Recently, I was one of approximately 35,000 people (whoa!) from across the country who managed to get tickets to the latest (free) iteration of the Virgin Mobile Festival.
As friends and I watched fellow festival-goers walk by with their T-shirts from shows of years past, we lamented the paring down of the line-ups -- almost certainly a budgetary reaction to Richard Branson's insistence that the festival be free. Still, Branson told the crowd, in his only appearance, that he loved a good party, and it certainly was that -- a party, including two parachutists making a death-defying drop onto Merriweather's pavilion roof.
Of course, there was still some great music. While the festival organizers made the questionable decision of giving douche-rock purveyors, par-excellence Blink-182 the headlining spot, the bands they booked to back them up more than made up for that oversight (especially given the price tag).
As I watched Weezer and Franz Ferdinand in particular, I started to think about the decisions the bands must make in choosing their set lists.
Everyone has been to a concert where the audience lets out a collective groan as the band drops a track from their recent album or, heaven forbid, a new song the audience has never heard. How are we supposed to shout along or know when to execute the cool dance move we worked out beforehand? Unfamiliar songs don't please many audiences, particularly those attending a festival like Virgin who may be unfamiliar with the band.
As Weezer played their set, the group seemed content playing to the crowd. Only two songs from their largely mediocre most recent album made it into the performance. Still, how tired must these guys be of plugging through "Say It Ain't So" or "Beverly Hills" over and over? They must be dying to throw a little variety in there.
Then there's Franz Ferdinand. These gentlemen played the songs they were obligated to drop. "Take Me Out," "Do You Want To" and "Dark of the Matinee" made appearances, but a number of tracks from their newest album, "Tonight," also graced the stage.
During these songs, most of the people around me exchanged nervous glances and merely bobbed up and down. This certainly has the advantage in the sense that the band isn't forced to hear their lyrics screamed back at them slightly off key for the whole show, but it also means that the crowd isn't as pumped as they otherwise might be.
Still, the energy with which Franz plays is infectious. These songs, while less familiar, might reach that audience in a new way. I remember going to a Decemberists concert hating their most recent album and being infatuated with it as I left. That's the trade-off that the band is forced to make in planning their set.
If they only played the big hits at their concerts, they'd be little more than what big pop-rock musicians like Jimmy Buffett are becoming: a slightly better alternative to a great cover band. Seeing something new at a concert should be something of the lifeblood of going. So next time a band you love doesn't play the song you're waiting for, don't close yourself off to the experience of the song they do play.
On the other hand, though, some of the guilt in this narrative lies at the feet of the bands as well; here I return to Franz Ferdinand as my example. The band's new album is very different from their first two discs (more electronic, more dancey).
The set ended with "Lucid Dreams," one of the better tracks on "Tonight." However, when it was time for the breakdown that concludes the song, the band seemed to lose their way.
How often do you hear this from a friend who's just been to a concert? "Dude. They jammed for like ten minutes!" In this case, the statement is the literal truth, but no one seemed to be as excited as our hypothetical concert-goer. Instead, the extended ten-minute breakdown in which not much happened (Alex Kapranos fiddled with some knobs and little else), the audience became increasingly perplexed.
The final moment of the set was complete with the ubiquitous shouting and arm-waving, but somehow collapsed since the opening strains of "Take Me Out" were heard.
What are we to cull from all this? Concert-goers: listen when the band plays a new song. They can't play the same thing every time and you might find that you love it. Musicians: you know what we want to hear. Teach us some new songs, but don't bludgeon us and, for God's sake, go out with a bang.
You can reach this staff writer at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
