virgin music fest

The Virgin Music Fest

On Saturday, my friends Reshma, Shayan, Faheem and myself drove up to

Pimlico field outside Baltimore, Maryland to attend the 1st annual

Virgin Music Fest. We met up with another cohort upon arrival, Seema,

who came in from New York, and made our way to the event. The venue

was divided into three areas with the well-known acts happening at the

Grandstand stage at one end and lesser known acts appearing at the

Clubhouse stage on the other side of the track. A large tent called

the Darkhouse Dance tent played host to various DJs while a smaller

tent called the Freaklounge had a running show of sideshow-esque acts

throughout the day.

Lead singer of Wolfmother Our first event was Wolfmother which came on

the Grandstand stage at 1pm. I'd heard their song Woman a number of

times on Octane but not much else. They were actually quite good and

their hard rocking chords evoked a late 70s, perhaps early 80s metal

sound. But we couldn't stay too long as Reshma wanted to go check out

The New Pornographers on the Clubhouse stage. A fairly large band at

eight members, they put on a great show and definitely got me

intrigued in their particular style.

Cee-Lo in a metal breastplate The next two acts we saw were the

Raconteurs and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, both on opposite stages. I

honestly lost count of how many times we went back and forth. It

seemed that near the end of every show there was a great exodus to the

other side of the field, followed by a reversal not long after.

Anyways, the next band to come on the Grandstand stage was Gnarls

Barkley and they were just amazing. Apparently they have a new theme

for every show and this one was Chariots of Fire so they dressed

appropriately in Roman-esque garb. They played a ton of great material

and closed on Crazy, an absolutely fantastic song to hear live.

The Killers during their final song The Brazilian Girls were the next

to appear on the smaller Clubhouse stage. Shayan is a big fan of

theirs and he was bowled over by their performance. Contrary to their

name, none of the members are Brazilian and only one, the lead singer,

is a girl. During the performance, she had this white latex mask on

and would apply make-up to it between songs. I only stayed for a few

songs before heading over to see The Killers on the main stage. Now

I'd been looking forward to this as they were played frequently on

both Octane and Alt Nation. They played all the big hits from their

first album like Somebody Told me and Mr. Brightside and even included

songs from their upcoming one, most notably Bones. These guys were

amazing and I would definitely pay to see them again live.

Roger Daltrey on vocals At this point, we headed back towards the

smaller stage to see Thievery Corporation. After about 20 minutes

there, Seema said that she wanted to go see The Who. Nobody else

seemed interested so the two of us headed back to the big stage. We

got there just in time to see Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend, the

only remaining original members of The Who, plus a bassist, keyboarder

and drummer put on what I can only describe as the greatest rock show

I've ever seen. I'm a big fan of the group but nothing could have

prepared me for this performance.

Pete Townshend about to do his famous windmill The vocals from both

Daltrey and Townshend were spot-on and whenever Townshend did his

famous "windmill" on the guitar, the crowd went nuts. I found it

gratifying that the same band my Dad was such a big fan of could still

rock the hell out of a venue like this one. People young and old,

myself and Seema included, were screaming at the top of their lungs.

Baba O'Riley, Behind Blue Eyes and My Generation were just a few of

the hits that they played. I'd been hoping for something from Tommy so

when I heard the opening notes to Pinball Wizard I thought I was going

to lose it. They closed the show on Listening to You/See Me, a truly

mesmerizing performance.

Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers The Red Hot Chili Peppers came on

at 8:30pm and, including their encore performance, rocked the crowd

for nearly two hours. They played a good number of hits, most of them

from Californication and By the Way. The only disappointment was that

they didn't play Under the Bridge. Otherwise though it was a great

show and definitely a great closer to what was a top-notch music

festival. This was the 1st one in the US but I hope Virgin continues