KanRockSas

So a friend of mine text me up Friday morning asking a seemingly innocent question.
     "Do you like Muse?"
     "Yeah, they're pretty good. Do you like Zero 7?.... Why?" I responded. (I was watching their video for "In the Waiting Line"
     "I have Kanrocksas tickets for tomorrow if you want them."
     "Ummmm... YES?? Please???

So she just gave me these two tickets! AWESOME! Now who to take? My wife? Her taste in music is a bit softer than mine, she typically favors Taylor Swift, Kelly Clarkson or Darius Rucker. So Cage the Elephant, A Perfect Circle or Flogging Molly will be considerably harder than she's used too. Plus OK GO starts at 4:30 and Muse doesn't go on until 11:00, so that's considerably longer than she'd be up for especially with a two month old. Well she agreed with me, so now who of my guy friends to invite? I finally decided on "Johnny".
So the line up, complete with youtube videos illustrating the music for my wife:

OK GO	4:30 PM	Ad-Astra Stage	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w
Cage The Elephant	6:30 PM	Ad-Astra Stage	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t99bpilCKw
Flogging Molly	7:30 PM	Stageasaurus Rex	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDwlGbEcJ6Y
A Perfect Circle	8:30 PM	Ad-Astra Stage	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWFv5ZoVET8
The Black Keys	9:45 PM	Stageasaurus Rex	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpaPBCBjSVc
Muse	11:00 PM	Main Stage	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8KQmps-Sog

So at this point, I'm stoked! I've always wanted to go to one of these festivals but haven't for one reason or another, typically morals or money. These shows aren't cheap and I've heard the stories of Rockfest.This show is free and I figure it isn't Rockfest, so it will hopefully be a little better.

So things to talk about:

The Speedway (the venue)

I think they chose an ideal location. Everything was nice and spread out but this did involve a considerable amount of walking. When you walk out into the stands, you walk down some stairs and have the rare pleasure of actually walking on the track. This was my first time at the the Speedway, but it was still a moment of "Holy Crap! I'm walking on the track that cars run around at 200+ mph. COOL!"

The Bands:

OK GO: Great Show. The guys seemed to have the same personalities on stage as they do in their videos and appearances: low-key but excited to be doing what they're doing. Odd thing I noticed, a couple of them are married. The lead singer did some "Hippie [Stuff]" and came down into the crowd and played something acoustic, I don't remember what it was. Of the songs I remember, they played "A Million Ways to be Cruel", "Here it Goes Again", "White Knuckles" and of course they ended with "This Too Shall Pass"

Cage the Elephant: I gotta say I was disappointed with this show. The lead singer forgot the words in a few places, kept stumbling around, and repeatedly walked in front of the speakers with mic in hand. I learned later that the he was supposedly tweaking. Irritated and disappointed. Of the few songs of theirs that I've heard on the radio, I was pleased but those moments were few and far between and the singing was often done more by the crowd.

Flogging Molly came out with a ton of energy and the crowd ate it up. With the start and finish of every song, the lead singer took a draw on his Guinness. I only stayed for about half of this show due more to exhaustion and hunger than anything. 

A Perfect Circle: We got there late. So we didn't have a great spot. But that didn't matter much. The show was a visual feast. The set was much less cluttered with Cage and OKGo's gear out of the way. The first thing I noticed was the lead singer was on the back left corner of the stage facing the rear curtain. I later learned that he likes the attention to be on the other band members rather than himself. I also learned that the crowd was pushing on the front barrier crushing the people up there. Apparently he paused and wouldn't continue until the safety folks said it was okay. That's cool. Thanks Maynard for taking care of your fans. The music was angsty and soothing. It draws you in much the way Tool does.

The Black Keys: We only stayed for the first two songs. Basically, they weren't that exciting to us and that exhaustion thing set in again so we went and set on the grass waiting for Muse with good spots picked out.

Muse: Amazing! I loved the fact that they signed up for a 90 minute show and they played almost every one of those 90 minutes. Lasers, smoke, hexagon LCDs in tandom, the only thing they were missing were pyrotechnics. And holy crap Matt Belamy can shred lead guitar. I have since bought several of their songs off of Amazon. We were about 50 feet from the stage and dead center right along the center aisle

The atmosphere ( everything else)
The Good: Samsung Charging station and Philly cheese steaks. "People are going to be here for hours on end, lets give them a place to charge their cell phones." Brilliant!

The Bad: drugs and scantily clad women. yep I didn't appreciate either of these.

In all I had a great time, but I doubt I will be returning again next year for the same reasons I've never attended an event like this before, morals and money.