Schedule Thoughts: Saturday 2015

The Saturday schedule plays out just about as well as I think it could, with the exception of the one worst portion of the entire schedule for the whole weekend, at the 6:30 pm slot. More on that later, but as observed by Joseph in an e-mail to me, the schedule is going to allow for a good back and forth between the Honda and Miller stages from 2:30 all the way until 8:30, which is pretty choice.  

Looking over at the other side of the park, you could get a similar experience in the pop, EDM, and rap scene, bouncing back and forth between Echosmith, Ryn Weaver, Glass Animals, Misterwives, Twenty One Pilots, G-Eazy, A$AP Rocky, Bassnectar, and Drake. That could be fun, even if the aim demographic for that is about 20 years my junior.  But I'm not taking that path, I'm headed to the other side of the park.

Here's some Drake, looking like Oprah and Obama and a handful of other folks, with his friends who have Tourette's of the fingers.  Let's hope the new album comes out and is better than this mixtape.  For your future enjoyment, here is a playlist for the Saturday bands I plan to check out:

Saturday:
The first few hours are pretty uninteresting to me, so we'll just play the early stuff by ear.  If we decide to get motivated and out to the park early, I'd go watch Echosmith, maybe San Fermin.

2:30 - Father John Misty.  Such a great combination of nice, tight music and well-done lyrics.  I'm excited for him to kick off the day.  A little bummed to miss out on Sol Cat and Vince Staples, but they don't trump FJM.

3:30 - Game time decision likely.  In one corner, you've got the power jam fun of Houndmouth.  In the other corner, you've got the raw, feral power of Shakey Graves.  I think I'm leaning Houndmouth right now because I figure I can see another local Shakey Graves show later.

4:30 - Sturgill Simpson.  Honestly, since I just saw him play, I might have considered skipping him to go see something else, but with the godawful Twenty One Pilots and the uninteresting KOA up against him, I'll just enjoy the chance to sing along with Sturgill again.

5:30 - Walk the Moon.  I've listened to their older music a few more times just recently, and it is growing on me even more.  Tuneful pop, in addition to the killer "Shut Up and Dance" song.  They also cover "Burning Down the House," which is super tight.  I am honestly a little sad about missing Unknown Mortal Orchestra, but I'm pretty sure I'll do Walk the Moon. If you don't want to hear pop rock, go hear UMO do their trippy psych thing, it is good.

6:30 - Here, is where the festival model is broken.  I am so very sad about the entire slate across this time slot.  Two of my top tens, two of my Silver Medals, and I can only realistically enjoy one of them (without traipsing all over the park and hearing a song from each).  I'm almost certain I'll go see Alabama Shakes, as their new album has grown on me and I think their show will be solid.  But that means dissing A$AP Rocky, Jose Gonzalez, and newcomer Rayland Baxter, all ones that I really wanted to go check out.  I'm especially bummed about A$AP.  He did a killer show at Fun Fun Fun a few years back, and I'd like to hear the new album tracks live.

7:30 - TV on the Radio.  Easy choice, even though Bassnectar would be kind of fun to see.

8:30 - Drake.  Part of me wants to go see the spectacle of Deadmau5 and his crazy stage alien ship thing, but I really think I'd be super annoyed and angry about 3 songs in and wish I'd gone to watch Drake croon about his smoothness.  Not psyched about either choice, but this is what we've got.

As an aside, in my schedule from last year, I said that I would likely go see Lake Street Dive over Hozier.  I am a moron.