BSMF Amazingness, Year 2

As you may remember from reading the last entry regarding the Beale Street Music Festival, this is the second year in a row that my friend Jason and I have gone to BSMF. I think we plan on continuing the tradition, because it’s just so damn fun.

However, this year’s BSMF almost wasn’t, for us. We procrastinated even more than we did last year (which is sad), and we almost didn’t go. In return for our laziness, we were able to find an even cheaper Hotel this year than last year, and we reserved it approximately a week before the show. Pretty nice. Another thing was that this year we had a different guest in tow. This year, our friend from college, Erin Poerschke, joined us for the awesomeness. Finally, this year wasn’t so much about there being a ton of artists that we just had to see like last year (I’m pretty sure it’s going to be hard to beat the 2007 BSMF in terms of lineup, at least for me and Jason[unless it’s fucking Voodoo Fest ’07 which was superbly epic, but expensive and I couldn’t go]). This year was more about seeing some “fun” shows and just enjoying ourselves for the last weekend together (school, like last year, gets out the week right before BSMF, which is really nice for us).

If you’re familiar with last year’s entry about BSMF, you’re not going to have to worry about length as much this year (I don’t think) but it should still be a considerable length. So, without further ado:

Day One!

Concert One – Lord T & Eloise

Wow. These guys were just so ridiculous. I would try to explain them via text, but you wouldn’t get the full effect. So instead, I present you with a picture of the two, courtesy of last.fm:

Just super-ridiculous. It wasn’t a bad show, I have to say. Interesting, at the least.

Concert Two- Flyleaf

During this concert, I met up with some friends we knew from the Memphis area, that was pretty cool. We talked for a while, and there were serenaded by the weird Lacey Mosley. It was a pretty good show, though I’ll be the first to admit the reason I even knew of them is because of Rock Band (and that one of my roommates from the last year sung that song as incredibly screamo as he could). I will say that the bassist for that band is incredibly crazy — I’m pretty sure he took every opportunity he could to jump off the monitors in the front.

Concert Three – Hellogoodbye

It was at this point that Jason, Erin and I parted ways for the night. They wanted to go see Ben Folds (which would have been pretty cool, but I don’t really know much of him) and The Roots (a band I know absolutely nothing of), so I decided to stay with our Memphis friends for Hellogoodbye and My Chemical Romance (don’t judge me >_>). That turned out to be the better decision, for one reason: rain. See, it’s inevitable that it rains during BSMF. This year, it was on Friday. And it was a torrential rain. Really bad. Because of the rain, it turns out, the stage that Ben and the Roots were performing on (it’s the only one facing in the opposite direction of the other stages, which turned out to be its downfall) was basically shut down — the rain was able to get on the entire stage at their end, while the others were partly protected from the back. So unfortunately, Jason and Erin didn’t get to see their concerts, and I got to freeze my ass off in the rain and wind in return.

But the concert: I really enjoyed this one. I think if you didn’t get at least some entertainment from this concert (whether it was from the music or just being able to make fun of the singer for his weird mannerisms), then you’re probably not human. I’ll admit, I like HGB even though it’s kinda “girly” (>_>), and I really enjoyed the concert. I couldn’t see because the rain got on my glasses, and I don’t have contacts (that’s on the list to get before next year’s BSMF), but it didn’t really detract.

Concert Four – My Chemical Romance

I see you laughing there. STFU. This concert was actually really fun. The singer wasn’t drunk (at least not too bad), so he actually performed well, and it was a pretty cool atmosphere. I did laugh a bit on the inside when they didn’t play the first guitar solo from “Dead!”, but that’s OK, I guess. >_>

MCR was the last show of the day, so after that, I headed off to the car to learn that Jason and Erin had been sitting in it for a while due to show cancellations and rain. We went back to the hotel and died for the night.

Day Two

We started out the day by going to Jim Neeley’s Interstate Barbeque. Oh my God. If you’re in Memphis, EAT HERE if you want real, awesome BBQ. It was so super-amazing good.

