This year’s 94.9 Independence Jam ventured into North County for the first time and set up shop next to the Oceanside Pier with two stages – the headliner and the Casbah stage featuring local bands – and an sustainability savvy Eco Village featuring plantable water bottles with tree seeds, Honest Tea organic teas, and various other booths including one dedicated to education about the Municipal Water District.

But, I digress.  After all, it’s about the music, right?  This year the main stage featured Dead Confederate, Metric, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and The Black Keys.  Dead Confederate sheepishly took to the stage promptly at 5:00 to a crowd that mostly seemed unaware of who they were.  What they may have lacked in stage confidence they immediately made up for with a cleanly executed set with only minor technical hiccups.  The lead singer, Hardy Morris, was mixed a little low and so his powerful, screeching vocals were unfortunately lost in the midst of the driving music.  The keyboard work of John Watkins was lost almost completely and both bassist Brantley Senn and guitarist Walker Howle adjusted their own equipment during the show to try and compensate for some losses.  An accidental hit on the guitar while he was adjusting his pedals left Walker with a momentary sheepish grin, but it was an element of reality that made the band all the more loveable.  Aside from those issues, the set was tight, powerful, and thoroughly engaging.  The few diehard fans that were singing along and jumping from the start were soon joined by the crowd in a rhythmic, bouncing appreciation.  Certainly new fans were formed, and towards the end of the set when they got around to playing The Rat, the pier was shaking.

They left the stage with little ceremony and crews immediately began to break down the set and prepare for Metric.  Considering the constraints provided by Oceanside for the use of the venue and the unpredictability of moving around the individual equipment for four bands in a five hour block, the sound techs and crews worked incredibly well together.  Again, despite the best intentions, there were some technical difficulties at the beginning of Metric’s set with the bass player’s equipment, but the mesmerizing presence of Emily Haines’ bleach blonde hair, cut off shorts, and white rimmed sunglasses directed all attention to her.  The set continued uninterrupted while a diligent (and very disconcerted) roadie fixed the issues, and by the second song, the set went off without a hitch.  Despite the impressions left by Dead Confederate, the Oceanside Pier venue can be mixed incredibly well, as was seen with the entirety of Metric’s set.  The vocals and music were perfectly blended and managed to keep up with Haines’ switching mikes, running, dancing, running, and jumping all over the stage.  She was a wonderful mix of the rockstar diva and the sweet Canadian, owning the stage with her undeniable presence and talent while also genuinely thanking 94.9 and the audience for the invitation to the show.  The music was as engaging as she was, and by the end of the set the throng of viewers was eagerly pushing towards the stage to be closer to the experience.  Haines and company seemed delighted by the response and left the stage to a roar of cheers and applause.  In my opinion, it was the best mixed and most entertaining of the sets of the day, and it seemed to serve the greater purpose of getting the crowd ready and willing for the second female superstar to take the stage with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

As amazing as Metric was and as much as their music was appreciated, based on the reaction of the crowd, they were there to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.  Swarms of them, pushing and clawing to scrape an inch of concrete that much closer to rock star Karen O.  And rock star she is, in the truest sense of the word.  She effortlessly worked the crowd and with a mere gesture hands would fly into the air to clap or feet would leap off the ground to jump, anything to be in time, to be in proximity with Karen O.  The music was also well mixed, though I doubt it would have mattered.  They were playing to their audience, the rest of the music was icing to some, distraction to others.  The music was tight, sing-along friendly, but Karen O also took the opportunity to add her own, unique flare to some of the lyrics or notes, which riled up the fans all the more.  Gifts were thrown on stage, and Karen O even took a pinwheel from an audience member and used it to coax the masses to sway in time with the throbbing rhythms.  It was a short set, as they all were, but it was full of spit and vinegar and the pure, rock and roll nature of the band.  Everyone on stage, everyone in the audience, probably everyone in Oceanside was sweaty and spent at the end of it, despite the growing breeze off of the oceanic backdrop to the stage.  It was as monumental as the venue could get, while also maintaining that intimacy and “I was there” feel that 94.9 shows are known for.  Based on the crowd response, though, it would have been a shame to miss it, because they are on the rise and I doubt a small venue will hold them much longer.

The unfortunate thing about having two big names like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Black Keys is that one of them has to go first, and the other gets the end of the show, the real feel of the “headliner.”  In this case, that was a disservice to The Black Keys.  After the Yeah Yeah Yeahs departed the stage, so did two thirds of the audience that had been patiently growing around the stage, in the stands, and in the concrete courtyard separating the two.  To be in the pit next to the stage had been a grueling task up until that point, and the throngs of fans for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs pushed their way to clean air and better footing, being replaced by a fraction of fans that had come to see The Black Keys.  Their troubles did not end there.  They were plagued by technical difficulties ten times worse than the other bands, including some tremendously bad feedback that ended up being a blown amp.  The difficulties, the exhaustion of the previously elated fans, the time it took to fix the issues and move on lost more and more interest as the night progressed.  Some fans left the stadium seating, opening up spaces for some of the footsore fans to move to higher ground, but many just left – perhaps to beat the traffic out, or perhaps just because they were tired.  The set was not mixed terribly well and what normally is riveting music seemed somehow contrived and repetitive.  It wasn’t the show stopper ending that would have been hoped for after the brilliant start from Dead Confederate that just grew with Metric and climaxed with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.  It didn’t help that the otherwise perfectly-timed execution of the whole day was slowed during The Black Keys’ set so that their closing number was interrupted by the house lights, indicating that 10:00 had been reached and it was time to quiet down and go home.  

Overall, 94.9 did another amazing job of putting together a fantastic Independence Jam, though it was plagued with equipment issues.  Some of the bands they may never be able to get again, though all the bands, with the possible exception of The Black Keys, seemed genuinely happy to be there.  The setting was stunning, and the short breaks between sets could be spent watching the ocean or counting the pelicans flying by.  As for the second stage, they may have been less loved, but certainly entertained the guests in the Eco Village and kept music filling the air during the main stage set breaks.  What I heard of them sounded great, but alas, I can’t be in two places at once. Looking forward to next year!