I will never not be thankful for my friend who’s been a New York resident since we graduated high school. It means I can kind of show up whenever and always have a free place to stay! Take for instance, a somewhat last minute decision to go for Stray Kids’ headlining slot at Governors Ball this past Saturday. A cheap flight meant I’d only be in town for exactly hours, but my goodness did I make the most of it!
Though I had to leave a bit early, I didn’t get into New York too early. But just a few days prior I realized that the 25th annual Tribeca Film Festival was taking place while I was there. That prompted me to really look at the Gov Ball schedule. Learning that I wasn’t going to really care about any sets until 5pm, I found an “early” screening of The Revisionist that just so happened to be a ten minute stroll away from my friend’s place in Manhattan! So I went! In all honesty, I don’t know the sprawl of the Tribeca Film Festival, but this venue had its own little red carpet right outside and everything! I slipped into my seat just in time for this 90 mintue drama that happened to be filled with a fair number of chuckles.
The film centers on Jacob, who’s feeling unmotivated in his job, so he sets out to write his famous father’s autobiography. The thing is, his fatehr won’t tell him much about his life, especially his wife and Jacob’s mother. Jacob’s own wife happens to be a best-sellnig author herself, and you can see throughout the film she is working on writing her next hit. It’s when their old college friend John shows back up in their lives after 15 years that things start to get interesting. It’s a parts messy, but sometimes it’s hard to tell if everything is reality or not. After the screening, the writer/director Alex Vlack did a short Q&A. It was revealed that this screenplay was written before the novel he has yet to release. It also sounds like both the movie and book have been in process for quite some time. I think this clever film should get some wide release love, and I am very interested in the book if that ever see the light of day.
By the time I made it to Corona Park in Flushing Meadows for Gov Ball I was sweating. Make no mistake, it was freaking hot that day. And of couse, that always means there’s chances for summer storms. I was pleased as punch to see Wet Leg again. What talents! They played a lot of new songs, but included all of the old ones that matter. And for a 45 minute set, they really did manage to play a lot! After that I made my way over to Major Lazer, who has a much bigger following than I could have ever guessed. But that seems to have always been the case with the handful of EDM acts I’ve seen over the years. I knew the radio hits, of course. Then, in a bit of a bummer, the shows that evening were slated to be over by 7:30pm with the threat of an upcoming storm (that did prove to be pretty bad). This means that Amyl and the Sniffers were cut from the day. Thankfully I have seen them once before so it wasn’t as big of a blow as it could have been.
It did mean that Stray Kids went on like two hours earlier than they were meant to. And thanks to an ankle injury, Seungmin wasn’t there for the performance. Boo. If he was my bias and this was my first time seeing them, I’d be colossaly bummed. But, they put on a big show despite the heat. Opening with “Topline” was the move. And it was cool to hear “Bounce Back” and “Ceremony” for the first time live, despite the latter being the dumb festival version. I think they’d be remiss to ever skip out on “Domino,” but obviously there will be lifelong songs on future sets like “S-Class,” “Maniac,” and “God’s Menu.” Not that I’m complaining! Oh! I was also really excited to hear “Divine,” which was my favorite song off their last album. They seemed to have a blast and I know the fans did, as well. As for me, the view was probably the worst I’ve had, but I made it work well enough. I’ll be excited to see them again someday, though I’m thinking that might not be this year. Yay Gov Ball!
