- Friday: I hit 25,731 steps / 10.59 miles / 41 floors - a personal best since I got my Fitbit
- Saturday: 26,363 steps / 10.83 miles / 41 floors - a bit better
- Sunday: Now keep in mind, this includes a bit of walking after midnight the night before, but still - 41,030 steps / 17.06 miles / 48 floors
Daily view from the walk from Astoria to Randall's Island:
Now, onto the Governors Ball recap - WELCOME!
(in the form of Things I Did and Did Not Like...)
Thing I Liked:
NOEL GALLAGHER'S HIGH FLYING BIRDS (OF COURSE!) I forced Dave to go over with me half an hour early to secure my spot about 20 rows from the stage and it was amazing (I couldn't actually tell if the crowd was full or not since I was at the front so I'm still curious about that.) Overall, good mix of songs (Oasis tunes included "Whatever," "The Masterplan," and one "for the moms and dads at the back" - "Champagne Supernova," + a few others, amongst a mix of songs from his two solo albums. Noel must have won best singalong at the festival for "Don't Look Back in Anger," as I'm pretty sure no one else had a classic belter like that. The set made me smile for the rest of the night.
Drake - I thought I'd watch Drake because I don't care for My Morning Jacket, and this would be an "experience." Well, an experience it was not. I don't remember if I have ever seen a hip hop artist live before, but it was literally just him on stage over a backtrack. I tried to get into the few songs I knew, and he seemed like a lovely guy, but it was one of the worst things I watched all weekend. Sorry, Drake :(
Have a shot of the crowd since my Drake photos didn't come out:
Thing I Liked:
There was a booth that gave away free Kettle Chips throughout the entire festival. A variety of flavors, for free, ALL OF THE TIME. The people at the booth were telling us to take multiple bags too. I think the point was to get us talking about it (which obviously worked), but I don't think I can eat another Kettle Chip again. I had 4 bags on Sunday alone!
Thing I Didn't Like:
We went to the Bacardi Tent because we thought we'd be able to view Kiesza from the side. Turned out we couldn't and we could barely hear her set at all. And apparently she did the dance during Hideaway...I'm so mad I missed it!
Our view from the Bacardi tent during Kiesza (NOTE: not Kiesza):
Thing I Liked:
Ryan Adams (phew! I feel like I'm still holding my breath hoping he'll perform well even though it's been over a week since I saw him.) We had actually intended to see Deadmau5 since that's something we'd never go to otherwise, but decided to give Ryan Adams a chance and watch him for a few minutes first. Although a high risk performer, he was on his best behavior, so we stayed for the whole thing and he put on a great show. And he played our wedding song! I never thought he'd play it in a million years, so thank you Ryan.
Thing I Liked & Didn't Like:
I liked the fact that there were bars every where you looked with no queue. I didn't like the fact that they only sold Miller Lites larger than my head and some apple ale which I had no desire to drink. I did like that they had white wine, but I didn't like that they were selling like hot cakes (or Ramen Burgers in this case), and we'd have to go to a few different bars before we could track any down.
Thing I Liked:
I'm calling this festival "Glastonbury Second Chance." I got to see a handful of bands I missed at Glastonbury last year due to conflicts, etc. - Charlie XCX, Rudimental, Vance Joy, Clean Bandit, The Black Keys (even though I did see them there.) I'm not sure if any of the other bands I saw played Glasto last year, but at least I made up for missing these.
Thing I Didn't Like:
On Day 2, we purposely got there on time to see the first band go on (Holychild), and the organizers opened the gates late! This gave me bad flashbacks to V Festival in 2005 when I missed The Stands' entire set because they didn't open the gates in time either (I'm STILL fuming over that.) Forget the people who want to see the band, how do you think Holychild felt? This is probably the first big stage they were ever playing, and they were forced to play for no one? This was seriously ridiculous. I saw about 15 minutes of their set, but that was only half and I really liked them. Grrrrrrr.
Holychild...more like Holycrapthisfestivalisdisorganized:
Thing I Liked:
After living in this neighborhood for 5.5 years, we finally decided to try Pita Pan on our walk home on Friday night. It was delicious! So good in fact, that we got it on Saturday night again.
Thing I Didn't Like:
Regarding the previously-mentioned Bacardi tent with blocked stage view, we went in on Sunday so that Dave could get a mixed drink (the Miller Lites got old fast.) They didn't tell us when we entered that you couldn't leave until you finished the drink. So instead of heading over to see The War on Drugs in time for their set, we got stuck next to a barely-audible Weird Al performing instead. It was funny for about 4 seconds, but we were irritated that we couldn't leave (though when we finally got out, we saw the video for "Fat" starting on the screen which was slightly hilarious.)
Thing I Liked:
Free water refill stations. After getting a bargain deal(?) - $3 for a standard Dasani water, if you kept your bottle you could refill it all day for free. Quite shocking for a music festival.
Unrelated - Backdrop fail:
A group of people doing cocaine during a set right in the open in the middle of a hula hoop they placed on the floor. Really? You really can't do that off to the side? Is cocaine even fashionable right now?
