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I decided to pass up Weezer and go see Girl Talk, aka Gregg Gillis, a master in digital mash-ups and sampling. I have heard incredible things about his live show, so I wanted to check it out first hand. Basically, it was like one giant, amazing, layered mix CD that you got to dance along to with thousands of people—a pretty sweet experience.
He sampled and combined the likes of Bruce Springteen, Busta Rhymes, Journey, Beyonce, Cash Money Millionaires, Belinda Carisle, Aha, Ludacris, tons of Michael Jackson, and the list goes on. Though his video board was malfunctioning, Girl Talk kept the stage entertaining by inviting tons of fans to come, surround his DJ booth, and dance the entire set.
Then I was back over to the pavilion for headliners Blink-182. The last time I saw Blink was back in 2000 at Merriweather when Bad Religion was opening for them (don't get me started on how backwards that is). So I was really excited to see how the band would compare, especially since they haven't toured in five years.
But, to be honest, nothing much has changed. The banter between bassist Mark Hoppus and guitarist Tom Delonge was basically verbatim what it was nine years ago. And they still sound very cohesive. Admittedly a lot of their songs were off their newer albums, which I wasn't familiar with. But, they did play some throwbacks like "Carousel," "Josie," and "Dammit." I would have personally liked a few more songs from Dude Ranch, but the crowd seemed to love every bit of it. After the five year gap, the band really didn't miss a beat.
Tomorrow I'll give a full recap of the pros and cons of this year's festival, but all-in-all it was great to see so many national acts so close to home.
[Image: courtesy of ticketcyclone.com]
