Franz Ferdinand Save Saturday At Virgin Festival Ontario

Molson Amphitheatre

Toronto, ON

on Jul 29 2009

Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

08/31/2009 11:37am

While hundreds of thousands of British and European fans were mucking about in the fields at the Reading and Leeds festivals in England this weekend, Virgin Festival Ontario couldn't even fill Toronto's Molson Amphitheatre, which has a capacity of 16,000 people.

Virgin Festival Ontario was originally to be held at Orillia, Ont.'s Burl's Creek Park, but was moved to the Amphitheatre due to "fan demand."

It's a guesstimate, but it often looked like the Amphitheatre was never more than half full on Saturday. Attendance at the first day of VFest was nothing short of a bust. Where were those fans?

The vibe was completely off for the first three main stage sets by Mates Of State, LIGHTS, Grizzly Bear (and possibly Sloan). One had to wonder why LIGHTS and Grizzly Bear were placed on the main stage and forced to play in front of a yawning expanse in the pit and so many empty seats. It made one a bit sad for the future of rock 'n' roll.

Both acts have significant hype around them (deserved or not), and seemed like they would have received much more enthusiastic responses had they headlined later on a side stage. Since they played so early in the day to so few people, they didn't get the appreciation they deserved.

Even when Sloan took the stage and ran through a set of Can-Rock classics including "The Good In Everyone," "Money City Maniacs," "People Of The Sky" and "The Lines You Amend," the vibe didn't change. Most people in the pit were typical Torontonians, standing stiff with their arms crossed. It was, for a good three hours, an almost completely sterile environment.

Things didn't become truly festival-esque until Scottish genre-hopper and heartthrob Paolo Nutini took the stage. People began wrapping themselves in the Scottish flag in the pit and a (hilariously homoerotic) circle of shirtless men began dancing with each other to Nutini's set that included tracks like "Coming Up Easy," "Alloway Grove" and "High Hopes."

The dancing didn't let up throughout the set and Nutini's truly had people enraptured, as evidenced by this text that appeared on the big screens next to the stage: "Paolo is making love to me with his voice. Why don't I feel violated?"

Yet despite the enthusiastic response Nutini's set received in front of the stage, most of the seats were still empty.

But Franz Ferdinand then showed people how things should really be done. Singer/guitarist Alex Kapranos, guitarist Nick McCarthy, bassist Bob Hardy and drummer Paul Thomson played an absolutely flawless set that was stacked full of hits from all three of their discs.

The Amphitheatre, which was half full by this point, became a complete and total dance party throughout the seats. After the band flew through "Dark Of The Matinee" and "No You Girls," Kapranos took the time to mock the "burning flesh" comment Morrissey made at Coachella earlier this year. "I smell burning flesh!" Kapranos shouted, pointing to the pit full of people dancing. "I hope to God it's not human!"

Franz Ferdinand pummeled the crowd with "What You Came For," "Walking Away," "Michael" and "Bite Hard" before their biggest hit, "Take Me Out," which truly made the whole place go off. The only crowd surfer of the day surfaced during "Van Tango" and there was beer flying in the pit during that song and "Outsiders."

Franz Ferdinand capped the absolutely perfect set with a group drum circle during "Outsiders" before tearing through "Lucid Dreams" and leaving the stage with the crowd wanting nothing but more.

That would have been difficult to follow, but Pixies were next.

Singer/guitarist Frank Black, bassist/singer Kim Deal, guitarist Joey Santiago and drummer David Lovering played most of the tracks from 1989's Doolittle during their hour-and-a-half set. They also ran through tracks like "Ed Is Dead," "Nimrod's Son," "La Isla De Encanta" and "The Holiday Song" from 1987's Come On Pilgrim, "Gigantic," "Where Is My Mind" and "Bone Machine" from 1988's Surfer Rosa and "Planet Of Sound" from 1991's Bossanova, among other songs. They also threw in their cover of The Jesus And Mary Chain's "Head On" and a version of Neil Young's "Winterlong" for good measure.

Pixies were all business, saying very little to the crowd, save one comment from Deal about how beautiful the weather was, but nobody seemed to mind. It became incredibly clear just who the audience was there to see after Pixies finished their set, since most people made a beeline for the exit before Ben Harper took to the main stage.

At least things were crowded over at the tiny Boardwalk stage for The Rural Alberta Advantage, who cheekily thanked Pixies for opening for them before they ran through songs from their recently released Hometowns debut. It was difficult to see anything at the packed stage, so this reporter left after three songs.

Ben Harper & Relentless7 proceeded to run through songs like Harper's "Shimmer & Shine" and "Boots Like These" from this year's White Lies For Dark Times. They also played "Another Lonely Day" from Harper's 1995 Fight For Your Mind album with The Innocent Criminals and covered Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" as part of their encore.

But it seemed those who were curious about Harper and stuck around after Pixies may perhaps have been put off by his extended blues jams because the Amphitheatre began emptying out even more during his set. By the time his encore came around, it was only about a quarter full. It made one wonder why the heck Franz Ferdinand hadn't headlined the day.

Be sure to check out our Ben Harper, Grizzly Bear and Nine Inch Nails Virgin Festival photos.