I wasn't planning on attending this years' edition of the Virgin Festival. I had already seen the headliners numerous times (Oasis twice, Foo Fighters thrice) and the undercard largely left something to be desired. However, after winning tickets in a contest, I was off the the islands for the third year in a row. I used to visit the Toronto islands quite often in my salad days (friends of mine used to live there), but now it seems like I only ever go over there to witness bloated rock and roll spectacles.
Day One started ominously enough as cloud cover engulfed the sky on the ferry ride over. The first band of the day was the Midway State on the bigger of the two sidestages. My confidence wasn't bolstered by the fact the organizers didn't construct an additional footbridge to alleviate traffic and pressure on the single narrow pedestrian bridge between the sidestages and the mainstage as they had last year.
Collingwood upstarts The Midway State have been gradually building buzz through many local gigs and having one of their songs appear briefly on The O.C. Their adult-contempo rock would go over well with the Canadian Idol crowd and the small but appreciative audience seemed to enjoy it.
Headed over to the mainstage to get a good spot for local heroes The Constantines and caught the last moments of the forgettable Airborne Toxic Event.
As I write this, I barely even recall seeing them.
The Constantines were upgraded from their sidestage slot from last year and put on a solid set that brought the sun out from hiding. They never seem to disappoint and upped the ante for the bands to follow.
I quickly went back across to the sidestage to see what I could of Spiritualized.
However, the pedestrian bridge was becoming a logistical nightmare and I only caught a few minutes of feedback-laden space rock before deciding to head back to the mainstage for white-hot band du-jour, MGMT.
It should be noted that MGMT had the longest lineup I saw all day for the autograph tent and it was primarily female. These guys will never have a problem getting laid in the foreseeable future. Their blend of indie/psyche/dance rock on the other hand was somewhat of a letdown. I wasn't sure what to expect from them, and I'm still not sure what I got. It wasn't transcendent in any way and their set remains an enigma.
The bigger sidestage was running late so Scotland's The Fratellis went on a good twenty minutes past their scheduled start time. I didn't stick around as I decided to check out Florida punkers Against Me! instead. A curious choice to have at this festival, they seemed to go over well with the Foo Fighter crowd, they didn't really bring anything new to the table and for a while, it felt like I was at the Warped Tour as opposed to the Virgin Festival. The typical socially-aware lyrics and high-tempo stage act was a bit much for a lazy Saturday afternoon crowd.
Bloc Party seems to always play the coveted sunset slot whenever they play Olympic Island (as they did last time supporting Broken Social Scene). I hadn't seen them since then, so this was my first exposure to the A Weekend In The City material and choice selections from their forthcoming record, Intimacy. However, it was the classic material off 2005's Silent Alarm that really got things cooking. "Banquet", "Helicopter", "This Modern Love", "Hunting For Witches" and "Like Eating Glass" were all delivered with ferocity as drummer Matt Tong showed why he is arguably one of the best drummers in the world, period. However, their set was bogged down by technical issues with lead singer Kele Okereke's guitars and the momentum was difficult to maintain.
Just like the first time I saw them at Arrow Hall in 2003, the Foo Fighters opened their headlining set with "All My Life" and blasted through favourites like "Times Like These" and "Learn To Fly" while frontman Dave Grohl was a whirling dervish onstage. I admire the fact that Dave Grohl has treaded the line between mainstream sell-out and indie-cool for so long in the Foos that people forget the guy was in Nirvana.
An early run through of The Who's "Young Man Blues" turned into an unnecessary ten-minute jam session that wore patience thin and was only exacerbated when they did the same thing for "Stacked Actors" a couple songs later. They even played an obscure Nirvana b-side called "Marigold" that is the only Nirvana song to not be sung by Kurt Cobain. Things got back on track as they played more favourites like "Breakout", "Let It Die"; acoustic versions of "My Hero" and "Everlong" and wrapped things up with "Monkey Wrench" and "The Pretender".
During the encore of "Best Of You", I made my way to the ferry and thought that Day Two would be somewhat similar. Boy was I right (for the most part).
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Day Two started off even worse than Day One as a steady downpour dampened the early birds (including myself) and the mongoloids at Northwest Protection Services (the security company hired to handle searches) found new ways to annoy and frustrate me at the gate.
Once on the island however, things got better. the rain started to subside and I tried to focus on the music.
Up first were Prince Edward Islanders, Paper Lions on the big side stage. I can't say I was too enthused by their generic sounding adult-contemporary rock, but they had a sizable crowd who seemed to enjoy what they were doing (they've also scored the opening slot for Cake at numerous Canadian dates this year). Very reminiscent of The Midway State the previous afternoon.
I wanted to check out former Death From Above 1979 drummer Sebastien Grainger's new outfit, but as I already saw them last year at NxNE, I ultimately made the decision to head over to the mainstage and watch the ever entertaining local boy Danko Jones ("The Mango Kid!").
It was a smart move, as the single pedestrian bridge was already becoming congested and would only get worse as the day progressed.
It has been quite a few years since I last saw Danko rock out at the CNE Bandshell and this time around, you could tell he was purely in it for a paycheque.
