Over The Weekend: Edgefest 21 at Pizza Hut Park

By Chelsea Upton Mon., May 2 2011 at 9:20 AM

Edgefest 21 with Jane's Addiction, Weezer, Social Distortion, Flogging Molly and others
Pizza Hut Park in Frisco
April 30, 2011

Better than: staying at home, engaged in a rousing game of Tetris.

Every year, in the cruel summer heat, KDGE-102.1-FM The Edge's annual Edgefest concert draws large crowds for equally large acts, and this year's event at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco was no exception.

Hot Topic-clad teenagers, grungy degenerates, and hardcore alt-rock fans gathered even in the earlier hours for a day filled with music, smoke and booze.

The real highlights of the day, however, started shortly after 5 p.m., as Los Angeles' Celtic punk rock heores, Flogging Molly, took to the smaller of the venue's two stages. It seemed odd that Flogging Molly was billed to play so early; they drew a very large and energetic crowd. Fans danced a jig, crowd surfed and moshed as if their lives depended on it, while the band merrily played the popular songs off of their catalog. "Drunken Lullabies," "Devil's Dance Floor" and "What's Left of the Flag" were the biggest crowd favorites in a set also filled with tracks off of the band's upcoming, unreleased album.

Almost a blink after Flogging Molly had finished their set, Seether began on the main stage, with the crowd quickly moving stages to catch the act. Seether's performance was nothing out of the ordinary, right down to their Nirvana cover (this time, it was "Heart Shaped Box"). The crowd didn't seem to care, though, as they danced and sang along to the songs that they were so familiar with.

After Seether, a small chunk of the fans left the audience, ditching the next band only to come back for Weezer's performance later on in the night.

The band that they ditched? Legendary punk rockers Social Distortion.

Except for a few, most that stayed for Social Distortion's set weren't really interested in the band onstage. They stood still and watched as the band played an otherwise engaging set, barely moving even for fan favorites like "Ball and Chain" and "Story of My Life."

The crowd's reaction to Weezer was a sharp contrast to that of Social Distortion; they danced, chanted and sang as Rivers Cuomo made jokes about having pizza parties. (Because this show was at Pizza Hut Park! Get it?) The band's radio hits were a huge success, but one of the more poignant moments of the night was when Cuomo tried to get the audience to sing a part of "El Scorcho," a popular song off of his band's second album, Pinkerton. The crowd didn't know the words. Interestingly, they had no such problem with newer songs "Beverly Hills" and "Pork and Beans."

Because of the earlier, less-than-thrilled reaction to Social Distortion, Jane's Addiction's set came with some worries: Would Edgefest attendees even stick around to see the headliner? Thankfully, that turned out not to be an issue. Some left, but the crowd remained close to its original size.

Good thing, too: Those that left early missed out on one of the best performances of the year.

As soon as the curtain for the main stage dropped, Jane's Addiction began their visual and aural assault on the audience. Background dancers dangled from the rafters, performing somersaults in the air, while the band launched into a gut-wrenching, mind-blowing set -- almost as if it was 1987 all over again.

It was truly a great way to end the night.

Critic's Notebook
Personal Bias: I found Weezer's last three albums incredibly disappointing. So yeah, I was there for Jane's Addiction.

By The Way: Among Rivers Cuomo's Pizza Hut Park jokes: "Sing it like you really want that pizza!" and "I think the Lord has a special pizza in store for you tonight!"

Random Note: The screens by the stage are nice for those of us who aren't sitting close enough to the stage to see the band. So it was really annoying that, about half of the time the screen was showing crowd shots (or more accurately, topless women) ,instead of the bands that were playing. Boobs are cool and all, but Jane's Addiction was onstage. Priorities.

