09-21-2008, 10:56 PM
My friend Mark called my late Fri. evening to say that he had an extra ticket for Treasure Island Music Festival that weekend and did I want to go. I was free that weekend and didn't really have any plans aside from doing chores. I peeked at the lineup, didn't know much about any of the bands but decided I needed to get out, so I said yes.
Sat. morning after an appointment with a chimney sweep (no double entendre), I drove up to the city, picked up my friend and made a quick stop to see our favorite yeti for some foil repair action. (see other forum posts for more on that...) We grabbed some food and then headed off to AT&T park to drop off the car and pick up the shuttle to Treasure Island.
Background: my friend's ex-girlfriend went last year and said it was a very well organized show. They bought tickets for this year's festival months ago and broke up recently thus the extra ticket...This comment about how it was a well organized show kept being repeated by several people and I was hoping that that wouldn't be the only redeeming aspect of it.
We get to the car park around 2pm. The shuttle buses promptly pick us up and whisk us away to TI. For as long as I've lived in the Bay Area, even back when I was little and we lived in Kensington (near Berkeley) and we'd go to Golden Gate Park frequently so my dad could race sailboats in Spreckle's Lake, I never stopped off at this man-made isle. I was really curious about checking it out. The buses pull up in the naval base, the passengers unload and queue up for the ticket/bag check. The pat-down and bag check were the most lax I've ever seen. I was not in music festival mode. We had a small bag with some water bottles in it. We could have packed some food and "beverages" <wink>.
Inside, we start to get our bearings. There's lots of tents for concessions, merchants, etc. We wander around a little, my friend Mark is trying to locate some friends. We pop by the Rock Med tent and I ask for DM, but he's not working this fest. The guy I'm talking to (sorry, didn't catch the name) recounts working with the DM at Earthdance the week before.
Ok...the music. I said I wasn't familiar with the lineup. I've heard a few of the band names, and have even heard a few songs, but most i had no clue about. There was a large band with brass on the little or "Tunnel" stage: "Nortec Collective Bosstich + Fussible" according to the program. The mix was pretty bad. They weren't all that interesting and we were still trying to locate other people at the fest, so we passed. We head over to the big or "Bridge" stage. They are prepping for the next band. We find some friends and pull up some lawn to park our stuff. My friend spies his ex abot 20 feet away and we are now in "avoid the ex" mode for the rest of the weekend which puts a bit of a downer spin on the whole affair. The next band, "Antibalas", starts. More horns. Also a bad mix and also not very interesting (although I always enjoy bass sax). After that, back to the little stage for "Foals". I can't remember their set. That probably says a lot. Back to the big stage for "Hot Chip". They're from the UK. My friend had good things to say about them. They were ok. Not an outstanding performance. Again the sound was crummy. It was pretty sunny, but there was a good breeze, but as the afternoon wore on, the wind just kept getting stronger and colder.
After "Hot Chip", we took a break. Amon Tobin was on the little stage, my friend said that he does mixes using video. He wasn't sure what kind of performance he could do at the festival since they didn't have any video screens. We walked by and it was a guy sitting behind a laptop....we looked at the over priced food and the limited beverage selection (Heinekin, blech).
We decided to try to get close for the next act, Goldfrapp, on the big stage. I have to say that these guys were pretty awesome. The sound was finally much better. You could actually hear bass, and everything was loud enough. I'd heard a song or two from Goldfrapp before, but their whole set was great and they put on a great show. How often do you see two keytar players on stage? If you think of the song "I feel love" by Donna Summer, you'd get a little sense of their sound. Mike Relm followed on the little stage. Another 'mixer'. We skipped that and tried to stay warm. The wind was really whipping now. Back to the big stage for "TV on the Radio". My friend really wanted to see these guys. It was finally getting dark enough so the show lights could actually be somewhat effective. These guys seem like a club band. They really try to get everybody moving. Too bad their sound was awful. The speakers cut out completely followed by an "awwww" from the audience, but that only lasted a few seconds. I was unimpressed. We decided to bail after that. It was too cold and we didn't want to get stuck in lines waiting for the shuttle bus.
