Amsterjam

Randall’s Island played host to Amsterjam yesterday, a music festival organized by Heineken. Barely any information was published about the event, other than some of the bands performing. But for $45, we were basically just going to see Garbage and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Figuring that the festival would take on a typical festival format (i.e. all the good bands play last), we decided to arrive around 3 PM (instead of about 10:30 AM when it opened). Unfortunately for us, this was no typical festival – Garbage were already half way through their set by the time we got in! Worse still, it turns out that Amsterjam was all about “mashing” music, where instead of each artist just performing their whole set, they did a few of their own songs and then added another artist to “jam” with.

Good concept, but bad execution – after performing a few of their own songs, Garbage brought out some chick named “Peaches” who sang 3 or 4 songs with them. As Craig so delicately put it, “Peaches is just the type of girl that you’d take home to meet your mother”. Not only was she wearing something that looked like a Wonder Woman outfit gone wrong, but she continually proclaimed to be “trashier than garbage”, and she had a mouth on her to match. In my opinion, her stylings completely ruined what otherwise would have been a perfectly good set from Garbage.

So Garbage started us on a high, but then finished us on a low. We didn’t really know any of the other dudes that came out after that – Wyclef Jean (sucked), 311 (average), and then 311 with Wyclef Jean (sucked). Next up was Snoop Doggy Dog – goodness me, and we thought that Peaches had a nasty mouth! Snoop did nothing to impress me, despite his colourful language, his “loving” references to women, and his smoking marijuana on stage. And, his whole act was just like cheering practice at school – all he wanted us to do was repeat lines after him! As Gwen Stefani says, “I ain’t no hollerback girl boy”.

Had the Chili Peppers not been scheduled after the dog, we probably would have left a lot earlier. Thankfully they were worth the wait – they pulled out heaps of their big songs in typical Chili Pepper fashion. But, despite the 1 HOUR setup time between the dog and the Peppers, they had technical problems with their guitar and microphones for the first two tracks. Disappointing!

We walked out before they finished (as Snoop Dog was due to come back and jam with them), and after a long day and a lot of disappointments, we were just over it. We were thankful to get back home, where Stacey and Jean had arrived only moments before us (after having a “most-enjoyable” time at the Neil Diamond concert). Who’d have thought that old Neilo would rip out a better show than what Amsterjam had promised?