This weekend the Rock Daily festival crew will be beaming us the latest updates from Lollapalooza, but before we get in a Chicago state of mind, here’s some advice from festival vets Metric, who just rocked Pemberton and will hit the stage at All Points West next weekend. Click above to wach Emily Haines, Jimmy Shaw, Joules Scott-Key and Josh Winstead talk about the fall tour they’re planning and explain the hardships of rocking crowds of 50,000 fans: “Sometimes you’re forced to drink tequila at 1:30 in the afternoon.”

For more Pemberton coverage, check out rocknrolldiary.com.

The inaugural Pemberton Festival brought together monster names like Coldplay, Nine Inch Nails, Jay-Z, the Flaming Lips and My Morning Jacket in the mountains of British Columbia. Click above for the complete wrap-up from Pemberton, featuring live performances from Nine Inch Nails and Jay-Z and Wayne Coyne’s thoughts on waste.

For complete coverage of the Pemberton Festival, including more video, check out rocknrolldiary.com

One of the biggest draws of this weekend’s Pemberton festival was Canada’s own the Tragically Hip, who are treated as heroes in their own country but are a mystery in the United States. Luckily, Rock Daily caught up with Death Cab for Cutie’s Chris Walla, who explained their importance. Click above for the explanation and some exclusive footage of the Tragically Hip’s performance.

For more Pemberton Festival coverage, visit rocknrolldiary.com.

[Video: Pete Maiden]

As co-producers of the inaugural Pemberton Festival, it was in Coldplay’s best interests to see the fest off in style. Once they finally got down to it after Jay-Z’s set, it was all smiles, jokes and parodied lyrics, even on the weightier songs (on “Fix You,” Chris Martin crooned, “When the festival traffic moves at the slowest pace”). And the band was not content to simply sail through material, presenting a ghostly, dance-beat version of “God Put a Smile Upon Your Face,” and even venturing out to a platform stage in the middle of the crowd for an acoustic shot at “The Scientist.” Ending on Viva La Vida’s “Death and All His Friends,” Martin looked out, smiling, and said, “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.” And a good evening it was, whether anyone could be classified as ladies or gentlemen by then. Coldplay took a bow, and Pemberton prepared to shrink by 40,000 people.

For more Pemberton Festival coverage, visit rocknrolldiary.com.

Jay-Z has recently become a go-to festival performer, and on Pemberton’s final day he gave the Canadian crowd a set spanning his career (but no Oasis-spoofing jokes, as he did at Glastonbury). With a full band, including a horn section and a percussionist at his command, Jay sometimes doled out his smashes in their entirety (”99 Problems,” “Big Pimpin’ “) and other times teased the crowd with one verse (”Crazy in Love,” “Hard Knock Life”). The MC never missed a step, but he sacrificed intimacy for the chance to be larger than life. “We got through the border okay, so we’ll have to come back,” he said before giving shout outs to audience members: “You in the body paint, that’s some freaky shit.”

A few hours earlier, the N.E.R.D. crew rolled onto the stage almost an hour late. Like many other festivalgoers, they’d been stuck in traffic on the way up. Operating at 60 percent capacity (some N.E.R.D.s were still out there), the group launched defiantly into their set, with Pharrell Williams enlisting the crowd should the Man try to eject them. (more…)

“Despite it being early, and you all being clear-headed and sober, we always ask people to dance to this one,” Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig said to a small but enthusiastic crowd gathered for the first main-stage act on Pemberton’s last day. The song was “A-Punk,” and, partly due to a hosed-down, dust-free dance floor, the crowd happily obliged. A quick glance around even revealed a handmade cardboard sign declaring love for the preppy New Yorkers. Vampire Weekend seem to have adapted to life on the fast track, and their set was similarly assured, fast and fun. Sporting a Marty McFlyish denim jacket, Koenig succumbed to some overly wordy banter (”This is a song about the English language, which is, of course, only one language of many,” he said about “Oxford Comma”). Still, Koenig’s rakish charm inspired the clap-happy crowd, who belted out “Blake’s got a new face!” when asked, despite hangovers and a cold night in the rain.

For more Pemberton Festival coverage, visit rocknrolldiary.com.

If Vampire Weekend’s quick ascent is a sign of the future, then Death Cab for Cutie demonstrated how indie rock used to operate. (more…)

At other festivals, Tom Petty might seem like the wild card. But in a valley full of kids raised by classic rock radio (and even some of their parents) he’s quite the opposite: he’s the draw. Cries of “Give me Petty!” started the second the Flaming Lips exited the stage, but it would be another hour before the man in question would deliver a two-hour, hit-heavy set that would see 40,000 people emerging from campsites and bushes to sing-shout along. Beneath a banner of screens bearing Petty and his band mates, the Heartbreakers catalogue was tested and approved, bookended by “Won’t Back Down” and “American Girl” (with the Traveling Wilbury’s “End of the Line” thrown in for good measure). Throughout, Petty thanked the crowd and his band profusely, sporting a charming gee-whiz grin. The masses, in kind, saluted their bewildered hero the only way they could. “I can smell that marijuana,” Petty said, smiling mid-song.

