My first reaction upon seeing the full lineup for Dillo Day 2008: “Broken Social Scene?! Holy crap.”
Then: “Hmm, wow, this is a really awesome lineup. I haven’t been this excited for the bands playing Dillo Day in my three years here.”
Then: “Who the hell is going to stick around for these concerts with me?”
This year’s concert slate is an interesting one. In past years, you got the feeling Mayfest had a “we’ll take what we can get” mentality when booking artists for Dillo Day, each year’s iteration feeling like a more and more random collection of B-list and C-list mainstream rock and hip-hop acts. There have been a few exceptions, but bands like Cake (2007) and Robert Randolph and the Family Band (2006) were the kind of solid picks Mayfest made that drew wide crowds with few rabid fans. This year, though, four out of five of the artists coming are bona fide “critics’ darlings” — which, in this age of online taste-making, means they’ve got “hipster cred” and might inspire a certain geeky demographic to put down their PBRs and spend the entire day on the Lakefill. The fifth band, Third Eye Blind, is a pretty inspired choice — ultra-well-known, likely to draw a big crowd looking to experience some of the songs that defined their middle-school years.
On Dillo Day, the day we “party like a state school,” there’s always a battle between enjoying Mayfests’ outdoors offerings and the threat of creeping sobriety the longer one stays on the Lakefill. This year’s (and many other’s) problem: With the most well-known act, Third Eye Blind, playing first, there’s little incentive for many people to stick around for the concerts later in the day.
It’s not that the other bands won’t put on a good show for people who don’t know their music. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists’ peppy pop-punk is certainly easy to like, Broken Social Scene’s epic rock anthems should engage all but the most cynical watchers, and Cool Kids’ breezy rapping might inspire a dance party. Common is a no-brainer for the nighttime headliner, with plenty of name recognition and awesome songs.
But the lure of good music isn’t necessarily enough to prevent lots of people from leaving the concert scene and restarting that progressive kegger they kicked off the day with. The only surefire way to get people to stay around is for them to be excited about the upcoming acts. This year, they definitely should be excited — but I’ve seen quite a few people give blank stares at the mentions of Ted Leo, Cool Kids and Common. So, in the spirit of getting people pumped, we’ve come up with fan-boy guides to all the non-Northwestern, non-Third Eye Blind acts. Enjoy!