What do fifteen year olds on a first date and married couples on a night out have in common? Apparently, Snow Patrol. On April 11th, Snow Patrol made their return to the Anthem for their newest album, The Forest Is the Path (2024), a couple band members fewer but hardly worse for wear.
At nine o’clock almost on the dot, the lights dimmed and the band members walked casually onto the stage, as the crowd–young and old–screamed and clapped their name. A large screen behind them lit up with “Snow Patrol” blasted across the top, before it dove into trippy visuals with the first stroke of the guitar. The screen cycled through different animated visuals with each song, often repeating the motif of a tree or a forest, referencing the title of their most recent album. Dressed in a simple gray button down and pants, Gary Lightbody and his bandmates aren’t here to impress anybody. This is their gig; unpretentious as they are unassailable.
Although this was a seated show, the audience was on their feet the entire time, in easy camaraderie with one another. In between songs, Lightbody joked casually with the crowd, as if this were a garage show in his buddy’s backyard and not a venue of over three thousand. He asked the crowd, “do you like to be called DC or Washington?”(to which the crowd overwhelmingly responded DC), laughing and saying “the next song only works with a three syllable city.” With each quip, the stage faded further and further into the background, until it just felt like some old friends having a jam.
During “Called Out in the Dark” off their sixth album Fallen Empires (2011), Lightbody invited the audience to sing along to the chorus, singing “this is your life, this is your time” louder and louder each time. After over thirty years in the band, performing all over the world, it was clear that the band was totally secure on the stage, genuinely enjoying themselves and reveling in the kind of luck that allows anyone to make art for a living. When he hit a wrong chord or two, he’d just laugh and say “ah, we’re old” in that quintessential Irish accent and keep moving.
Nevertheless, nothing felt worn out about this performance. Lightbody sang with as much passion and vulnerability as ever, and Nathan Connolly and Johnny McDaid tore it up on the piano and guitar, at this point masters at their craft. Even when they played “Chasing Cars,” by far their most famous song to date, you could almost forget it’s one of the most played songs in the UK, as Lightbody kneeled at the front of the stage, pouring seemingly everything into the words. It makes one wonder what it must be like to sing the lyrics you wrote almost twenty years ago night after night, haunted or perhaps comforted by these souvenirs of your past. But in the space of a two hour set, something like a holy place, all our ghosts might revisit us, and we might just thank them for it.
It’s not often you get a second chance at rock fame. bôa, who found themselves a deluge of new fans after 19 years of inactivity, understood this gospel. Their show at DC’s 9:30 Club on 5/6 showed that true musical camaraderie is inseparable by time or distance.
The London band began with “Deeply,” a song from their 2010 album Twilight that possessed a satisfying crunchy guitar riff. Jasmine Rodgers’ guttural delivery firmly placed bôa in hard rock wonderland, her confidence akin to the captain of a pirate ship: “Feelings, they’re really burning low / They’re burning higher than they’ve ever done before / I need to talk to you, I need to feel it deeply.”
“Whiplash,” which featured Rodgers shaking a tambourine and wagging her fingers to the audience, let in on the band’s more mischievous side: “Sometimes it hurts / Take me as I am / Sometimes it hurts / Take me as I bleed.” It made me feel like I was being told off. But in a good way? Pause.
A classic from their 2005 album Get There, “A Girl” showed all of us that we will never be as good at drumming as bôa’s drummer, Ed Herten. Lest readers suspect bias, it was a crowd favorite too. “She was the kind of girl / Beauty, you think you know / You know that you want her,” Rodgers sang. I wonder if a certain girl in the audience inspired that one!
For a break from the rock goodness, Rodgers opted for an acoustic guitar and explained that the next song was highly requested by fans. “Drinking” was a ballad mourning the loss of a no-good lover: “You say the drinking is better than a woman / And you say the thinking takes too much time / Well, God save your children, should you have them? / For to you, there’s nothing if there’s no wine.”
“3 more songs! 3 more songs!” the crowd chanted, but I wasn’t really sure how they arrived at that number. We all really liked bôa, so why not 4 more songs, or 5 more songs, or how about it, 6?
“Walk With Me” was another crowd pleaser, with bôa commanding the stage: “Walk with me / Share this space and walk with me.” bôa, I’ll go anywhere you guys want me too!
Finally, bôa performed the song that gave them their first big break in 1998, and led to their eventual revival in 2024, “Duvet.” Occasionally, bands have some resentment to newer audiences for making one of their songs TikTok-popular, but bôa seemed genuinely floored for the opportunity to be performing again. Tasteful guitar overdubs were added over the bridge that made me hope for a live recording. bôa led the crowd for the last extended outro. “I am falling, I am fading / I have lost it all.” Such misinformation because I gained so much from this performance!
