• Key Arena Thunderdome

Nothing about a midweek music festival starting at 3 in the afternoon particularly makes sense, but the great(ish) thing about 107.7's annual Deck the Hall Ball is that, like yesterday's weather, if you're not into what's happening, stick around and it'll change. Nine bands were scheduled to play in the span of about eight hours; so the first half of the program flew by with the opening bands barely having time to warm up and play their big crowd-pleaser before being shuffled off to get the next act on stage while water and snack vendors roamed the floor to keep everyone in the giant bunker hydrated without losing their prime real estate.

All of the quick changes made for a lively start, though it was hard not to feel a little bad for the bands that had traveled a great distance across oceans and continents (the Joy Formidable, Of Monsters and Men) or through time (The Grammy nominated Lumineers) just to play three or five songs to an early afternoon crowd. But one has to hope that commercial rock radio and arena show piles of cash make the jet lagged sprints worthwhile. Even the bands at the top of the bill with more time got more time to stretch their legs still played pretty compressed versions of their usual sets. Part of the breakneck pace was all of the actual jumping around on stage (I suspect this was a term of the contract) as well as the impressive genre-hopping (within the framework of modern rock music).

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