June 24-30, 2004

music

blisteredinthesun

HEADLIGHTS IN THE DARKNESS: Justin Hawkins took the prize for "Best Costume."

by Jesse Delaney

The sun also rises (like beer prices), and some days you wish it wouldn't — for instance when it's frying you like an ant under a magnifying glass at the side stages of the Y100 Feztival.

The only respite at these unsheltered venues, where the cooked tarmac would burn bare feet in 11 seconds (timed), came from the dual tail winds off Philly band loyalists sprinting from the main stage after the Burning Brides' set in time to catch the Capitol Years or LaGuardia (sadly scheduled at the same time). Too bad for Bridesman Dimitri Coats it was baking again by the time he arrived to join the Capitol Years for their rendition of "Glass Slipper."

Filling the Hole in the schedule left by late addition/cancellation Courtney Love, Melissa Auf Der Maur received a lukewarm reception from those who hadn't read the memo about Love not coming to town. One day someone will write about Auf Der Maur without simultaneously mentioning her former bandmate, but not this day.

In a day packed with great performances, the highest light of the day was Cypress Hill. Seasoned pros at moving the crowd, the Hill's mesmerizing act was actually aided and abetted by a microphone problem. In true old-school fashion, Sen Dog and B-Real crisscrossed the stage passing the only working mic back and forth with precise handoffs like it was a baton in a hip-hop relay race, never missing a beat or an exchange. From in front of their giant inflatable pot-leaf-bellied Buddha (the day's only stage prop), the Hill tipped the lyrical 40 to Fezmates the Beastie Boys with "Busted in the Hood," their reinvention of the B-Boys' classic "Paul Revere."

Once the smoke cleared from the Cypress set, The Darkness put on a rock 'n' roll spectacle worthy of a concert named for a brimless red hat with a tassel. Frontman Justin Hawkins took home the prize for "Best Costume" for his black leather catsuit with fur cape, narrowly edging runner-up Justin Hawkins's fringed white tiger-stripe pants with matching headband. Between songs, The Darkness crooner got a few things off his bared chest, railing against the FCC's recent crackdown on "indecency" and blue language. It makes perfect sense that these British glam metal enthusiasts are fighting for our First Amendment rights: the British have always been gifted elocutionists (it's the accent), and The Darkness have been especially beleaguered with requests to change a certain expletive to "melon farmer" on this U.S. tour.

Former FCC poster children for rude behavior, the Beastie Boys uncorked "Brass Monkey" (the unofficial anthem of summer), but Ad-Rock had a few senior moments during "The New Style." The B-boys mugged for camera phone photo ops and brought back the old "psych!" maneuver by claiming they were slaves to the set list before returning to the stage for an encore of "Intergalactic" and "So What'cha Want?" By the time the Strokes wrapped things up, early Fezgoers had spent nearly 12 hours standing "in the sunshine, having fun."

Y100 Feztival: Friday, June 18, 2004 Tweeter Center

Tickets: $35.50-$45.50

Number of bands: 21

Beer: $7-$10

False alarms: 2

Zippo salutes: 1

Length of Cypress Hill's bong: 4 feet

Female artists on main stage: 1 (Melanie of Burning Brides)

This year's Blur: Courtney Love

Biggest oxymoron: The Darkness playing in the daytime

Second biggest oxymoron: "An Army of One"