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107.7s EndFest gives the summer concert season a stellar kickoff

107.7s EndFest gives the summer concert season a stellar kickoff
by Melissa Baron - Special to the SGN 107.7 The Ends EndFest festival June 4 @ White River Amphitheatre Alternative music lovers crowded the White River Amphitheater on Saturday for the 14th annual Endfest concert, sponsored by 107.7 The End. The show covered three stages, featured 19 bands and made hundreds of people very happy for the whole day. Stereophonics, Hot Hot Heat, MXPX, Social Distortion, Interpol, Queens of the Stone Age and the United State of Electronica played the main stage. The first three bands, especially Hot Hot Heat, performed well, but were greatly overshadowed by the next portion of the show. Social Distortion was masterful. Id been too young to previously attend their shows, so I was extremely impressed and star struck. They played the ever classic tunes Ring of Fire and Reach for the Sky, during their showy set. The performance was very rock n roll, plain music with a lot of lights. Interpol was a nice, calm, indie pause between Social Distortion and Queens of the Stone Age. They played Slow Hands and looked fabulous as always. There seemed to be a lot of audience members strictly there for Interpol. The audience during Queens of the Stone Age was more gripping than the actual performance. In the beginning of their set, lead singer Josh Homme invited everyone to come into the pit and told security to leave them alone and let them down. Obviously, the pit quickly became packed. Hardcore Queens of the Stone Age fans were everywhere, and due to the number of people, the crowd went nuts. During the whole performance people crowd surfed, got squished and went absolutely wild. United State of Electronica was a perfect finish to the main stage. As always, the band looked and sounded great. They were full of color, extremely energetic and perfect for ending a show. The crowd was enthusiastic and danced to their hearts content. They actually kept a lot of the audience despite being the last band. The Whats Next stage presented Kasabian, the Caesars, Tegan & Sara, Ash, Kaiser Chiefs and the Bravery. I really liked the performances by Tegan & Sara, Kaiser Chiefs and the Bravery. Lesbian duo Tegan & Sara have had a lot of press lately. Theyre great performers, great musicians and theyre very hot. There was a great audience for their set and they played fabulously. The Kaiser Chiefs have one of the most energetic sets Ive seen in a long time. The band from Leeds, England is well-dressed, exciting and very cute. Lead singer Ricky Wilson is adorable. He spent much of the time dancing, jumping and acting very English punk rock. They played their hit single I Predict a Riot, and got the audience singing and dancing along. The Bravery is gorgeous. The lead singer looks like a punk rock Arthur Fonzie Fonzarelli, and the other members are extremely put together and clothed to perfection. They were loved by the audience and played a great set. They made sure to move around the stage and give every audience member a full show. Raz Rez, Mountain Con, Aqueduct, The Lashes, Vendetta Red and Pretty Girls Makes Graves played the Seattle Stage. Raz Rez and the Mountain Con were charming, but a lot of people started showing up later in the day after they had already played. Aqueduct was a huge hit. All day, people were walking around in their bright green Aqueduct t-shirts. They performed well, sang some sweet tunes and did a great job. The Lashes had some major technical difficulties. A few minutes into their set, it went from pounding pop rock to an unofficial acoustic show. Their power kept going out, but they kept their cool. A lot of younger EndFest attendees had gone just to see The Lashes, so the crowd was pumped up. Throwing t-shirts and pins into the audience bought any hard feelings from the troubled set. The songs they played in their entirety sound as fun and lively as always. Vendetta Red attracted the harder rockers of Endfest. They did a great job and kept the show enthusiastic. Many audience members knew all the lyrics, and many members from Seattle Stage bands stayed around and watched the performance. One thing can be said about any Pretty Girls show, the outfits will be wonderful. Since the stage was small, it was very manageable, very easy to perform and very easy to keep fun. Pretty Girls Make Graves looked charmingly hip as always, and the crowd seemed extremely excited to see them. With all the Seattle bands, it was great to see them on a small stage with a smaller crowd again. Despite the ever changing weather (sun to cold to sun to rain), EndFest 14 was a huge success. The bands played great shows, the fans had a lot of fun and people walked away from EndFest with the fulfillment of seeing a genuinely good concert. White River Amphitheatre started off its summer concert season with a bang!