For fifteen years, New York City locals, music lovers flying in from afar, and tri-state tweens venturing on their first trip into the city have flocked to the Governors Ball for “New York’s biggest party with 60+ of the world’s best artists.” Back in 2022, I – a tri-state Suburban teenager with a newfound sense of independence gained by taking the train – attended the festival for the first time. As Southern Connecticut residents, my friends and I hopped on the commuter rail into Grand Central and traversed the subway to make our way to the festival. GovBall 2022 had been a series of firsts for me – my first music festival, my first time on the subway without my parents, and my first adventure of this scale. Reflecting back on that experience, I was widely underprepared. However, this past weekend, three years later, I made my triumphant return to GovBall with a great deal more concert and festival attendee experience under my belt. To help out those who may be attending a festival for the first time, or for people wondering how to tackle GovBall specifically, I’ve put together a comprehensive guide on how to best prepare for your next festival weekend, maximize your festival experience, and enjoy the festivities to the fullest!
Without further ado, this step-by-step GovBall guide goes out to every tri-state Suburban kid itching for live music and taking their first solo train ride.
Plan YOUR Lineup:
When the lineup came out, chances are you were buzzing with excitement at all of the featured artists that you did not stop to think about which artists you would actually be able to see. If you’re anything like me, you thought you could see every artist on the lineup and have time to explore the festival grounds too. If you have superhuman speed and navigation skills, maybe you can. However, after attending a few festivals, I have come to terms with the fact that I never end up seeing as many artists as I had initially planned. You will be limited by the timing of artists’ sets, the locations of the stages, and if you have to leave the crowd to eat or use the bathroom. So be optimistic about how many artists you plan to see, but keep these factors in mind.
Unlike other festivals of similar size and scope, GovBall has just one headliner each night. If you’re indecisive like me, this greatly reduces the decision fatigue that will inevitably develop throughout the weekend from choosing between so many great artists. With your headliner decided for you, you can dedicate your decision-making to the earlier acts. This will all come down to personal preference. You’ll likely choose the artists who you are most familiar with or are an active fan of, and that’s a perfectly good way to choose. However, don’t neglect the smaller and up-and-coming artists that play earlier in the day. Festivals are a great way to expose yourself to new artists and fresh sounds. You may not know an artist now, but you’ve made it all the way to the festival and you’ve paid for the ticket, so use this opportunity to its fullest! Dedicate your early afternoons to artists that you are not familiar with and you just might find a new favorite singer!
Plan your outfits:
Now that you’ve chosen who you will see at the festival, you can dedicate some time and brain space to another factor of your festival weekend. What are you going to wear? I tend to prioritize comfort over bold fashion choices. My festival looks are hardly ever more creative than jean shorts or a jean skirt, a tank top, and a pair of beat-up sneakers. Sometimes I get inventive and will coordinate the color of said tank top with the color scheme of an artist I’ll be seeing – Green for Tyler, the Creator, Purple for Olivia Rodrigo, Pink for Chappel Roan, etc., but that’s about it. You will be standing in tight crowds for hours on end, so it is important that you are comfortable in what you are wearing. If you manage to strike the balance between comfort and style, that’s even more fun.
In addition to your outfit, be sure to pack a small bag – one within the size confines as listed by the festival – with your necessities for the day. For me that includes a phone charger, Advil, chapstick, sunscreen, a light snack, sunglasses, hair ties, and a refillable water bottle. If there is rain in the forecast, be sure to pack a compact poncho in your bag and/or bring a raincoat with you. The show will go on rain or shine, so be prepared for both extremes!
Transportation:
You’ve curated your personal lineup and you’re dressed to the nines: now you have to decide how you’ll get to the festival. If possible, use public transportation. The trains are your friend! To get to Queens from Connecticut, I took Metro North into Grand Central and then took either the Long Island Rail Road or the 7 train to Mets-Willet Point. All in all, the journey took about an hour and a half. I dedicated this time on the train to talking over my game plan with my group and listening to the artists I had planned to see. Taking the train takes the guesswork out of your travel plans and lets you devote the time to other much more important things.
Getting to the festival will be easy enough as long as you check the train schedules ahead of time to minimize your wait between trains, but be prepared for the journey back to be more hectic. Because everyone is leaving the festival grounds at the same time, be prepared for uber-crowded train platforms and trains. People will fill up the entire platform and push and shove to get on the train once it pulls into the station. Once you make it on the train, you will be packed in like sardines. That’s okay. Try your best to stay with your group, but be prepared in case you and your friends are separated on the train. Don’t panic. Just get off at the stop you agreed on and meet them there. It will all be okay!
