So I have to say I'm a little chuffed at some of the responses to piton87's review. I found his observations to be pretty spot on. And for people to shame him and to say they're glad he won't be attending OBH anymore and to insinuate that he isn't a big enough fan to have gone to One Big Holiday, man, that's just weak. To criticize his choice of beer, wow, that sort of beer-snobbishness is so uncool (admitting to being a beer snob does not make it cool). Neither does being a grammar notsee.
Yes, a lot of people have posted about how great OBH4 was, but that doesn't mean it isn't open to criticisms. For me, this was my third OBH, and I'd consider myself one heck of a fan of MMJ. That said, I don't really enjoy listening to albums, I prefer listening to live shows, to hear the live versions of the songs, to hear the flow of the show, to hear the great covers and guest spots that MMJ has done in the past, especially at One Big Holiday. Just look at the downloads of OBH 1 - 3, so many covers, so many collaborations. So having an expectation of something similar at OBH4 was pretty reasonable. But when it turned into One Big Album Playback, the spontaneity and some of the fun was just missing. The excitement of not knowing when your favorite song was going to be played, or if you'd get a white whale played, or who was going to come out and guest on a goofy cover (Mama, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys anyone?) just wasn't there. Sure, seeing all the albums in their entirety is a pretty big deal, but this was OBH, not T5, where it was announced, and the encores added variety to the magic.
There definitely were some downsides to being in Punta Cana for some. For me, we had a tv that didn't work for two days, and our in-room fridge had to be replaced. Sure, the beach was nice, but the tides sure did make that beach unusable. The beach stage had to get taken down, some of the outdoor shows were moved indoors, where there wasn't enough capacity for the crowd, and the sound was bad. And the flight from the west coast was just a pain, especially when compared to the very centrally located (for US fans) Riviera Maya.
And again, the larger crowd, the talkers, the downgrade (my opinion) of the concert pavilion food choices; there are all valid issues. The music definitely was great, even if the MMJ sets were predictable (although I liked swapping Phone and Strangulation's order). One small disappointment for me was ending with OBH, even though it was already played on night 2. This was a perfect chance to work in a great cover or two. For me, and for the girl near the disabled viewing platform who yelled "Play some Petty!" before the encore started, I thought ending with "American Girl" would have been epic! But alas, it was not to be.
All this being said, I did get two of my white whales, "Into The Woods" and "Moving Away", but I've still yet to hear "Where To Begin". The other bands who played were great too. Broken Social Scene kicked things off with a great upbeat set, reminding me a lot of The War On Drugs set in 2015. Spoon & Nathaniel Rateliff were both great!! Pres Hall was awesome fun as they always are. The afternoon sets were a blast, as were Portugal. The Man. PTM brought some cool covers (Metallica, Pink Floyd, T-Rex and Oasis) that went over really well. Still can't get into Sylvan Esso (after seeing them three times now - OBH2, Red Rocks in 2015 opening for MMJ, OBH4), but from the posts here and on the Facebook page they clearly have a lot of fans. A little bummed about the late night sets that were in the theater, couldn't get in. The food was decent, but nothing different from Riviera Maya in my opinion, although the concert pavilion food wasn't as good. Check-in / checkout was relatively easy, although we were there a day early. The staff was very friendly, the resort itself was nice enough. I felt that the DR was a slightly less well-off Riviera Maya for the most part.
Similar to piton87, I don't feel like I was cheated in any way, just that my experience was different than my two previous One Big Holidays. And mainly, it came down to the sets that My Morning Jacket played. Had I known going into it that it was going to be album playback from front to back, with none of the spontaneity of the covers and collaborations, maybe I would have enjoyed the sets a little more. Again, this was one of my favorite bands playing their entire album catalog straight though, which is a pretty cool thing. It's just not what I had come to expect from the previous One Big Holidays. Which I suppose puts a large part of the blame on myself, for having any expectations at all.
And now for the funny part. Since I prefer listening to live shows instead of albums, when these downloads come out, I'm going to have live shows of every MMJ album to date to listen to. I bet some of the more obscure, less played tracks will quickly become favorites that I wasn't aware of, hearing them in the live setting.
Alright, enough of my two cents. My Morning Jacket is a great band, One Big Holiday is a great experience, the people you meet at OBH are great, we need to enjoy it all while we can. And like piton87 points out, these words are mine, and you have every right to add your two cents as well.