en-us http://eyeweekly.com/music/streetspirit/article/42237 2008/10/15 http://eyeweekly.com/music/streetspirit/article/42237 http://eyeweekly.com/music/thisjustin/article/42073 2008/10/14 http://eyeweekly.com/music/thisjustin/article/42073 Gang of Losers and saw many contemporaries roar past them.]]> http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/41951 2008/10/10 http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/41951 http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/41832 2008/10/09 http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/41832 http://eyeweekly.com/music/streetspirit/article/41276 2008/10/06 http://eyeweekly.com/music/streetspirit/article/41276 http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/41056 2008/10/02 http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/41056 Weezer's gargantuan radio hit "Pork and Beans." Oddly enough, quite a few audience members at the ACC last night needed Rogaine in their hair too. It was a fairly diverse crowd, but three distinct demographics stood out: 30-something Gen-Xers with a burning sentimentality for post-grunge alt-rock; adolescent emo-punks rigidly holding fast to the belief that Tom Delonge is the next messiah; and college-aged hipsters dressed like they're going to a poetry reading.]]> http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/41058 2008/10/01 http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/41058 ]]> http://eyeweekly.com/music/streetspirit/article/40714 2008/09/30 http://eyeweekly.com/music/streetspirit/article/40714 http://eyeweekly.com/music/thisjustin/article/40633 2008/09/29 http://eyeweekly.com/music/thisjustin/article/40633 http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/40568 2008/09/26 http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/40568 Bad Religion start with “21st Century Digital Boy” and the evening is salvaged, entirely. Poetic and profound lyricist, Ph.D and vocalist Greg Graffin sings beautifully (all these years of practice pay off, evidently), leading the band through old classics (“Anesthesia,” “Stranger than Fiction,” “No Control,” “Come Join Us”) as well as more melodic and poppy new material (“New Dark Ages,” “Requiem for Dissent”).]]> http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/40581 2008/09/25 http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/40581 http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/40049 2008/09/23 http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/40049 http://eyeweekly.com/music/thisjustin/article/39992 2008/09/22 http://eyeweekly.com/music/thisjustin/article/39992 http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/40024 2008/09/22 http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/40024 http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/39986 2008/09/20 http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/39986 http://eyeweekly.com/blog/scrollingeye/article/39948 2008/09/19 http://eyeweekly.com/blog/scrollingeye/article/39948 http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/39594 2008/09/17 http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/39594 http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/39359 2008/09/15 http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/39359 http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/39025 2008/09/10 http://eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/39025 http://eyeweekly.com/music/thisjustin/article/38832 2008/09/08 http://eyeweekly.com/music/thisjustin/article/38832 http://eyeweekly.com/music/thisjustin/article/38748 2008/09/08 http://eyeweekly.com/music/thisjustin/article/38748
THE SOUND
In stark contrast to most mega-festival PAs, where mixing takes a backseat to master volume, V Fest’s main-stage sound system provided a crystal-clear mix, allowing Weakerthans fans to savour every last dangling participle in John K. Samson’s prairie-rock poetry. And, arguably, Paul Weller has never sounded better than in Sunday’s penultimate set — knowing full well that his revered modfather status in the UK only translates to a handful of small pockets of over-30 devotees on these shores, he figured what’s the point in rolling out the “hits” if no one here even knows ’em. So instead, he treated the die-hards to a deep, career-spanning set that leaned heavily on his eclectic new double-album 22 Dreams to start, before revisiting his Style Council classic “Shout to the Top” and the heavy soul of his mid-‘90s solo output (peaking with a dub-accented reading of “Wild Wood”), before shutting ’er down with Jam standards “A Town Called Malice” and a righteous “Eton Rifles.”

BACARDI B-LIVE TENT
Where most major international festivals make a virtue of electicism, V-Fest’s two biggest stages operate under the belief that the only thing better than guitar rock is more guitar rock. But the rowdy reception inside the Bacardi B-Live tent — V-Fest’s electronica outpost — for rising Toronto electro-house wunderkind Deadmau5 suggested that the big stages could afford to import some big-beat bounce, if only to discourage those people hacky-sacking to the Stereophonics.

OASIS  
Really, you could argue that V Fest’s two-day, 52-act procession was really just a run-up for the return of the brothers Gallagher. You can’t argue that they were the only main-stage act on Sunday to truly ignite the crowd and get everyone’s ass off the grass. Of course, Liam and Noel respond to this mass adulation with the polar opposite thereof — benign disinterest — but then Oasis have always operated under the belief that rock stars should not act like monkeys that jump around to entertain a crowd, but should behave as royalty do: sit and do nothing while the commoners worship at your feet. But where the prospect of a crazy stage-rusher rudely interrupting “Morning Glory” by body-checking Noel would’ve once sent the Gallaghers off the stage for good, the fact that they returned to do “Wonderwall” and “Don’t Look Back In Anger” shows the brothers understand that in order to maintain your exhalted status, you must keep the people below you happy. (Side note to crazy guy: couldn’t you have saved your stage attack for one of the new songs?)



SECURITY
At V-Fest, there seems to be either too much of it or, if you’re Noel Gallagher, not enough of it. It’s yearly complaint and one that, thanks to our province’s draconian liquor licensing laws, is beyond the control of the event organizers, but until the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario is abolished, V Fest will continue to make life miserable for attendees who happen to enjoy a beer while watching a show (what a concept!). It’s bad enough that the beer gardens are located several football fields away from the main-stage action (from that faraways vantage, L.A. dream-popsters Silversun Pickups really could have been the Smashing Pumpkins), but to make attendees wait in long lines for an ID check every time they want to re-enter is ludicrous. You people ever heard of hand stamps?

FOR THE LAST FREAKIN’ TIME: BUILD ANOTHER FOOT BRIDGE
Like lager lout on the third day of Glastonbury, V Fest unfortunately suffers from hazy memory. After heeding complaints following the festival’s first edition about pedestrian traffic-jams on Olympic Island’s narrow footbridge (located at the back of the main-stage grounds, making it the only convenient access point between festival stages and to ferries), last year, local organizers Emerge Concerts smartly recommended a temporary second bridge be built to improve the flow. However, this year’s organization team — headed up by Californian concert producers Goldenvoice — decided to revert back to the single-bridge plan, resulting once again in a traffic clusterfuck that ultimately deterred attendees from checking out acts on the TD Music Stages and Oh Henry! Stages (where, with few exceptions, bands could probably count off the number of audience members by hand). And to top it off, the bridge was closed down during Oasis’ set, meaning attendees had to walk the length of the main-stage grounds to another bridge, and then double-back the same length again to the ferry docks. Next year, for the love of god, please ask Branson to open up one of his pillowcases of cash to spring for a new bridge — I’m sure he can afford it. You could even name it after him.



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