While I’m sitting at my first day back at work in 5 days, thought I could provide some thoughts on the weekend! Happy to discuss sets or anything else with someone else who is sad at work today!

The music: Tim knocked this year out of the park. Like most years, when the lineup was first announced, I wasn’t psyched. I didn’t know a lot of the bands. But listening to the SK playlist made me discover some bands I love! Top sets on the weekend for me were: Pond, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, Young the Giant, Arcade Fire, Queens of the Stone Age, Weezer, and Billy Idol. I think all these sets were a 10/10 for me. Runners up would be Noah Kahan (he was fine, sounds like his records, should have been switched with Arcade Fire or Queens as a closer), Royal Blood, The Offspring (love their music, but see my comments about the sound below), and Foo (sounded great, I’m just not a big fan.) My biggest disappointment was probably Portugal. Been a fan back to the early years. Their new music isn’t good to me at all. They opened with three new songs. And then played 2-3 more. And then had a guy who came out and sang a random song that wasn’t theirs. On top of that, they had no energy on stage. You could tell how hyped the crowd got when they played their old music, and how quiet and still when they played new stuff. I don’t fault them, I get you have to play your new stuff. The songs I liked sounded good and I was hype for. But overall very disappointing.

Sound: While I’m on the topic of music, I really had an issue with the way lead vocals sounded on the Piedmont stage on and off all weekend. The Offspring and Portugal specifically. The lead vocals got very lost in the music. There were a couple other sets that I heard on that stage that left me feeling like I couldn’t hear the singer as well as I wanted.

Weather- Massive L for the Atlanta weather people this weekend. Friday was gonna be rainy, morning of it was going to be cloudy all day. I think everyone planned on cloudy, because nearly everyone burned Friday. Saturday, was supposed to be stormy all day. Morning of, it’s going to be 77 degrees and cloudy. It ended up being super humid and full sun again. Sunday, was gonna be stormy. Morning of, forecast said it was gonna be good. And then the flood happened. lol. Not the fault of anyone else, just observing.

Closers- Closers should have to play their full time. I already made a post about this, but Weezer ending 15 minutes early leaves a bad taste in my mouth. We have seen sets go their full time, so it’s not a curfew issue. It reminds me of Jack White a few years ago. Could have stuck Africa in that space and I could have died happy.

Food and drink- No complaints. It’s expensive, but welcome to 2024. The Cajun place was my favorite. The jambalaya and red beans and rice with sausage were yummy and very filling. King of Pops will always get my money.

New Criminal Records stage- Logistically, having the two smaller stages side by side is awesome. We put a blanket down between the two stages and sat for 3-4 hours listening. The lack of shade is rough though. I don’t feel like it costs that much to put up some shade in that middle area.

Vapes- This cracked me up. As long as it was in your pocket, nothing was said. If it was in the bucket on in your bag, they took it. Just shouldn’t bother.

Overall, this was an incredibly great weekend as always. With my free tattoo ticket, I expect to be back for many many years to come. The flow of people is great, the workers are great, and the vibes are great.