The second day of the festival began with beautiful weather and the group Graffiti 6 putting on a solid set. The Submarines followed and the festival grounds began to fill up. The day was already looking much more packed than Friday and had a more festival-like atmosphere.
Indie darlings Au Revoir Simone had a lovely set, during which I was standing next to the family of one of the band members, including a cute little baby that looked to be loving the set almost as much as I was. Their mix of dreamy alt-folk synths and flowery vocals was the perfect antidote for the hot weather.
I personally was not a huge fan of White Rabbit’s set. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t my cup of tea.
The Psychedelic Furs, a British group, took the stage next with the energy of 20 year olds yet the years, experience and skill of seasoned performers. Their stage presence was amazing, and their better-known hits, such as “Pretty in Pink,” were total crowd pleasers.
The Vaccines, a fellow British group, took the stage next and played a raucous set of fiery rock that harkened back to The Clash — I could nearly hear the Oi Oi Oi’s — and the crowd went wild.
At that point, it really sunk in that a majority of concert-goers seemed to be international, with a large portion seemingly from Great Britain.
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Saturday’s headlining band, kept the crowd waiting and continually teased the crowd with what seemed like near starts to a set that got off nearly 40 minutes late — but, oh, was it worth the wait.
The crowd got excited as the band went into hit “40 Day Dream” that was near jam-band length. Every song was a sing-a-long. Lead singer Alex Ebert came into the crowd and led chants and call-and-responses through the song “Om Nashi Me” — meaning, according to Ebert, “Oh infinite destruction,” a mantra that he made up — and the crowd was pumped.
To give a bit of background on the Magnetic Zeros, Ebert formed the band after beginning to write a book about a messiah figure that was sent down to earth to save the world but kept getting distracted by girls and falling in love. That may shed more late on the looks of the singer and the subject matter of the songs.
The group had singer Jade Castrinos perform a song from her yet-to-be-released solo effort, and then ended the night with what everyone was waiting for: a rambling, seemingly never-ending, performance of their hit love song, “Home,” which had everyone in the crowd singing and dancing, myself included.
It was an unexpected end to a great weekend, as the following day’s activities were cancelled because of electrical and weather issues, which was a total bummer because I really wanted to tell you about how amazing Sunday’s headlining band, Of Montreal, would have been in concert.