First, I will get the most obvious out of the way. It was very, VERY windy and cold at the Festival. Being that it was held outdoors on a man-made island in the Bay of San Francisco, there was no way to avoid the weather conditions.That said, the view of Embarcadero and the SF skyline was breathtaking once the fog cleared. This was the 2nd annual Treasure Island Music Festival and it had its flaws and benefits.
Pros:
· Fantastic music
· Lots of good food & drink (except for the wine) to choose from
· Freedom to roam
· Great places to lounge on the grass
· 2 well placed stages
Drawbacks:
· ONE entrance
(this was horrible since the only entrance was nowhere near the parking lots)
· Lack of signs directing which way to go as you wandered around abandoned Naval buildings
· By 5:00pm the port-o-potties were out of TP and the sani-stations were out of soap and water
· Horrible wine (I had a glass that had what appeared to be charcoal gravel rattling around the bottom. Once I saw that, I damn near lost it)
· I wasn’t allowed to bring my camera in! this was a thorn in my side during the entire event.
Vampire Weekend did great, but not fantastic. They just never really grabbed my attention.
Teagan & Sarah did wonderful as well (except the part where they promoted the Democratic Party & bashed the Republican Party.
OK, that is kinda expected at these types of events.
*note to reader: sorry for rambling!
*warning to reader: it won’t be the last time!
I digress.
It put a kink in my mood and forced my girlfriend to demand that I drink more, pronto.
We were just biding our time until The Raconteurs came on stage…the real reason that we wanted to go to this festival.
The Raconteurs are a band that formed from a group of long-time friends. If you don’t know much about them you can check them out on their official website. We should all know enough about them already, so I am not going to go further in detail on them.If you’re lucky, there are few moments that happen in your life that you realize you are a witness to history.
There are probably fewer times that you may realize you are seeing a legend in the making.
This was one of those moments.
I’ve always been disappointed that I was not around for the music scene of the 1960’s and too young to really appreciate the scene of the 1970’s.
Not being able to see Jimi, Janis, Zeppelin and the likes has really irked me thru life.
Last night though, that feeling was riffed out of my being with the performance that The Raconteurs put on.
They not only were true to how a rock show should be done, but they also seemed to channel the souls of rock stars long gone.
Somewhere around the 3rd song, I realized quite profoundly, that I was witnessing an epic legend emerging. I firmly believe that in twenty years time, there will be a generation that can only wish they were around to see The Raconteurs perform (or any other creation that involves Jack White).
The stage presence was undeniably powerful. Their talent was a force to be reckoned with and for an hour & a half, they were the soul of the universe as far as the crowd and myself were concerned. They owned that moment but were all to gracious to share it with their fans. I had actually thanked the music gods for their show. After all, this had to be divine intervention to remind me that even though I missed the music scene of the past, I have A LOT to look forward to in the future of Rock.
I could continue on and on about them, but I won’t. (I’m a lil hung-over)
The festival harkened the psychedelic days of the 60’s with people parading around in strange costumes as well as a lot of people with a gross sense of fashion (if you could call it that). Problem was that I was not on any drugs to appreciate these fellow event goers style .
Shrooms might have been really helpful to get passed all of that! j/k.
I saw way too many tights on girls (a few on men too) that elicited responses from me and my girl like; *eww* and WTF?!
Oh, and a lot of primary colors. I felt like I was walking around a pre-school.
Another perplexing outfit was skirts over pants. I just don’t get it. Someone please explain!
But hey, we are all unique right? And uniqueness is beautiful.
*note to those do enjoy these hippie, punk, homeless, color blind yard sale style:
Your not unique if everyone else is doing it and yes, you are vain or else you wouldn’t have gone out of your way to appear as the walking disaster that you did.
So now that I have complained, lauded, gushed and critiqued the fashion, weather and event, I’m signing off.
I need electrolytes, rest and a shower!
Thank goodness for Jack White and The Raconteurs!
