Well then you're in luck. The Oxford Stomp has Counting Crows, Third Eye Blind and the Wallflowers for your 90's music fill. Feel free to go listen to the most generic sounds of that decade over at that party. I'll take Weezer FTW.
Anyway, have fun listening to the most generic sounds of the 2000s. Nothing like a 40 year old man whining "Imma do the things that I wanna do I ain't got a thing to prove to you" and "I'm a troublemaker, never been a faker doin' things my own way and never giving up" like a petulant teenager.
I'd go for DFA 1979 and City and Colour primarily, but Weezer is a nice addition. Whatever floats your boat, champ.
I'll probably go, I've always been a big fan of Blink 182 and I haven't seen Weezer live yet. City and Color was pretty good live and I like Dan Mangan.
Mother Mother, AWOL nation, Weakerthans and DFA 1979 seem like they'd be fun, I've never heard of the rest I don't think
Lots of choices, I can see both days being pretty entertaining
This is a great lineup. Maybe it is pushing toward the indie crowd. Not sure how many indie fans listen to X92 maybe that's why there's some ambivalence towards the lineup.
Mother Mother, Weakerthans, Sheepdogs, Yukon Blonde, Capital Cities, Imaginary cities, CWK are all really fantastic bands.
Dan Mangan is awesome, don't really care for passion pit or awolnation, and then the headliners are your usual stuff. Weezer and Blink big in the 90's, now meh.
So i'm a bit more excited for the "lower" tier bands than the top tier.
The first thing I thought of when I heard "Take a walk" by Passion Pit was "these guys wrote this song with the intention of it being used in an ipod commercial". There's so many bands now a days that sound like them. That chorus is so set up for a commercial, and I bet it was intentional.
For some reason, the X-Fest organizers ba*%s to bring in a bunch of bigger name indie acts and put them on the docket. They were going in the right direction with DFA1979, Weakerthans, Sheepdogs, etc. But then we get Blink 182, and Dallas Green crap shoved down our throats. I do like Weezer, but like Troutman said, their best stuff is behind them. AWOLnation was good, and a few other acts are as well, but nothing to justify that price point.
Sled Island is such a gem this year. Unfortunately Superchunk and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion play at the same time (small venues). I'll probably stick to that if I can't get a one day pass at X-Fest when DFA are playing.
This is a great lineup. Maybe it is pushing toward the indie crowd. Not sure how many indie fans listen to X92 maybe that's why there's some ambivalence towards the lineup.
X929's been heading that direction for awhile now. I noticed about 6 months ago, as I hadn't listened to local radio in awhile. They used to play mostly grunge, mainstream punk with a bit of rock and alternative, but mostly heavier alternative.
Now, it's just dominated by all this new weak, soft indie style music. Stuff you'd hear while shopping in the GAP or Old Navy. They still play some decent heavier music, but in general they've moved in a softer, more "hip" direction. Definitly not the station I used to leave playing for entire car rides.
For some reason, the X-Fest organizers ba*%s to bring in a bunch of bigger name indie acts and put them on the docket. They were going in the right direction with DFA1979, Weakerthans, Sheepdogs, etc. But then we get Blink 182, and Dallas Green crap shoved down our throats. I do like Weezer, but like Troutman said, their best stuff is behind them. AWOLnation was good, and a few other acts are as well, but nothing to justify that price point.
Sled Island is such a gem this year. Unfortunately Superchunk and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion play at the same time (small venues). I'll probably stick to that if I can't get a one day pass at X-Fest when DFA are playing.
Like it or not, they have to sell tickets. Going fully in the direction you mentioned would be great for you personally, until they sold 5-6000 tickets total over two days and then never held another Xfest. Those bands you mentioned play venues ranging in size from bars to Mac Hall.
Bands like Blink 182, Linkin Park and Weezer still play larger venues, and that's what they're going for. They want a festival that has buzz and gets the mainstream buying public going "oh cool, yeah I'd love to have some drinks in the (hopefully) sun and watch Blink and Weezer, they may not be as good as eight years ago, but they put on a fun show, hey guys let's grab some tickets!" And then they hopefully sell 15-20 thousand tickets for teh festival.
As opposed to the bands you mentioned that, as much as you like them and think everyone else does, would be met with a general "meh" by most of the public, even after adding some more bands like them. I'm not saying they aren't great bands, and don't have more integrity or whatever than Blink and Weezer, but they wouldn't sell a huge amount of tickets.
So who went to day 1, what did you think? I skipped out, figured I'd wait for cheap last minute tickets, but nothing came up.
Looks like they put all the power into day 1, with Passion Pit, Awolnation, Weezer and Blink. Day 2 looks terrible with City and Colour, who I assume will be playing for people to take a nap to after going crazy on Day 1, and a couple other weak bands.
Ticket sales-wise, though, it looks ,like a huge success for X-fest, which is awesome because they will likely try again next year. You never know with these festivals, most seem to go 2 -3 years then decide they're not worth it.
passion pit had all their equipment destroyed by rain in chicago, so they were just 4 dudes behind a table with a computer and i yelled at them because they sucked, but i didn;t realize they lost all their equipment till after.
city and colour sucks ass, terrible show to put as the headliner. i wanted to slit my wrists.
half moon run was standout of the festival. ####ing fantastic.
What was the attendance like? Similar to the previous years? More or less? Ticket sales I assume will be the ultimate factor in if it will be returning
Didn't hear a number for the first day, but they announced that day 2 had 14k thru the gates. Day 1 definitely was the busier of the two, probably to do with the strength of the lineup.
Overall I think they had most of the kinks worked out. The VIP entry process was a bit of a clusterfata, wasn't clear that you had to wait in one line for your wristband, then another to get searched (made it super easy to cut ahead though ).
Highlight for me was finally seeing Cold War Kids.
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