04 May SunFest Day 3 Begins…

Posted at 19:34h in Blog by

…with a run to the festival?

This afternoon, hundreds of race participants streamed down Flagler Boulevard and straight into the festival gates as part of the SunFest TGI5K. Not all of them were hardcore athletes—a posse of runners dressed as giant beer bottles stood at the Tire Kingdom Stage watching local band Taylor Road start the day. Must’ve been cannibals. They were drinking beers.

Taylor Road eased into the day with a few popular cover songs (Seal, Buffalo Springfield) for a slowly growing crowd. Over on the FPL Stage, Orlando quartet A Brilliant Lie ripped into a set of heavy rock for friends and family, some of whom, they said, came in from as far as California and Titusville. “West Palm Beach is way superior to Orlando,” said lead singer Tara Lightfoot. “You guys have a lot more fun than we do.” Maybe do, but for the first band on the newly-opened stage, A Brilliant Lie made up for the deficit.

Word is Paul Rodgers is the first artist to sell out the amphitheater VIP area; we’re expecting a lot of bikers and their biker babes ready to celebrate with the rock legend. Playing at 9:45, Creed is a musical phenomenon—immensely popular, immensely ridiculed—that I’ve never been exposed to, an oversight that will change tonight. But I’m most excited for Passion Pit‘s 9PM set at the FPL Stage. This is only the second show of their tour and they’re playing material from their new album, Gossamer, out July 24 on Columbia.

I’m gonna take a moment right now to mourn a major loss to the pop music world. Adam Yauch, aka MCA of the Beastie Boys, succumbed to cancer this morning. He was 47. No word on the status of the group, but I can’t imagine they’ll carry on with their ranks thinned by a third. Thanks, praise and respect go out to Yauch for forming the foundation of my musical youth. He will be sorely missed.

RIP MCA.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhqyZeUlE8U[/youtube]