Street Scene 2005: Saturday
Amy Talaska

The Street Scene in San Diego is always and event strong enough to draw people in not only from San Diego where it is held but also all other parts of California as well. With previous lineups with headliners such as The Foo Fighters and Jack Johnson it’s no wonder that the hype gets bigger every year. Every year it seems that the next will be impossible to top the magic of the previous one; but there has never been a disappointment. 2005 has been no exception to this rule. This has to by far have been the largest and best Street Scene to date. With 100,000 people that should answer for itself. The change of location to the Qualcom Stadium made all of the difference in the world as well in holding all of these people. It never felt over crowded and constantly felt comfortable.

     2005’s Street Scene had so much going on outside of the killer lineup on all three stages that it was nearly impossible to do and see everything in one or even two days. There were booths there with something for everyone. With oxygen bars, real flower leis, jewelry, radio station booths, clothes, incense, and more there was not nearly enough time to get to look at everything. But the thing that stood outside the most outside of the music was Inflatable Land. This area had all sorts of inflatable obstacle courses where you could challenge your friends and even had mechanical bull riding.

       Saturday’s Street Scene Lineup was filled with and overwhelming amount of good music and unfortunately a lot of the good bands were scheduled at conflicting times on different stages. There were a lot of tuff choices to be made but every stage was consistently showcasing more talent than is normally filled in one festival so no decision was a bad one. With a lineup consisting of Death Cab for Cutie, Dashboard Confessional, Unwritten Law, 311, The Used, The Flaming Lips, Mixmaster Mike, Snoop Dogg, Method Man, and The Pixies there was no way to go wrong.

     The band that stole the show with their amazing performance was Unwritten Law. Being San Diego natives they had a powerful impact on the crowd in addition to having this amazing energy and presence from the moment they stepped out on the stage. And the most emotional moment of the night is when singer Scott Russo brought out his daughter on stage to sing her song “Cailin” to her. That little girl is already a rock star in the making. She came out on that stage and started dancing and working the crowd almost as well as her dad. In a few years it wouldn’t be surprising if she was ready to headline Street Scene herself. Another highlight of the Unwritten Law performance on the Captain Morgan Stage was that the Captain himself was actually dancing in the pit and rocking out with the crowd.

     Down on the Best Buy Stage The Flaming Lips were performing to what looked like someone’s bazaar acid trip. With people dressed up as furry animals, some form of interpretive dancing done by the crowd, and the popping of the biggest balloons you had ever seen you couldn’t blink your eyes for a second for fear of missing the next crazy thing.  

    Also earlier on the Best Buy stage was Dashboard Confessional. Every person was so intently watching the performance with a gaze that couldn’t be broken even if their life depended on it. Every single person in that crowd with no exception was singing along to every word to every song. It was a truly amazing musical moment.

311 on the Captain Morgan stage put on a knockout show and had to have had the best fans of the entire day. There wasn’t one person who wasn’t dancing for the entire set. They played a good music from all of their albums to show that they still appreciate their fans that have been with them from the beginning. At the end of their set the crowd started screaming for an encore which was a first for the whole day. After their encore the crowd still wasn’t content and was screaming for more for an additional ten minutes after the band had already left the stage.

     As amazing as Street Scene was the only thing that everyone was wishing for was just more time to truly appreciate all of the magic.  Although this years Street Scene seems impossible to beat they always do come through. I’ll see you there in 2006 for another amazing festival that can’t be compared to any other