I awoke Sunday morning feeling a lot better than I did Saturday and the previous days. I’m still a little sick right now, but at least I don’t feel so dizzy and nauseous.
Around 5:30 PM, I get a call from a good friend. He asks if I want two free tickets to the Virgin Festival. Yes, I did! He couldn’t go because he was going to Ocean CIty. I would have went (especially the first day for The Police and The Beastie Boys, among others) but it was just too expensive. I hurried up and got ready and Adam met up with me. Luckily, I live within earshot of Pimlico. (Not loud enough to be bothersome, but I could hear the bands Saturday night as I went to my car). So it didn’t take long to get there. There was no way I could have caught certain bands I wanted to see such as Bad Brains or the Yeah Yeah Yeahs because I got the phone call after they played. But I’m definitely not complaining. Beggars can’t be choosers!
We got to the stage a couple minutes before Velvet Revolver started. Interpol was playing on the other stage, but their songs are just way too monotonous for me. Velvet Revolver was awesome. Though I’m a little concerned about how skinny Scott Weiland has gotten. He’s skinnier than before. I mean his ribs and back bones were sticking out and everything. I hope he’s okay. Anyway, their set was kick-ass.
The Smashing Pumpkins had already started playing by the time VR finished playing. It takes several minutes to walk from one stage to the other. But if there is only one band playing at a certain time, you can hear the music from either stage. The entire time I was walking toward the Smashing Pumpkins stage, they were just playing random noise. I get there and they are still playing noise. More noise. More noise for a few more minutes. Finally, they start playing “Today” and everyone in the crowd is so excited they are playing an actual song. More noise and noise and noise. I had it. I wanted to stick around but at this point seeing 311 was better than that. I hoped that if I waited around, SP would start playing something good. Maybe they’d whip out something from “Gish”. But after a total of about 40 minutes and only hearing one or two actual songs, I couldn’t take it anymore. I actually like when bands do off the wall stuff. I like crazy noise. But this wasn’t really artistic. This doesn’t take much brain power. I saw punk bands when I was in high school (and couldn’t get into real clubs) that were piss drunk and didn’t really try hard do a better job of the noise rock. I mean, if SP just did it for a minute or two, it would have been cool and interesting. One thing I can say is that at least Billy Corgan’s voice wasn’t annoying me when he sang.
I didn’t even care that much if I saw 311, but I ended up watching them the rest of the night and having a better time with the stoners than watching SP. That’s sad. I mean, I never hated 311. They do have catchy songs. But compared to the artistic integrity and variety of the Smashing Pumpkins, they aren’t all that. (Plus 311’s rapper raps the same in every song). But I had a much better time. Much better vibe. I even felt better. Sure they spent some time trying to be Jamaican, but this was still better than SP. Actually, more and more people kept coming to the 311 stage. And I kept hearing them all go “Smashing Pumpkins doesn’t know how to play their songs anymore! And they just play noise in between that!” So I know I wasn’t the only one. SP actually drove them to see 311. One guy was even on his cell phone and was like “Dude! I know! It’s such a disappointment! We just got to the other stage. What? They’re still not playing any real songs? No. Yeah, they suck! Come to the other stage! Yeah, but it’s better than that crap! Okay, see you in a few”.
By the way, the only time I saw any other Asian-Americans there was when I saw the people walking away from the SP stage and walking to the 311 stage. They were probably like “What happened to James Iha? Screw this!” (Kidding, obviously. I hardly see other Asian-Americans at any rock concert or anywhere else in Baltimore for that matter. Except for college. Because you know how we love to study! But I really did see a bunch walking toward the 311 stage).
Anyway, it rained most of the time we were there. But it wasn’t that bad. And the hot weather had cooled down a little by the time we got there, so it wasn’t disgustingly hot and humid. It was tolerable. I’m glad I went and I had a good time! This was the first time I’d ever actually set foot inside Pimlico because I have never been to Preakness (and don’t plan on it).