Taking a Guess at the Rock The Garden Lineup
Recently we took a best guess at what the Pitchfork Festival Lineup was going to look like (before the bands were announced). Now we are doing the same with the Twin Cities own outdoor summer music festival, Rock the Garden, which is planned by the Walker Art Center in partnership with the Current, and will likely happen sometime in June.
If you have predictions of your own, please chime in on the comments section
HEADLINER
Prediction: The headliner will probably be a popular band with a broad appeal to the urban middle class as well as the kids. Probably white, mostly male, and with a “safe” sound.
Best Guess:
Silverson Pickups
Previous year’s equivalent:
The Decembrists, Andrew Bird
Runner Up:
The Hold Steady
Awesome Long Shot:
Prince
Most Terrifying Prospect:
Silversun Pickups / Kings of Leon
2ND HEADLINER
Prediction: A more youth oriented band with a less accessible sound. Something to appeal to the hip kids without scaring away the old folks.
Best Guess:
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
Previous Year’s equivalents:
Yeasayer, New Pornographers
Runner Up:
Vampire Weekend
Awesome Long Shot:
Dirty Projectors
Most Terrifying Prospect:
Death Cab for Cutie
OPENER
Prediction: Probably a popular local or regional band that have a big fan base in the Cities.
Best Guess:
Mason Jennings
Previous Year’s Equivalents:
Cloud Cult, Bon Iver
Runner Up:
Retribution Gospel Choir
Awesome Long Shot:
Lifter Puller reunion
Most Terrifying Prospect:
Umphree’s McGee
OPENER (First)
Prediction: Probably local – probably female since previous lineups have been so male-heavy. Likely Hip-Hop since they haven’t had any before.
Best Guess:
Dessa (or Doomtree)
Previous Year’s Equivalents:
No equivalent – if the festival does hip – hop it will be the first time since the festival started back up.
Runner Up:
Lookbook
Awesome Long Shot:
Dessa would pretty cool – or any hip hop at all for that matter
Most Terrifying Prospect:
Wookiefoot (this won’t happen)
i hope all your ‘terrifying prospects’ get chosen. gawd, what a concert. I bet, if they do hiphop, it will be a jumble of local artists much like the Haiti benefit– i doubt that they would pull from just one member of doomtree, or even the whole collective. One can only hope…
Rock The Garden is on June 19th this year
Here’s the lineup it’d take to get me to attend:
Boris
Suicide
Os Mutantes
Dengue Fever
Come on Walker make it happen
Terrifyingly enough, I’m pretty sure the headliner is going to be MGMT.
MGMT? I have never seen them but everyone seems to say that their live shows are absolutely terrible
Yeah, I haven’t heard good things and I’m not entirely pleased with their music in general (it’s not bad for the most part). Anyway, they play Chicago the day before and I also read another rumor about them playing RtG. This is good news for me, since I had already purchased Aziz Ansari tickets for the same day, prior to the date announcement. Forgive me if I’m praying for a shitty lineup.
MGMT are absolutely terrible live indeed
but yeah, i’ve got front row center tix for Aziz Ansari myself, so i’ll miss the last 2 acts of RTG anyway
How’d you get front row tickets? I was there as soon as the pre-sale started and the best I could do was row J or K. I was always curious how I could have missed out on better seats, when there couldn’t have been that many people ordering before me.
did you the Ticketmaster pre-sale or the Music Today one?
i did the one on Music Today.
Dang, I did the Music Today one as well, but no luck for me. I was never offered anything better than Row J. Even after retrying, I couldn’t get anything better or worse than that. Oh well, congrats to you.
I hear the lineup is as follows:
Avett Bros
Weezer
Spoon
Sounds too big to me, but that’s what a buddy told me who is in the music scene.
I think you got the right lineup but the wrong festival. Don’t expect much better from RtG.
Spoon was just here. Can’t imagine they’d come back around so soon.
Spoiled by the latest Minnesota Monthly.
MGMT
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
OK Go
Retribution Gospel Choir
Page MPR-9 (MPR insert)
Don’t blame Minnesota Monthly…the word has been around for a little while. But with the official cat out of the bag, let me be the first to say: “Yawn.”
