Sunday, September 22, 2013

Music Midtown 2013

By Rusty Ruus

Friday the lineup sucked. The two Americana bands on the whole festival bill were Drivin' & Cryin' and North Mississippi Allstars. Both played at 4:00 and were missed by 90% of the attendants. Thanks a lot, schedule maker. F-you, too, BTW...  Then, it was a huge line of shit, including 2 Chains, Phoenix, and fuck; I can't remember all that garbage...  Long story short, Jane's Addiction still fucking rocks and bringing out 2 women who jammed meat hooks through their backs and swung around over the crowd put them over the top as the best act of the festival. It felt really wrong & really right at the same time.  I won't even discuss who the genius was that decided that Mexican karaoke  Journey deserved to be Friday's headliner, but I'll say, the lil' guy sounded just like Steve Perry as I was walking to my car...  At least the weather was beautiful....
Saturday the weather WAS NOT beautiful.  It rained like a motherfucker for the 1st 6 hours of the fest. Completely mud pitting the festival grounds and dampening some goddamn great sets from Reignwolf and the Black Lips.  The locals Black Lips came out to thunderous Atlanta Braves tomahawk chop music (well played, guys) and told tales of sneaking into all Music Midtown's from the past.  Weezer was okay. Meh. They played Jonas & Hashpipe 1st & 2nd so I went to eat at the food trucks 3rd time.  The Arctic Monkeys, one more time, The Arctic Monkeys, They were brilliant. During their set, the rain began to let up, a bit. They were my most anticipated band at the show & did not disappoint. Alex Turner is a really charismatic rock star & told tales to lead from one song to the other... The rhythm with which he delivers the lyrics is really unique and it was great to finally see them. Looking forward to seeing them in a smaller venue, they fucking jammed.... And a big, fat +1 to any dude who carries a comb in his pocket & brushes his hair countless times between songs... The Yeah Yeah Yeahs did not rock that much or hard. Karen O (who has been fucking banshee rock beast in the past) was over doing it and not that spontaneous. I went and ate food trucks again, when Maps began... Karen O? More like Lame-O.  Queens of the Stone Age was next... And Awesome! Josh & Alex Turner (arctic Monkeys) have a similar swagger to their delivery. Since we left YYYs early, we were able to get up on the rail for QOTSA. It made a huge difference. Except for the raging drunks, the set was phenomenal. They have been & will always be one of my favorite bands... Lil' sad that Atlanta got a festival set instead of a headlining gig but they'll be back soon & I anticipate it being awesome... Nothing like being in the front of 35,000 rock fans, though!  Red Hot Chili Peppers headlined. They play too much new stuff & my feet hurt... & I was soaked... 
Except for the weather (excused) poor scheduling (inexcusable) that forced me to miss BOTH DnC and NMAS, Kendrick Lamar (for QOTSA), and Cake (for Jane's), Music Midtown 2013 was pretty damn fun.