Lessons Learned through the Experience of Going to…

Live 105 Presents BFD 12
by Ms. Clara Flores

photos by Olga K.

Shoreline Amphitheater
Friday June 10th 2005

Last month I ventured to the dark entrails of the Fillmore for VNV Nation and gave you five tips on going to the city to enjoy a show on a Saturday night. This month, I am going to mention some new lessons, and even reiterate some lessons I did not learn last time. This past June 10, I skipped a hard day’s work, which was fun, and took my pasty white skin into the hot pre-summer sun to attend Live 105’s BFD (Big Fucking Deal).

Every June, LIVE 105 (105.3 FM) has their super summer festival concert event. For many bands it is an amazing opportunity to be out there playing in the sun and promoting their album, some of the smaller bands flourish and become big very quickly and it is always nice to catch on before everyone else. For example at last year’s BFD, The Killers played a month prior to their self-titled debut hitting record stores, and few people knew about them then, and now everyone in the country is very familiar with The Killers. BFD is a big fucking deal for alternative rock in the Bay Area, not only is it a magnificent way to hear some big name headliners, but also an opportunity to see some great local talent and have a fun time with your friends, maybe even make some new ones. When else can you see acts like The Foo Fighters and Social Distortion, and catch local acts such as the Lovemakers, and not so local acts such as Tegan and Sara, all in one place?

Recent Changes in Live 105’s music & BFD:

I find that every year, the event is growing to be the SF’s version of Los Angeles radio station KROQ’s World Famous Weenie Roast (see “Escape from the Lawn Seats,” June 2005). In 1999 when I first came to the Bay Area to attend Cal, I tried listening to Live 105, since it is supposed to be the sister station to LA’s KROQ, and found the music to be well, aggressively sub par. Even up to a couple years ago, the radio station played mostly mainstream rock music from bands like Kid Rock, Smash Mouth, and Nickelback. The dying trend of angry rap-rock of the early millennia left plenty to be desired of the radio station for my taste. With the exception of the Local Lounge, Subsonic and Soundcheck, the station’s programming was more like the Anger Management Tour and Family Values Tour. The BFD back then tended to sound line those tours’ watered down baby brother. Even BFD 9, which featured bands like N.E.R.D., Jimmy Eat World and the Strokes, also feaured P.O.D., Goldfinger, and Unwritten Law. Come on, the whole line-up until two years ago did not feature one single female on stage. That was then, but as of last year the station has shifted from being an angry music dealer into being an integral and essential part of the Bay Area’s music landscape. What KMEL is to Hip-Hop, and KISS is to R&B and Soul, Live 105 is to contemporary rock, which is truly in, and decent.

It is not only refreshing to say that the station has changed but also the immediate change between the past two BFD Festivals. This year’s BFD was much better than last year’s since you did not miss ANY of the bands. The huge problem last year was that most of the sets overlapped, so if you wanted to catch the Streets, you had to miss Bad Religion, which sucks because if you happen to like both you had to choose one or the other (I chose Bad Religion…). This year they solved the problem by getting rid of the Local Lounge stage, and just put two stages side to side. While one band plays, the last band breaks down their gear, the next band is sets up their gear, so on and so forth, and you can stand in the same place, and not have to leave 5 minutes early during a set to catch another band’s set. I am very glad that the kind folks at Live 105 do take requests seriously; they are after all a radio station.

Lesson 1: The Sun Makes Everything Worse... Seriously!

The sun is hot, and just standing underneath it affects the whole experience of being at a festival, and if you are not careful, you can end up with horrible sunburns or just an ugly farmer’s tan from your t-shirt (like the one I have…), and dehydrated. Keep the artificial fun down to the necessary. If you drink too much, and/or do too many drugs, you can lose control and get hurt, but also strain your body in the hot sun. A booth called Rock Medicine (see Interview with Raz, director of Rock Medicine) which immediately appeased my hypochondriacally concerned self. They have FREE, (yes kids, FREE!) earplugs, sun block, sunscreen, cups of water and Gatorade, etc.

Lesson 2: The Boundaries are Truly Imaginary: Backstage Pt.1

We quickly learned how far our press pass could take us. One of the bands early on in the day is Rise Against, whose members come from bands such as Reach the Sky, Pinhead Circus and 88 Finger Louie. Their second album Siren Song of the Counter Culture is a politically charged and it inspires my renegade Q&A while getting some autographs,

Ms.CF: Is there any message you have for your fans?
Rise Against: God, I know there’s a lot of messages. I guess one of the simple ones is to make up your mind for yourself about what you believe, and don’t let anyone else do that for you.
Ms. CF: How do you like being on a major label?
Rise Against: We’ve been very lucky. It’s been very good, they let us do what we want to do, so yeah, it’s good.
Ms. CF: Are you touring with anyone this summer?
Rise Against: Alkaline Trio in July. Yeah, it should be great.

