still tiny. And yeah, a few songs into MCR, we opted to leave out of sheer bloody boredom. The body strain we'd endured all day was undoubtedly a little to blame for our hastiness, but a good band could have kept me there to the bitter end.



What day one had in rainyness, day two made up for in droves of sunniness. By the early afternoon, there already seemed to be more people there than had shown up the entire previous day. The fields had not yet recovered from the torrential rains of the day before, but the mud pits became more fun and amusing than a source of wretched angst. The first thing I managed to catch was You Say Party! We Say Die! on the main stage. Clumsy name be damned, these kids have picked up quite the hipsterindierock following in the past couple of years. I bumped into old friend and Nerve Magazine magnate Adrian Mack during this set, who sheepishly admitted that he really had a soft spot for these guys, despite never having any intention of enjoying them.



Up at the second stage, The Art Of Dying was tearing things up. The big throng that had gathered to watch them was moshing happily and yelling along. It looks like this band has acheived far more success with this style of edgy newrock than it did as a slick electro-rock outfit called Sunlike Star, but I still think they had some better tunes in the days of yore. Back at the main stage, Smoosh was playing. They came out of nowhere. It's girls. Honestly, teeny tiny girls. Think Hanson but, you know, even girlier. The bass player had a tiny bass. Getting started at an early age promises likely decent things for them as a poppy girl group. It might be interesting to check back on them in a few years.



By the time I'm back at the second stage, mister companion has arrived again. I have a chat with the Reason, snitch some more cookies, attack members of Marianas Trench in a parody of them being attacked by fans near the autograph tent, and then move along. Some of the MT set was watched. Still love their vocals. Still wish they'd solidify a direction. Mainstageward, Metric was on. Maybe we'd stopped at the B-Live tent in here for a bit - we took advantage of a suddenly-short line, since the nice weather prompted huge lines for everything, including the VIP area. Anyhow, Metric at the mainstage. I think I've just had enough of them, but I might be the only one who's had enough of them. Companion and I stole away to the VIP area to down Red Bulls, scrape up what was left of the dinner goodies (nothing wrong with a plate of mashed potatos and gravy! Not to mention... date bars!), then trundled up the hill to take advantage of the straw mats and beanbags chairs that were suddenly placed around the hillside for the fair weather. This kicked butt, as it offered a rad vantage point, was cozy, and put us in a prime spot to score some free ice cream from The Ice Cream Man. These people are awesome - they travel the continent going to festivals and handing out ice cream. How do they do it??!!! And, after the bouncy joyousness of Hot Hot Heat was done (dang they're fun times), it turns out we were seated next to a bit of an HHH entourage, who shortly after that set left and offered us their beanbag chair. Ahhhhh! Well that made the whole night cap off perfectly. More Red Bull, witnessing people breaking into the beer garden next to us, and even someone knocking over the massive Molson Canadian inflatable can therein.



The Killers headlined. And unexpectedly, they were infuckingcredible. I didn't expect this - after being somewhat unimpressed with their sets in the past, they performed incredibly here. Somehow warm, definitely engaging, the good weather no doubt affecting the spirits of the crowd to boot, they had a bright, scrolling sign on stage and a bunch of crates or something... and they were awesome. We stayed until the end and then joined the herd of cattle being led out into the night. Buses and goodbyes later... and VirginFest Vancouver's inaugural run was successfully completed.

We had fun, did we not? We did.

Elsewhere

By Andy Scheffler
Photos : Andy Scheffler
Published : June, 2007.