Tyler Daswick: It was always about Paul. Sure, BadBadNotGood made a huge play for Friday’s most sneaky-great performance—the trio rocked themselves out of their seats in front of a crowd that grew as the set progressed—and Cold War Kids’ breezy indie rock played well to hazed-and-confused festgoers. But Paul McCartney’s pending performance cast a grand shadow over the day. Everything else was preliminary; all other options were time fillers. Even when you were singing along to Alt-J or dodging the crush of bodies in front of DJ Snake, there was no escaping it. The Beatle was coming.
Paul McCartney, you guys. The guy is a legend. His performance perfectly captured the grandeur of his long and wildly successful career, and McCartney himself was perfectly gracious. There was something for everyone. He played a bit of his recent collab with Kanye West and Rihanna, “FourFiveSeconds,” and brought out Alabama Shakes front woman Brittany Howard for “Get Back.” There isn’t much to be said about Paul McCartney that hasn’t already been said, but one thing’s for certain—he still has it.
I was falling into a sort of dehydrated sleepiness, which, as it turns out, is the perfect mood for BadBadNotGood. They sampled some new material, notably a sort of funky psychedelic tune with a ton of rhythmic motion under a seemingly endless tenor-sax solo. I walked away from that set feeling a little less hot, a little calmer, and a little more excited for the rest of the weekend.
