Firefly Music Festival 2012

Check out a preview of Highlight’s coverage from Firefly Music Festival which took place in Dover, DE on July 20-22! For a full review, check out the August issue of Highlight that will be released on Tuesday, August 7. Stay tuned for full photo sets from each day of music! For more information on Firefly’s second year planned for 2013, head over to their official website.
All photos by Cara Bahniuk. Review by Ryan Bahniuk.

Rivaling the Black Keys as the loudest performance of the weekend, Lupe Fiasco put a rock spin on songs from across all three of his studio albums. After taking the stage with the siren from his mixtape Enemy of the State blaring in the background,  Lupe head banged his way through a set of songs from his most recent album. The highlight of the performance was an extended version of “Daydreamin'” where Lupe featured all of his backing band members with individual solos.

When Grouplove took to the stage with speakers blaring Kanye West’s “Monster”, you knew it was going to be a good time. After putting on one of the signature performances of the weekend, they closed their set with a cover of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” and their single “Colours”. The band really was omnipresent the entire weekend, taking photos with fans, watching other bands’ sets, and even running on stage for the finale of Young the Giant’s performance.

Dressed in all black with a grey fedora and white cowboy boots, Jack White didn’t let the rain ruin the opening night of Firefly. After the rain forced him to lose his boots in favor of bare feet, the first day’s headliner played through a set full of songs from his time in The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, and The Dead Weather in addition to his most recent solo album. The diverse setlist featured a raw performance of “Catch Hell Blues” and a rendition of “Hotel Yorba” that had the crowd square dancing in the rain.

The Head and the Heart opened their set by playing through the first three songs of their self-titled debut album in order. It was fortunate that they even made it to Delaware after their flight was delayed and landed at 4 AM the day of the their set. This didn’t take away anything from the performance though, especially “Rivers and Roads” which came close to the end of the set. During her solo on this song, vocalist Charity Rose Thielen blew out one of the on stage speakers.

Young the Giant put on a very emotional performance, playing through the entirety of their self-title debut album, and even debuting a new song called “Teachers”. One of the highlights was an extended rendition of “I Got” that lead singer Sameer Gadhia crooned into his old style microphone. During the finale the band was joined onstage by Grouplove and Walk the Moon for “My Body”.

“You know that us in Fitz and the Tantrums love to get down,” shouted Michael Fitzpatrick, “and I need every one of you to get down too.” Fitz then proceeded to call out every person in the audience who was still standing on their feet, before joining Noelle Scaggs in giving two incredible vocal performances. The indie soul band proved that you can put on a great live performance without a guitar, especially when throwing in two great covers in The Raconteurs’ “Steady As She Goes” and The Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams”.

Modest Mouse showed off their instrumental range by playing songs from across their nearly 20 year career. On “The Devil’s Workday” alone, the violin, banjo, baritone tuba, and piccolo trumpet were added to their normal set of instruments. Lead singer Isaac Brock performed his way through many songs from their breakthrough album Good News for People Who Love Bad News before a malfunction in his guitar forced an early end to the band’s set.