To go or not to go: Edgefest '09

[schmevil]

Main Stage
Billy Talent
AFI
Alexisonfire *
Metric *
K-OS *
The Stills *
Arkells *

Side Stage
Beast
Clothes Make The Man
Dean Lickyer
Dinosaur Bones
Flash Lightnin'
La Casa Muerte
The Midway State
Moneen
Still Life Still
The Waking Eyes

Stars indicate bands worth seeing. Tix are $50. I want to see five bands. That breaks down to $10/band. On the other hand, teenagers. Intoxicated emo teenagers attending their FIRST CONCERT EVER! *twitch*

Comments

[outlawpoet.livejournal.com]

for Metric you can avert your virgin eyes from the vulgar youth of the lower classes.

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

Heh. I usually just find teenage antics funny, but at festivals, it's like, Silliness Factor Five!!11

[nondisbeliever.livejournal.com]

AFI are worth seeing, surely?

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

They're on my second tier of bands worth seeing, along with Billy Talent.

[parsimonia.livejournal.com]

*GASP IN HORROR* YOU ARE FORGETTING BEAST! They are so freaking awesome. Just listen to the song Mr. Hurricane (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS_VejKXJME)!

I'm debating Edgefest as well. I've never actually attended it before, though I desperately wanted to when I was a teen. (IIRC, they used to have it in Barrie for some reason?)

I have never heard anything by Dinosaur Bones before, but the name has me intrigued.

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

Oh yeeeeeah. *nod* Still, how's their live show?

I go to Edgefest every few years, though starting in my midteens I went every year, for a long string of years. They used to be much bigger shows. North American audiences seem to have lost their appetite for big festivals.

Did you go to Sarstock?

[parsimonia.livejournal.com]

Yes, I did indeed go to Sarstock! We got their pretty early in the morning and stayed right until the end. Then the buses were so jam-packed, we walked home from Downsview Park all the way to Willowdale. And I didn't go the bathroom the whole time. =/

I haven't actually seen Beast live yet.

I think the last big outdoor concert I went to was in...2006? It was called the Dog Days of Summer, or something like that, and was held at Fort York. Metric was headlining, but there were other bands there, including Holy Fuck, IIRC. I don't go to live shows nearly as often as I should.

[parsimonia.livejournal.com]

*there

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

I was at Dog Days! Were you at the one on the island? Arcade Fire before they got big. <3

I live close enough to the Park that if I take the backway, I can be home in 20 minutes. I love that it's being used more often as a concert venue. :)

Sarstock was fun. Not least because it brought together so many different groups of people. So glad Justin Timberlake was there - his set provided me with the perfect opportunity for a nap.

[parsimonia.livejournal.com]

No, I didn't go to the island one. I've never actually seen Arcade Fire live!

As for Justin Timberlake...I gotta say, I felt bad for the guy. Especially when he came on stage with the Stones and people started throwing water bottles full of pee at him. (But it was great the way Keith Richards was all "what! throw it at me!" and then they stopped.

[bluefall.livejournal.com]

I'm generally not a fan of 'fests. Once you get day-long setups of multiple different stages set up and constant band switching and people wandering between food vendors and getting drunk/high behind scaffoldings and the like I find it sort of kills the concert experience for me - the energy gets too diluted. I like the more intimate, rowdy setups, with a headliner or two and an obscure opening band where everybody's really crazy and into it for three frantic hours and you couldn't get away from the music if you tried - if I want to mill around in the vague presence of music I can't hear that well, I can do that at home for free.

If that's not an issue for you, though, I say go for it. Fifty bucks for that lineup is a steal, and the whole thing about emo teenagers is that they're emo. Low-key and disaffected. Practically scenery. If they get rowdy they're violating the whole ethic. ^^

[outlawpoet.livejournal.com]

If the venue supports it, I like to come and go from fests, to just see the people I want to see. and go eat or hang out elsewhere. It helps avoid the dragged out and distracting quality you describe, which is definitely an issue.

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

This one does not, but what it does allow, is wandering. So I'd buy a drink, or a snack, and wander off to a quiet spot to just relax and detox.

It's unfortunate that festivals these days are so tight about bringing in outside food and drink, because it would be awesome to go have a picnic, mid-show. ;)

curse ye, ye she-devil

[scottyquick.livejournal.com]

I will be spending the next hour on YouTube listening to these bands.

Re: curse ye, ye she-devil

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

Is it because I said there would be emo teenagers at the concert? *g*

Re: curse ye, ye she-devil

[scottyquick.livejournal.com]

It's actually 'cause I just wanted to see if you have good taste or not, but emo teenagers are easy quite friendly, at least the ones I talk to.

Re: curse ye, ye she-devil

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

Heh. I work with teenagers, actually. One of my main functions is to supervise play big sister to a large group of teens. The emo kids are indeed pretty great. It's the Catholic school girls you need to watch out for.

I just have a serious aversion to drunk/high kids. Awkward.