Today in bummers: Treasure Island Music Festival is over (and it’s Monday no less). So here’s a fond look at what the festival was.
Most notable performance: How do you win a festival? Play a slowed-down cover of "No Diggity." This and Chet Faker’s other jams had fans dancing with their eyes closed, some imitating his incredible video for "Drop The Game."
Strangest fashion accessory (spotted on multiple people): Forget animal prints: now it’s time to dress as actual animals at festivals. It was Noah’s Ark on Treasure Island, with Griz Coat hosting a booth and repping their bear costumes pretty hard.
Best thing eaten/drank all day: As for foods I did not know I could eat all of: a big pile of garlic fries. The ingredients here being lots of garlic and fries. It is better not to share these with friends, but to eat them all yourself, and quickly. People will still know you had garlic fries from your breath, but you can lie and say you just had one or two someone gave you.
Best band we saw before 3 p.m.: White Denim. These shredders took the stage at 1:20, and by 2:00 p.m. they had literally unstrung a guitar on stage to great sonic effect.
Show with the best fans: TV on the Radio fans are everywhere, though it takes an excellent performance from these veterans to bring them all out of the woodwork. Friends I didn’t know were completely obsessed waited patiently in front of the Bridge Stage, some missing Chet Faker, to get a good view of the band, and they were well rewarded. Though TVOTR neglected to play hits like "Staring at the Sun," they countered with some new jams, asking humbly, “Do you guys want to hear new music from TV on the Radio?” The answer was yes.
What I learned about modern festivals today: Burning Man is everywhere. The expensive experiment in living money free has influenced sculptures and cultures at so many festivals like this one. The Bay Area’s Burning Man ties in particular make for plenty of crossover. Even the animal suits, I’m told, are a bit of a burner thing, as was the “Dirigible” built on top of truck from which I took in the Alt-J set.
Today’s WTF: No Thanks, Sax Guy: Bringing your own instrument to a festival at which you are not playing is probably not a good thing to do, at least if you ask one woman confronting a solo sax player. As he belted out a rendition of George Michael's Never Gonna Dance Again, she was repeatedly shouting, “No Thank you.” Another fun fact we learned: Metallica's James Hetfield was apparently back stage at Treasure Island on Sunday afternoon, watching the football game on big screen TVs.
Overheard at Treasure Island Music Fest: A woman feeling a guy up said, “I’m engaged, and I’m terrible!” Note: I don't think she was engaged to this particular guy. Also overheard: Several Lorde truthers having a loud conversation at the Banks performance, but thankfully there were no Banks conspiracy theories to be heard.
Want more? Check out Sunday's TIMF style coverage, and Saturday's fashion and festival coverage.