Want in on a little secret? Linkin Park breached their contract this past Sunday for Edgefest ’08. Despite Linkin Park showing up very late, Edgefest returned with a bang! The lineup included newly reunited rockers Stone Temple Pilots, Canadian favourites: Sam Roberts Band, Attack in Black and The Flatliners and making an appearance for the first time, to make this year’s Edgefest the biggest one yet, were International superstars Linkin Park.

I guess if you’re a globe touring act, playing sold out venues, winning multiple Grammys and performing in front of millions of people for Live Earth it gets to your head a little bit, because they were AN HOUR AND A HALF LATE FOR THEIR SET!

LP managed to keep their obvious lateness to a minimum though. Stone Temple Pilots who were also half an hour late for their set time, could have been stalling in order to break up the wait time for Linkin Park at the end of the night.

Linkin Park were supposed to go on at 9:05 p.m. but didn’t get on stage until shortly before 10:00 p.m, which meant they played for a little over sixty minutes of their planned 90-minute set. Toronto by-laws restrict concerts from continuing past the 11:00 p.m. curfew.

As a major Linkin Park fan I was a little peeved that they couldn’t manage to play a full 90-minute set especially when they have a reputation of non diva-like behaviour and the supposed reason for their lateness was because five of the seven band members were shopping in New York.

I received a text message from a very reliable source at 9:30 p.m., 25 minutes after they were supposed to be on stage. The text message read ‘Linkin Park still haven’t landed at Pearson! It’s going to be at least another hour.’  

After standing on my feet for the last five hours straight and anxiously awaiting my favourite band to take the stage, I quickly phone back the text messenger for more details.

“What?! But they’re supposed to be on stage now!” I ask. 

“Yep, two of them are going to play an acoustic set while they wait for the remaining five members to get here,” my source said.

Sure enough, 20 minutes later, Chester and Mike the singers of the band walk quietly onto the stage. Mike sits down at his keyboard and without any introduction they begin an acoustic rendition of Breaking the Habit. 

The acoustic performance continues for another few songs before the other five members suddenly appear on stage. Chester and Mike stop right in the middle of a song and join the other members for What I’ve Done, not such a smooth transition but they had a lot of catching up to do.

Nobody around us seemed to be phased by the few acoustic songs in the beginning used for stalling, except for one guy who yelled, “play some real music!”

The show itself was great as usual. I’ve seen LP in concert three times and they never come up short on entertainment. 

Apparently the other band members were whisked away to Downsview Park by helicopter once they arrived at Pearson Airport….fancy.

Last weekend at Edgefest, I had planned on seeing some of the better known acts like Linkin Park, Stone Temple Pilots, Sam Roberts Band, The Bravery, Attack in Black and The Flatliners. Little did I know that I would stumble upon an amazing Pop/Funk/Post Punk band from Montreal by the name of Creature

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Walking by the side stage I heard an awesome sounding pop melody, so I stopped to listen. The band made up of two males and two females appeared to be having a great time entertaining the crowd. At one point the lead singer/guitar player asked the crowd, “who was it that asked for more cowbell?” So they got out the cowbell for the song Who’s Hot Who’s Not.

The keyboard and guitar player took turns singing the verses which included a lot of rapping over infectious beats.

Each member of the band was fashionably glamorous in fedoras, vintage tees and the keyboardist even rocked a lycra gym suit and matching headband. They looked very rock n’ roll but stood out among the hardcore rock fans that Edgefest attracts.

I guess I’ve been paying more attention than usual to electronic dance pop music lately. Acts like Dragonette and the Ting Tings are constantly playing on my iPod. It must be those catchy melodies, hard-to-ignore danceable beats and the fact that I’m a sucker for pop music…yes I’ll admit to liking Miley Cyrus.

As soon as I got home I looked up the Edgefest lineup to learn who this band was, whose songs I couldn’t get out of my head.

It’s safe to say now that I am a fan of Creature and not Modernboys Moderngirls who I thought was the band I was listening to.