Appreciation from a band you like is awesome, and after talking to Rise Against, it really felt genuine.

We followed the Kaiser Chiefs, after they finished signing autographs with the fans, post their on-air interview. They retreated backstage where we finally caught up to them.

Ms.CF: I heard that you are scheduled to DJ at the Afterparty tonight, along with some of the other acts. I was wondering, Do you bring records, mp3s, Cds, on tour with you in the occurrence of such events?
Kaiser Chiefs: They sprung this on us, we didn’t know. So probably iPods or some CDs. iPods and laptops. We’ll try and do a good job, but not today because we didn’t know.

(I find it awkwardly torturous that someone (this mysterious “they”) put them on the spot and told them they had to DJ after spending the WHOLE day here, and play, and then DJ at the Afterparty until 2 AM! Rock & Roll I guess…)

Ms. CF: Are you excited to see anyone on the bill?
Kaiser Chiefs: See anyone? Foo Fighters, and Ash. We saw them last week...and also who else? Kasabian & Hot Hot Heat. I think Steve (of Hot Hot Heat) came to see us last week so we are returning the favor today.
Ms. CF: Do you have any advice for aspiring artists who are looking to come up on the scene?
Kaiser Chiefs: Just keep going, don’t give up.

Lesson 3: The Individual parts make up the whole.

The backbone of Live 105 is their Action Team, which is comprised of listeners who represent the radio station at these events. They hand out programs; they keep lines organized, assist, and guide anyone with any questions. “Veteran” Action Team member Jesse is an old friend of mine, and his job this year was to move the line at the autograph table. We talked and reminisced about old times, talked about some good music, and some of his favorites, like the new Nine Inch Nails album With Teeth, and how brilliant Trent’s new style of music is becoming. Jesse is looking forward to seeing the Foo Fighters, which it seems everyone was anxious to see and hear some songs from their latest studio album In Your Honor, a strong and talented band play live.

We also converse with Nikki about how to become a Action Team member: just send your resume in and love music. It’s hard work, and it is a part-time job and you have to be available weekends and nights for the most part, (except BFD is on a weekday all day.) Nikki was looking forward to seeing Lyrics Born, she thinks the new album Same !@#$ Different Day is “awesome.” We asked her if she’s seen anything interesting so far? Her reply is an indicator of how early it is, “A speaker almost killed Miles the Intern, just a few minutes ago.” We proceeded to talk to the man himself, whose taste in music is awesome, he is lovingly known as Miles the Intern.

Ms.CF: (to Miles) Are you ok?
Miles the Intern: Yeah I’m ok.
Jeff Kalmbach: So how’s your head?
MTI: My head’s ok, I was—we have these two speakers on each side of the broadcast table and I was sitting on the bottom and a speaker hit me…I think there was a lot of wind and it just kind of hit the side of my head though. It was the side of my head, not the top, so I didn’t pass out or anything.
JK: Are you sure you don’t have a concussion?
MTI: No.
JK: That’s good, that means that you’re having the true rock experience.
MTI: Right, I am living the rock & roll lifestyle...
Ms.CF. Are you excited to see anyone here?
MTI: The Foo Fighters are one of my favorite bands in the world. Social Distortion, everyone on the main stage I’m excited for. The Lovemakers are a really cool band that I am going to be introducing, Alkaline Trio, Sleater-Kinney, everyone, I love everyone here.
Ms.CF: Any good music you would like to recommend?
MTI: There’s this new band called the Engineers, they’re from England, I think. And, uh, they have a self titled album out now, that I listened to on the way here, actually. The Engineers, look into it.

As corny as this interview may seem, Miles the Intern has become somewhat of a Live 105 character, the DJs bring him on air all the time for his vast amount of “Useless Facts”. We love Miles!

The Live 105 DJs are by far the most important element of the station, they are the ones the listeners are most familiar with, and if you listen everyday, you spend plenty of time with them by listening to their voice. For example, Jared is the DJ most commuters are familiar with, since he is on from 2-6pm Monday through Friday. He was nice enough to tell us that he was looking forward to seeing all the acts, yet he has to be on the radio. Imagine, working while a band you love is playing I would find the torture to be terrible. He also recommended The Mars Volta album entitled Frances the Mute, along with the Queens of The Stone Age’s Lullabies to Paralyze.

