PEMBERTON
Greetings from Newark Airport, from which I'm about to embark on the second leg of my Fly Hard excursion: Vancouver to New York City to Washington, D.C., to Beijing in 48 hours. This is a tour that falls somewhere between jet lag and Jet Li. The only other American I know dumb/ambitious enough to embark on such a pilgrimage this month has already secured the Democratic Party nomination.
Anyway, the reason for the craziness was some poor planning on my behalf. My friend Scott and I headed up to Whistler, B.C. last week for the first annual Pemberton Festival. Then I remembered that the city of Beijing was planning to host its own rather large festival this summer. And, well, things sort of overlapped. So here I am. Wherever here is.
Pemberton's lineup and the lure of an unbeatable backdrop, Mount Currie, is what drew me and 60,000 others last weekend. Just a few of the bands: Nine Inch Nails, My Morning Jacket, The Flaming Lips, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Vampire Weekend, Death Cab For Cutie, Jay-Z and Coldplay. Plus, it's always fun to see my friend Scott "Scooter" Dvorak: picture Sting if he were in his late 30s, stood 6'1" and had the build of a dude who competed in the Olympic Trials in the 5,000 meters, which Scooter did in 1996. In other words, it was a weekend of my playing the "His friend seems nice" role.
This just hit me: Since Scooter competed in the U.S. Olympic Trials and since Whistler will host the alpine skiing events at the 2010 Winter Games, I can write that entire trip off, no?
"You don't even know what a write-off is, do you?"
"No...but they do. And they're the ones writing it off."
A quick review, with the obligatory thoughts and observations, of Pemberton:
PembertonTheme Song: "Dust in the Wind", by Kansas.
The problem with the 3-day outdoor concert festival (this was my first ... not coincidentally, I believe it was also my last) is that when it rains, there's mud. And when it doesn't rain, there's dust and dirt. And lots of it. Scott and I both woke up on Saturday morning with coalminer's lung, blowing out boogers with colors of mysterious provenance.
As a sports fan, I am a vehement opponent of artificial turf. As a rock fan, though, I'm going to campaign for it.
Honorary Pemberton Reunion Band: Traffic
Pemberton is located a scenic 36 clicks (about 20 miles) north of Whistler, but there's only one road (99) into it (theme song suggestion update: Jay-Z's "99 Problems"). The drive took anywhere from 2-3 hours each day and yes, you could walk just as fast, but then you'd have to walk home, too. On the way in to Pemberton on Saturday I noticed one of those portable road signs that flashes electronic messages. It read: "Expect Heavy Volumes." I started looking around for copies of "The Fountainhead" or a Leon Uris novel.
Angriest Band: Nine Inch Nails
Here's my problem with NIN: NIN fans. I cannot really blame Trent Reznor (nor his lead guitarist, whom Scooter and I decided looked like a hybrid of Mick Mars and Cochise) for harnessing his rage into 15 solid years of commercial success, even if I don't understand what he's still angry about. But after awhile I just began looking around at the crowd and wondered if anyone was happy. And these were Canadians, mostly. What do Canadians have to be upset about? I mean, on Friday's news they announced that Canadia was set to deploy 200 (!) troops to Afghanistan. There were more "troops" deployed around the Pemberton Port-a-potties at any given moment all weekend.
Which got me to thinking: If you can use rock music to lure 60,000 people, most of them under the age of 30, to a remote mountainous region for a never-before-stated concert festival, then couldn't the entire Afghanistan problem be solved via Kandahar Festival? Just persuade a few bands to play (I'm thinking KISS, a band that already has its own Army, as headliner, along with The Presidents of the United States of America [to lure clueless Al-Qaeda operatives] and Van Morrison [changing the title of "Caravan" to "Taliban"]) and remind potential festival-goers that Afghanistan produces 90% of the world's poppy crop ("Dude, I'm baked"). Once they're there, put up a few "Enlistment Tents" and watch freedom rule.
Most Pleasant Surprise: My Morning Jacket
The critics love this Kentucky band, but their songs never really stir me. Seen live, however, MMJ is tremendous. Lead singer Jim James not only has a soulful voice, but he has come so far from the days when he used to own WXNY.
Consummate Pro: Tom Petty
Okay, so he went onstage as the Saturday evening headliner 25 minutes late, but TP launched into hit after hit after hit ("Listen To Her Heart", "Even The Losers" and Free Fallin'" all within the first five tunes) and taught the other bands on the bill a thing or two about the importance of writing solid tunes. For example, just kicking around with his original band Mudcrutch this year (what is a mud crutch? I dunno), Petty wrote a tune that would be worthy of his own greatest hits catalog. It's called "Scare Easy".
