A Tale of Two Fuck-Ups; Lil Wayne and Stone Temple Pilots at Virgin Festival

So two days without posting means I'm all sorts of behind, so let's just go ahead and get started.

Sunday afternoon at Virgin Festival 2008 saw a fascinating subplot unfold. On the north stage we saw Taking Back Sunday and on the south, Lil Wayne. Having just seen Paramore (as described in the previous post) at the north stage, I decided to rejoin my comrades Matt, Adam and Brian a bit further away from the stage for Taking Back Sunday. I chose to stick around for TBS. Were any other story than the one I'm about to tell to take place, I'd say I made a wrong call.

There's no two ways about it; TBS were outright terrible live. Their albums are at best decent, albeit clearly heavy on production. With no professional mixing board to fall back on, Adam Lazzara was a horrible wreck on stage. The music was weak and the stage performance was hardly compelling enough to keep me interested. But lucky for TBS, at least they showed up.

[Note: The following paragraph is all taken secondhand from my fellow concertgoers and post-show reports]

Lil Wayne was slated to take the south stage at 3:50. By 4:00. he was a no-show. Shortly thereafter members of Weezy's entourage came out and started to attempt to keep the crowd amused. Finally, around 4:30, a full 40 minutes after his scheduled start time, Lil Wayne arrived on stage. Now, for the whole festival the Powers That Be were being pretty strict about set times (they made The Swell Season do their encore from the pit so the roadies could prep the stage for the next act). So in theory Lil Wayne should have only had a 20 minute set as a result of his tardiness. Not so much. Lil Wayne plays the full hour set that he was originally alotted, including a guest appearance by Kanye West and slightly less important appearances by the members of said entourage. Weezy fans loved the whole thing. But the fans of the Black Keys, who were waiting to see their favorite band take the stage...less so. Especially since the Black Keys were on the receiving end of the fiasco, having to cut their set significantly shorter. Keys fans showed their displeasure in the form of middle fingers and "Fuck Lil Wayne" chants. Perhaps not the most effective way to voice displeasure, but it got their point across.

Fast forward about an hour or so, to arguably the most tense point of the festival. In the week prior to the festival video from a Stone Temple Pilots show of Scott Weiland stumbling into the drummer's kit. At long last, we had visual proof that the STP reunion was coming apart at the seams. So as Iggy ended and Matt and I waited at the barricade for STP's set, everyone was on high alert. Matt told me about a show in Colombus that shows why people liked STP to begin with, so there was hope, but it was iffy. 6:20 rolls around and the roadies are still finishing up. A good sign, but I promise to believe nothing till I see Scott Weiland on stage. 6:25. Nothing. Guess the P in STP isn't for "Punctual". 6:30. We might all just be really early for Nine Inch Nails. The crowd gets a bit restless. 6:35. Cheers from front and center as the DeLeo brothers are seen on stage. Still no Weiland. A little before 6:40 Weiland makes it to the stage to thunderous applause. The band proceeds to plow through a brilliant, albeit abbreviated greatest-hits set. The setlist is below.

STP @ Virgin Festival, 8/10/2008
Vasoline
Wicked Garden
Big Bang Baby
Big Empty
Crackerman
Plush
Interstate Love Song
Down
Sex Type Thing
Dead & Bloated
Trippin' On A Hole In A Paper Heart

So all in all the guy that folks were expecting a great performance from gipped all manner of festival-goers, while the guy that everyone was at Defcon 1 over put on a hell of a show.

That's rock and roll for ya.

Stone Temple Pilots - Trippin On A Hole In A Paper Heart [iTunes]

==TJ==