Lesson 4: Make friends with the locals. Backstage Pt.2

We were wandering the backstage area for a bar, and this one happened to have two demo PS2 video games, which were difficult. I got my cranberry vodka and proceeded to advise a young man struggling to get a video game character to move. He turned out to be Brent, the singer of SF’s Every Move a Picture. I proceeded to “emasculate” him through my limited video game knowledge (AKA strategically pressing many buttons to get a combination move). He was a good sport about the whole thing, even took some time to joke around with us, and I am sure his band forgives him for his lack of “moves”, no pun intended, really. Every Move a Picture, is one of those bands that Aaron Axelsen featured on Soundcheck and has proven to be a solid glimmer in the local scene, and slowly expanding all over.

Jeff decides to rub it in, and asks:
JK: What does it feel like to be emasculated by Clara?
Brent: Nice, you know what? Pretty good actually. She made it really easy for me and I feel really good about it. Anybody but her and I’d feel upset. She was very gentle.

JK: That is a nice tie. Where did you get it?
Brent: Where did I get it? I think I stole this from my father’s closet, frankly. Something to hold my collar shut so it doesn’t show my hairy chest.

CF: What’s wrong with a hairy chest?
Brent: The younger kids are kind of scared of the men with the hairy chest. (Actually) there’s not a hair on my body, seriously.

JK: That could actually help with that emasculation thing.
Brent: It could. (to Ms. Clara) Would you like to choke me with my tie?

CF: (SPEECHLESS—In my mind I still cannot believe he said that…even more so missed the opportunity to choke him with his tie! )
Brent: Pregnant pause…

JK: (changes the subject) When are you playing?
Brent: We already played. The band is Every Move a Picture, and we played first. We started this whole thing. They wanted us to headline, but we’re like no, first is where its at. That’s the vibe, it’s true to the people who get there early, they should get something special.

CF: Did you play Mission Creek?
Brent: We were going to play that but we were out of town, we just got back. We played a tour in the UK, and did a show in Dublin, Ireland. Then we came back, played the East Coast last week, and then we got back in town last night and did this and then we’re going to take a little time off and then go back to the UK.

JK: What are you going to do with your time off?
Brent: We’re going to record actually. So it’s not really time off. We’re actually goingto work on a bunch of new music and we’re working on a full-length release, we’re just not sure who we’re going to release it with. It’s cool, we’re just having a good time, hanging out, enjoying some of the summer, and touring.

JK: Anyone here today that you like?
Brent: I’d like to see Hot Hot Heat, they’re over there looking awfully bored. Actually, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I would like to see The Bravery. We played with The Bravery. We played with them at Café Du Nord. And they were the nicest guys who for some reason have the exact opposite reputation, so I’d like to go on record as saying they are the nicest fucking guys. They, you know, like honestly, I was talking to someone the other day who said they are the most polarizing band, and people don’t like them and they’re arrogant, they’re rude, and the’re mean, and my experience has been wholly 100% the opposite. So I’m looking forward to checking them out. That would be awesome. And then of course the Foo Fighters. I am not a huge Foo Fighters fan, but they kill. Have you seen them play live? They’re insane. I saw them at that show at Slim’s…they did like a year and a half ago. It was kind of private, whatever, one of those ridiculous things. I had a friend that got me in at the Slim’s show and they were sick. You know what was weird was I was looking at him and I was like “He was in Nirvana”. It’s like looking at Paul McCartney and being like “He was in the Beatles”, except Wings sucks, and the Foo Fighters are cool.

I definitely had to agree with that last comment. It is a bit strange to look at Dave Grohl without thinking of all the successful projects he is a part of. Being in Nirvana, then Foo Fighters, Probot, Queens of the Stone Age, collaborating with Trent Reznor for With Teeth, not to mention all the small bands he took part in prior to Nirvana. Wow, the build up of seeing the Foo Fighters play was making me anxious, Dave Grohl best not let me down.

Lesson 5: Try not to expect too much from bands, really.