Speaking of which, I scared easy on Saturday night after picking up five friendly (are there any other kind, NIN fans notwithstanding?) Canadians. Scooter and I decided to give the five hitchers (three guys, two gals) a ride back to Whistler and as we spoke, I realized that the first time I saw Petty (August '85) none of them had yet been born (insert lyric by The Who here).
Sunday...
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to stick around for Sunday's show (Vampire Weekend, Death Cab, Coldplay), which may have been a good thing. Scooter and I probably didn't want to be making the 40-Year Old Virgin "Know how I know...?" joke to one another by then. Hopefully, someone who was at the show will read this (Scooter? Hello?) and provide a review.
By the way, the song I fell in love with this weekend was from a band that wasn't even on the bill but it sounds like something that Death Cab would have written. The band is PlayRadioPlay! and the song is called Madi Don't Leave.
In CFL News...
Former Notre Dame quarterback Jarious Jackson is the starting QB for the B.C. Lions ... on the Canadian "Sports Centre", there was a heartwarming piece about a defensive lineman for the Saskatchewan Roughriders named Ibrahim "Obby" Khan who overcame having his large intestine removed last year and is now back. Lost large intestine (so now he only has a semi-colon?). So, yes, there's a Canadian version of "SportsCenter" and apparently as well, a Canadian version of Chris O'Donnell ... or Tom Rinaldi.
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: PEMBERTON.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://blogs.nbcsports.com/system/mt-tb.cgi/10089
2 Comments
Leave a comment
About this blog
NBCSports.com's John Walters goes into the world of college sports and well beyond. From Notre Dame to the latest in pop culture, JDub tackles it all.
That deaf, dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball....(?)
John...you were greatly missed on Sunday, although I was able to make a few new friends. Given that you took the rental car back to Vancouver with you when you left, I was forced to hitch my way the 30+ miles to Pemberton. I set off at about 12:30 pm in the hopes that I'd arrive before the 6 pm start of Death Cab For Cutie.
I walked out to the main highway and started thumbing in a slight drizzle. It was actually my first venture into hitch hiking and I have to say, it kind've gave me the same feeling as back in the days when I sold Business Copiers. The people driving by all gave me that same pitiful look as when I announced "Hi, I'm Scott with White's Business Machines!"
Fortunately, I didn't have to wait too long, as I was picked up by four Vancouver Co-eds in a little Mazda about 20 minutes into my trek. Little did I know I'd be spending the next 4 hours with them as we made our way to the concert. The traffic on the final day was about twice as bad as it had been. There were times that I wanted to abandon my fellow concert goers. I figured I could walk much faster, but I felt a certain allegiance to them, like we're in this together! Plus, I'm not going to lie; they were pretty so I suffered through it.
Finally got to the festival site at about 5 pm, bid farewell to the Co-eds and proceeded to take in some of the bands from afar while I downed a few of Molson’s finest Canadian beer. The rain from the night before and off and on during the day helped keep the dust down a little. I think my dirt to mucus ratio the next day was about 20/80. Far below the 50/50 blend you and I had experienced the previous two days. Death Cab came on at 6 pm, and unfortunately, I never made it out of the Barn/Beer area to go for a closer listen. The beer just tasted too good!
Jay Z came on at about 7:30 pm I think. Can’t say that I’m a fan of Mr. Z, but he was entertaining enough. He did do the Linkin Park re-mix song, which managed to get me to stand up. I went out and met some of the people we'd met the day before along with a guy named Brendan, whom I'd shared a few beers with while missing Death Cab. He was a good enough guy who makes his living pasteurizing milk. I can safely say that I know more now about pasteurizing than any one who doesn't pasteurize for a living really should! His best quote was “Cheese is the only good reason that people should eat dairy!” Oh, and what he said when we first met! I was just standing there by myself, enjoying my light buzz and taking it all in, and he comes up from behind and says to me: “F….ing Spectacular, Eh?”
Last major band of the night was Coldplay, and dare I say they Rocked It! It was an absolutely amazing show. They played until about 11:30 pm, and at one point came out into the middle of the crowd and sang a few songs up on a mini-stage. Knowing that I had a long trip ahead of me to make it back to Whistler, and not really know how I was going to accomplish it yet, I decided not to hang around for The Crystal Method. I was so torn, but my payoff was that I was able to secure a ride back with the 3 Vancouver ladies we'd met on Sunday, Dolly, Stacey and Susan. I was in bed by 3:30 am, just enough sleep to be able to wake up and catch my 6 am shuttle back to Vancouver to fly out. Monday was a long day to say the least!
In the end, I’d have to agree with Brendan. It was F…ing Spectacular…..Eh!?” We’ll be back my friend, we’ll definitely be back!
Hope you made it to Beijing safe, sound, and hopefully a little rested!