Wow. Awesome.

[odiferousglue]

Yesterday I went to an awesome concert. The bands? Foo Fighters, Coldplay, Billy Idol, Garbage, Social Distortion, The New York Dolls, Interpol, Louis XIV, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Bravery, They Might Be Giants, Sum 41, Unwritten Law, Jimmie's Chicken Shack, Citizen Cope, and the Stereophonics; plus a few local bands.

And Good Charlotte, but they don't count.

[_jr_]

Well? Are you going to tell us about it? The venue? Who was great? Who was ok? Who stunk up the place?

We need information, bud.

And welcome to Songfacts. I'm jr. This here's my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl.

[odiferousglue]

Ah yes.

There were two stages. The "Main Stage" and the "Street Stage". The venue was the stadium that the Baltimore Ravens play in.

I was in the pit about 10 feet from the main stage. The main stage show opened up with a band who had won a contest to open, called Gold Mind Squad. They weren't spectacular, but they were pretty damn good. The first big band was The Bravery. They really were awesome. It was cool how the singer used his mic...He didn't have a cordless or anything, he just picked up the whole damn stand and swung it around like a battleaxe. Next was Louis XIV. They were good too...The singer has a striking resemblance to Ozzy Osbourne ...Later in the show that band came out into the crowd to join the fun, which was cool. And since most of their songs involve sex, there was an abundance of flashing .

After Louis XIV was They Might Be Giants...Not exactly my kind of music, but they were hilarious. They did one completely improv song where they thanked people for coming to their show. "Twelve year old boy who has no business being in the pit, thank you for coming to our show...". After that was Interpol. They were really good, but they stopped a bit early, apparently because they didn't like the sound system.

Echo and the Bunnymen came on after them. They were a disgrace.

The band came out, and the singer was completely wasted. He staggered up to the mic and said "Me voice is messed up, but thats not a problem." Oh yeah? In the singing business it bloody well is. And he was smoking a cigarette and drinking whiskey from a water bottle while he said this. The rest of the band sounded fine, he started to sing and didn't sound too bad...Then he threw down the mic and walked off the stage. They brought him back, tried again, and he left again. One final time, and he did it again. I felt really bad for the rest of the band..,They had the "He is such a dick" look on their faces. Their set lasted about, oh, ten minutes. From what I hear the singer threw a tantrum back there too.

That left about a forty minute break during which my sister got dehydrated and had to leave. After that Garbage came on, and were really good. During their set two or three teenage girls passed out from heat or something and had to be carried away. One guy got his head busted open and was on a stretcher with a sort of glazed expression on his face...He was smiling though!

After Garbage were the legendary New York Dolls. They were great...They looked really happy to be there, they were really into it...Great band. This one guy that was drunk kept looking at me and going "Dude, its the New York [bleep] Dolls!"

Social Distortion came on after them. They were goddamn incredible. That might be my fanatical fan talking, but they really were. You could just feel the energy in the pit increase...I spent half that set with crowdsurfers landing on my head and moshers kicking me in the face...It was awesome. Mike Ness has such a great stage presence.

I left the pit after Social D finished up...I was shaking uncontrollably from dehydration. So during Good Charlotte's performance I was downing bottles of water and eating a pretzel. One thing I observed though...That Billy Martin SE guitar that gets advertised a lot...He doesn't play it in shows! He plays a les paul or something.

Billy Idol came on after GC. He was awesome...He's old enough to be my grandfather and he still has girls drooling over him. He was really awesome...The whole stadium was jumping. About halfway through his performance Bam and Phil of the show Viva La Bam came out and Phil mooned the audience. They were filming for an episode, methinks.

After Billy the show was delayed because of lighting storms. People spent their time getting into fights, getting drunk, getting laid, and smoking various substances...Right under cops' noses. I spotted Don Vito from Viva La Bam piss ass drunk and chasing down some girls.

Coldplay came on eventually, and were really good. They played some songs off their new album that I hadn't heard before.

The headlining/closing act was the Foo Fighters. They were great, definitely deserving of all the hype they're getting.

I didn't see the street stagers, but from what I hear they were all great. Sum 41 headlined that one.

...Sorry for giving you an essay...It was a big show.

[Guest]

Post deleted by HDThoreau

[_jr_]

Now THAT was a review.

and , uh..(??), there's no need for that.

[edna]

Do you have an aproximate idea of who were the musicians playing as the New York Dolls?

[DiggsUK]

As long as they were '..just looking for a kissssh..' it can't have been bad!

Regards

[odiferousglue]

I'm not sure, sorry. The frontman was pretty old though, so he mighta been an original. ::

Here are some pictures from the event that people have uploaded. No NY Dolls yet though. Sorry that I'm not much help.

http://www.hfstival.com/gallery/index.php?cat=8

[RonJonSurfer]

Do you have an aproximate idea of who were the musicians playing as the New York Dolls?

David Johannson was the lead singer..he then went on to Buster Pointdexter fame.

[InsaneTim]

Sounds awesomely cool. Good to see TMBG back in the mix of things.

[odiferousglue]

Yeah, you're right. It seems they've resigned themselves to little clubs lately. They even said that during their performance, that they were not used to playing stadium sized crowds.

[edna]

David Johannson was the lead singer..he then went on to Buster Pointdexter fame.

Sylvain Sylvain and David Johansen are the only original members left. Murcia and Nolan (drummers) died, as Johnny Thunders and Kane. Seems Morrissey got the last remaining NYD together last year for a concert (Johnasen, Kane and Sylvain) So guess in the best of cases there was at least two original members...

[RonJonSurfer]

[odiferousglue]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was the complete reformed group. On their website they're listing concert dates, so I guess they're on tour.

Here is a review of their performance by "Shannon" from the New York Dolls message board.

"After I drove up the Philly and saw the great show on Friday night, I came back to DC (slept a few hours) and headed up to Baltimore where the Dolls were playing the annual HFSestival. (The tour T-shirts list this show as "Washington, DC" but they definitely should say "Baltimore").

Anyway, this was one of those all day long, three stages, in and around a stadium-type events. The Dolls were scheduled to go on the mainstage at 5:15, but went on a little earlier since Echo and the Bunnymen walked offstage without playing a song when singer Ian couldn't sing a note after losing his voice.

So the Dolls went on around 5:00 and played about a 30 minute set. I didn't write it down, but this is pretty close to the right order:

Looking for a Kiss

Puss 'N' Boots

Pills

Can't put your arms/Lonely Planet Boy

Trash

Jet Boy

Personality Crisis

They went over fairly well considering most of the people were very young and not familiar with the band. But I think it was a difficult audience for them and much of the audience was outside the stadium when they played. Still I would guess ~10,000+ people saw them. They cut the mid-song banter to a minimum, but seemed to be enjoying themselves. The other bands were deferential throughout the day (Mike Ness from Social Distortion said they were one of this favorite two bands, and Garbage and Good Charlotte mentioned how great it was to have the Dolls there.)

I've had a great New York Dolls rock and roll weekend - two shows back to back, getting their autographs and meeting them in Philly . . . it doesn't get much better.

Drive, fly, take the train - see them if you can."

[edna]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was the complete reformed group. On their website they're listing concert dates, so I guess they're on tour.

And they´re touring in Europe too, it seems... but definitely, there cannot be more than Johansen&Sylvain as originals in this band, the rest are dead...

[odiferousglue]

Yeah, thats what I meant. The remaining originals. Sorry.