DAY 3
Setlist
1.
Haim
2.
Freddie
Gibbs
3.
Griz
+ Haim
4.
Cold
War Kids
5.
Portugal
the Man
6.
Foals
7.
Yeasayer
8.
The
Lumineers
9.
Grizzly
Bear
10. Kanye West
The Third and final day
of Governor’s Ball started with a line to get in. The machines that were used
to scan your ticket and let you in went down as soon as we got on the line. So
after about waiting for 15 minutes one of the guys said to let them in. If
anyone happened to be on Randall’s Island that day you could have gotten into
the show for free. The first stop was Rickshaw Dumpling and then we went
looking for even more food to eat. I wound up getting a falafel which was
probably the best food I had all weekend.
The mud was still there
and smelled worse than ever. And people still were walking around barefooted
which should not be happening on day three. Still it was annoying having to
walk through the mud for three straight days. I’d imagine everyone was
completely tired of having to struggle through the mud. I know I was.
 |
| Mud bear |
 |
| Mud day 3 |
Music-wise this was the
day I was most excited for. I had a schedule where I wanted to catch a band
pretty much from open to close (noon to 11pm). Among the highlights for me was
to be the Lumineers, The XX, Gary Clarke Jr., and of course Kanye West. But you
learn very quickly that a festival is not a sprint but a marathon. So as much
as I wanted to catch each one of these acts you simply do not have the time to
catch all of them. Whether it has to do with travel time between stages, the
general conditions of the grounds, getting a good view, or just being tired
from a long weekend you just cannot see every act. In general what we would do
was find a seat before the set we really wanted to see just so we could have a
good spot to catch the act. This lead to sometimes not catching who you wanted
in my case as I missed The XX because I wanted a good seat for Kanye West.
Turned out to be a good choice cause Kanye had the biggest crowd of the weekend
wanting to catch him. I’d say it was 25,000 people at least to see him close
the show. But as I was saying you do have to make some sacrifices. There is
just too much going on at a festival to ever catch everything. This also leads
to some unexpected surprises. For example while watching the main stage I
caught my favorite act at the weekend which was Foals. The group based in
England does a great rock, electric type of combo with a lead singer who has to
be maybe five feet tall at best but sounds like Simon De Bon at points. They
had the crowd going crazy unlike any band I saw this weekend this side of
Kanye. If you have a chance look them up on Youtube and look them up cause they
are awesome.
 |
| FOALS |
But the main draw of the
weekend based on buzz was without a doubt Kanye West. This was his first New
York show in years and his first promoting his new album, “Yeezus”. His set
didn’t get off to a good start as the crowd was buzzing from the end of the set
before Kanye and he made people wait an extra 20 minutes beyond his 9:30 start
time. But once the lights went down the crowd went crazy and Kanye came on
stage and the place went absolutely crazy. He blasted into some new songs and
then did some of his classics like, “Gold Digger”, “Heartless” and my personal
favorite, a 15 minute version of “Runaway”. The whole time the crowd was in the
palm of his hand singing along bobbing their heads with every song. It was an
amazing sight seeing that many people moving as one to Kanye’s music.
 |
| Mr. West |
We had started to walk
out before his set ended happy to have survived the weekend. And I do not use
that term lightly. You had to SURVIVE this festival. The conditions were so bad
that if it was not for the fact that it was a $240 per ticket investment maybe
I would have thought twice about going out in the elements. But by the end I
was happy to have gone to my first festival with my buddy. I would not have
been able to make it through that without her.
 |
| Survivors |
Would I go to another
festival? It would have to have a really amazing lineup to get me to go. Not
that every festival would be as hard to deal with as this one cause the weather
will never be as bad as this was. But it would have to have a great lineup. Already
seen one I am really interested in taking place in Austin, TX this October.
That would be the Austin Music Festival which has Depeche Mode, The Cure, Muse,
Atoms for Peace, among others. But I would have to think long and hard before I
dig out my muddy Timberland boots again.
But that was my
experience with my first festival. Three days. 27 hours. 23 musical acts. And
one pair of very muddy boots.
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