Smorgasbord of Sounds at Shoreline

By: Felix Ling

Posted: 10/5/06

It was a great day for music at the Shoreline Amphitheatre on Saturday, when the Download Festival delivered 10 diverse acts across three stages.

The early standouts included The Like, which played fun girly pop with a rockin' edge, and TV on the Radio, which layered a variety of sounds and textures (including wind chimes) into a unique electronica sound. Rogue Wave's and the Shins' mellow brands of indie music, however, didn't seem well suited for such a large venue.

Coheed and Cambria got the crowd rocking out on the second stage, prompting some crowd surfing. On the main stage, Muse completely assaulted the senses, rocking loud and hard, accompanied by an elaborate light show. It was a tough act to follow for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Although lead singer Karen O was game for the challenge, their show was plagued with some technical difficulties that made it hard to hear her singing.

No such problems plagued Beck's absolutely amazing show, which featured detailed puppets of Beck and the band, mimicking the musicians' every move.

Late in the show, Beck played solo while the rest of the band began eating dinner on stage. When they were done, they began making sounds with the dinner utensils to accompany him. Before the encore, an amusing short film played, featuring the puppets spoofing "Snakes on a Plane."

Near the end, the Beck puppet shouted, "Oh no, my bandmates are all dead! This means I'm going to have to go on and play some solo acoustic s--- or something!" Beck and the band then came back to play a few crowd-pleasing hits to conclude a very satisfying show.