How to Choose?
The line up: Grouplove,
The Naked and Famous, Foster The People, Cage The Elephant, Noel Gallagher,
Florence + The Machine, Death Cab For Cutie, Mumford & Sons, The Black
Keys, and Jane’s Addiction.
Who will be the stand out band? Hmmm…
The line up was daunting – so much to see! I definitely went
in thinking I knew band would be the best. I mean, duh, I have good taste in
music. But I was not even close.
The show was set up on a revolving stage with 25, 30, and 45
minutes sets, increasing as the night progressed. It made the lag time between
sets non-existent and created the perfect music sampler!
It also made it necessary to choose which band would be the
“pee break” band (Cage the Elephant of course).
So the three best performances for me were Grouplove, Noel
Gallagher, and Florence + The Machine.
Grouplove was a fresh-faced band with an upbeat urban jungle
sound that proved to be the new hottest thing. Noel Gallagher got me because I
didn’t think he would. I mean Oasis… really? But yeah, really. The man can
sing!
But by far, the band of the night was unmistakably Florence
+ The Machine. With an elegant, TALL presence and a voice that radiated through
my body, Florence was not only stunning but also extremely gifted. And I mean
gifted as in a voice of an angel. There was a feeling of awe that permeated
through the crowd as we all danced while straining to get a glance at the
goddess.
The show was an amazing cliff note of what was hot in 2011.
Definitely the bands to have seen, making it real hard to choose favorites. But I stand by my choices.