Day two of B.O.M.B. Fest was very similar to the first: sparsely populated and extremely warm. Oh, and there were still samosas and free donuts. Sadly, halfway through the day, a rumor started to spread that Wiz Khalifa would have to cancel his performance due to bad Chicago weather. Judging by their recent purchases from the merch stands, many fans were there to see Wiz, and it seemed like a total downer to half the audience.
BUT! There were still solid performances all around. Small Black started out my day with a nice mix of chillwave and Yeasayer-sounding tunes, but with significantly more stage presence and emotion.
Portugal. The Man may have been one of the biggest stand-out performances of the day. I'm not too big on their vocals, but when the music became all-out jam sessions, the combination of amazing guitar solos, Deep Purple-esque organ, and a thrashing rhythm section made this band shine.
I stuck around for a bit of Against Me! To be honest, the only songs I knew were "Thrash Unreal" and "Stop," but man, those songs were good. The band looked like they had just jumped into a pool a couple songs into what turned out to be an extended set due to Wiz's cancellation. Good for them for picking up the slack!
I know Freelance Whales is a solid live band (see my glowing reviews here and here). Sadly, their set at B.O.M.B. Fest was so riddled with sound mishaps, it was unbelievable, especially having seen them just a month before. They kept up their smiley demeanor though, and didn't let the sound issues phase them.
I only caught a couple of seconds of Nosaj Thing and Coheed and Cambria. Nosaj Thing hovered over a laptop with a ton of fog; he couldn't keep my interest, and the crowd slowly thinned out over time. In contrast, Coheed and Cambria opened with a trio of their most well known tracks, hair and guitar flying everywhere.
Snoop Dogg closed the night. I watched the performance from the lawn for a good five minutes before I couldn't stand it anymore. Cheesy call-and-responses and campy references to the (not smoking enough) crowd made all my excitement for this act to go out the window. But as I said, a nice part of B.O.M.B. Fest was the uncrowded lawn, where I was free to talk to my friends about our experience over the weekend, and reflect on the fact that, despite technical difficulties, cancellations, and some bad performances, we still had a ton of fun.