For complete coverage of the Pemberton Festival, check out rocknrolldiary.com.

[Photo: Nilina Mason-Campbell for RollingStone.Com]

Before you ask: It’s teletubbies this tour. And even in the fading twilight heat, the folks in the suits were definitely sweating. As their puppet master floated over the crowd (okay, he kinda flopped) in his giant hamster ball, those on stage and off started dancing to “Race for the Prize.” And then, as if on cue, a cloud of smoke arose. For the rest of the set, Wayne Coyne fought pot lethargy with repeated attempts to get the kids jumping. It worked sometimes, as with “Free Radicals” — getting thousands of people screamed, “Fanatical, fuck!” is one way to wake them up. But it took “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots,” sung as a tender ballad, to really get the kids on his side. And when he did, Coyne looked out over his masterpiece with a beaming smile. “I’m glad you guys are freaking out,” he said, before ending with the one-two punch of “Do You Realize?” and “She Don’t Use Jelly.” “It makes us want to freak out, too.”

For complete coverage of the Pemberton Festival, check out rocknrolldiary.com.

[Photo: Nilina Mason-Campbell for RollingStone.Com]

It was Black Mountain’s singular fate to have the least distance to travel and the most to prove at Pemberton. This may be why the heralded Vancouver band waited to start their side stage set until they were certain their mainstage neighbors (fellow Maple Leafers the Tragically Hip) were finished. As having the most to prove goes, playing up against Canada’s most-loved band is about as undesirable as it gets. Still, a sizeable crowd of hipsters gathered (many of whom have probably served Stephen McBean coffee back in the city) to hear Black Mountain’s In the Future served up loud and in its near entirety, with “Stormy High” and “Angels” at the forefront of a very speedy set. For all McBean’s strategizing, he neglected one thing: starting late means ending late, and he was forced to thrash his way through the last few songs as the hip kids wandered off to see the Flaming Lips.

For complete coverage of the Pemberton Festival, check out rocknrolldiary.com.

[Photo: Jody Rogac for RollingStone.Com]

Maybe it’s the Kentucky in them, but My Morning Jacket slipped into the opening slot on day two of Pemberton’s mainstage like they’d been hanging out among the mountains and trees for days waiting to begin. It was under a slight sprinkling of summer rain that Jim James emerged, complete with blanket poncho and a sprig of juniper, which the bearded singer held aloft shamanistically through much of the band’s set. Leaning heavily on Z tracks (”Off the Record,” “Gideon,” “Anytime”), MMJ’s noodling jams and James’ soaring vocals were the perfect remedy to a night spent in the cold, dusty outdoors. Newcomers like Evil Urges‘ “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Part 2″ were welcome additions. “I’d like to dedicate this song to all the bull moose, grizzly bear and black bear that are roaming in this hemisphere,” James said, and My Morning Jacket played “Golden” for the animals.

For complete coverage of the Pemberton Festival, check out rocknrolldiary.com.

[Photo: Nilina Mason-Campbell for RollingStone.Com]

If Rothbury is set to be the next Bonnaroo, then the first annual Pemberton Festival will gladly take the title of next Glastonbury. Similarly isolated, sprawling and boasting acts as far flung as Tom Petty and Jay-Z, Pemberton’s organizers clearly had its British brethren in mind when concocting this fest. After some typical first-day mayhem involving 3-hour traffic lines and the realization that 40,000 people wandering a former farm field kicks up a lot of dust, Pemberton got kicked off proper with some music.

Against a mountainous backdrop, Interpol emerged, business-like, in black button up suits (save Carlos D, who chose a white alternative). Playing towards the setting sun, the band at first resisted and then reveled in the contrast between their slick, cloak-of-night songs and the sunny, hippie-filled crowd. This loosening effect was most evident in Paul Banks, whose typically stone face melted to a near-tickled smile as his band backed him on tracks largely taken from last year’s Our Love to Admire (”Pioneer to the Falls,” the Pixies-like “Rest My Chemistry”). He even undid a few buttons on his shirt for good measure during “Heinrich Maneuver.” For his part, Carlos D stayed buttoned, didn’t smile and double-fisted Red Bull and white wine. “There are lots of beautiful people here today,” Banks said, eyeing a gaggle of hot girls on shoulders down front before ending on Turn on the Bright Lights‘ “Roland.” “Thank you, Pemberton!”

As day one officially became night one, Nine Inch Nails arrived, unveiling their heavily-hyped light show to a dusty, burnt out mass of people. (more…)