So I didn't even know Merriweather Post Pavilion was a real place, I thought it was just word salad that Animal Collective made up. So the whole reason for this trip-- I'm on a trip, don't you know? To our nation's capitol!-- was to go to a music festival for Jennifer's dystopian futurist job. For me, that meant I tagged along with them for the set-up-- & got to explore the place before it opened-- before the show, then during the show make casual effort to make sure things were working smoothly, & then tag along after the festival to do takedown. So! The music. Let me just rundown on this. I guess 21 Pilots is like...post rap-rock? Young white kids doing a lot of screaming & rapping. Good stage patter though, worked the crowd, but I think I'm to old for it. After them, though, was Haerts, who I really liked! I'm a sucker for smart synths. They kind of remind me of The Protomen; at least, their sound does, not their stage show. I'll buy their album; when I said that Jennifer was like "who buys music?" By which she means who buys music, not who pays for music; she is a fan of the subscription model. Maybe that is the smarter way to be. Anyhow I liked Haerts & I think I will become their fan. Ms. Mr. was after them, & they also had an 80s sound, but I just couldn't connect to it, so we walked away. We came back for Robert DeLong, who I thought I wasn't feeling, but then! It turns out I just didn't like that one song & the rest of his set was really great. I should check that guy out a little bit more. Maybe people who care about DJs already know about him though, who can say, maybe he's famous & I just don't know. Very possible.
Then we walked over to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Us, & like, everyone; the sidestage-- the Treehouse-- was a really nice venue but the mainstage was...well, a huge festival mainstage. I've never been a fan, but I did feel like I was at EndFest or something. Entertaining flights of nostalgia. Anyhow, maybe it was because I was back far away, or maybe just that Karen O. works best through the magic of television, but I felt like they were flat. Around then-- hated Noah!-- the rain kicked in. Like, woah. & it went from a fun outdoor festival to a mudpit festival. Which is probably fun if you are a twenty-something on tons of drugs who thinks Ke$ha rules-- & I don't say that judgmentally!-- but less fun for like, a thirty-something drinking overpriced beer. So we hid in the press tent for a while, & then decided to try to figure out our VIP ticket situation. The pavillion was better-- dry, anyway-- but the VIP section sucked. Just full of drunk jerks, bartenders who were jerks because they'd been dealing with jerks all day, weird hand-stamp requirements, & not enough toilets. Seriously, the festival itself had a really good bathroom situation, it was a solid system, but the VIP area men's bathroom had like, two urinals & one toilet. What. They did have a friggin' great food section back there though! Rogue 24 had a pork belly cheesesteak that was uh, fantastic. If you are ever in...Maryland I guess? Check it out. Then Kendrick Lamar. I don't care. Also why are you saying "bitch" so much? At this point, it was all mainstage stuff only & I mean...do people like, connect to big stadium bands? I don't really get it, though I mean, I guess Queen counts, counted. So Passion Pit, they have that one song, I don't know, they played it & I was like "oh this song." Phoenix, they have like, two of those songs. I like Radiohead too guys! Toward the end they had fun lightshow stuff, those twenty-somethings on drugs probably had a blast watching it.