I have to say, SF looked really pretty at night from Treasure Island.
Sat. morning after an appointment with a chimney sweep (no double entendre), I drove up to the city, picked up my friend and made a quick stop to see our favorite yeti for some foil repair action. (see other forum posts for more on that...) We grabbed some food and then headed off to AT&T park to drop off the car and pick up the shuttle to Treasure Island.
Background: my friend's ex-girlfriend went last year and said it was a very well organized show. They bought tickets for this year's festival months ago and broke up recently thus the extra ticket...This comment about how it was a well organized show kept being repeated by several people and I was hoping that that wouldn't be the only redeeming aspect of it.
We get to the car park around 2pm. The shuttle buses promptly pick us up and whisk us away to TI. For as long as I've lived in the Bay Area, even back when I was little and we lived in Kensington (near Berkeley) and we'd go to Golden Gate Park frequently so my dad could race sailboats in Spreckle's Lake, I never stopped off at this man-made isle. I was really curious about checking it out. The buses pull up in the naval base, the passengers unload and queue up for the ticket/bag check. The pat-down and bag check were the most lax I've ever seen. I was not in music festival mode. We had a small bag with some water bottles in it. We could have packed some food and "beverages" <wink>.
Inside, we start to get our bearings. There's lots of tents for concessions, merchants, etc. We wander around a little, my friend Mark is trying to locate some friends. We pop by the Rock Med tent and I ask for DM, but he's not working this fest. The guy I'm talking to (sorry, didn't catch the name) recounts working with the DM at Earthdance the week before.
Ok...the music. I said I wasn't familiar with the lineup. I've heard a few of the band names, and have even heard a few songs, but most i had no clue about. There was a large band with brass on the little or "Tunnel" stage: "Nortec Collective Bosstich + Fussible" according to the program. The mix was pretty bad. They weren't all that interesting and we were still trying to locate other people at the fest, so we passed. We head over to the big or "Bridge" stage. They are prepping for the next band. We find some friends and pull up some lawn to park our stuff. My friend spies his ex abot 20 feet away and we are now in "avoid the ex" mode for the rest of the weekend which puts a bit of a downer spin on the whole affair. The next band, "Antibalas", starts. More horns. Also a bad mix and also not very interesting (although I always enjoy bass sax). After that, back to the little stage for "Foals". I can't remember their set. That probably says a lot. Back to the big stage for "Hot Chip". They're from the UK. My friend had good things to say about them. They were ok. Not an outstanding performance. Again the sound was crummy. It was pretty sunny, but there was a good breeze, but as the afternoon wore on, the wind just kept getting stronger and colder.
After "Hot Chip", we took a break. Amon Tobin was on the little stage, my friend said that he does mixes using video. He wasn't sure what kind of performance he could do at the festival since they didn't have any video screens. We walked by and it was a guy sitting behind a laptop....we looked at the over priced food and the limited beverage selection (Heinekin, blech).
We decided to try to get close for the next act, Goldfrapp, on the big stage. I have to say that these guys were pretty awesome. The sound was finally much better. You could actually hear bass, and everything was loud enough. I'd heard a song or two from Goldfrapp before, but their whole set was great and they put on a great show. How often do you see two keytar players on stage? If you think of the song "I feel love" by Donna Summer, you'd get a little sense of their sound. Mike Relm followed on the little stage. Another 'mixer'. We skipped that and tried to stay warm. The wind was really whipping now. Back to the big stage for "TV on the Radio". My friend really wanted to see these guys. It was finally getting dark enough so the show lights could actually be somewhat effective. These guys seem like a club band. They really try to get everybody moving. Too bad their sound was awful. The speakers cut out completely followed by an "awwww" from the audience, but that only lasted a few seconds. I was unimpressed. We decided to bail after that. It was too cold and we didn't want to get stuck in lines waiting for the shuttle bus.
I have to say, SF looked really pretty at night from Treasure Island.
![[Image: magpie13.gif]](http://imagegen.last.fm/LastfmLiveJournal/recenttracks/magpie13.gif)