Virgin Free Fest is a beautiful thing. For those of you who don’t know it, it’s an annual music celebration put on by Virgin Mobile that combines three stages (the Pavilion Stage, the West Stage, and the Dance Forest) and dozens of awesome bands. It basically combines six loves of my life: free things; music; dance forests; boardwalk fries; people watching; and natural light. A few highlights I’d like to mention (but not expand on):
1. Santigold is amazing, as are her back-up dancers;
2. Ben Folds Five and Alabama Shakes: solid sound;
3. Youth of America: furry animal-scarf-hand-warmers are not flattering. For anyone; and
4. Dude wearing the T-shirt that said “Homophobia is gay” – kudos to you.
Now, what I do want to expand upon: Nervo. My sister and I had a hand-written post-it note of bands we wanted to see and stages we needed to get to (#lifewithoutasmartphone) and at 4:00 we were scheduled to go see Ben Folds Five on the Pavilion Stage. Except. Except except except. We had to walk by the Dance Forest to get there… where Nervo was playing. We’d never heard of Nervo, but when you first hear Nervo… well, I defy you to walk by the duo without busting a move (or a wiggle or two) when they’re spinning their beats. The Australian twins have that DJ’s touch of knowing when to drop the beats and what beats to drop. And how could you possibly ignore the beautiful blonde twins who were offered a modeling future, but decided music should be their true focus? Such a good life decision.