First City Festival Day 1: Top 3 Highlights

Nobody really knew what to expect but the first day of the inaugural First City Festival at the Monterey County Fairgrounds ran as smoothly as a baby's you-know-what—it was well attended, which means it's very likely that this event will happen again next year. Although there were stellar performances given by everyone from The Black Angels and Beach House to Passion Pit and Washed Out, there were three bands that truly stole the festival on Saturday.

3: Blitzen Trapper kicks off music on the Redwood Stage in the main arena with class:

It was early afternoon, the sun was blinding—but wonderful—and festival-goers were just arriving, for the most part. There was a lot of settling in going on. First drinks were getting purchased and first bowls were getting lit. It's a challenging time for any band tasked with grabbing the attention of folks in the early hours of an all-day festival. But, Blitzen Trapper prevailed, and delivered some smoking alt-country jams including "Heart Attack," a new tune from their forthcoming record, and their authentic murder ballad "Black River Killer." 

2. MGMT has thousands simultaneously requesting "Kids":

After MGMT's Andrew VanWyngarden announced that they were about to play their final tune of the night, the audience of 7,000-plus began yelling "Kids" in unison. The brightly-coated pop song is probably the duo's most well-known and they've most likely performed it so much by now they could do without ever playing it again, but who's going to disappoint 7,000 people? Overall, the set was energetic—with a top-notch stage production consisting of a large LED screen playing psychedelic cartoons from the future behind the band—and full of fan faves including "Weekend Wars" and "Time to Pretend;" they also tossed in a couple new tunes from their upcoming self-titled record due out in September. 

1. Father John Misty's entire set:

"If you're not having fun at this festival there's something fundamentally wrong with you," FJM frontman J. Tillman proclaimed. Wise words coming from one of the most exciting singer-songwriters out there. He's a showman with Eddie Vedder-like moves involving a lot of angsty time on the stage floor and wrapping the mic chord around himself as much as possible. Tillman had fun rapping with audience about various nonsensical subjects including moisturizer and Drake but his music is downright phenomenal and his band is equally amazing. One of the standouts was a new tune "Honey Bear" that begins with the line, "Mascara, blood, ash, and cum on the Rorschach sheets." The rendition of "Hollywood Cemetery Forever," which closed the set, had a dissonant, noisy Sonic Youth thing going on that brought even more punch to the already-punchy tune.   

Looking forward to more goodness on Day 2.