Virgin Festival was definitely memorable, for many - good and bad – reasons. Even with 8 dollar beers, poor concert planning, and a banged up girlfriend, I still managed to have a very fun time. The day started off fairly slow with unappealing bands like CSS and Aiden. We started out at the CSS stage who sounded like a more corny Scissor Sisters (if that’s at all possible), except MUCH less talented and catchy. After about 15 minutes of CSS, we made our way to the South Stage to check out Aiden. As you would expect with a screamo band, they sucked, badly. Attractions like a pitching radar gun and a batting cage piqued my attention more than the band Aiden, which was little more than a joke to my friends and I.

            After Aiden mercifully left the stage, we decided to skip Regina Spektor and listen to Matisyahu- Billboard’s Top Reggae Artist of 2006. Given the fact that I have absolutely no interest in reggae, even the top reggae artist could barely catch my attention. My girlfriend really appreciated his diverse music roots and beatboxing proficiency. “Youth” and “King Without a Crown” were the only songs I deemed as worth listening to.

            Skipping the tail end of Matisyahu, my group excitedly went back to the North Stage to catch the first band that I was actually looking forward to- Spoon. Spoon met, but did not exceed my expectations. “I Turn my Camera on” and “Underdog” from the new record were great. However my favorites were definitely “Lines in the Suit” and the amazing “I Summon You.” Although their stage presence was average, Spoon delivered what really counted, well played music.

            After the first good performance of the festival I had to concede to the girlfriend and check out Panic! at the disco. That annoying but infectious song “I Write Sins…” was tolerable, but really the best thing that I can say about them is that they didn’t sound any worse live than they do on tape. Take from that what you may… After enduring Panic! I really began getting excited for the meat and potatoes part of the concert. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol, and The Smashing Pumpkins were about to go back to back to back on the North Stage.

            I knew I was in for a show right when I saw Karen O walk onto the stage in a silver, um, poof? Her odd looks foreshadowed her interesting antics on stage. Karen O was hands down the life of Virgin Fest. In between songs she would spray water out of her mouth and chug beer. While singing, Karen danced and pranced her way around the entire stage. Karen’s behavior only added to the already high quality of the show. Songs like “Gold Lion,” “Y Control,” “Date With The Night,” and the soulful “Maps” were outstanding. While coming into the concert only a casual Yeah Yeah Yeahs fan, I walked out with the intent to become a huge fan.

            Next, things got serious. The next two bands were two of my favorite bands of all time- Interpol @ #12 and SP @ #2 on my favorite bands of all time list. My friends and I started pushing our way on stage in preparation for Interpol. Right on time, the stylish quartet made their way on the stage speaking softly but carrying big guitars. As I had hoped for, the set opened with the beautiful “Pioneer to the Falls” from the new record Our Love to Admire. Much to my disappointment, Interpol started off somewhat slowly, making several mistakes on the 2^nd and 3^rd songs- which happened to be my two favorite songs of theirs. Banks’ lyrics suffered on “Slow Hands” a bit, while Kessler fudged the memorable intro riff on “Narc”. Although it took them a couple of songs to get into a groove, by the middle part of the set they were flying. Each song from the new record sounded amazing, “Rest my Chemistry,” “Mammoth,” and “Heinrich Maneuver” particularly stood out. While somewhat underrepresented, Turn on the Bright Lights was paid its respects with awesome renditions of “Obstacle 1” and “Say Hello to the Angels.” The performance, and Virgin Festival in general hit a climax towards the end of Interpol with the unbelievable “Evil.” Even with their unbelievably reserved demeanor, Interpol managed to get the crowd going. “Evil” was easily the highlight of Virgin Festival for me. Interpol was everything I had hoped for and more. Although not the best performers, their unbelievable guitarwork and Banks’ awesome vocals made Interpol my favorite act at Virgin Fest.

            Still pumped from Interpol, my friends and I pushed our way up towards the stage and made it to about the 6^th or 7^th row to see my second favorite band of all time. After Interpol’s awesome performance my expectations were sky high, I had never seen the pumpkins live, but I was positive that Billy Corgan would not disappoint. However, I was sadly mistaken. I was slightly dismayed when the first song was the 10 minute behemoth, “United States” from the dreadful Zeitgeist record. It didn’t get much better from there. My favorite Pumpkins’ song “Bullet with Butterfly Wings was totally butchered, played in a strange and overly quick time signature, it didn’t do the amazing song ANY justice. My next favorite song, “1979”, was played off key with a strange, unpleasant guitar. “Today”, was mediocre at best, while “Tonight, Tonight” was likely the highlight of the show. To add insult to injury, my favorite Pumpkins’ record, Siamese Dream was almost completely ignored. Gems like “Rocket”, “Quiet”, “Disarm”, “Mayonaise”, “Soma”, and even “CHERUB ROCK” were not played! Instead they were replaced with crap from the new record, which totally disappointed. Maybe it was the fact that my girlfriend got sucked into a mosh pit, maybe it was the strange versions of old favorites, or maybe it was the omission of some of their classic songs, but the Smashing Pumpkins flat out sucked at Virgin Fest.

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