Afterwards, it was back to the “daily grind”. ;P

Concert One – Al Kapone

First of all, a disclaimer: I don’t like rap. I would go as far as saying that I hate the genre.

With that said, I really loved this concert. Yes, it was rap, but it was really good. However, I may be a biased because he actually used real people playing real instruments to play his set. I was really surprised at that, and I applaud him greatly for the showing.

Concert Two – Tegan and Sara

Next concert was Tegan and Sara. Not a band I knew personally, but Erin really liked them, and since we were almost on the fence, we stayed for them. They were pretty good. Mostly singer-songwriter-style music, but they did have a lot of anecdotes (basically Sara saying that she’s a weak Canadian who doesn’t like the hear [her words, not mine] and other stuff), which were pretty good. Also, Tegan flipped Sara off once during the set, that was exciting. Strange, though, as they were supremely nice. After every song, they would say “Thank you very much” after the crowd clapped for them. Overall, it was pretty good. We did see some weird looking people in the crowd, but that’s not a story for now.

At this point, I left for the bathroom and random wandering around the park, because I didn’t want to say for Colbie Caillat. So basically, I didn’t really see any shows for a while, though I did get a few snippets — mostly bad. Like The Whigs and Cat Power. At Cat Power, we all rejoined with our Mephisian Friends and decided that she really sucked, and decided that Simple Plan would be a better choice.

Concert Three – Simple Plan

This concert was really good. I wasn’t all that familiar with them (I know a few songs), but I still enjoyed it.

After Simple Plan, we stayed a bit for Seether, but when the crowd started compacting (á là Godsmack last year), we decided that that was not the band for us. ;) We moved on to Lou Reed.

Concert Four – Lou Reed

This concert really sucked. I’m not even going to lie. It could have been partly due to the contact high I got from the little bit we were in Seether’s crowd that gave me a massive headache, but mostly it was that the guy just really wasn’t very good. The format was jamband-style, which I usually just enjoy, but this guy couldn’t pull it off. Nothing was particularly amazing (something that should happen with jambands) and the guy’s voice was really annoying and chanted the same lines over 2309745987 in the course of a song. This was not a concert I enjoyed.

Concert Five – Santana

How can you not like Santana? Seriously, though, this concert was super amazing. THIS is a jamband you need to see. Plus, it’s fukken Santana. I’m happy to say that I’ve marked off one of my “dream” concerts off the list (now I just need to figure out a way to see Muse live >_>).

Day the Final

For our final day, our Memphis friends decided to give us a short impromptu tour of downtown Memphis. Before they got there, though, we went down Beale Street a bit and watched some random Blues Band play in a corner. It was pretty sweet. The friends were met, tours were give, and good food was had at a place called Rum Boogies. It was epic.

Concert One – Carney

This may be the surprise concert of the festival. They were so good. They had a very blues / western rock (kind of like a Bon Jovi) feel. They also did a cover of the Beatles and it was sooo good. Awesome band. Go pick up their EP.

Concert Two – Rue Melo

This concert was decent. It would have been way better if the three instrumentalists just dropped the girl and became like a funk band. Her voice was so annoying.

Finger Eleven – Finger Eleven

This concert was superb. The songs they played were awesome and the band really got into. They were just super-crazy. Especially the rhythm guitarist. He would hold the guitar by the neck (whilst fretting the chords), and he would change the chords by tossing the guitar up and catching it in the correct position. That’s crazy. The drummer and lead guitarist were insane, too, but what they did were indescribable. I was really disappointed at the bassist, though. He didn’t really do… anything. The best part of the concert was when they did Covers of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)” and Franz Ferdinand’s “Take Me Out“. They were incredible, but I was a bit disappointed when they didn’t play Floyd’s solo ;).

Concert the Last – Fergie

Yes, I went to both an MCR and a Fergie concert. So sue me. I didn’t enjoy this one at all, though. It was basically just her being a whore (imagine that) and ruining classic rock. Suffice it to say, we left early for home.

So, after leaving Fergie early, we drove home with a stop for snax and a switchover so that Jason wouldn’t fall asleep during his driving and kill us. ;) Pretty uneventful ending to an awesome weekend.