BlueHaze

despite the rain I had a great time! animal collective was the highlight of my day and the rest of the bands we're just icing on the cake! is it just me or did anyone else see these guys from roulette hanging around? :O http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHKiC6K47m0

The Rogers Picnic ticket reads like this: DRS @ 1pm - Sunday July 20 2008 2pm

First act - the Carps at 1:25pm
I'm still in line. So is pretty much everyone else. I can hear the Carps. I'm sure they're putting on a good show. For no one. Ever so slowly they start letting us in (starting with Rogers Wireless Ticket holders first).

Second act - Born Ruffians at 2:15pm
I'm a pretty big fan of this band, I think their cd Red, Yellow & Blue is fantastic. Their live show was... okay. They have youthfulness about them that's charming. The drummer professed his love for Animal Collective which endeared me to him. I think I read once that they share a producer. I don't know if that's true or not. I'm too lazy to research these facts at this time.

Third act - Dizzee Rascal at 3:00pm
Dizzee seems a little out of place here. Not to say that he had no fans in the crowd. But looking from Dizzee and to the mostly frail and pastey crowd, and then back to Dizzee you would expect this is not his usual audience. Trying to engage the audience with less than satisfactory results I can safely come to the conclusion that this was not a highlight success in Dizzee's concert carreer. All that said his performance was pretty awesome. I love the dirty basslines.

Fourth act - Vampire Weekend at 4:00pm
Vampire Weekend has a feel good sound that you can't deny. They also sing about college life which is something I'm a little too far removed from at this point to relate to. The singer looks like he maybe just hit the legal drinking age in the States. He was wearing horrible shorts which he informed us were actually swimming trunks. Practical. I went for a hotdog and a beer at this point. Things the lead singer said that annoyed me equal two. One - "We're happy to play with so many great bands, sandwiched in between some good Canadian bands." Oh so there's the good bands and then there's the Canadian bands? Two - "Chromeo is up next."

Fith act - Animal Collective at 5:05pm
Animal Collective is my favourite band so I relinquished my spot along the fence and made my way up to the front of the stage at the edge of the barricade. I had pretty much the best view I could hope for. Avey Tare and Panda Bear helped set up their gear, a complex affair with lots of wires. They played an amazing meandering 20 minute version of Fireworks as well as a dramatic Comfy in Nautica complete with torrential downpour. Really powerful. Pretty abruptly they finished their set. Avey started throwing tshirts to the crowd and I got so excited I screamed like a crying Beatles fan. He threw them all to the other side of the crowd. Damnit. There weren't any in the merch booths either. On a side note Avey was wearing a really lame hat. But I guess it was good for the rain. I also enjoyed that some of the other bands were watching backstage, most notably some of the kids from Born Ruffians who looked thrilled.

Sixth act - Chromeo at 6:10pm
Watching the equipment get set up made me terribly concerned about lightening. This equipment included keyboards with light up female mannequin legs as stands. There was plenty of glitz for the background too. There were some seriously enthusiastic Chromeo fans in the crowd. One extremely annoying and probably high girl screamed at us at one point commanding us to "DANCE!!!!" during a momentary pause in my head bobbing.

I left at this point.

The rest of the lineup went like this:
Tokyo Police Club (see review from last weekend)
Cat Power (see review from last year)
City in Colour (and Colour?) (no interest)
Comments

Here's my more detailed review:
Got to the show during Born Ruffians or was it Dizzee Rascal. Not my typical musical genre - but whoever they were they seemed to get the crowd bouncing despite the downpour.
Next thing I remembered was Vampire Weekend. The sun *almost* came out for a split second during the set. How fitting since they were the single shining light from the day's performances. Tight, polished and together - their brand of bubblegum was well received.
Animal Collective then came on missing a member of the collective and playing as a two piece. I dunno if it was the misery of the rain or what but I was ready to poke my eyes out. Boring, repetitive and uninspired are words that come to mind to describe their set.
Chromeo were fun. Though there overuse of a Talk Box became distracting by the end of the set.
Tokyo Police Club was disappointing. The lead vocalist needed half the set to find his voice as he often missed notes. Despite that they raced through a good chunk of their catalogue including popular favourites.
Cat Power - there is no doubt Chan Marshall has got an amazing voice - one of the best I've heard in a long time - but her material was a serious downer for a day that was already pretty blue...
City and Colour - Well I didn't bother to stick around. I can't imaging anything by Alexisonfire dude could possibly be good - so we hit the road.

Other highlights. Pulled pork sandwiches!!! Suckling Pig!!! Sound proof booth for placing phone calls. Tents!!! GOD BLESS TENTS! Fresh Fruit vendors.... in fact all the vendors since I didn't find anything there that was a 'rip off'. Even beer was reasonably priced. All in all it was a good event. Tip of the hat to organizers.

andre

the rain sucked ass. but it was an amazing show!

rain = fun?

hey i live in barrie anyone from here going down tomorrow?

ummm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHKiC6K47m0 ????

I am totally looking forward to this. Almost got to go down to pitchfork in chicago this weekend, but this is a good local replacement... with some of the same bands!

Only 5 more days until the big Picnic...can't wait!