If you were in New York City this past weekend, there was a battle going on. You may not have noticed it, but rest assured there was a war being waged on Randall’s Island at Gov Ball, NYC’s biggest music festival. It wasn’t a battle of the elements, although the rain clouds that threatened all weekend were largely vanquished. It wasn’t a conflict between good versus evil, although examples of both were represented on the field. It was a battle for the musical future of the Northeast and the result was as conclusive as any battle could be. The combatants were two musical genres: hip-hop versus rock. Each side had a set of primary weapons – turntables versus guitars; rhymes versus lyrics; teenagers versus former teenagers. And the day was overwhelmingly carried by hip-hop. The verdict is not simply this writer’s opinion, it is a fact – the festival voted with its feet. All weekend the rock act audiences watching Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Wolf Alice, Manchester Orchestra, The Gaslight Anthem, Third Eye Blind, Japandroids, and even the mighty Jack White were dwarfed by the masses of teenagers and twenty-somethings watching Eminem, Vic Mensa, GoldLink, Post Malone, 6Lack, 2 Chainz, Amine, Lil Uzi Vert and Travis Scott. The margin of victory was at least 20 to 1.
One might say that this wasn’t a fair fight as the rock bookings weren’t as strong as the hip-hop acts, and while that may be true, 20 to 1 is still 20 to 1. The youth of New York have spoken and according to them, rock is irrelevant. That doesn’t mean that there weren’t some great rock performances, there were – and as this is a mostly rock publication that is what you will get in the coming lines of this article.
For those unfamiliar with Gov Ball, it is an 8 year-old festival that is held over three days across four stages on a beautiful spot on Randall’s Island, just across the Triborough Bridge from Manhattan, Queens and The Bronx. It is mainly held on two lush grass fields with decent food choices and interesting art installations – this year’s art standout were the balloon trees at the main entrance. The festival audience skews young–the average age may no more than 20–perhaps because the festival falls after most colleges and private high schools break for the summer and while public high schools are in field trip mode. The crowd is substantial with 150,000 over the course of the weekend, but rarely feels crowded unless you’re trying to get on the rail for the big acts. And given the average age of festival goers, there are virtually no crowds at the beer, alcohol and VIP tents, while lines for free water, cookie dough and something called the original ramen burger were very significant. One wonders how the lack of alcohol and VIP sales (the perennial cash cows of other festivals) will work for Gov Ball in the long run. But for now, it may be is the best 3-day pre-prom party in the world. All in all, the festival is a major undertaking and is run well.
Friday started off with weather reports of threatening rain that mercifully never materialized. Given that it had rained steadily the few days prior to the festival, it was astonishing that the grounds were virtually mudless and puddle less – a true tribute to the staff and the venue. The crowds started small, but by four o’clock, the festival swelled with kids who had just gotten out of school.
Five bands stood: Slaves, Wolf Alice, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Glitch Mob, and Jack White. Slaves, a UK punk duo with tinges of hardcore, opened the day with Isaac Holman on vocals and drums (a bass drum oriented like a floor tom and a snare) and Laurie Vincent on guitar. They had a short set and a small crowd, but they packed a lot of energy into that 30 minutes and used the entire Gov Ball stage in doing so. By mid-set, Vincent’s fingers were bleeding and his wiped faced covered with the blood. A bit of chit chat from Holman who jumped from behind his kit and worked the front of the stage, a towel from the tech, and the show carried on as frenzied as before. They concluded with their drum set wrecked and their guitar strung up on an amp for feedback, jumped off the stage and skipped through the crowd arm in arm. An excellent start to the day.
Wolf Alice is a band on the verge of breaking out and you could see that clearly from their Bacardi Stage performance. Frontwoman/guitarist Ellie Rowsell prowled the stage with an intensity and fierceness that matched their music perfectly. Their sound was both harder and eerier than their recordings. Go see them before they start playing much larger venues.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs hadn’t performed in some time, but you couldn’t tell it from their performance. The sometimes trio, sometimes quartet delivered slashing rock harmonies fronted by the charismatic Karen O who owned the stage and the crowd. She concluded her set with some rock and roll smashes of her microphone into the stage which felt just wrong enough to be right. Let’s hope they continue to tour and put out records.
