The James Logan Courier

By Annie Chen, Courier Editor-in-Chief

On Saturday, Live 105 held its annual and highly anticipated BFD, one of Northern California's biggest alternative rock music festivals. More than twenty bands gathered on that hot day at the Shoreline Amphitheatre to entertain ecstatic fans, I being one of them. I was personally looking forward to seeing just Interpol, Sum 41, Tiger Army, Social Distortion, Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party. But after seeing all the bands give such spectacular performances, I made it a mission to see everyone at least one more time.








Performing on the Local Stage were the bands Honeycut, Poor Bailey, Minipop, Immigrant, Audrey Sessions and Local Band Contest winner, Overview. On the Festival Stage we had Every Move A Picture, The Matches, CSS, Street To Nowhere, The Lovemakers, Tiger Army, Shiny Toy Guns, Sum 41, Cold War Kids, The Bravery, Silversun Pickups and finally, The Faint. Another local band called Scissors for Lefty headlined the Main Stage, followed by Kaiser Chiefs, Interpol, Queens of the Stone Age, Social Distortion, and Bloc Party.

Thousands rocked to the beats of their favorite tunes and were also introduced to new and impressive upcoming sounds. So you can just imagine how hard it was push our way through the mass to the front of the barricade. Every band delivered rich sounds and were received quite rapturously. But the highlight of my day was seeing Sum 41 and Tiger Army — a band that formed right here in Berkeley, California—in support if their new album, Music From Regions Beyond. The crowd sang along to their psychobillic songs, especially Forever Fades Away, which has been compared to AFI's songs. "Tiger Army never dies!" anthem chants could be heard reverberating throughout the venue even after they finished.

That was followed by the electronica sounds of Shiny Toy Guns and aggressive beats of punk rockers Sum 41 emanating from the speakers. Sum 41 lead singer Deryck Whibley did a great job of firing up the crowd with his amusing performance involving a white T‑shirt and wild getup complete with funky gold sunglasses. Of course, during this the inevitable mosh began to form, leaving some fans with a few lacerations and bruises.

A large crowd gathered especially for Silversun Pickups' inimitable act of Lazy Eye and Well Thought Out Twinkles. Then The Faint took to the stage and their frenetic dance‑punk sounds got even the most fatigued of participants off their feet and dancing to the beat. As the day sped by the weather got progressively warmer and a nasty little dust storm whipped up between Sum 41 and Tiger Army's set.

Many charity organizations also took part of the festivities and garnered a lot of support at their booths on the concourse. The Lymphoma Research Foundation raised money and awareness by raffling off highly‑valued signed guitars. They also managed to raise over $10,000 this year alone with the Comin‑at‑Cancer VIP Experience at BFD.

There were so many things going on simultaneously that I found it hard to catch every single show. One of the things that frustrated people was being forced to choose between which bands to see or not in order to meet another at the autograph booth. Each band was only allowed a thirty second interval to meet and greet their perpetual queue of fans. So it was not long before BFD security had to cut the line, leaving many sorely disappointed. "It was pretty lame how they cut us off and it was really disappointing having to wait for a band so long but not get to meet them." said Junior Allyn Pintal. So I consider it pretty lucky that I was able to meet Deryck Whibley, Cone McCaslin, and Steve Jocz from Sum 41.

At around 6:00 PM the main stage opened up and the amphitheatre began to fill up with eager fans. After paying a visit with the Live 105 DJ's, we began our trek there. The view from the lawn was clear and wide, but not good enough to differentiate be ween who was who on the tiny stage. Actual seating gave a better view of the ongoing action. But for those who could not see as well, three giant screens caught the entire performance in pixelated images. Local San Francisco‑based band Scissors for Lefty and the English band Kaiser Chiefs were first to headline. Interpol hit the stage and was able to give an intimate performance even with a audience of thousands. Their indie‑rock and post‑punk revival tunes were hard to ignore. Fans were delighted to hear songs from their old album such as Slow Hands, Evil, and Not Even Jail. They closed with The Heinrich Maneuver from their new album Our Love to Admire which drops July 10 (hint hint birthday present).

The Queens of the Stone Age brought out a wild set, complete with towering, flashing, lamp‑like structures that lit up the amphitheatre in a spectrum of colors in the night, causing an surreal effect. Songs like Sick, Sick, Sick and No One Knows completely chopped and minced the peaceful night into pieces. In between the sets people were able text instant messages to 45483 and have their messages appear on the three screens for everyone to see. It kept us constantly entertained; we even saw a few marriage proposals pop up! Whether they were genuine or not we will never know.

The last band to perform, Bloc Party, did not finish until around midnight, a little later than scheduled. But overall the festival was well organized and I enjoyed every second of it, except the blatant advertisement of beer and alcohol around every corner. But even though the day has passed, this experience is still vivid in my mind (and in my sore body). I will definitely be taking part in the next BFD, anyone care to join me?