Way to go 89.3, take an event from the Walker that brought interesting and innovative artists to MN for a summer fest and in a few short years turn it into a bullshit, corporate rock driven festival headlined by a joke of a band. I feel bad for RgC and Sharon Jones.
Well, to give them SOME credit, this guarantees my 18 year old sister and her high-school friends will want to go…
But yea, total BS. This just further proves (in my eyes) that 89.3 is continuing their downward spiral in quality. The bastages.
Well, in all fairness MGMT is a good band “on paper” so theoretically they make a good choice – someone probably should have done some research though on their performance history in the TC.
Sharon Jones and RGC are both solid choices but yeah, OK Go is pretty much a joke. Still, it could have been much worse – Jones and RGC are almost enough to make me want to go (put Sharon Jones in any festival and it automatically becomes worth considering – even the 10,000 Lakes Patchouli Festival)
Sharon Jones will draw a lot of the crowd considering the new album is #1 at the Fetus this week.
Like Jon said, the line-up is great on paper. People will see MGMT and freak out despite how bad the new album is. They’ll just want to hear “Electric Feel” over and over again.
MGMT are awful for sure, but they still have THOUSANDS of fans in the Twin Cities who have never seen them live to know just how bad they are (they’ve only headlined here once, at the Entry, other 2 shows were opening for Of Montreal and BECK).
but yeah, once those fans of the first album hear the second one, esp. live, they’re not gonna be as excited.
Sharon Jones is a perfect fit and long overdue, Retribution Gospel Choir bring it live, but i’d argue their “local”-ness slightly.
and yes, OK Go are a total friggin’ joke/gimmick band. not sure why someone (maybe multiple people)? have a hardon for their new album, but it’s obnoxious. the one time i saw them live (opening for Kaiser Chiefs), they actually brought the treadmills… super lame.
overall it’s easily their weakest lineup in the 3 years since they’ve been back, and maybe ever (unless you’re a huge Medeski, Martin, & Wood fan, idk)
Basilica trumps them quite a bit this year
err, that should have read “not sure why someone (perhaps multiple people) at 89.3 have a hardon for the new album”
I saw MGMT at Bonnaroo a couple years ago, and I’m not sure why they get this label as being such a bad act live. I thought they were good. They definitely had me dancing.
Sharon Jones is a great live act. Saw her the same year at Bonnaroo and then at the State Fair for free later that summer. It was a lot of fun.
Can’t say much about OK Go, but I kind of like what I’ve heard, and Retribution Gospel Choir is awesome live. I saw them open for The Meat Puppets when they played 7th Street last year, and I saw their show at the Triple Rock a few months back. Simply awesome!
With that said, the line up for the Basilica (Cities 97, if we want to complain about corporate radio) blows this one out of the water. I wish we could have RGC, Spoon, Avett Brothers, and Weezer. Now that would be a show.
their opening set @ First Avenue opening for Of Montreal in 2007 was just abysmal, and Yeasayer absolutely destroyed them a few months later at the Entry.
they weren’t really any better opening for BECK a year later.
that said, the first album only had 3-4 good songs on it anyway, one of which they don’t even actually PLAY live (they just dance around to an iPod playing Kids, it’s ridiculous).
To each his or her own I guess solace. I can’t comment on shows I didn’t attend, only the ones I went to, and MGMT was good the time I saw them and I enjoyed when they performed Kids. Tons of acts use pre-recorded music at this point, so why should this be any different. And while MGMT and OK Go would not be my first choice, I am looking forward to their sets at Rock the Garden.
I saw MGMT at ACL a couple of years ago and they were a snooze live. I was expecting energy and instead I almost fell asleep.
no, they didn’t just use pre-recorded music for ‘Kids’, they actually just played it on an iPod and danced around on stage to it, with no instruments played whatsoever…
Holy Crow, I remember that show at the entry! MGMT was so awful. Boring, and awful.
RGC was awesome opening for Mark Kozelek at the Varsity Theatre. Good job on nailing most of the bands in the original post, regardless of where you had them in the Good/Bad/Ugly rankings. Once again, I am on the fence about dropping $40 on this bill.