This is what those music festivals look like. What fun.
Following the demise of Basilica Block Party, Rock the Garden, TC Summer Jam, and Soundset in recent years, hungry Twin Cities rock fans finally get to sample the multi-event festival within the city limits once again at Target Field on Friday, the first day of the TC Summer Festival. The first ever.
Headlined by anthemic rock band The Killers, psychedelic heroes The Flaming Lips, and indie rock powerhouses, Death Cab for Cutie features five bands backed by the Minnesota Twins—hardly enough to call it a festival, but beggars can’t be choosy.
The first day was a hit and miss show.
Fewer than 20,000 fans showed up to the football stadium on Friday, with the upper decks completely enclosed and plenty of room to spread out in the lower bowl seats. More attendees are expected Saturday lineup With the makers of the “Radioactive” hit Imagine Dragons.
There weren’t enough people in the pit area onstage Friday for Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne to take his usual ride as he tumbled above the crowd inside a plastic bubble. However, he still brought a lot of other inflatable props with him.
Pop-rock trio at Twin Cities Yam House kicked off the event at 3:30 p.m. to a smaller crowd than they would likely play at their announced First Avenue show from the stage (November 17). After a charming, soft second set by the Cannons at Los Angeles groovers — think moody dance-pop at the Beach House with Gwen Stefani on vocals — fans finally started filtering for Death Cab’s 6 p.m. set.
Offensive captain Ben Gibbard said early on, “Thank you for coming onto the field,” but then added cheekily, “For a music festival? Huh.”
Later, he commented on all the ball game smells wafting up to the center field stage from the concession stands: “I’m just kind of overwhelmed and hungry.”
Death Cab’s 70-minute set was steady and slow-burning. The slick, melodic Seattle band balanced well-balanced 2000s-era oldies like openers “The New Year,” “Cath,” and “Soul Meets Body” with several vibrant new beats, including “Here to Forever” and Foxglove. . by Clearcut”.
A large portion of the football crowd on Friday was visibly alienated by the Flaming Lips — a near-embarrassing situation that endeared only the hallucinating Oklahoma Experiments to their longtime cheerleaders.
It didn’t help that the Lips line-up was made up entirely of the overly hazy and sometimes downbeat 2002 album “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.” Also, Quinn’s always raspy voice sounded hoarse at times. But hey, nothing can’t be beat with some giant bouncing balls, an oversized disco room, looming pink robots, and a balloon wall that says “[Bleep] Yes, the Twin Cities.
Heck yeah, flaming lips!
The Killers traveled all two blocks to get to the stadium from their gig the night before, when they played a rousing warm-up show on First Avenue. They opened the megahit field goal that ended Thursday’s club gig, “Mr. Brightside” – as if finally tipping things around on a sprawling outdoor soccer field opposite the tightly packed rock club.
“You’re witnessing our big league dreams come true tonight,” said President Brandon Flowers.
On both the festival and nightclub sets alike, Flowers and his fast paced, sexy, cool and fun-loving crew showed how they’re working on all cylinders nowadays.
Fans seated farther back from the stage dance and sing to songs like “Somebody Told Me,” “When You Were Young,” and “All These Things I’ve Done” with similar (if not quite equal) fervor as the First Avenue crowd. And both shows featured one of Prince’s best-played covers in recent memory, a high-energy, almost Queen-like spin on “I Could Never Take Your Man’s Place.”
Aside from attendance, the first night of TC Summer Fest can be seen as a win for the Twins. There were never too long lines, plenty of food/drink options, excellent stage production and very few acoustic issues inherent to US Bank Stadium. On a beautiful summer’s night, it was also nice to hear full performances from all the acts rather than the shortened festival compilations.
Hopefully, the festival itself will not be short-lived.
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