FM 94/9 Independence Jam pt 3

So by this point in the day, MgmT was hitting the mainstage. I was feeling the burn from all those stairs and a happy buzz as I descended the stairs. MgmT just makes me happy. My feeling is that some of their songs could be sped up slightly for live performances, but they just chill out all happy and it lends itself to people being able to hear every lyric of "Time To Pretend", "Youth", and all the other songs my friends and I have gotten down to since the album came out.

At this point of the day I was regretting that I didn't have a backup memory card for my camera, so I conserved and didn't even spend the full allotted time in the pit. I think this was also the point in the day that I teased one of the guards about not smiling. Blow-up beach balls were flying into the pit, so I picked one up and tossed it back to the crowd. The security are supposed to look mean and intimidating, and sometimes they are, but most of them are young, many of them servicemen or former servicemen, and after being treated like shit by everyone all day, you might seem grumpy, too. I talked to a couple of them, and I could tell they were good on the inside, particularly when one of them gave me a "psst" to let me know I needed to tend to more beach balls, something they are not allowed to do. I mean really, they're not even supposed to smile. That made me happy as I skipped out of the photo pit.

The VIP area was open by that point, so I watched the end of MgmT while eating a burger, watching the crowd slowly bump like a wave to the end of their set. We stayed up there for a while, regrettably missing The Muslims.

After discovering some barely used port-o-potties I had another quick cerveza then caught The Cold War Kids. They announced they'll have a new release later this summer and played some new songs, but kept everyone happy with "Hang Me Out To Dry" and "Hospital Beds" among others from their earlier releases (the eps and full length). I seriously love these guys and hope they end up on the Street Scene lineup, or better yet, play a little small show at the Casbah. Fingers crossed. I haven't heard anything, by the way, I'm just hoping.





At this point in the day it was about 6pm. I caught the full set, then Natalie and I were smart enough to go around from the VIP to the local stage where The Silent Comedy was just about to bring it down.