The Monolith Music Festival, '08

Once again Matt Fecher took it upon himself to force a sort of health regiment on the hip kids of Colorado by setting up the Monolith Music Festival at Red Rock Amphitheater, which, apparently, has a amazing acoustics.

Lets get this out in the open first off: I hate Red Rocks. I have since my first show there, which I think was with my sister and her then boyfriend (now husband) to see John Mayer and Maroon 5. They offered me free tickets and I got to hang out with my sister, so, despite the fact that it was John Mayer and Maroon 5, I went. We were about halfway up, maybe a little closer, and I hated it. Now, I've never been a fan of Maroon 5 or John Mayer, though Maroon 5's song Harder To Breathe actually is a fun son, and John Mayer put on such a good show that it made me have a bit of respect for him. That said, I must again state that I hated it. The sound was, in my opinion, terrible. The sound bounces off the huge red "Monoliths" on either side of the stage and slam together creating a warbled sound that is describable, again, only as terrible. It was not loud at all (and I like having to wear earplugs. It kind of makes me realize that I'm actually at a concert), and the venue is so big that it's less personal than ... well I could come up with a myriad of different and ridiculous analogies but I assume you get the point. I ended up watching the gigantic television screen so I could actually see what was happening (all the while wondering why, if they were going to invest in a giant projection screen, they wouldn't just get 2 and even out the stage. the whole thing feels lopsided because of there only being one screen. even when there's nothing on it your eyes are drawn to it. hecka annoying). So yeah, I'm not a fan of Red Rocks.

I will, however, go there when acts that I feel like I need to see perform there, such as The Arcade Fire/LCD Soundsystem show, or the upcoming Sigur Rós show.

Last year I knew the Monolith was something I couldn't miss, so I went, and had a great time. Any band on the Mainstage almost entirely failed to grab or keep my attention, including the bigger names, but all the other stages made everything such an enjoyable experience that I couldn't possibly miss this year's Monolith.

Well my assumption (that this year was not to be missed) was correct. I had an amazing time this last weekend, and all thanks to all the people involved with the Monolith Music Festival. I saw just under 50 bands, got to do 1 or 2 things that I'm going to surprise you with after I'm done with talking about the bands (give me like 2 days and I'll be done), and got to experience all this with amazing friends (last year no one went with me, this year it seems like all my friends were either going, or wanted to go. My friends are the most.).

I'll write about the bands starting at the beginning of the first day and ending at the last. Pretty simple. Expect the first one to go up soon.

Oh, and, as a side note, I took almost 1000 pictures, and some bands got a lot more photos than others. This is because I was dumb and didn't think about the fact that my camera's battery doesn't have a 13 hour battery life, especially when it gets dark and needs to use the flash a lot. I wish I could have taken more photos of some bands, but I do admit that it will seem a little lopsided. Just a warning.