Firefly Festival 2013 re-caps: Friday | Saturday | Sunday
Oh Sunday, you sly devil. On paper, Sunday was easily the weakest of the three days. It was a shorter schedule, and we had a lot of mixed feelings on the “split-headliner” idea going into the festival. Our hopes for Sunday were further dashed when a string of thunderstorms rolled in just as the bands got underway. We were in for a pleasant surprise.
We hid in our camper until about 2:30 p.m., when the storm seemed to die down. Unfortunately, this caused us to miss HAIM, and we were really interested to see them in this setting. We made it through the gates about halfway into Matt & Kim’s set on the Lawn stage.
As we learned Saturday, there is not a whole lot of room for the tardy at the Lawn stage. We watched from a distance as the Brooklyn duo alternated between playing their own songs and cuing up random rap songs. The highlight came when a Big Freedia song came on and Kim started twerking while standing on the hands of a few audience members. By the time they started the intro to “Daylight,” the storm clouds started to burn off. It was one of those moments that are really easy for music bloggers to romanticize, so we’ll spare you.
Not too long after that–on a stage far, far away–Robert DeLong threw down a tour-de-force performance on the Porch stage. DeLong is the Molly generation’s answer to a one-man band. Drawing a respectable crowd on the festival’s smallest stage, his bouncy EDM jams had everyone moving from start to finish.
We made the short trip to the Backyard stage and caught what ended up being the most slept-on set of the weekend. Capital Cities absolutely crushed it. We heard a ton of buzz about these guys at SXSW and they seemed to explode shortly thereafter. The band’s music is lighthearted and fun to begin with, but add in a few stellar covers (Prince, BeeGees, Madonna), and the live show is downright infectious. If they ever come through D.C., make sure you are there.
Oh, Passion Pit. You and Firefly were just not meant to be. After cancelling last year’s appearance due to personal issues, Michael Angelakos’ shot at redemption came to a screeching halt when the frontman lost his voice mid-set. In fairness, Angelakos gave it his best effort, but sometimes there is not much you can when your vocal chords up and quit on you. The show was good until then, but the band was inevitably forced to cut it short.
Silver lining: we got a nice early jump on staking out a spot for Vampire Weekend at the Lawn. As one half of the “dual-headliner” billing, the New York indie-rockers made a solid case to carry those duties on its own next time. The band blazed through a 21-song set that went deep into its first two albums, and was surprisingly light on material from Modern Vampires of the City. We can confidently say that this was the best set of the weekend–save for the asshat in front of us using his iPad to record the set. Before closing the set with “Walcott,” Ezra Koenig took a minute to express how happy he is to see a legitimate festival on the east coast. We could not agree more.
The other co-headliner, and final band of the weekend, was Foster the People. Full disclosure: we hated this booking when it was announced. Foster the People just does not stack up to names like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Petty, etc. We are not ashamed to admit that Foster the People far exceed our expectations as a headliner. The band had an incredibly elaborate stage set with ascending light-bars and all kinds of backing musicians. It was really impressive, and the band’s music has a totally different energy live than it does on record. Well done, Firefly.
