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Photo Credits: Mark Ambrose and Bobbie Jo Parsley

The H2O Music Festival was a first of its kind put on by a Hispanic Television corporation, Univision Communications; with only two cities (Dallas & L.A.) on the tour and a handful of artists, it seemed like a last minute effort at what could have been a better festival in my opinion.  The lineup was mixed with mostly hispanic artists and well known performers like Yelawolf to start the day and dubstep artists Tiesto to close out the night.  Another mess up, putting the Doggfather himself on a time schedule just before Weezer was set to perform; talk about a jacked up lineup schedule.  Of the artist we were there to see were Gym Class Heroes, Damian Marley, Snoop Dogg, and Weezer; we had planned to catch Yelawolf and Tiesto but time was our biggest enemy on that battle and we just couldn’t handle the Texas heat over a 12 hour day.

After arriving just in time to see Gym Class Heroes

finish up their last song, we were a little confused as to how they were quickly rotating bands/artist through the lineup with only one stage.  It didn’t take long for the magic to be revealed when the entire middle of the stage rotated on its center a complete 180 degrees to reveal a “second stage” just on the other side of the curtain; think of it like a secret book case that you used to see in the movies that would spin around and look just like the other side…but with audio equipment and bands/artists ready to perform instead of books.  You get the idea.

The son of the late Bob Marley, Damian, was up next to take the stage and was accompanied on stage by his entourage; they were sporting the Jamaican colors proudly as they danced around the stage and sang along.  There was also plenty of ganja being smoked all around us, it was like someone put the fog machine in the crowd.  Damian played many of his own original songs as well as some of his father’s hits like “Get up, Stand up” to the crowd’s liking.  After only about 5 songs, Damian and the band made their way off stage as the acts were only limited to about 35-40 minutes; the venue had strict Dallas city ordinances to follow which prompted them to rush the bands/artists performing.

With a 5:20PM start time for Snoop, he showed up “fashionably late” to the stage at around 5:45PM; must have been some really good to be that late to your own set…but at the same time, when your that well known its almost expected not to be on time.  This was the first time I had ever seen Snoop Dogg perform live, which turned out to be a great performance despite being forced off stage by the venue.  Right during “Young, Wild, & Free” someone decided that it was time for Snoop’s performance to come to an end and flipped the stage switch to rotate the platform; moments before this occurred Snoop spoke out to the crowd & the stage crew and told them “Fuck you” when he was motioned to wrap it up.  Snoop also performed some of his greatest hits like “Gin &  Juice” and “P.I.M.P.” before departing the stage.

The last band that we stayed to see, Weezer, was up almost immediately after Snoop and his crew left the stage.  The band actually had to make an appearance on stage to finish their “last minute” sound check before beginning their set (which was already a little late).  This also was a first for me seeing Weezer play live but not for our editor, Ben, who told me that they always “steal the show” with their awesomeness.  Rivers and the gang opened with one of their more popular songs “Undone (The Sweater Song)” which sounded great live and even had the crowd singing almost every line.

These guys have been rocking venues and festivals for 20 years now and still have that nostalgic vibe they brought to the genre in 1992.  Some of their other hits that they played were “Say It Ain’t So”, “Island In The Sun”, and “Beverly Hills” along with a cover of Poison’s hit song “Talk Dirty To Me”.  After it was all said and done, I wished I had caught Weezer in concert before today as they really are a great band; I will gladly look forward to covering them again in the future.