Virgin Fest Day 2 - Killers Bemuse while Smashing Pumpkins Confound

I thought the second day's cloudy skies would keep last-minute attendees away from the island. In fact, the rain stayed in the clouds after an overnight downpour and V-Fest's attendance went through the roof. This can be attributed to two or three bands, and not so much to the haphazard scheduling that had festival-goers running back and forth between stages all day.

Tokyo Police Club were the first group of note to hit the main stage, and they made the most of a huge crowd by effortlessly mixing their Lesson In Crime tracks with songs from their upcoming Saddle Creek full-length debut. While the former got the biggest cheers, the latter once again showed tremendous promise for the Newmarket, Ontario kids with more favourable hype behind them than any young band in North America right now.

Tokyo weren't the only ones showcasing their newest material. The next three bands all used V-Fest as a testing ground for their yet-to-be-released LPs. Stars were second in line, though In The Bedroom After The War has been heard by many since it's been available on iTunes for a few months now. The new tracks sounded more energetic live than on the disc, which can be a little flaccid at times. But those songs were no match for the tracks from their Set Yourself On Fire breakthrough. I will say that this was the first time Torquil Campbell wasn't completely irritating on stage, and his impassioned plea for those in attendance to donate "cash, cellphones" and anything else to "struggling entrepreneur" Richard Branson was perhaps a little crass, but funny nonetheless.

Across the bridge and over the hill, The Constantines pulled out a brief set that included two new songs. "Hard Feelings" was the strongest of the two cuts, which were slotted in between blistering takes on "Draw Us Lines," "Hotline Operator," "Nighttime Anytime," "Working Full-Time" and "Young Lions." But the big news came at the end of the set when the Cons announced that their next release, which they've been recording at Halla Music, will come out, at least on this side of the Canada-U.S. border, on Arts & Crafts. Unfortunately, you're not likely to hear it until about March.

Similarly, I suspect that's probably about the time you're going to hear Metric's follow-up to Live It Out. That didn't stop them from playing a good deal of it to the biggest audience of the weekend to that point. The first new song they played, I liked, but after that there was a series of them that were weak. Given that the biggest cheers of the late afternoon set came for "Dead Disco" and "Monster Hospital," you'd think the band would realize that their strengths lie in fast, danceable rock. Most of the new songs had middling tempo and tepid energy. Emily Haines, as she usually is, was effective playing the part of rock diva. But Metric, like Hot Hot Heat, continue to squander the goodwill that came out of their breakthrough dance-punk moments. It's just a matter of time before they're opening for Snow Patrol and headlining Wasaga Beach.

At this point, I would have liked to have crossed the field to see Explosions In The Sky, but I was worried I wouldn't be able to maneuver the crowd quickly amassing to see The Killers. Given that I'd never actually seen the Las Vegas pretty boys play a full set, I decided to stick around and see what the hot fuss was about. As much as I wanted them to suck the air out of the atmosphere, what with Brendan Flowers always seeming like a gigantic diva, it wasn't to be. If you're into radio pop-rock hits and crystal clean performances, The Killers are probably up your alley. And they were up the alley of, I'd estimate, 40,000 or so people who packed the main stage area to see them. It was tough to completely enjoy the spectacle since the crowd was bordering on hooliganism, but I'll shamefully admit The Killers definitely put on a show worth seeing once. Now as long as I can get "Somebody Told Me" and "Mr. Brightside" out of my head, we can forget this ever happened. (Oh, crap.)

And then came the answer to the question nobody had been asking until it couldn't be avoided: Is there still a market for Smashing Pumpkins? The surprising response was a resounding yes. Somehow, even more people seemed to be in the field for the Billy Corgan/Jimmy Chamberlin show than there had been for Flowers and company. And what they got was the most head-scratching and yet somehow feel-good performance of the festival. Corgan didn't bother wasting his breath on whatever was bothering him this week, instead focusing on a set that was at times bogged down by torturously long grinders from the recently released Zeitgeist, but primarily featured the hits of yesteryear and a couple deep cuts that brought the 14-year-old me out of retirement one last time.

Particularly incredible was "Hummer," a Siamese Dream standout that was perfectly executed by the no-name players filling in for the departed James Iha and Darcy Wretzky/Melissa Auf Der Maur. It's a shame there wasn't more Siamese Dream (other than "Today," which I didn't stick around for given the nightmare getting off the island was going to be with about 20,000 people sticking around 'til the end), but the inclusions of note-perfect takes on "Tonight, Tonight" and "Zero" and an acoustic "1979" made up for it. There was a bit too much guitar wankery for it to be considered a flawlessly executed comeback, but Corgan sounded great and the crowd loved it, so his indulgences were generally accepted by the masses. As comebacks go, this story might actually have a happy ending.

Here was the Pumpkins' setlist:

"United States"
"Bullet With Butterfly Wings"
"That's The Way (My Love Is)"
"Neverlost"
"Hummer"
"Stand Inside Your Love"
"Tonight, Tonight"
"Tarantula"
"Starz"
"Zero"
"Glass And The Ghost Children"
"To Sheila"
"1979"
"Superchrist"
"Doomsday Clock"
"Heavy Metal Machine"
"Starla"
"Today"

For a recap of Saturday's performances, click here.