Bloc Party, Social Distortion, Queens of the Stone Age, Interpol, Kaiser Chiefs, Scissors For Lefty, The Faint, Silversun Pickups, The Bravery, and Cold War Kids
Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA
June 9, 2007

Gary, Veronica, and i rolled into our premier parking spot (totally worth the extra $20) at Shoreline at 3:30pm, exiting the car just in time to hear the closing bars of Cold War Kids' "Hang Me Up to Dry" from the Bud Light stage adjacent to the parking lot. The grittiness and allure of the single was well represented in the live version, but unfortunately that minute of music was all we heard from the up-and-coming indie act. Unfortunately our arrival was much later than CSS's set, which was inexplicably scheduled at noon. We met up with Jenz and co. shortly thereafter, just in time to see New York nü new wave poseurs the Bravery take the stage. After a few lackluster songs ... i'm not so against the band's music, i just hate their arrogant stance that they're DIY trailblazers despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary ... our trio headed inside to the main Shoreline promenade to get a few mocha freezes and relax in the shade. Gary rendez-voused with an incredibly enthusiastic friend and we then returned to the parking lot and the Bud Light stage to half-heartedly watch Silversun Pickups. Despite the complete oversaturation of their single "Lazy Eye", the band effectively mixes indie rock with a shoegazing/drone rock motif. I was pleasantly surprised by an unexpectedly enjoyable performance. We stuck around for second stage headliners the Faint, who came on just after 5pm. I've stated previously that, unlike many of my peers, i'm not sold on the Nebraska electro outfit's elaborate stage shows, largely because of their scripted and prerecorded nature. However in anticipation of an as-yet unrecorded fifth album and a slight shift in style, the band put on a largely guitar-driven set, free of the video synchronization that has bothered me at past shows. I was impressed, but Veronica, a long-time Faint devotee, was fairly miffed at this new direction.

With the close of the second stage, we headed inside to our seats in the middle of the second section of reserved seating. Main stage openers Scissors for Lefty were about halfway through their set. The San Francisco collective certainly put a lot of thought into their first Shoreline appearance, having a bevy of costumed dancers running around the stage with a variety of props. Their style, a snarky, dancy mix of indie rock and britpop, isn't really my cup of tea, but i have to give them credit for excelling in their aesthetic of choice. Except for the singer's occasional Jarvis-derived flourishes. After a short set change Brit rockers Kaiser Chiefs took the stage and whipped through an abbreviated but no less entertaining version of the set we'd enjoyed a few months back at the Warfield. A mix of their first two albums, my personal highlights as before were the catchy new track "Heat Dies Down" and their anthem "I Predict A Riot". The set closed with a sing-along to "Oh My God", where frontman descended from the stage into the crowd and apparently found the three worst singers in the venue to cackle the chorus "oh my god i can't believe it, i've never been this far away from home" into the microphone. Gary, V, and i were enjoying our well-placed seats, and doing a fair bit people watching in addition to performer watching. Directly in front of us were three pimple-faced high school kids who for some reason brought a notebook and sharpies to write notes to each other during the show. I'm not sure why this was necessary, as casual conversation was certainly possible despite the music and there weren't any teachers around to police them. I was amused that one of them had summarized the Silversun Pickups performance by writing "Silver Sun Lickups".

Interpol was up third on the Shoreline stage. I loved their first album but was unimpressed by their live show, and with their second album and more live performances i've become less and less interested. Their third album Our Love to Admire (their first on new label Interscope) is due out next month, and their BFD set included a few of their new efforts. I found them more engaging than sophomore tracks like "Evil" (which elicited a bizarre high-fiving exchange between two guys who couldn't have looked less like Interpol fans), but not quite up to the level of Turn on the Bright Lights-era highs like "Obstacle 1". As V put it, it's all about frontman Paul Banks ... the lead guitarist isn't exactly technically gifted, while the bass player looks like a pretentious dipshit. All in all i'd give their set a B-. Definitely north of average, but not something to make me leap out of my chair or look back in breathless retrospect. At this point our trio took a break from the main stage to get a late dinner of chorizo sausages and cheesesteaks. We bought an unbelievable amount of crap food over the course of the day, from the aforementioned mocha freezes to ice cream to bottled water and beer to hot dogs and sandwiches. While eating we watched Queens of the Stone Age on monitors, and V and i concurred later that we probably missed one of the more exciting of the days acts. We also whiled away most of Social Distortion meandering around the Shoreline marketplace, until an incoherent conversation with a fall-down drunk dude who'd recently pissed himself encouraged us to return to our seats. We caught the last few songs of balding frontman Mike Ness and the rest of Social D, including their trademark cover of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire".

Last up were Londoners Bloc Party, my first time seeing them perform new album A Weekend in the City having intentionally missed their show a few months back at the craptacular Concourse Exhibition Center. As the band came on stage and lit into Weekend's opener "Song for Clay (Disappear Here)", we noticed a stream of people running down the aisle. Looking behind us, we found the crowd in the lawn had opened the gate separating it from the seated areas and were pouring in. V pounced on this and led Gary and i down towards the first seating section. Despite the throng, a resolute usher refused us entry into the first section, but V walked us around to another entrance to this section where the ushers were simply imploring the masses to find seats and not stand in the aisles. I suspect that the unprecedented Shoreline migration was allowed because a large fraction of the audience left after Social D, and the management didn't want Bloc Party playing to a half empty amphitheater. V however thinks the lawn folks just decided to bum rush the stage. Whatever the explanation, we had about twentieth row seats for the final act. Bloc Party's set was split evenly between their first two albums, with Weekend represented by "Waiting for the 7.18", "The Prayer", and "Sunday", while their debut Silent Alarm offered the single "Banquet" as well as "Like Eating Glass" (on which for some reason the bass was completely overdriven and drowned out most of the other instruments), and the set closer "Helicopter". Oddly the single "I Still Remember" was absent, as were a couple of standouts from Silent Alarm. As their set wound to a close, Kele commented "We've got two more. Blame Social Distortion", which perhaps explains the abrupt finale of their performance.

The festival was certainly a worthwhile distraction for a Saturday, but no bands made enough of a mark on my psyche for me to declare them the day's standouts.

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