However, it didn't stop him from berating the sun for emerging and enticing those in attendance to flip it the bird. He continually milked the audience for adulation in a half-serious, but joking manner and put on one of the more entertaining sets of the day.
Another Canadian act was up next as Winnipeg's the Weakerthans took the stage and weaved a set that went from alt-country to punk rock with subject matter ranging from Bigfoot ("Bigfoot!") to public transit ("Civil Twilight"). Other subjects included Antarctic exploration ("Our Retired Explorer") and a feline point of view ("Plea From A Cat Named Virtute"). Finishing off with favourites "The Reasons" and "Aside", the Weakerthans and modest frontman John K. Samson showed that Canada can produce bands on par or better than the supposed big names.
Los Angeles buzz-band Silversun Pickups was up next and promptly fell into a forgettable cacophony of noise-pop that was lost on the masses lying in the sun or drinking in the beer garden in anticipation of the Anglo-invasion later on. They seemed to only garner attention when they played their hit single "Lazy Eye", to close their set.
Personally, if they had been on the sidestage, they probably would've been better received, and I'll chalk up the audience indifference to poor scheduling.
As the afternoon slowly moved into evening and the shadows got longer, Welsh superstars Stereophonics sauntered onstage. I've always kept a distant interest in the Stereophonics since their minor North American breakthrough when Performance and Cocktails was released in 1999 and I had always wanted to see them, but for one reason or another never had after all these years. Since then, they've achieved mainstream popularity in their native UK and have released five straight number one albums over there. However, they never quite broke as big in North America and have enjoyed only moderate success over here (plateauing at the moderate theatre or large club level).
It was interesting to see them in what amounted to the large festival setting their accustomed to in the UK, but rarely have the luxury to play in Canada. The boisterous and numerous British fans in attendance seemed to finally wake up for the first in the triumvirate of their homeland heroes. They didn't disappoint either, opening with a surprising salvo of singles. "Bartender and the Thief", "A Thousand Trees", "Pick A Part That's New" and "Have A Nice Day" all had the die hards cheering and singing along while sating the casual fans (me) in attendance. Lead singer Kelly Jones has a gravelly voice that is nothing short of alienating, but is undoubtedly one of their defining characteristics - no more obvious than during his mid-set solo rendition of "Maybe Tomorrow" (arguably the highlight of their set).
The coveted sunset slot went to former Jam frontman and aging Modfather, Paul Weller. Despite the fact most of the audience were either toddlers or not even born (including myself) when the Jam played their last show in 1982, it didn't seem to matter to Weller, who put on an energetic and solid set for a man who just entered his fifth decade. The British fans ate it up and when he busted out Jam favourites "Town Called Malice" and "The Eton Rifles", they went ballistic. I can't say I'm familiar with anything else he's done, but his spirited set and overall good vibes did a much better job in setting up anticipation for the headliner than Bloc Party's technical nightmare the previous evening.
After a surprisingly brief changeover (maybe twenty minutes?) the unmistakable drum beat and guitar riff of "Fuckin' In The Bushes" rang out over th PA system to signify the arrival of arguably the biggest band to come out of the UK in the last generation or so. The roar of the approximately 20,000 in attendance was almost deafening and the flag-waving, sing-along masses far outnumbered the ones who witnessed the general self-indulgent fuckery of the Foo Fighters the previous evening.
Obviously hyped-up after witnessing one of their heroes (Paul Weller), the lads from Manchester quickly strapped on their instruments, told the sound guy to nix the entrance music and launched into "Rock N' Roll Star" from 1994's Definitely Maybe. Having seen Oasis twice before, I had a rough idea of what to expect from the Gallagher brothers. They rely heavily on attitude and posturing - especially Liam - to get a crowd going as opposed to running around and belching into the microphone as Dave Grohl did.
Mixing in new tracks off their forthcoming album Dig Out Your Soul, like "The Shock of The Lightning" and "To Be Where There's Life" with old classics like "Cigarettes and Alcohol" and "Lyla", the band and crowd were feeding off each other like no other act had over the course of the weekend.
Of course, just when the momentum was reaching it's zenith during "Morning Glory", some douchebag runs onstage and ruins it all. We all know the story by now, so I won't go into detail about it, but this incident just adds to the myriad of problems this festival has had to endure over the last three years. Kudos goes to the band for coming back and finishing off with the favourites ("Wonderwall", "Supersonic" and "Don't Look Back In Anger") so as to not cause a riot. However, the rumoured Paul Weller cameo during "Champagne Supernova" was sadly cut from the set and Toronto was robbed of something truly memorable.
As they finished things up with a cover of the Beatles' "I Am The Walrus" (no encore), I made my way to the ferry dock and knew that even after all the mistakes and misfortunes this festival has endured, they still have a lot of work to do. The quality of the supporting acts needs to improve and they still need to find a more effective way of getting people between stages. If they expect people to continually shell out big money for what amounts to a second-rate festival posing as a first-class festival, then the organizers are sadly mistaken.
Whether I return (or even the festival for that matter) or not next year is a definite maybe.
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