The Pemberton Music Festival took place from July 16–19 and offered a host of interesting artists. The main focus of the lineup was rap and EDM, featuring big acts such as Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, and Jack Ü complemented by smaller acts like Logic, Earl Sweatshirt, and RL Grime. The sheer size and scope of the festival meant you wouldn’t be able to see all the acts, or even all your favourite acts. I had to make some pretty hard choices to make over the course of the weekend.
Thursday had the weakest lineup, with the only two notable acts being Billy Talent and J. Cole. Billy Talent were terrific, and it was a great nostalgia trip to hear songs such as “Red Flag,” “Fallen Leaves,” and “River Below,” which I constantly played in my early teen years. J. Cole played to a packed crowd on a the main Pemberton Stage, and performed mostly songs off his newest album, 2014 Forest Hills Drive, at the expense of some of his older work (though he still managed to include favourites “Work Out” and “Crooked Smile”).
Friday featured Kid Cudi who played the remixes to his popular songs “Day n’ Nite” and “Pursuit of Happiness.” Not to say that Kid Cudi wasn’t good, but those were the only two songs that seemed to really get the crowd going. After that was The Black Keys. I saw them when they were in Vancouver in October, and was curious if they would improve on what I thought was a pretty poor performance. They didn’t. It was a really boring set, and I now realise it’s because all of their songs sound exactly the same. I left them early to catch Tiesto who redeemed the night for me. His high energy set was terrific, and my EDM-inclined friends were going nuts.
The first act I attempted to see Saturday was Earl Sweatshirt. By “attempted,” I mean it was too damn hot, so I ended up leaving to avoid getting heat stroke. Plus, he stopped rapping halfway through his set to start DJing, which was odd. Also on Saturday, Alice Cooper was excellent. He is a great showman, coming out in a giant Frankenstein costume during “Feed My Frankenstein” and having his head chopped off in a guillotine. Ludacris was the best artist of the day by far. He knows how to work a crowd, and his performance of “Move Bitch” was a highlight. I was also pleasantly surprised by RL Grimes.
Sunday featured indie rock group Real Estate, whose mellow, almost psychedelic style was very soothing on another hot day. A$AP Ferg followed. His style of rapping over trap music was interesting. He even played “Wild for the Night,” a song by fellow A$AP member A$Ap Rocky.
Kendrick Lamar was a standout. His set can be described in one word: fire. After showing up late to last year’s festival and only playing half of his set, he showed up on time this year and absolutely killed it. He played all his best songs from Good Kid m.A.A.d City, including “Swimming Pools,” “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe,” and my personal favourite, “m.A.A.d city,” along with a few songs from To Pimp a Butterfly and Section .80. His was by far the best performance of the festival.
While I enjoyed many of the acts I saw at Pemberton, one problem with the festival was the scheduling. There were a lot of great comedy acts I wanted to check out, such as Tim & Eric and Nick Offerman, but they were at the exact same time as some musical acts I wanted to see. Another issue was some major acts being scheduled right after each other, forcing you to stay the whole time, or leave early to avoids the crowd of thousands. There also wasn’t much available in terms of rock groups, so if you weren’t into rap or EDM, you were out of luck.
Overall, though, the festival was an excellent experience and I am curious to see how organizers will improve on a strong lineup next year.