I am a HUGE fan of the Bravery. I thought their album was brilliant, the video for “Honest Mistake” was fucking awesome and well planned. Yet, upon approaching them with the utmost confidence resulting from Brent’s smashing review of the band’s misperceived reputation, I would have to say no, Brent some of the Bravery are kind of snooty. I know because at my first attempt to try and talk to the oh so fabulous Bravery I was snubbed, and after rolling my eyes and emitting the look of death (if you know it, you know its power…), their guitarist Michael agreed to answer a couple silly questions:

Clara Flores: Are you guys doing anything this summer?
Michael (guitarist for the Bravery): Yeah, we’re doing a European tour starting in 2 days. We’re off to the UK and all of Germany and Scandinavia and then we’re back and doing a full us tour through July and August.

CF: How long have you guys been touring?
Michael: Like 6 months now, non-stop. And we’ll be going through next year.

CF: Are you guys planning to record after that?
Michael: Yeah we just record on the bus. We got a whole setup in the back.

CF: Finally, What are the last albums that you completely liked from beginning to end?
Michael: That last Mando Diao album I really liked. I like the Ambulance LTD. Album its cool. And I just treated myself to a Velvet Underground box set which is 5 CDs that I can listen to beginning to end.

A good man with good taste, yet I still cannot conceive being on tour for that long. Well they do lead a glamorous life, all the ladies they meat (oh I meant meet), booze they drink, living life for today, yeah, rock & roll man! Yeah, I did not get any rocker vibes of enjoyment or any gratitude towards their sudden success. Good tunes, I just felt no love.

Lesson 6: Make sure to DOUBLE CHECK anything important!

I had the pleasure of interviewing the ladies from Sleater-Kinney, but since my partner in crime just informed me that we “lost” the interview. I am just advising everyone to check anything twice (2 times) from now on, if it is of any importance, since I “lost” a great interview with the ladies I had been looking forward to all fucking week. Yeah, “lost” Sleater-Kinney…grrr.

Lesson 7: Enjoy the Show.

When it came down to seeing the bands, we barely saw any, we played the game of sacrifice. Sacrifice seeing them play to interview someone else, etc. After, what I am now calling “The Sleater-Kinney Fiasco” we missed the Lovemakers, Kasabian, and Jimmy Eat World to see Dave Grohl. What can I say, we are geeks. I was ecstatic because this was after all the drummer of Nirvana, a musical demi-god. Dave Grohl’s drumming is always so precise and sharp in any Nirvana song he did, he is such a hard hitter, it hurts to look at. His approach to the guitar and fronting a band is no different, he is just as balls to the wall passionate about music as it gets. Think about all the projects he has been part of? The man can’t help but make music.

We all stood around and watched him being interviewed by Ally and Jared, and it was still all so surreal, here was one of my idols and he is like 5 feet away from me. The feeling is overwhelming, post interview, we got in some photo ops and Jeff got to ask him one question, I on the other hand lost it and asked Dave Grohl to marry me and have his children.

Dave Grohl speaks to the press like a well-seasoned veteran, he is funny, and witty. Silly and very deranged, the man loves to make silly faces whenever he can. I think it is so charming, he loves what he does and is amazing at it. You also got to hand it to the guy for doing his best to stop Courtney Love from profiting off Kurt’s music, more than she has already done. Of course, many of you bought the box set, but I refuse to give Courtney money for botox and Versace. Dave Grohl was against the whole idea from the beginning, so kudos for Dave! Anyways, I got to tell Dave how much his music meant to me, and that there swelled my heart up with joy, and all sorts of other mushy stuff…

We finally, after a whole day of playing interview safari, I was looking forward to seeing the Foo Fighters. I am really lucky to have also seen Social Distortion play prior to Foo, since their bass player happens to be the extraordinary Matt Freeman (Operation Ivy & Rancid), who keeps up the pace well and is tighter than the songs originally sounded. They played some songs like “Mommy’s Little Monster”, covers of “Ring of Fire” and “Under My Thumb” in the style that only Mike Ness knows how to give, and closed with “ Story of our Lives” as he pays his warmest musical regards to the Foo Fighters. This pumps up the audience, the variation of the song included an remarkably wonderful guitar solo which accentuates the beat on which the band has built a career upon. He brings down the song, to a bass and drum beat and continues singing the song and accentuate the upcoming verse in which he loudens up to pour his heart out into the chorus. Breaks it all down and says “goodnight” with an abruptly explosive finale.
Now for the Foo Fighters:

The Foo Fighters are the band which (it seems unanimously) other artists and fans were anxiously anticipating to see perform. Most of the bands we had interviewed, DJs, Action Team members, fans, felt lucky to experience watching such a tremendous band play. Every member of that band is a great musician, and while Dave may be the front man, the drummer Taylor Hawkins is what everyone talks about; just look at his drum kit, it is a monster! How he manipulates those beats so precisely and sharply, it makes for a great spectacle.

