Vegoose 2007

This past weekend, we traveled down to Las Vegas. The reason for the trip was so that Logan could attend the Vegoose Music Festival that takes place there every year. Mallory got to hang out with Libby for the weekend too. The festival is a two-day event full of awesomeness. There were three stages where the groups would perform. Let me give you the line-up for the festival. On Saturday, 16 bands played. They are the following: Lupe Fiasco, Battles, Gogol Bordello, Mastodon, Blonde Redhead, STS9, Atmosphere, Cypress Hill, Public Enemy, The Shins, M.I.A., Queens of the Stone Age, Federico Aubele (Live), Iggy & the Stooges, Thievery Corporation, and the headlining act of Daft Punk. It was a pretty good day. I got to listen to most of these bands play. I really liked STS9. They were an electronic/techno group. They played pretty chill music without lyrics. The entire time they played, a guy painted a canvas on stage. It was pretty cool. I had never heard of STS9, but I liked what I heard. Mastodon also did a good job. They are a heavy metal band and they wore some creepy costumes.

Every one at Vegoose dressed up. Yes...it was Halloween weekend. But, put together the elements created by Las Vegas, hippies, Halloween, and lots of weed and you will understand the freaks that were at the shows.

Cypress Hill put on a pretty good show and so did Queens of the Stone Age. They had a lot cooler songs than I thought they would. Daft Punk probably put on the best show of the night. They are a French techno group. They did a light show from their pyramid. You can go to ask.com and type in their name to listen to their music or you can see the actual performance on YouTube.

Lupe Fiasco

Blonde Redhead

Mastodon

Cypress Hill

Daft Punk

The next day was pretty awesome as well. It was probably better than Saturday. The line-up for Sunday was: Pharoahe Monch, ALO, Ghostface Killah & the Rhythm Roots Allstars, Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Ghostland Observatory, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Infected Mushroom, Umphrey's McGee, UNKLE, moe., Muse, and Rage Against the Machine headlining for the concert.

On Sunday, I got there and went straight to the main stage. I waited there the entire time (7 hours) just to hear Rage Against the Machine play. While I was there I heard Ghostface Killah (a member of the Wu Tang Clan), Michael Franti & Spearhead, Muse, and Rage. All four of them put on very good shows. Each one was better than the next. Muse did a really good job. Matthew Bellamy is the lead guy in Muse. He has a good voice, ripped it on the piano, completely thrashed on his guitar, and even spotlighted an airplane approaching the airport during his show.

Rage Against the Machine was probably the greatest show I have ever seen. They broke up in 2007 to the disappointment of thousands of people. Zack de la Rocha (vocals) split while Tom Morello (guitar), Tim Commerford (bass), and Brad Wilk (drums) recruited Chris Cornell (vocals) of Soundgarden to form Audioslave. They did an alright job as a band. Tom Morello is a very talented guitarist and they had a couple hit songs. However, Chris Cornell does not fit them. He can go have his own little solo career and become the next Cher. Rage got back with Zack de la Rocha and they started touring again. I think they have only played four or five shows since they got back together early this year.

Anyway, they were amazing. There was so much energy and anticipation in the air before they came out. Normally, stereo music would play in between bands while the techs were setting up the equipment. However, there was silence before Rage. They came out in the pitch black. One spotlight shone on Zack's mic. After about a minute, Zack stepped into the light and said what he says before every concert, "Good evening. We are Rage Against the Machine from Los Angeles, California." Then they started rocking out. They played 16 songs during their two hours. They rocked hard the entire time. The crowd was insane the entire time.



I waited 7 hours so I could get a spot at the very front. I was right at the rail, about 10 feet from the stage right in front of my guitar idol, Tom Morello. It has been my dream since I was 16 (just before the band broke up) to be in that position. It was amazing. Unreal! I took my camera with me and recorded lots of video and took a lot of pics. I used the entire 1 GB of memory on my card! I have never been at a concert jam packed with so many people. I could hardly move. The crowd would rush forward and everyone was jumping up and down. I keep getting smashed against the rail. There were times when there was so much pressure on my back that I would push will all my might (my hands and knees against the metal barrier) and my whole body would still be crushed up against the rail. It was very painful at times. There were several times when it felt like my ribs were cracking and I would gasp for breath. Today (3 days later) my ribs are still swollen and it hurts to touch them. I still have a big red mark across my chest, just below my nipples. But...it was definitely worth it. Every minute of it. The music was so awesome! Zack and Tom were going crazy the majority of the time and it was really fun to watch them. Definitely worth the money, the pain, the long hours of waiting in the hot Las Vegas sun, and the accidental inhalation of marijuana smoke.

Here's another video. I will post more when I can get the internet to work long enough to upload videos.