Friday’s biggest surprise was The Glitch Mob, an EDM trio that won the day in this reporter’s mind. They brought incredible energy, rhythms and musicianship to the stage. Each of the three musicians had an electronic set of drums and a futuristic touch screen which was divided into a different number of boxes, depending on the song. Each press of each box in the touchscreen produced a note or sound that when combined rocked the tent. Those in attendance were both mesmerized and energized and I doubt there was more dancing done at any stage over the three-day festival.
Jack White put on a 90-minute show to close Friday and wound his way through the various compositions of his musical career touching on material from the White Stripes, The Raconteurs, Dead Weather and his new (and past) solo albums. The show started with a countdown clock on the huge video screen backdrop, and right on time the band and then Jack White hit the stage and launched into “Over and Over and Over” from his newest album Boarding House Reach. As usual, all was set in black and white or blue tones, and White pounced between the drum and bass’s platform and that of the keyboardists, switching guitars often. The backdrop provided realistic video including at one point an oversized White playing behind the smaller real life White on stage. He was backed by a drummer, bass player and two keyboardists who he leaned on a great deal. His guitar work was solid, as always, and his new material mostly stood up to the old, but he did not draw the crowd that the festival expected.
Tash Sultana also offered up a nice set. The Australian talented multi-instrumentalist put on a live looping display in which she layered tracks from voice, guitar, drums, mandolin, trumpet and some other instruments that the audience couldn’t quite make out. Her voice and talent were impressive; it would be intriguing to see what she could do with a full band.
It would be remiss to not mention Post Malone’s show which was reported to be high-energy and whose audience may have outnumbered the combined audiences of all other acts of the day.
Saturday brought another hot day with fresh threats of rain and a whole slate of new bands. The four rock bands that distinguished themselves were The Regrettes, The Menzingers, Japandroids and Manchester Orchestra. And EDM Galantis and rapper Travis Scott were incredible.
The Regrettes opened the festival at the Honda stage. They are an extremely young LA punky pop band fronted by Lydia Night who charmed the crowd with their enthusiasm and own appreciation for being able to perform on such a large stage. They sounded like what The Shangri-Las would sound like if they had been injected with a dose of the Ramones. The Metzingers, a Philly-based quartet that plays brash guitar-driven rock and roll, hit the Honda stage mid-afternoon. Their songs were catchy with a nice edge to them and the two guitarists seemed to trade off songs and inspire the crowd. They are well worth catching if they come your way.
Japandroids, a Canadian rock duo, proved that sometimes all you need is a guitar and drums to make a rock band. They put everything they had into their hour-long set and left the Bacardi stage drenched in sweat and the crowd screaming for more. Their streamlined straight-ahead rock approach was impressive and their energy level was extraordinary. They definitely earned some new fans from their performance. Manchester Orchestra hit the Bacardi stage at 5:45 and delivered a great performance. The mostly-bearded rock band from Atlanta energized the crowd with wailing guitars and Andy Hull’s piercing vocals. They and Japandroids may have turned in the best performances of the day, especially if you are a fan of jagged guitar-based rock.
Other solid performances on Saturday were turned in by The Spencer Lee Band who played a rollicking set of retro-soul complete with backup vocals and horns, and by The Gaslight Anthem whose lighter but still driving brand of rock had the loyal but small crowd singing along to every song through the rain that eventually fell on the crowd.
But once again, the crowds were drawn to the hip hop and EDM acts, most notably 2 Chainz, Galantis and Travis Scott. Swedish EDM duo Galantis worked their deck and huge drums behind them, and had a huge crowd dancing their entire set. With fire shooting up from the stage and one member jumping on and off his deck, the FDNY explosives specialist supervising the stage just never relaxed and almost became part of the show as he nervously crept on and off the stage. The security crew too provided welcome entertainment, dancing along with the band, and streaming water into the crowd to cool them down. But it was Travis Scott who produced the biggest Gov Ball crowd that this festival goer has seen, teeming with teenage girls who should have been worn out from a whole day’s regimen of pulling up tube tops, pulling down frayed jean shorts, and taking selfies. But, to their credit, they partied through the entire set and through the rain (though a few dozen had to be pulled over the rail into the photo pit and escorted out before Scott’s show even started). The crowd was so frenzied and crushed against the rail, security threatened to clear the pit of photographers for safety, but relented. Eventually, the crowd must have thinned a bit, as the rain hit just as his set started, providing a needed cool down for the crowd and creating room for moshing. Scott seemingly ended 40 minutes early, but as the crowd reluctantly left the stage, he came back on stage with “goosebumps”, and once again, the crowd rushed the rails. The rain may have shortened the length of his set, but not the quality.
