Compared with Seattle, Toronto doesn’t get a lot of top bands coming through the city, and if they do the tickets are pretty expensive even with the superb exchange rate. For once though, Toronto has it great with an amazing lineup at the inaugural Toronto Virgin Mobile Music Festival. Also fortunately for me, Jeb won tickets and I went with him for free.

On Saturday, we headed downtown early to run some errands, grabbed a quick lunch at the McDs at Union Station, and a pack dinner at the Loblaws across from Redpath (Panini sandwich, Turkey on Rye sandwich, and 1.5L of water for me). We were worried about all the draconian restrictions on what you could bring in, but along the way down we saw lots of people bringing a lot of restricted items.

At the pier, we started getting our free stuff. On the Toronto side, I got 4 (oops) $2 off VFest performers at HMV and a $3 off tickets some music expo. The bag search was a quick glance and the ferry was right there with no crowd; even sitting room! We made our way over and I picked up an Editors sticker (no room for posters), some girly VFest lip balm and spearment, a beachball 2 samples of Dentyne Hypermint, an Edge 102.1 button, won some Titanium batteries from Energizer (although I wanted the consolation prize of binoculaurs) and won a consolation prize of a candy bracelet and guitar pick from GM. I also signed my contact info away at GM and Futureshop, and wasted some money txting in an attempts to win a $100 Levis gift certificate.

Whew after all that pocket loading, we actually proceeded onto the concert. We at first walked the wrong way to the main stage (there was an explicit entrance and exit to the island) and had to walk all the way back. We got there in time to fill out a Nokia survey for a chance to sit in their VIP section. No luck though, and instead settled for watching illScarlet finish up their set and watch random illScarlet groupies stick stickers on random passerbys.

Next came Phoenix who I had wanted to hear. As they started the set, I remained sitting back and grabbed some free Phoenix (and Feist, BSS) buttons. Then about halfway after they’ve played Run, Run, Run, I headed up into the crowd. I fought (well really, slipped through) the muddy ground to the front to get some pictures with my non-zoom cameraphone while they played Everything is Everything and Consolation Prizes. Eventually I moved up even further, to like say the 2nd row; into an incredibly positioned place because near the end of the set the lead singer of Phoenix, Thomas Mars, came down to shake hands with the front of the crowd. The crowd surged forward, but he was right where I was standing, and I shook his hand and took a couple of closeups. When I got back to where Jeb was sitting, he said he saw me on the big screen! Soo cool.

Afterwards, I got a call from ZMP to sync up so met and chatted for a bit. We ended up going our separate ways because we wanted to go see Amon Tobin and he was going to stay for the Hidden Cameras. We made our way over to the Futureshop Stage, found a picnic bench and I ate a sandwich while Jeb tried to reverse out-bid people for a Harley. Amon Tobin ended up being a DJ and not very impressive so we made the long trek back to the main stage. We found a spot to sit, caught the end of the Hidden Cameras set, then the Dears set, and finally the Muse set (who I almost saw at Endfest 13). This was a particularly boring time so I tried out my ear plugs (good for Dears and Muse, cuz they’re loud), saw the sun make a brief appearence, finished up my food and lined up for the porta-potties.

Kid Koala was supposed to go on before Gnarls Barkley, but he got pre-empted and we moved our way up to the front for Gnarls. It was starting to get freezing so we made do by watching the big screen. You could text messages to be shown on the screen which is always hilarity. I should’ve written down all the funnies I read, but there were so many. Jeb sent a couple up all with engineer in-jokes so I think everyone was just scratching their heads. Anyways by now, it was the middle of the night with no lights around and Gnarls with his supporting band, Kung Fu Hustle, came out dressed in Kung Fu suits. They rocked the place and there was a lot of energy (which was good because I was cold). Cee-Lo was a good MC and got the crowd in on the action, although he looked like a preacher when he sang, constantly looking up at the sky. Danger Mouse was also very cool DJing at the back, although he could’ve been just playing pre-recorded music and no one would actually know. Kung Fu Hustle had all sorts of neat stuff, with electric strings and towels on their chairs. They pretty much played their entire CD with Crazy in the middle and finishing with Smiley Faces. Gone Daddy Gone was also good, but I was hoping they would play Kung Fu Fighting.

After another wait where the roadies struggled to setup a screen for the Flaming Lips, Kid Koala came on for his second (but really first) set. I always run into this guy, I think it’s the third time I’ve seen them (for sure second, he opened for Radiohead a couple of years back). Anyways, his set was again aborted halfway through but he played his terrible rendition of Moon River again. I cringe every time I hear him brutalize this lovely song.

Anyways, off to the headliner, The Flaming Lips. While they were setting up, you could see lots of cool stuff. Their equipment was very retro orange and light blue, and the roadies were dressed up as Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Flash, Thor, and Captain America. As they started, Superman helped the lead singer into some sort of plastic contraption, and groups of alien women appeared on one side, with a group of Santa Clauses appearing on the other. When they were ready to start, they pumped up the plastic into a bubble and the lead singer rolled around the crowd! Once he made it back to the stage, they started playing some song, but I was distracted by the big yellow balloons (citation to Coldplay) and confetti being shot into the crowd. OH MY FUCKING GOD, that was soooo cooool and fun! They played Free Radicals, Approaching Pavonis Mons By Balloon, and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt 1, but I really didn’t pay attention because we just kept watching and playing with the balloons, especially the HUGE balloons (like the size of my room) that came out for Yoshimi. They played another song or two, which I didn’t recognize before they said that Captain America told them that they had to stop, they only played five or six songs, and the entire crowd was disappointed. At this point, we made our way quickly towards the exit because we knew why they had to stop — noise laws at 11PM and it was already 11:10PM. We caught the 2nd ferry off the island, and I was back home by midnight.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: concerts, diary, virgin