"Another festival stolen..." - Virgin+Festival - Baltimore 2006

[kevinandt at gmavt.net]

Before I write a *thing*, I have to send a *HUGE* shout out to my buddy
Stu in Md!  He landed us the hook.....inside access to the whole venue
(performers’ enclave excluded). The hook!

The fam. and I rolled into town late Friday night around midnight. 
Pimlico was all lit up and under construction even at that hour.  A
monstrous stage sat at the North end.  Never saw one of *those* at Pimlico
before!  We turned away from the venue, and four houses later, pulled up
to my in-laws.  Got the kids to bed, and followed soon behind.

Up and out of the house by 8am with travel-mug of coffee and mp3 player. 
Walked four houses down to Northern Ave., crossed the street, and stood at
the main entrance of Pimlico.  These are my old stomping grounds.  I’ve
been visiting here for 20 years.

Fans were already lining up.  All young, but already 2 Who shirts spotted.
Who fans would start filing in in droves around 4pm.
But, I’m on a mission.  I need to find where my buddy Stu is working. The
place is buzzing with activity.  I’m guided to the owner of the company
doing parking, introduce myself, and he tells me he’ll drive me over to
the lot Stu is running.  He’s heard Who stories of me from Stu.

After an hour of helping putting up parking signs, moving employees from
one lot to another, etc., we roll into Stu’s location..........Lot 6 –
Press and Performers entrance and parking. Nice gig!  Just being in this
lot, we’re already behind the initial line of security.
The perks include access to the Press tent (their tubs full of iced
bottled water proved helpful later at night), access to the VIP restroom
trailer (used by everyone except perhaps the performers, and key when the
hoards lined up 50 a line at the portostanks), access to the
Virgin+Festival Interview tent.  We were in, and close!

The next key would come in the form of an orange Virgin Festival “STAFF”
shirt that was given to everyone working the lots.  The moment Stu’s boss
gave me that shirt, I knew I was golden.  I could come and go as I please.
 And you *know* I tested the limits, too.

Caught up with Stu and got comfortable with my surroundings and checked
out the facilities.  Now that I knew where Stu was, I headed back to the
house after a bit for some lunch.  To avoid walking all the way around the
venue, I decided to test the shirts and took a stroll over to the infield
entrance.  This entrance was only for those with press credentials or with
band cred.  This was the path that each band would follow from
trailer-park to stage.  I’m on it, and will have access to it all night. 
I head to the infield.  Pass right through the gate without anyone saying
a word.  Avoid eye-contact, look like you know where you’re going, and
have a purpose to your step.  Wow.  This opens up a bunch of
possibilities.  First one is sell my ticket!  My wife ended up getting
$50.  A bonus.

Hearty lunch and I’m back at Stu’s lot by 1:30.  This time I entered
through the main gate, and still the shirt is like gold.  I’m waived right
through. I’m set.  Got bottle of water, traveling light, systems emptied
before leaving the house, small digital camera on my belt. It’s the little
things that keep a festival fun.

I head back into the infield and get right up close to check out the
second half of Wolf Mother’s set.  Black Sabbath lives!  Very tight band,
but I’m too pumped about the things I could be seeing, that I leave before
the band is done.  I head out the Press gate, and then head toward the
stage.  No eye contact...purpose in step...
I pass a check point without a worry that allows me all the way around the
immediate rear of the stage where the band equipment is.  I spot The Who’s
video equipment, and then a boat load of other Who crates.  I’ve got a
great photo of Wolf Mother from behind the stage.  More free bottles of
water!

I head out and back toward the Press lot, but stop over at the Interview
Tent.  No sign of Raconteurs.  The tent is empty. Usually the bands up
next did their interviews right before going on.  Trot over to the check
point of the ‘inner enclave’ and chat with the bloke doing the pinch at
that gate.  I asked if I could take a walk around, but he can’t do it. 
Never hurts to ask.  Nice guy.  Chatted with him a few more times during
the day.