Even with the nearly one hundred and fifty thousand people at the festival, you might just end up on the same subway car as your college friend’s barista coworker you’ve never officially met. Don’t be afraid to say hi if this happens to you! The crowded train can be as fun a you make it.
There you have it – from deciding your lineup, to planning your outfits, to maneuvering transportation – my foolproof guide to preparing for GovBall. Be sure to catch GovBall 2026 next year for a weekend of spectacular music by the hottest names in music. A special thank you to Grandstand Media and GovBall for allowing me the opportunity to attend and cover the festival this past weekend. Hailing from Connecticut, GovBall has always been the coolest music festival to me and covering it has been a dream come true <3.
It’s Memorial Day weekend and there’s a nor’easter in Massachusetts. It’s been raining for so long I forgot it was, by some accounts, supposed to be summer. I forgot a lot of things, apparently, like what life is like upon returning home from college. The sun refuses to shine. The dog wears an American flag collar. The world goes quiet at 9 o’clock.
But Memorial Day weekend is a harbinger of change. Scratch that, of possibility, maybe even of rebirth. It’s a notable time for me historically, not because I take the train to the Hamptons, but because I spend three to four days in a car listening to the annual Beatles marathon on SiriusXM radio.
Since 2017, the “All Together Now” countdown has aired every Memorial Day weekend, Friday through Monday, on The Beatles Channel. Once hosted solely by authoritative Beatles expert Peter Asher, the commentary work is now divided between well-intentioned but less impressive hosts of the channel. Call me old-fashioned, but if your sister didn’t date Paul McCartney, I don’t want to hear what you have to say about him!
“All Together Now” presents the top 100 Beatles songs in descending order as voted on by a listener survey. Somehow, I always miss the vote. “Hey Jude” typically wins, a choice I dispute though not whole-heartedly—I personally would opt for “Let it Be.” It is admittedly quite a feat, and a bit of a fanatical concept. If a listener is in a car intermittently throughout the weekend they will wind up with an incomplete comprehension of that year’s rankings. Maybe, then, the solution is a Memorial Day road trip, but one would think that seven hours straight of even the top 100 Beatles songs could drive a person crazy.
For the flagship home of the Beatles on SiriusXM, the countdown is not quite as ceremonious as one would hope. Some songs receive accompanying fun facts while others receive no commentary at all. At the end of the countdown, there is no celebration. Perhaps after eight years, little budget remains for balloons. The songs simply repeat starting from #100. Number nine, number nine, number nine.
There is a remarkable lack of literature on the subject, hardly a social media promo or a Sirius-sanctioned description. I can only consult the Beatles subreddit and the occasional blog for corroboration that this countdown truly exists. Each year, the rankings become increasingly subject to critique. There are always some controversial placements, whether they be “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party and “Hey Bulldog” in the top 20 or “Rain”moving from #12 to missing the ranking entirely. There are often moments of triumph, whether they be the inspired inclusion of the Abbey Road medley as one entry or “Julia”finally cracking the list after six years. Yet it is interesting to observe the easy foray into discontent. Some fans seem to think the mere inclusion of a “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” in the top 100 represents the losing battle of John’s avant-pop innovation to Paul’s granny music. How “Tomorrow Never Knows” at #85 must mean young and old people are disproportionately represented in the voting, and how that must represent some failing within the fandom.
Of course, it doesn’t really matter which song achieves which spot on the countdown. It matters that the countdown occurs at all. The one constant in life is change, but the cultural relevance of the Beatles has somehow managed to persist. The beauty of the Beatles, like many of their songs suggest, lies in bringing people together. It was evident in 2012 when 62,000 people sang along to “Hey Jude” with Sir Paul McCartney at the Olympics opening ceremony. It was evident in 2019 when a middle school chorus serenaded their teacher with “All You Need is Love” at his engagement party. It was evident in March of 2025 when a busker sang “Let it Be” in Central Park and I felt overcome by a profound sense of peace.
It’s hard to believe I was ever as young as I was when I first stumbled upon the “All Together Now” marathon. To think of all that I was going through and all that I thought I knew. The years have flown as they will continue to fly. In Mays past, I would make a concerted effort to listen to the countdown. This past May, I could barely keep track of the days. I just happened to take a drive and happened to flip through the radio because my phone wouldn’t connect to my mom’s car. Even my family’s SiriusXM subscription is on its last legs.
Some things are nearly certain: “Hey Jude” gets voted #1. Some things are less so: a nor’easter in May. Change is a part of life, but it’s nice to know that some things stay the same. So every Memorial Day, I trade sunny, beach weather for New England dreariness. I’ll make it to the Hamptons eventually. In the meantime, I’ll drive down country roads listening to “In My Life” and I’ll try my best to let it be.
