WFNX Clambake – 6.27.10

I have never been to an actual festival before.  I never even had my teenage Warped Tour phase.  I’ve only ever gone to single concert, two or three band, events at mostly indoor locations.  So when the opportunity came up to go to WFNX’s First Annual Clambake featuring The Henry Clay People, Against Me, Gogol Bordello, Matt and Kim, Silversun Pickups, Rogue Wave, Nada Surf, and Metric, I knew I had to go.

Now, before we get into the show, I think we need to discuss the concept of first annual.  Yes, I understand FNX you’re planning on making this a normal occurrence for years to come, and that’s great.  However, to advertise as the first annual just seems odd.  There’s nothing wrong with saying ‘WFNX’s Clambake.’  Seems like a great time to me.

Also, I was upset there were no actual clams to eat at the Clambake.  Only a guy dressed in a lobster costume.

Anyways, now that I’m done with my rants, let’s get into the show.  One kind of cool aspect about the Clambake itself was that each act was given more and more time to preform as the acts went along.  Not only was this a good warm up, but it was a good way of building the anticipation for the later, big name acts.

The Henry Clay People came on first.  Knowing nothing about them, I quickly found out that they are from LA and two of the members are brothers, and one of the brothers is a childhood friend of one of the other members: A real Kings of Leon situation.  They had a pretty good sound even though they were only on the stage for 25 minutes.  The real anti-climatic moment of the whole night was when the lead singer built up the anticipation on how their last song would be their best, only to be informed by the crew that their time was up and they couldn’t perform.  What a disappointment.

Against Me followed, coming out dressed in all black, which I guess is their thing.  While I am not a fan of Against Me, I thought that had a really good fan presence at the Clambake.  Their fans also knew some things I did not know – times to clap, arm gestures, and other various song cues that went way over my head – but they were having fun with it.

The one thing that was really interesting about the Clambake was that each band had its own following in the crowd.  After each act, that crowd would clear out, and the super fans of the next act would push to the front.  This made it hard to figure out which act had the most fans, since front and center always had the big fans.

Next came Matt and Kim, the act I was most excited for.  Now, while it’s hard to pick a clear winner for which act pumped up the audience the most, I can say for sure Matt and Kim definitely had the most fun performing.  They came out with an incredible amount of energy, and worked to keep that energy up the whole time.  Kim stood on her bass drum a few times and attempted to pump up the crowd.  Matt scaled the stage and hung from the top.  At one point the two of them threw the audience a bunch of unfilled balloons and had everyone blow them up and hit them around.

Not only did they keep the energy up on stage, but they also broke out some great songs.  Of course they played their hits like Good Old Fashion Nightmare, Yeah Yeah, and Daylight, but they also played some nice renditions of Do You Think We’re Better Off Alone, The Remix To Ignition by R. Kelly, and, my favorite, The Final Countdown by Europe.  All in all, Matt and Kim were the funnest band up there.

Gogol Bordello, the next band up, did give Matt and Kim a run for their money.  Even though I had never heard any songs by them before, I have consistently heard they are a good band to listen to, but they are an even better band live.  I thought they had a really unique sound, and they definitely had a pretty good following there also.  I enjoyed their collection of instruments on stage, which included an electric violin, an accordion, and a cajon.  Their lead singer came out with a bottle of wine, got shirtless pretty quickly, and then sprayed the audience with about half of the bottle of wine towards the end of their set.  The audience loved it.

The final act on the outside stage at the Clambake was the Silversun Pickups.  They came on just as the sun was setting over Landsdowne, and the audience was pretty excited.  They had a nice mix of songs from both of their CDs, but the most badass thing about them was their bass player.  Not only was she a cute chick, but Silversun Pickups have some of the catchiest lines and she rocks them.

The other first I had at the Clambake was first witnessed crowd surf.  Being at a bunch of indoor venues isn’t really conducive to crowd surfing, but outdoors + Silversun Pickups = the perfect opportunity for it I guess.  I got to see 5 people crowd surf, and it was ridiculous in person as it looks in movies.  I thought the best part about the crowd surfers was that each time they were pulled from the front of the crowd to the pit area, every one of them expected to be shown towards the exit, but they were just herded back into the mass group of people.  It made me smile.

So that was the WFNX’s Clambake.  There were tears, laughs, and awkward silences.  Ok, maybe just music and cheering.