Right before The Raconteurs are to go on, I head back to the infield. 
Spot Jack White by his trailer.  I head all the way around the back of the
stage, and enter the crowed via the medical staff entrance on the other
side......row 1.  The shirt allows me to follow right along the barrier
near the stage.  Once I got close to center, I didn’t bother pushing it
any farther.  More photos!
DAMN THEY WERE LOUD!!!  I thought the beat pounding on my chest would
change the tempo of my heart beats!  I had to turn my head a couple times
to find a less painful ear position!  They were flippin’ loud!  Good set. 
Glad I saw them.

Headed back to the lot via the interview tent.  Gnarls Barkley is getting
grilled.  They were dressed in Roman uniforms.  I didn’t go see their set,
and really didn’t like what I heard, other than the one song we’ve all
heard on the radio.

4pm and Stu is finally off work.  We’ve had plenty of time to chat while
directing the billion people that Spin Mag. gives credentials to such an
event.  The car parking reminded me or when we used to park cars on my
in-laws’ lawn for Preakness.

Once off, I give Stu the tour around.  He didn’t expect these shirts to be
as golden as they were.  We head over to the infield and grab a couple
beers (more water too!).
We get close to the stage and contemplate our plans.
Finish beers, and head back out to the VIP restrooms.  Then fight our way
up front for the Killers’ set. During the break before The Who, move up
even more.

On our way back to the head, we go past the interview tent and snap a
photo of The Raconteurs being interviewed by MTV.  Jack looks petrified!
I’ll send it to you, Jon.

The place is friggin’ packed now.  40,000 people all focused on the main
stage.  The density of people near the front is unbelievable.  We push
forward with STAFF shirts on, and they part the water.  We progress to
about 10th row equivalent, right in front of Pete’s mike.  Off come the
shirts, exposing Who T-shirts we were wearing underneath.  We’re now just
fans.

The Killers start, and so does the body surfing.  I’m telling you, we’re
pressed body on body, and then there are humans being handed over head!
I really enjoyed the Killers, and I think they got one of the better
receptions of the night.  I was singing their lyrics along with everyone
else, not having known that those songs I knew from the radio belonged to
them.  Ha!  Great show. “I got soul but I’m not a soldier!”

Now the break before The Who comes on.  We’re only able to move up to
about 3-4th row equivalent (no chairs here people!), and are still right
in front of Pete.
With others pushing to move up, things start to float back and forth. 
There’s no where to move to.  There’s pushing.  Some people get a bit
concerned.
Stu and I are actively getting people to chill a bit.  It’s all one tight
little (HUGE!) family when you’re this close and packed.  You could barely
move your arms.
It’s a bit warm, but the heat radiating off of all the bodies is stifling.
 Good thing I’ve got a bottle of water in my back pocket!  It was survival
stuff at that point.  I felt bad for short people.  At least Stu and I
were just tall enough to breath in the bit of breeze that was there.

Lights go down, and our boys enter.  Pete is immediately amused by the
mass amount of people and the body surfing.  He quickly can tell that the
body surfing looks dangerous.  Yeah, when you’re standing there watching
the stage and all of a sudden a person is thrown on your
head....yeah...that’s dangerous. Plus, more than one surfer fell landing
on their head.
Pete really got concerned when he saw a boy about the same age of his own
son being hurled around.  We caught him and gently passed him forward to
the security guards.  A look was exchanged with Pete as we acknowledged
the situation and also did our best to keep things in control. We were the
elders in the crowd in front of Pete.  I think Pete just had to stop
looking at one point.  I could only imagine the thoughts running through
his head.

