10 best festivals sets
by Alexander Laurence
2001: July 17th – Guided By Voices @ Siren Music
Festival / Coney Island. This was the first year of the festival and it was
super hot and humid. I went there with my girlfriend at the time. We waited
hours, watching bands like Peaches and Superchunk. Finally we got to Guided by
Voices: they were great. They played all the hits. During the set my girlfriend
passed out. That was the only time I rode the Cyclone. It was memorable.
2002: March 16th – Merzbow @ ATP (UCLA) Los
Angeles . I think that I had a pass for the whole
weekend, but I think that I only attended one day. It was a mix between soft
rock bands and laptop bands. At some point Wilco and Big Star played, but I was
obviously in the wrong place. I remember watching Deerhoof and Destroy All
Monsters for the first time. But the most exciting was Merzbow. He had two
laptops and he created this wave of loud sound for an hour, somewhere in
between the Boredoms and Aphex Twin. It was truly otherworldly and amazing. I
got lost and didn’t get home until 7am
the next day as I remember.
2003: August 23rd – Brian Jonestown Massacre @
Sunset Junction. One of the first years I attended. BJM played super early,
around 3pm , in the mid-heat of the
day. People were still arriving. The band had some guys in it who I didn’t
recognize. Anton was very talkative and insulting. This was pre-Dig The Movie
era, even though a few seconds of this gig appears in that movie. This would be
the last really out of control shambolic BJM show for a long time. After this,
Dig The Movie won best documentary at Sundance, and Anton Newcombe and company
would start becoming the internationally known touring outfit they are today.
2004: August 27th – The Cure @ Curiosa Festival (Carson ,
CA ). I had pretty much given up on the Cure
at this point. I hadn’t seen them since the early 1980s, and didn’t much care
for what they did after Pornography. They were playing with some newer bands
like Interpol and The Rapture. They were much better than those bands. I had
also seen them at Coachella but had fallen asleep as they played for hours.
They were great that night back in 2004, but haven’t really wanted to see them
since.
2005: July 29th – The White Stripes @ San Diego
Street Scene. I was hanging out back stage with the other bands. I saw Wayne
Coyne of Flaming Lips hanging around. It was chill. And then, there was a
parting of the red sea, and everyone had to make room for the band The White
Stripes. I could barely even see them as they were guided towards the stage. It
was a great show of the many times I saw them. They played a bunch of shows of
Elephant, and Jack White played keyboards and bells. It was impressive.
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