This week’s installment of Tuesday’s Top Videos will be dedicated to some of my favorite live festival performances I’ve seen over the years.
Jack White rivaled Arcade Fire all summer last year for best performances including the most amount of improvisation and covers. At Bonnaroo White did an insane bit of “The Lemon Song” along with weaving Raconteurs, The Dead Whether, and White Stripes songs in and out of each other beautifully. What blew me away most was the stage demeanor and rhetoric White carried himself in. The crowd interplay and “semi-rants” I may dub them (simply because of all the ranting Kanye did the night before, it seemed White may have been poking at that satirically). A night on the Farm I will not forget soon, hope y’all enjoy.
Much anticipation led me into Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks last summer during the Pitchfork Music Festival. I had seen Animal Collective the previous summer at Bonnaroo, but was far from the disciple my friends surrounding me were at the time. I have grown exponentially more in love with AC, but when Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks dropped Enter the Slasher House last spring I couldn’t contain my joy with the album. It resonated deeper, in part because it was a one-time side project similar to AMOK by Atoms for Peace, making it easier to delve into. “That Won’t Grow” along with many of the other tracks spurred me through the crappy spring.
Another stop at Pitchfork Music Festival, I couldn’t help but to include Ms. Annie Clark’s cyborg alter ego St. Vincent. I caught David Byrne and St. Vincent a few times the previous summer and found myself head over heels infatuated with St. Vincent. Once she dropped her self-titled album I knew I had to see her perform live solo. The robotic movements and precise choreography of the show reflected David Byrne inspirations of performance standards. The end of the show is absolutely chaotic ecstasy for the crowd, the on stage antics (which I care not to ruin if you haven’t seen this) catapulted St. Vincent up there with Joan Jett for one of the baddest female rockers.
The Killers in 2013 at Lollapalooza may seem like an unlikely pick, but the inner 13 year old found great nostalgia in the show. Standing about four or five rows back being able to see the sweat beads on Brandon Flowers head didn’t suck either. I was able to catch Crystal Castles, New Order, and then The Killers making for one of the few great memories I had from that weekend at Lolla that weekend. When The Killers did a rendition of “Shadowplay” I couldn’t not contain the pure elation I felt in the crowd, it was surreal to hear a cover of Joy Division after New Order
Many others should have been on here, I’m sure if you were at the festivals I speak of you’ll have far better shows that occurred and I will probably agree with you. Yet, these shows slipped into the perfection of time and place one only wishes to find themselves in on a daily basis.