The Who blew everyone else away.  They got the most cheers.  Every song
was played tight as could be, and the crowd responded to watching the
master.  This was Pete’s show.  Time for him to take center stage and run
with this bad boy.  Stu and I were the Who encyclopedia’s for our section,
answering the younger ‘generation’s’ questions, and impressing them with
set-list predictions that came true, etc..
 WAY shifted the crowd to the next gear.  When Baba O’ came up, the crowd
went nuts.  I’ve never......*ever* seen or heard anything like it.  The
combined experience of what was going on all around me was unbelievable. 
40,000 people singing every word of the lyrics together.  It was
powerful.
When it was done, *everyone* knew they had just seen the finale of the
festival.  It couldn’t get any higher.
The only negative was that you had to keep looking back for “incoming!”
bodies.
It could have ended after BO’r, but we also got the full Tommy medley. 
Like precision Thomas took music at this festival to a new more
sophisticated and technically advanced level.  I was looking around and
saw jaws hanging wide open.  The sparks started to fly like when you start
traveling at light speed.  The level of energy of the crowd continued to
rise.  It was going to blow!
Pete had us all right in his hands!
Then, he got pissed.  He got tangled in his guitar strap.  It took some of
the momentum away.  Pete, not visibly pissed, grabbed the guitar from
around his neck and started hammering it, and slammed it down on the
ground.  Momentum back on the rise.....Stu and I thinking it’s getting
smashed.......
Right when you thought it was coming, Pete brings it down for a landing. 
Roger asked him with a smile if he was going to do it...Pete just shook
his head ‘no’ and let the closing feedback end with a scissor kick and
downbeat.
Crowd.......went..............NU-U-UTS!
Anger in their faces!
Fists pumping!
“WHO-WHO-WHO-WHO-WHO!!!” chants rang out clear as a bell from everyone.
What a great moment to be a fan.  I was psyched for the boys on stage
soaking it in.

You know the set.  Hits only, except for Mike Posts’ Theme.  Absolutely
the right call.
The Chilly Peppers had a mass exodus when they played their new material.

After The Who was done, we fought to get out of the front.  It took about
15min. just to get to a density of crowd that you could move in again. 
Un-friggin’ real.
Tried to find my wife, who was there with my 4year old, but no luck.
Stu pulls out two food vouchers, and we wolf down some grill food and a
beer while listening to the Chili Peppers.  Their guitarist rocks, but the
material played was unknown to most, and fell flat.

We were both exhausted at that point.  The walking dead were everywhere. 
With the Peppers boring us (and everyone else, it looks like), we head
home.
I think The Who just took the stuffing out of everyone.

 I walk Stu to his car, give him directions, and then head back to cross
the infield one last time.  On my way, I got a guy from MTV to take a
photo of me on the interview couch.
Ha!  Too funny.
Still don’t know if The Who did an interview.  I sacrificed my chance to
get a photo with them, in favor of getting close to the stage.

I’m back at the house by 10pm, just in time to put me boy to bed and chat
about what it was like for him to see The Who.  He was doy-doy by then,
and kept saying something about “the peppers,....the peppers.”  The next
day he kept asking to hear WAY.  So there!

Phewwww!
What a show.  Never seen The Who at a festival.  They absolutely stole the
show.
As Stu said....”Another festival stolen.”

We rolled out Sunday morning at 10 to continue South.  After talking with
one of the stage hand managers the day before, I knew they were working a
5hr. shift right after the show, and then another 10hrs on Sunday.  When
we left, the stage was just a skeleton, with cranes in place removing
towers.

Now I’m here:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Surf+on+Sound+Rd+%26+Surf+on+Sound+Dr,+Frisco,+NC+27936&ie=UTF8&z=15&ll=35.230337,-75.634518&spn=0.014443,0.042915&om=1&iwloc=A

Quite possibly the best place on the East
coast................well...............second to VT.
A different sedation......
Vitamin D and H2O vs. Granola, snow and mountain air.
I’ll take ‘em both, thank you!

Kevin in VT
P.S.  When I’m back home, I’ll download my photos and set up a small web
site.  I’ve got some doseys.