Black Mountain

thither said

Yeah, I really wanted to like this but it was just completely impractical to see the bands I wanted to in any way that made me feel a connection to them, plus the fact that so many irritating meatheads like the same music I do was kind of depressing to me.

On the plus side, biking to and from the event was amazingly smooth. The SFBC deserves huge kudos for their valet bike parking efforts.

Michael G said

transportation/muni nightmare both coming a going. radiohead was great (minus the sound outages). shitty scheduling with too many bands overlapping so that you had to pick and choose whom to see. meh

Brendan B said

Yeah, things were in some disarray Friday night and the sound cut-outs were pretty mind-boggling. But otherwise it was awesome. I hope they do it next year. Although at that price, they'll need to have a line-up just as strong to get me in for 3 days.

Amy #1 said

sounds like i just got a $100 richer!

Kenneth B said

I was too busy with other stuff, so I only went on Friday for Radiohead. And there were a lot of people there, so the stage was far away! Outrage! Perhaps I shouldn't have bought a three day pass. Hmmmm

langtry said

awful awful awful. everything brad k said. plus no one's cell phone worked at all so you couldnt find anyone or get a hold of people. maybe my worst concert experience ever. waste of $100. The only thing that saved my weekend was that Ryan Adams the next night at Fillmore might have been close to the best show i've ever seen. odd how that worked out in the same weekend.

Victoria said

Phew. Glad I ended up deciding to skip it.

Brad K said

Radiohead ruled, but that was given if you were a Radiohead fan. I was decently pissed about the awfulness of the festival, but having just gotten back from night two, I'd say that things were better. The first night's biggest problem was the start time and the crowd. Radiohead brought in what seemed like a sold out crowd, and starting the show at 5pm on a Friday had traffic problems for MUNI for most of the evening. Once you got inside, things were in total disarray. There was minimal signage to direct you about. Trash cans were more or less kept in the food areas, though people were eating at the stages, and this caused a lot of excess garbage strewn about the fields.. The sound system cut out twice during Radiohead, as if it's generator had shut off. It screwed up a few times during Tom Petty tonight, as well. Not sure why that occurred, but it's unforgivable for a big show. The sound system for the 2nd largest stage (Beck, Lupe, Primus, etc.) is wretched. If you're withing 50 feet of the stage, expect the volume levels to waver dramatically during the show. I'm pretty sure that Beck songs have vocals, but after last night, I wasn't sure. Exiting the show was a nightmare, and if you weren't MUNI savvy, you were screwed. They basically told thousands of people to wait for the N at 32nd and Judah. They should have included a complex MUNI map so people could figure out different routes or done the Treasure Island shuttle run to Embarcadero station (or somewhere else on the MUNI line that would have been easy to drop people off). On a positive note, with the gates opening much earlier today, it was a lot smoother getting into the venue. If you came at your leisure, you could walk right in without being packed in whatever MUNI you came in. The reduced number of Radiohead fans made the evening calmer. I never thought of Radiohead fans as douchebags, but the way the crowd reacted to the slow exiting was shameful. I didn't see people getting shoved around that much at the Rage Against the Machine reunion at Coachella. Tom Petty night had the calmer crowd. Easy out, as it seems that a lot of people left after he played most of the hits. As another positive, best festival food around. It's almost all entirely Bay Area restaurants, so I was pretty pleased that I could have a BBQ sandwich from the Mission's Maverick. I gave the festival a D- last night, but it's risen to a C+ after a relaxing tonight, and might garner a solid B if tomorrow works out well.

Amy #1 said

how was it? i keep hearing such negative feedback! bummer. but glad i was sick

SB said

if only I could afford it...

Natalia C said

word up.