Music Festivities

The Siren Music Festival has become my favorite summer music festival. First of all, it was free. It was so well integrated into the local Coney Island scene and it seemed less corporate. For example, other summer music festivals bound me to their food and beer lines, but at Siren, it was common to sample nearby local food vendors. Since we could come and go as we pleased, we could take a break away from the music to enjoy the beach, ride a roller coaster or sit at a nearby bar. Nothing beat the ability to walk away from a crowd in 90+ degree weather in order to jump into the cool nearby beach water. That experience alone made Siren Music Festival my favorite. As for the roller coaster, I'm still in awe that the 80 year old Cyclone remained one of the greatest roller coaster rides I have ever taken.

I went with Carl and Derek this year, and that basically entailed a lot of driving. I left my house at 9:00 AM, picked up Derek in Philadelphia and picked up Carl in Northern New Jersey. I dropped them both off at the end of the day and after a detour to a diner with Derek, I arrived home at about 2:00 AM.

As for music, we saw Parts & Labor, The Dodos, Islands and Broken Social Scene. The Broken Social Scene experience was not as ecstatically joyful as the one I had at Lollapalooza two years ago, but still good, despite the buzz-killing ambulance that pulled into the middle of the crowd during their set. The other three bands were very good too. Parts & Labor were noisy and energetic, The Dodos were experimental and fascinating, and Islands were catchy and complex. I took a few pictures.

mp3: "Fractured Skies" by Parts & Labor

mp3: "Jodi" by the Dodos

mp3: "I Feel Evil Creeping In" by Islands

mp3: "Almost Crimes" by Broken Social Scene

Two nights later, I ended up at another concert. This one was at the Delaware State Fair and featured an American Idol alum. It was well known that Megan and I had drastically different music tastes. However, she really wanted to share a concert experience with me. Actually she wanted to see two American Idol acts. Each one was playing a different night. She wanted to see one with me and the other with friends, and she gave me a choice between the two. One was a pop country act and the other was a post-grunge ballad rocker. I had been very vocal about my distaste for both kinds of music. Which do you think I picked? The choice became more obvious when using visual aids.

















I took pictures of that show too.