The Foo Fighters:
They just came on and Dave started rocking out this chaotic riff to open with “In Your Honor.” His raspy voice caresses the melodies and the layers of music pour out from the stage. If this is what the new album is like, the band has moved into a more chaotic and edgier darker sound. For the song “My Hero,” Dave asks the audience to sing-a-long with the chorus. He plays the songs so hard and varies it so tightly. Dave is a fan’s wet dream, he plays to the audience and serenades them by singing with his music as opposed to just reproducing the studio version live. In one swift move the end becomes the beginning an energetic intro to “One of these Days.” Dave finally greets the audience and introduces his band, and then they continue to play “Breakdown” with all their heart and soul. The hook “I don’t wanna look like that” is catchy and chaotically noisy, demonstrating the brilliance of the band’s songwriting and musical abilities. His voice remains just as angry and emotionally charged as he brings down the song in order to build it up to its climactic end.

The Foo Fighters then proceed to play the single from their latest album, “The Best of You”, a song which they play slowly to introduce and slowly build it up into an angry, frustrated song about someone “getting the best of you.” The transitions between the verse and the chorus is beautifully accentuated by the shift in tempo of the bass and drums.l He plays the guitar and sings the song down, to only then blast out the chorus, so powerfully and emotionally, he screams with his eyes closed and in another world it seems. They immediately rip out, the classic Foo Fighters song “Learn to Fly.” It is incongruous for something to be so full and loud one second and shift into a silent importance in one breath, then back into full and loud again, yet, they make it happen beautifully and are famous for it. “ This is a Call” is played almost as tight as the studio version, yet they continue to vary it and highlight its strengths, and pull a cohesive harmony from so many directions. It is apparent that these gentlemen love rock and make music for all the right reasons. They close the song by a adding a hard pause in between the riffs that lead out in the end of the song.

As if they hadn’t been acting wild enough, Dave warns his audience by introducing the next song “Stacked Dead Actors” as a jam song for all of you jam fans (yep, it that’s Jeff and I). WOW, it is a mellow melody, very progressive and edgy. It is not a typical sounding song for anyone, but it came off as a very refreshing and brilliantly arranged, somewhat Doors-esque. They finish the song off with a jam off, which is so tightly played it sounds like an Industrial synthetic beat. The finale was the band showing their musical abilities and showmanship. Dave Grohl then decided to walk into the aisles as a swarm of photographers and cameras follows him. Starts a clap-off from the middle of the auditorium with the audience and continues to play as he walks on the seats, walks around , and picks up a beer. He runs back onstage after getting his ass spanked, pec squeezed, ass pinched, and thanks the fan who gave him the beer, continues the song and finishes it gracefully. Then, this is where the magic happens. The rest of the band leaves the stage, and Dave is standing there alone, holding his guitar. He says he wants to sing a mellow song, so he does the solo guitar version of “Everlong.” It is amazing; this is one of those songs I like the acoustic solo version of rather than the loud studio version. I am exhilarated and thrilled to see this live, and so perfect. I am just speechless.

We are then immediately shaken back into rock reality, because he begins to rock out “Monkey Wrench.” It is such an energetic and explosive song, it is an effusive and radioactively vigorous juxtaposed with the preceding “Everlong.” Taylor Hawkins closes the song with the night’s first drum solo, which is exhilarating and hard-pounding. Taylor then gets up and walks up to the mic to tell us that he is singing and Stewart Copelanf of the Police is his new best friend, and will play drums while he sings the Police’s “Next To You.” While Taylor might have the stage presence of, well a drummer, he does have the vocal ability to belt out a mean version of this. This once in a lifetime opportunity of watching this, odd number being done with the Foo Fighters is just wonderful and rare. He closes the show by announcing the takeover of MTV 2 the next day, and thanks the audience. He ends by playing “All My Life”, which made everyone in the audience stand and rock out. They feed their adoring fans with an electric energy that is genious and is immediately reciprocated by the fans. He even leaves space to hear a cheer from the audience he rightly dedicated this final song to.
The house lights come up and the magic is over.

I decided to write everything down as I was listening to it that night, call me crazy but the longer time passes by, the less I can remember. Yet, there are some things I will never forget, such as double-checking my recorder next time I do an interview.