Rogers Picnic 2008 @ Fort York

21 July 2008, Allan @ 10:39 pm Rogers Picnic 2008 @ Fort York

The story of Rogers Picnic? the rain. It was raining lightly when I first arrived. I narrowly missed Born Ruffian’s set by 10 minutes in which I heard the song Hummingbird on the corner of Bathurst and Lakeshore. It sounded great from the distance.

There are was some mild raining but nothing too worrisome. By the time we signed in and went inside the rain got a little bit worse and due to having just a cap on and being in a t-shirt we sought shelter in the Nokia DJ Tent. I didn’t mind checking out the music in the DJ tent in the first place but the real problem is that most of the people had their backs turned to them (when we were there) and the rain technically wasted the purpose of the tent though getting away from the rain was a major factor.
Rogers Picnic 2008 @ Fort York
The first artist that I saw which hit the stage at 3PM was Dizzee Rascal a rap artist from the UK who was a winner of the Mercury Prize in 2003 and has been critically acclaimed for some time. The crowd was both familiar with his songs and screamed frantically with Dizzee would shout for some crowd noise backed him. It was generally the typical rap concert in my opinion with Dizzee’s support being kind of annoying. After every song, he would yell, “Make some fuckin’ noise”. I think after the 3rd time he said that I was pretty annoyed. Two other guys in front of me were commenting that maybe he should change it up a bit and get creative with trying to inspire the crowd to be even louder. The point being made though is that the crowd was already well into his performance so Dizzee’s support asking for some noise about 10 times was pointless and cliché.

I personally didn’t know Dizzee was so loved by the critics and I wasn’t wowed by his performance. He did work the crowd a bit and had some songs worth mentioning.

Rogers Picnic 2008 @ Fort York
The next band, Vampire Weekend was clearly the reason I decided to go to Rogers Picnic in the first place. Ezra Koenig was in short-shorts, which he called a bathing suit, maybe, he was going to bathe in the rain? Anyway having caught Vampire Weekend at the Horseshoe, I was quite aware at hw good their live performance was already. They played a new song, which featured some fun singing from both Rostam and Chris. I have no idea what the title is but it was a fun song. They were great live and had a lot of fans singing and jumping around. Otherwise, it felt like a short set but were very good nonetheless.
MP3: One (Blake’s Got A New Face) by Vampire Weekend
Rogers Picnic 2008 @ Fort York
The next band was Animal Collective and while I know about them, I’m not exactly their biggest fan. Their music is mainly weird and they seemed out of place at Roger’s Picnic. They definitely were more suited to Pitchfork’s Festival, which they played the day before. However, quite a few Animal Collective fans sang along. Animal Collective only came out with two of their members, with Noah Lennox aka Panda Bear and Avey Tare as the only members. The fans were generally quiet while Animal Collective played incredibly long tracks. The only track I knew beforehand was the song Comfy in Nautica. It was an alright performance but the crowd had blank stares for the most part. At the end of show, Animal Collective threw out T-shirts but Avey Tare didn’t have much of arm and could only throw them a few feet.
MP3:Comfy in Nautica by Panda Bear
Rogers Picnic 2008 @ Fort York
The next band was Chromeo, from Montreal/New York, which had the crowd on fire. I may not be the biggest Chromeo fan but they had the type of performance that won people over. They kept things fun and a lot of the crowd was dancing. They occasionally threw drumsticks into the crowd, which kept everyone on their feet. They won over Kevin and in general, they were quite enjoyable which is important for a festival.
MP3: Fancy Footwork by Chromeo

Rogers Picnic 2008 @ Fort York
Tokyo Police Club came out to one of the loudest cheers and has quite a few raucous fans. Overall, I was impressed with their guitarist, who played some awesome riffs occasionally. I had an issue with the guy behind me singing his lungs off lyric after lyric. In this case, this was bad for my impression of the band as lyrically it seemed weak and I could not judge how good the vocals were as Dave Monks singing was overshadowed by the overzealous fan (They haven’t seen this guide to not be a douchebag). They were alright, they didn’t change my opinion of the band though and it didn’t force me to like them at all.

Rogers Picnic 2008 @ Fort York
Cat Power came out to a modest cheer but for the first 3 songs her performance seemed to lack an intimate feeling and it was something to just sit through. I absolutely had to leave early as my legs (specifically my ankles) gave out and I was forced to leave just as she was going to play Lost Someone. I wasn’t impressed with those 3 songs but I’m sure the show would have been much better had I stayed. Sorry Dallas Green.
MP3: Lost Someone by Cat Power

Out of all things from the festival, I was most impressed with the fans. The fans endured through the rough rain and still managed to provide much needed support. Crowd morale was generally quite high and an outdoor festival in the rain is something to be experienced once.

Chromeo:

Tokyo Police Club
http://music.allansworld.info/files/Rogers Picnic/IMG_0546.jpg

Cat Power:
http://awmusic.ca/wp-content/plugins/hot-linked-image-cacher/upload//files/Rogers Picnic/IMG_0548.jpg
http://music.allansworld.info/files/Rogers Picnic/IMG_0549.jpg
http://music.allansworld.info/files/Rogers Picnic/IMG_0550.jpg
http://music.allansworld.info/files/Rogers Picnic/IMG_0551.jpg
http://music.allansworld.info/files/Rogers Picnic/IMG_0552.jpg
http://music.allansworld.info/files/Rogers Picnic/IMG_0553.jpg

Share and Enjoy:

Filed under: Animal Collective, Cat Power, Chromeo, Dizzee Rascal, Vampire Weekend

AWmusic