Location Info

Venue

Map

FC Dallas Stadium

Dallas N. Tollway and Main St., Frisco, TX

Category: General

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Tags:

Edgefest 21, Flogging Molly, Jane's Addiction, over the weekend, Seether, show review, Social Distortion, Weezer

We Recommend

Paul

The show was ok..my gf is a huge janes fan from back in the day so thats why I went....I just want to say that 20-30 dollars to park and 11 dollars a beer is outrageous and I personally won't ever go back to Pizza Hut Park for a concert. The high beer prices explain the insane amount of pot being smoked in the pit area. Was nice to see social d, but kind of disappointing to see your heroes from back in the day looking really old and wore out...just like the Misfits show in Novemeber.

Rca_rpm

Did anyone go to the afterparty?

Rca_rpm

Weezer and Flogging Molly stole the show seether was good and so was their cover of heart shaped box. Janes addiction sucked big balls never want to see them again in my life. Second time going to edgefest and will be going back as long as they get the headliner right next time. The pit was the best biggest mosh I've been apart of was when Flogging Molly was on stage. Alittle upset the were on the second stage though.

Garrett

I'm 17, and I was so excited for Social D!!! It was the first time I've ever seen them, and I've been into them since 6th grade!!! Everybody my age looked at me weird as I passionately sang "Sick Boy", "Ring of Fire", "Machine Gun Blues", "Prison Bound", "Ball and Chain", and of course, "Story of My Life". I bailed on Seether to meet Flogging Molly. And Jane's Addiction weren't too bad!!! Weezer stole the show, but all in all, I saw my favorite band of all time (Social D), I heard Mike Ness deliver greatness, and as a result, my life is complete.

Ness

Garrett knows what's up.

Lee Clark

what show was this reviewer at that night? Over half the audience left after Weezer. So much so that Perry Farrell asked where everyone was going and asked "Are you going to see you rmom?" "Are you going home to eat potato chips?". Their show was so bad it was laughable. everyone around us laughed at the scene of so may people leaving. They nevr even played "Jane Says" because so much of the crowd was leaving!

The Weezer set was awesome though. They played almost all of their great hits and everyone was into them and enjoyed them immensely. Social Distortion adn Seether recieved great cheers too from the audience. The only disappointing part was Jane's Addiction!

Scott McCollough

I was really disappointed Jane's Addiction didn't come back out and play Jane Says for a second encore but other than that I had a great time.

Wayne Reyna

I have to say that yes, it was really annoying with all the "kids" (I'm 30, and felt way old) there for Weezer did not respond to El Scorcho. Plus a ton of really young kids were standing on the chairs in front of where I was standing, and so I had to go out just behind the pit. Security was good overall, but did not care that people were standing in chairs.

The Weezer set though was fantastic. Better than I could have imagined, and maybe only takes a back seat to the 2001 show in Fort Worth or possibly Bonnaroo last year. They played a crowd pleasing set for the most part, which means they didnt play much of anything new, so that was nice becasue there is possibly only one or two good songs off of the last three albums, the Red Album was okay I guess, but their last solid album was Make Believe. The highlight was "Only In Dreams" towards the end of the set. It was awesome singing along at the top of my lungs with my best friend and the people who were around us.

I thought Neon Trees were fantastic. That front man, while crazy, was a sight to see. Plus, I have never seen Social Distortion, but was glad I got to see them. Great set.

Garrett

Gotta admit though, they exceeded their set time tremendously

Darrylrs

Weezer is lame. Social D is cool Jane's Addiction? Didn't like them in the day and don't care for them now. Flogging Molly should have headlined!

Susan Geissler

Glad I wasn't the only one who wished they would actually show the band instead of the crowd so much, especially when the Janes were up there. I think there should be a cut off point. The first five titty flashes win the coveted Concert Cleavage Coverage award, get their validation time, and then it goes back to the music.

We went mostly for Flogging Molly and didn't leave disappointed, though I did leave with a pretty good conk on the head from some dude's foot during the crowd surfing. I put some beer on it and it seemed to improve the situation. I've never been a big Weezer fan but was very surprised how good they were live. His jokes were terrible but I liked his enthusiasm. It was as if he'd just started playing shows yesterday. You were right, it was like 1987 again with Janes Addiction. I did see a lot of people in the seats leave.