Sunday started altogether different – decidedly chilly – but it was still youth who ruled the stages (including 16-year-old Billie Eilish, 20-year-old Khalid, and Liz Uzi Vert, Alice Merton and Vic Mensa all in their early 20s) and the festival grounds. Pop-rock newcomer Alice Merton opened up the Honda stage keeping a coat over her hand-painted coveralls for most of her set. She launched into “Hit the Ground Running”, clearing enjoying the moment. After surveying the sizeable and enthusiastic crowd, she paused for just a second, and broke into a shit-eating grin before immediately getting into “Keeps Me Awake”. Her 30-minute time slot allowed for only seven songs but she delivered a solid set.
With few true rock acts on the schedule, the day felt like a long (albeit pleasant) lead-in for headliner Eminem who delivered a great set (more later). Glam rockers The Struts, fronted by Luke Spiller bedazzled in an orange fringe suit, delivered a high energy set including pulling a woman out of the crowd to join him in singing and dancing to a cover of Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark”. The only country act in the lineup, Margo Price, had a solid set but unfortunately played to a sparse crowd, most fans choosing to catch R&B act Kali Uchis or enjoy the many other diversions of GovBall. Billie Eilish was fantastic in the American Eagle tent, pacing the stage in command of her music and her audience. Khalid joined her in their duet “Lovely” and she later joined him at his set at the main stage where he and a quartet of dancers kicked and sang their way through a fun high energy set. Rapper Vic Mensa was dominant later in a packed American Eagle tent with a very political set where he covered his hits including “Liquor Locker”, “Rollin’ Like A Stoner”, “16 Shots” and “Say I Didn’t”.
Eminem was a phenom closing the festival with a 29 song, two hour set on the GovBall stage and the only artist to not be competing with another on-stage artist. A packed field (including the 50 festers or so that ran from the entrance when the gates opened ten hours earlier to get a spot on the rail) waited patiently in anticipation in front of a covered stage which opened as Eminem and Mr. Porter backed by a full band including strings made their entrance. Eminen was joined at various times by 50 Cent, Skylar Grey (writer of “Love the Way You Lie”) who sang on three songs including her own, and Phresher. He had the crowd whether going way back for “The Real Slim Shady”, “Not Afraid” or new cut “Chloraseptic”. When the skies opened up just after 10 pm, the fans stuck it through the pouring rain.
A noticeable element of Gov Ball was the political nature in many of the artists’ performances and the inclusion of non-profits such as HeadCount and Everytown for Gun Safety which encouraged everyone to Wear Orange (and a pack of boys were in full orange coveralls) and provided stickers and information. Many of the artists complied from The Struts fringed orange suit to Billie Eilish’s orange beanie to Wolf Alice guitarist’s “Time To Face The Music” t-shirt to the Aurora’s orange wish lantern backdrop to the many who put stickers on their instruments. Jack White switched up “Icky Thump” to Icky Trump. Belly had a choice work for POTUS adding “Where’s my immigrants at?” And many of the women on stage were powerful and leading bands; their lyrics and actions asserting their right to respect and self-determination.
The Second shoutout is to the customer friendly approach of all the GovBall staff. As New Yorkers, we’re used to the abrupt, no-nonsense, borderline-aggressive nature of our city, but that was not the vibe at Gov Ball, in large part due to the staffing. From the moment you entered, front gate workers were efficient and friendly. Signs all over preached the GovBal credo – You’re Doing Great. Security in the pit did their job, but smiled and chit chatted with the crowd and photographers, handing out dozens of water bottles to those on the rail, and spraying others into the crowd to keep them cool. This led to a chill crowd, sharing water and other substances with the new friends around them, and rowdy but mostly safe mosh pits. Jay Electronica tested security severely when he called on the crowd to join him on stage and more than a hundred climbed the rails, hopped through the VIP area, and pulled each other up onto the stage to groove along. Three adventurous gals even climbed the scaffolding to take selfies, and security stayed cool.
The lineup, the vibe, and the venue, all make GovBall a must for any New Yorker, young and old(er).
Photos by Nancy Lasher
One Response
Really observant & thorough coverage of a fun 3 day festival.