Friday wound up being unattractive due to parking and weather issues.
The “neutral” (i.e. not from the always-optimistic WXPN folks) weather
forecasts from Weather.com and KYW called for a strong probability of storms
mid-evening. The frequently-changing info from the XPNFest web site indicated
that only one lot south of the Ben Franklin Bridge would be available prior to
6pm. The RiverLine light rail, which I used before, was not particularly useful,
since the last train left the XPNFest neighborhood around 9:30. So Plan A was
to get to Camden around 2:30 and (hopefully) park. As it turned out, after
circling around several times I was completely unable to find the promised “Lot
6”, and decided to just catch the Wiggins Park performances on the radio. As it
turned out, the skies opened up between 7:00 and 7:30, forcing the cancellation
of the planned Lone Bellow set. They also wound up closing the XPNFest section
of the RiverLine due to flooding, and one couple I talked to while waiting in
line Sunday said they wound up parking in a chop shop Friday. In other words,
no regrets.
Saturday was hot and humid, but with only a slight chance of rain, so I
got there before the gates opened, had no problem parking and stayed for the
duration of the Wiggins Park sets. Sunday was better weather-wise, with mid-80s
temperatures and nominally low humidity, but it was still really hot in the
sun. The crowd seemed like one of the largest I’ve run into, making it
difficult to catch the Marina Stage performances if you were set up by the main
stage. I found myself running out of gas several hours in, and decided to leave
around 5:15.
Two sets were particularly noteworthy, both on Saturday.
I wasn’t especially familiar with Mondo Cozmo, but they took the River Stage midway through the afternoon and
absolutely crushed it, winning ovations not only from the up-front standees (a
crowd which ultimately extended almost halfway back the main walkway) but also
from those of us sitting on the lawn. Frontman (and Bucks County native) Joshua
Ostrander got things off on the right foot by sporting a blue Joel Embiid
jersey, with the band’s opening “Come With Me” bringing to mind U2 in their
prime. Other highlights included “Shine”, “Automatic”, “Tonight Tonight”, and a
special, family-friendly edited version of the title track from their latest
EP.
A few hours later, Margo Price
ended the Wiggins Park portion of Saturday’s festivities on a high note. While
I suppose she can properly be classified as “country” – her lyrics definitely
fit the mold, and a couple of her songs did feature pedal steel – her top-notch
band nevertheless rocked as hard as anyone else who took the stage during the
festival. (This includes Price herself, who in addition to her work on rhythm
guitar took her place behind the drum kit on two numbers.) Their set featured
mostly original material, most notably “A Little Pain”, but they also changed
things up by throwing in three well-chosen covers: “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”, “Casey
Jones”, and the closing “Proud Mary”.
Quick notes on some of the other performances are below. More detailed recaps are available from WXPN’s “The Key”; some include setlists and/or links
to the audio of the performances.
The National Reserve (Friday) – on my target list, reminded me of the
Bodeans, bought the last available copy of their CD from the merch booth on
Saturday
Katie Frank (Saturday) – reminded me of Paramore, but definitely old
Paramore, not the “Ain’t It Fun” lighter sound
Hurry (Saturday) – excellent sense of humor, brought to mind Fountains
of Wayne
&More (Saturday) – promising local hip-hop duo, who get bonus
points for building their final song “War” on a sample from “The World Is A Ghetto”
Natalie Prass (Saturday) – had a real neo-soul vibe, which for some
reason I wasn’t expecting
Lo Moon (Sunday) – Broken Bells, anyone?
Hiss Golden Messenger (Sunday) – possibly the chattiest set of the
weekend, but in a good way
