Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Volapalooza- a personal review.

Volapalooza is an end-of-the-semester concert that is put on by the events program at the University of Tennessee. Throughout my years in attendance at this school, they have managed to book some pretty impressive artists like Cake, Dashboard Confessional, and Gym Class Heroes.
This year's headliner was electro dance poppers, Passion Pit.

Overall, I would give the experience a 7/10, docking three points for the following reasons:

1. Asher Rother was the opening "performer." I use the term "performer" loosely because his display was more of an act rather than a legitimate show. Although my standards were admittedly low to begin with, Asher did nothing to disprove my prior doubts.
In the first place, he was a crowd pleaser to the highest extent. Every now and again he would sneak an "Eric Berry" or a "Wayne Chism" into his rap in order to pump up the Volunteer crowd. Then, he brought several girls onto the stage during the song "She Don't Wanna Man" and completely exploited them.

Well, ok...they might have done that all on their own.
Yes, girl in the yellow dress, I am talking to you.

2. The nearby crowd contributed to my second docked point. After Asher Roth, Flogging Molly took the stage.
In case it isn't inferable by their name alone, Flogging Molly is a "celtic punk" rock band out of San Francisco, California with an Irish twang. Their sound is very different as they utilize less popular instruments like accordions and strings. However, while they put on a heck of a show, it is safe to say that some of the crowd wasn't feeling it. And by "wasn't feeling it," I mean, wasn't giving it a chance. This is unfortunate because their performance was top notch.
As a whole, this band is full of veteran performers. They weren't trying to please the crowds by imposing lame "please like me" phrases into their performance like Asher's "Tennessee football rocks!" They were very genuine, loud, and overall, were having a good time on stage.

3. My third docked point is merited by the fact that Passion Pit wasn't as hard hitting as I had hoped (at least in the beginning). I had been looking forward to seeing Passion Pit ever since the lineup was announced several months ago. I've liked them for quite some time now. Their electronic/dance sound is very comparable to that of Hot Chip or Justice. Thus, if you enjoy those bands, Passion Pit would definitely be up your alley. When they arrived on stage it took a couple of songs before I finally got into it. Perhaps it was technical problems, but as mentioned before, it wasn't as loud and hard hitting as I was expecting. However, once a good beat came on about three songs into their set, I couldn't stand still!
Thanks Jessica for sticking around! Otherwise, my dance party would have been solo and lonely.

1 comment:

  1. i love hearing of new music. i stumbled across your blog today and am excited to have some new music to listen to. thanks! :)

    [stop by and say hi if you feel like it.]
    www.itwalkedonmypillow.blogspot.com

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