Music Midtown

Cage the Elephant, Great Southeast Music Hall Stage, Music Midtown.  I actually started much closer to the stage than shown here by walking over during the Black Keys set and slowly working my way up toward the stage, but I couldn't get any pictures up there due to the fist pumping, the crowd surfing, and the lead singer running all over the stage.  I retreated, and then retreated some more.

I try to be positive in these reviews and even if I don't like a band, I generally try to find something nice to say about something - the venue, the weather, the crowd, anything.  So let me say this about the performance of Bowling Green, Kentucky's Cage the Elephant - it was a cool and pleasant evening.

Seriously, this band is awful.  They have one good song (I even posted a video of it a while back), but they had to play it twice during their set because I don't think they have much of anything else.  The rest of their set was all off-key shrieking and noise (and not in the cool way).  As mentioned, their lead singer ran all over the stage for the first couple of songs, and even stage dived and surfed the crowd during the second song, but he peaked too early and seemed to run out of gas quickly, and just kind of hung off of the microphone for the rest of the set.  It was a relief when they finally finished.

Admittedly, the bands in the lineup, other than The Joy Formidable and Band of Skulls, aren't really my cup of tea.  This is mostly music for a younger crowd, other than Coldplay, who appeal to a much broader demographic.

I didn't even stay for Coldplay (I'm posting this entry from home).  There's something polarizing about this band - people either love them (and they sell a lot of albums), or people are like me, and can't stand them.  I'll grant them their musical abilities, but they sound to this listener too formulaic, too willing to pander to radio formats, too egotistical, and too transparently manipulative (their recent single is titled Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall - I wish I were kidding).  I sat for a while among the blankets and land claims of the crowd waiting through Cage for Coldplay to start, and finally realized that all other things being equal, I'd really rather be somewhere else, anywhere else really, than there, so I called it a day.  Life is too short to have to sit through a Coldplay concert.

But even as I was leaving the festival, there was a horde of people streaming in, just arriving now.  For them, the whole reason to buy Music Midtown tickets was to see Coldplay, and they had no interest in attending any of the other sets of the day.

Overall, I'd give Music Midtown a grade of C minus.  The lineup was pretty weak, there was very little diversity and fewer surprises, and the two alternating stages just created a constant human stampede from one stage to the other between sets.  On the positive side, everything was very professionally run and managed, the sound system was outstanding, and the venue attractive (it was held in Piedmont Park with great views of the Midtown skyline).

I look forward to an expanded (two days, please) and more inclusive Music Midtown once again becoming an Atlanta tradition.