Outlandish British theatre critic Kenneth Tynan once said, “A critic is a man who knows the way but can’t drive the car.” As a critic, I find this both true and gleefully insulting. Because, honestly, I guess I can’t speak for my CoS cohorts, but when was the last time I moved 496,000 albums in the first week? When was the last time I played a show at the white house? Hell, when was the last time I played a show at all? So, in that regard, Kenneth Tynan’s description is apt. But I believe I’ve found the exception to the rule.
As most readers know, we are the place for festivals. In case you aren’t so informed as some, as Biggie said so profoundly years ago, “…if you don’t know, now you know, *expletive*.” Our Festival Outlook is leaps and bounds ahead of the curve and is something we at CoS pride ourselves in. It renders a valuable service to all its readers by keeping uber-current on the latest festival rumors, news, and lineups. In addition to maintaining the Festival Outlook, we attend a meaty number of those selfsame festivals and report back to you on how it all went down. CoS is an all-encompassing music website – from news to album/show reviews, ticket services/online stores to exclusive features galore – but if there is one thing we specialize in, it’s music festivals.
In that light, I feel we are no longer playing the role of the backseat driving critics; we’ve advanced to the man behind the wheel. Not only do we religiously collect and report data about these festivals, but we actually attend them in the flesh. So we’d like to give ourselves a little credit, if you wouldn’t mind.
