What should
people try to sneak
into a festival?

“Whiskey and a
sword, and you’re all
set. And a poncho.”

—Eugene Mirman

Jersey boy Brian Fallon (second from left) gets a little love from the Bonnaroo headliner

PLAYING: LOLLAPALOOZA / SASQUATCH!

“Festivals are maybe
really fun if you do
drugs, but I don’t do
drugs. Is that bad? Don’t
print that. Keep my
hard-partying cult of
personality alive, please.”

—Annie Clark (St. Vincent)

Brian Aubert of the L.A. neo-
shoegazers kindly requests that
you not be a dick this summer

PLAYING: COACHELLA / SASQUATCH! / LOLLAPALOOZA

YOU SHOULDN’T GO TO THE
CHURRO STAND DURING OUR SE T
BECAUSE…
“You’re going to see something you
probably won’t see from the other
bands—if you have any interest in
a kind of live soul revue mixed with
punk rock, that’s the ticket. We didn’t
invent it; we’re just carrying on a
tradition that’s been left on the
wayside for 20 years.”

AND IF YOU CAN ONLY CATCH ONE
SONG, MAKE IT…
“ ‘Say I Won’t (Recognize)’ [from the
2008 EP Señor and the Queen]—in
the middle it kind of breaks down and
stops, and we always incorporate a
new song every night that people will
recognize. We played a Pretenders
song one night; sometimes a Sam
Cooke song. It’s so cool to see people’s
eyes light up when they know what the
song is, then we come right back into
our song and they go crazy. That’s my
favorite thing to do: surprise people.”

“I’ve snuck myself into
a festival—I got into
Glastonbury a couple
times by boring under
the fence. Back in the
’80s, you could do that.”

—Jimi Goodwin, Doves

You’re doing your first major U.S. show in support of your second album, Swoon, at Coachella during the week of its release—is that at all nerve-racking? It’s exciting. It gets harder and harder to do things that make an album release feel like a real event, so that was an idea not only in our camp, but in the festival’s as well. From early on, they were saying, “Can this be the thing? Can this be your big release-week show?” When Coachella calls, you go, “Okay, whatever you want, Mr. and Mrs. Coachella.”

Tommy Lee wrestling someone!” You get spoiled and forget what going to a festival is really like. I think a couple of us went to see Lily Allen or Air, I can’t remember who, and we walked through the actual festival grounds. After zipping around in golf carts all day backstage, you go out there and it’s so hot and everything’s 30 bucks and all these kids are passed out everywhere. I almost wanted to lead them all back and be like, “Follow us!”

What’s the most
ridiculous thing
you’ve ever done to
see a show?

BUT DON’T TAKE OUR WORD FOR
IT, ASK MR. SPRINGSTEEN...
“I was doing a benefit in Red Bank,
New Jersey, which is my hometown,
and all of a sudden Bruce shows up
and does an impromptu set. After the
show, he comes up to me with Nicole
Atkins and says, ‘Hey, you’re in the
Gaslight Anthem! I’m Bruce Spring-
steen and I really like your band.’ I was
just like, ‘I don’t understand what’s
happening here. How do you know
about my band?’ His kids got him into
us, but then he started talking about
how our album was recorded, how
warm it sounds. Coming from New
Jersey, you always get compared to
Springsteen and it’s an honor, but this
was unreal. Then he asked us to open
for his enormous show in London, in
Hyde Park. I couldn’t even tell people
right away; I just had to process the
whole thing.”

“I snuck out of the house
to see Prince and bought
what I thought was a
front-row seat from a
scalper. But the show
was in the round, and I
was actually sitting in the
back. That was bad.”

—Erykah Badu

What about the added pressure of presenting brand-new material to a big crowd that’s unfamiliar with it? We might split the difference [between old and new songs]. I’d rather have people feel confused and strange about the record at first, then have it build, like what happened with [2006’s] Carnavas. At festivals, you just kind of go out there and make the biggest noise you can. There’s a lot of subtleties you have to save for your own shows. Our songs are long, and we only have so much time—we just try to make a little nugget rather than try to throw in every single element of what we’re about. When we played Coachella in 2007, Amy Winehouse hugged me for some reason.

“To the misting tent!” “There’s a masseuse! Come this way!” I had this fantasy of snapping my fingers and reversing the roles so all the bands had to stay in the main area and all the fans get to hang out in the back. That’ll really shake you up.

“When we opened for
the Stones at Madison
Square Garden, we had
to pay for our families
to come, which was an
expensive ordeal.”

—Emily Haines, Metric

Maybe she was trying to lift your wallet? I turned around and ran into her; I didn’t know who she was at the time. It felt, like, this air hit me, she’s so small. I remember hearing her music for the first time on the ride home, going, “That little thing sings like this?”

What’s the dumbest thing a performer
can do at a show like this? Bitch and
complain. These things are crazy
beasts with so much stuff going on,
and things are going to go haywire.
I remember seeing a band that
will remain nameless throw this
insane hissy fit, telling people to
get their money back because shit
wasn’t working right. Ten minutes
later, Björk is playing, and her entire
computer system crashes, and while
Matmos tries to fix it, she’s like,
“Oh, I guess I’ll sing a ballad now,
then.” Just don’t be a dick.

What’s the dumbest thing an attendee can do? Same answer: Don’t be a dick. Find your pace and don’t burn out. Relax.

I’d think the fun part for artists must be all the folks milling around backstage bumping into one another. Literally, it would seem. As the night goes on, particularly at Coachella, it gets pretty Hollyweird. You’re just like, “Oh, hey, there’s

What do you think any festivalgoer
should sneak in to make the
experience more enjoyable?
A masseuse. Who also emits mist.
Or just bring a friend who has a
spray bottle and will massage you.
The economy is rough and people
will do anything for cash. Spend an
extra $50 that weekend.

Ann Coen (GAsliGht Anthem). silversun piCkups GroominG by su h An.

60 mAy 2009 / see briAn FAllon plAy ACoustiC: spin.Com/GAsliGht-video