Virgin Mobile Festival, 2008

Full coverage of the Virgin Mobile Festival from your humble correspondent, now available for your consumption from The Washington Times‘s website. Here’s day one’s coverage. I, um, can’t find day two’s coverage, but it should be somewhere on the website. I’ll update if/when I find it.

Day two wasn’t too great anyway, so you’re not missing much. Kanye was very good, and Paramore was surprisingly good; their lead singer’s sensibility is the perfect mix of head banging hard rock and subtle sultriness. The last time I can remember a female singer mixing those qualities was Shirley Manson, of Garbage fame.

But Saturday’s lineup was pretty impressive. The Foo Fighters were great, as always, as was Wilco. It was the first time I’d seen Wilco in concert, and I was kind of blown away. Not totally blown away, mind you. But seeing Nels Cline attack the guitar was something to behold. This was also the first I’d seen of Bloc Party, and was duly impressed. It can be tough for a less well known act like them to get the crowd going, but they did a very good job of keeping us entertained. I’ll definitely be checking them out when they come around again.

Just for kicks: Wilco’s “At Least that’s What You Said,” from Chicago earlier this year.