Said Hula Hoop (I really was only trying to get a photo of Rudimental, I swear):
Charlie XCX was my first performer of the festival. If you aren't taking her too seriously, she is really entertaining. I loved her outfit too; she and her band looked like Josie and the Pussycats. And she flashed us with her see-through bra, so that was fun!
Thing I Sort of Liked?:
Dave got in line for some "trendy" Chicken Nugget stand, and a guy who worked there approached him to inform him that it was going to be a "30 minute experience." This language and context is just a whole new level.
Thing I Liked:
On Friday and Saturday, as soon as we got off the bridge at Randall's Island, we received free bottles of Hubert's Lemonade. This stuff was delicious, and the happy winking lemon stickers were super cute! We actually recognized the products in a shop by us yesterday, so the advertising worked.
Unrelated - Best identifier of the festival:
Thing I Didn't Like:
Death From Above 1979. For some reason I thought they were going to sound like some other band I thought they were affiliated with and they most certainly did not. I had to leave after 1 song, I hated it so much. I still can't think of the name of the band I thought I was thinking of. Will keep you posted.
Things I REALLY liked:
Noel aside, my favorites of the weekend were Rudimental and Royal Blood. Rudimental - LOVED LOVED LOVED (speaking of love, they had the crowd form a heart shape with their hands - squeee!) As for Royal Blood, if there had been a roof, they would have certainly blown it off. I was shocked at myself for knowing about 5 or 6 of their songs which was a nice surprise as well. I think that going deaf was worth it.
Rudimental - The best!
Royal Blood or Jack Penate and Turtle from Entourage?
My Hippie Dips tomato & mozzarella panini...that came with mayonnaise on it. WHO PUTS MAYONNAISE ON A CAPRESE SANDWICH? TELL ME WHO!
Thing I Liked:
I don't know if I should go so far as to say that I liked the port-a-potties, but discovering the PoPs next to the main stage on the final day was a lifesaver. Barely used and no lines! Plus, all of the PoPs had toilet paper at all times, and had hand washing stations complete with soap, water, and paper towels. What more could you ask for at a festival?? (I'm talking to you Glastonbury long drops.)
Thing I Didn't Like:
That band Echosmith. I have no idea why I watched them at all, let alone the entire set. They have that one single which is super corny, and the whole set was the same. Dave put it best - they sounded like a cruise ship band.
Thing I Liked:
King of Pops Cookies & Cream Flavor. YUM!
Things I was "Meh" About:
Tame Impala - I feel like I should have liked this set but I was pretty indifferent.
Bjork - I watched Bjork, well, because she's Bjork. Crazy outfit as could be expected. She sounded good, but her music isn't for me.
My photo of Bjork didn't come out so here's a photo of Glenna and I instead:
Clean Bandit - I sat on the blanket during this and wasn't really paying attention. I am obsessed with the upright bass player though - possibly the best outfit of the festival and definitely the hottest body!
Vance Joy - not very interesting, but who doesn't want to hear "Riptide" live, am I right?
The Decemberists - they were good, but my mind wasn't blown or anything. Colin Meloy made a joke about always having wanted to play next to a toll booth (the location was really weird, just for the record), but then he was being a bit of an overall dick. No need man.
Things That Fascinated Me:
Several dudes on people's shoulders. Not sure if they were serious or ironic but I sort of loved it.
The fashion. Whoa. I tweeted this already, but it was like Forever21 and H&M had a child and Governors Ball popped out. The people watching was kind of incredible. So much hippie clothing, midriffs, bikini tops, basically not much clothing. I hate these skinny, young bitches (ugggghhh I'm so jealous.)
Other Things I Liked:
Holychild - catchy music, weird outfits (hippie tops with Adidas bottoms), two male back up singers with pom poms, great festival band, would definitely listen to them again. Go here and play "Happy with Me."
Moon Taxi - this band is good! Yay!
Ratatat - This is one of those bands I'd only discovered on Pandora not too long ago. They were really good, but it was hard to see the cool bird visuals because I was at the side of the tent. Regardless, thumbs up.
Couldn't see the birds (or the band, or anything pretty much)
The Black Keys - I'd seen them and Lana Del Rey at Glastonbury last year (and loved them both live) so I was torn as to what to watch (though I knew that going to The Black Keys was "the right thing to do.") They were good, but I was so tired by this point that I don't think that I was seeing straight and wasn't so into it.
Florence & the Machine - second time I've seen them and they are definitely entertaining live. The crowd was super saturated during this set which made me worried for the shows to come on the main stage (until I discovered the left side of the stage the next day - no problems moving up over there!) Anyway, solid set.
DMA's - this band has obviously been to the Liam Gallagher School of Performing Arts. Needless to say, I enjoyed it and will begin listening to them.
Future Islands - I liked it, didn't love it, but yes, definitely liked it. "Seasons (Waiting On You") was mwah (that's me smacking my lips with my fingers.) They were much older than I expected; I was shocked. Also, I was quite shocked by the singer's erotic dance moves which gave me a nightmare over the weekend.
Sexy(??) dance moves from Future Islands?
Hot Chip - I didn't see the whole set because I was starving and searching for any kind of food that didn't have a line and wasn't Kettle Chips. What I did see I liked, and they ended with a cover of "Dancing in the Dark" which I loved. I missed "Ready for the Floor" though so I'm pretty sad about that.
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