V Fest debacle

[zero]

I read something odd in Eye Weekly's yearly today about something to do with the Flaming Lips and curfew. Also about overly ambitious security and something or other.

I found this on Aaron Wherry's blog about the Dears experience with an instantaneous retraction. I find it funny that he said it was the 'darkest' festival they'd played- like what does darkest mean in the context of a cellphone festival?

The Dears in an interview with the Toronto Sun.

"It was horrible and by far the darkest, cheapest and most ghetto festival ever. It was just so gross. The treatment was terrible. The whole reason for the festival is to sell cellphones. It's awful. We'll never do a V-Fest ever again."

The Dears in a subsequent message posted on their website.

"An article came out today in the Toronto Sun that does not accurately reflect our overall experience at the V Festival in Toronto. We had a great show that day and the audience was fantastic. Also, a lot of people worked very hard to put together the event and we want them to know that we really do appreciate their efforts. Sometimes news articles concentrate on the negative rather than the good."

And sometimes rock stars are pussies.

Labels: Gutlessness, Scapegoating, The Dears

[NewRider]

Exclaim Magazine wrote up some shit about this Fest a couple months ago. Comparing it to other festivals across Canada and how ridiculous the Province of Ontario has become. It's almost like are rules and laws are so out dated that Mani-fucking-toba has become a more progressive place then us?!?!?!

I remember when this show was announced and thinking to myself "do I REALLY wanna be trapped on a fucking island?!?!?!" Fuck it!

[MarcO]

TimmyB went to this and met the band backstage before and after their show and and filled me in at the time: the Flaming Lips got like 35 minutes before their show was curtailed, apparently much to the surprise of the band. They had no idea.

[Northern Wish]

I went to Osheaga the weekend before with pretty much the same lineup and didn't come away with any of these feelings.

Kudos to Quebec I guess?

But its all in your approach. At O they were giving away samples of everything, everywhere and small ads were present at the side stages, but I saw 40+ bands for less than $100!!!- so what if I had to read that Ford had some new cars out. Why is advertising generally accepted as a fact of life, but when it comes into contact with music it becomes a place to lay down a soapbox?

I watch TV everyday, so a couple of ads don't really faze me I guess........

Sean

ps. It sucks their set was cut short, but was it because the organizers wanted to sell more cell phones, or because other bands ran long on their times, had technical problems etc?

Edited December 29, 2006 by Guest

[Northern Wish]

Oh and Aaron Wherry is one of the biggest tools out there........ He wrote for the Gazette at UWO and hasn't improved much since then.

[Tungsten Gruvsten]

uh yeah I was at the fest and besides the bombardment of advertisements and gimicky free shit(GMC guitar picks anyone?) totally aimed at our age group, it was great. Yes the Lips were off stage early due to curfew but same as at Hillside or Molson Amphitheatre...there's a time boundary in place, and if you can't get yer shit setup in time you are going to play a shorter set.

Hell by midday each day I was, uh, in my element. wherever that was.

[bradm]

Hell by midday each day I was, uh, in my element. wherever that was.

Atomic number 74, presumably.

Aloha,

Brad

[Kanada Kev]

Hillside or Molson Amphitheatre...there's a time boundary in place, and if you can't get yer shit setup in time you are going to play a shorter set.

Yes, but the drag is that with all the venues around the Toronto Harbour, it's the residents on the Toronto Island that are the cause for the curfew (Molson Amph, Olympic Island, DuMaurier Stage, The Docks, etc.) It should be allowed to be later, IMHO. The Island is a park for EVERYONE.

[DevO]

I wasn't there but heard about the Lips set from some friends.. Didn't they only do like 2-3 songs? And then they announced half way through something along the lines of "this is our last song", and finished up and vanished. The crowd cheered for an encore for like half an hour? I think Kid Koala had a similar very short set too. Besides that I heard it was a good time, though I know I would've been weary of all the ads and hoopla too.

[zero]

Thanks for the heads up.

As for Wherry you may be overly biased Wish. I've read a lot of his stuff recently and he's really strong. He's got a kind of edge to him and a precision- the former I have in spades the latter I'm working on.