Review: Target Field's new TC Summer Fest gets off to a Killer start, but with modest attendance

So that's what those music festivals are like. Oh fer fun.

After the demise in recent years of the Basilica Block Party, Rock the Garden, TC Summer Jam and Soundset, hungry Twin Cities rock fans finally got to taste a ticketed, multi-act festival within city limits again at Target Field on Friday, the first day of the first TC Summer Fest.

Anthemic rockers the Killers, psychedelic heroes the Flaming Lips and brooding indie-rock mainstays Death Cab for Cutie topped out the Minnesota Twins-backed five-band lineup — barely enough acts to call it a festival, but beggars can't be choosers.

Day One was a swing and a miss attendance-wise, though. Fewer than 20,000 fans turned out to the ballpark, with the upper decks closed off and plenty of room to spread out in the lower-bowl seats.

Twin Cities pop-rock trio Yam Haus kicked off the event at 3:30 p.m. to a crowd smaller than the one it will probably play to at the First Avenue show announced from the stage (Nov. 17). Fans finally started filtering in for Death Cab's 6 p.m. set.

"Thank you for coming out to the ballpark," frontman Ben Gibbard said early, but then cheekily added, "For a music festival? Huh."

Death Cab's 70-minute set was steady and masterfully slow-burning. The artful but melodic Seattle band nicely balanced 2000s-era oldies such as the opener "The New Year," "Cath" and "Soul Meets Body" with several vibrant newer tunes, including "Here to Forever" and the daringly delicate closer "Foxglove Through the Clearcut."

A good portion of the crowd was visibly weirded out by the Flaming Lips — a semi-awkward situation that only endeared the hallucinogenic Oklahoma experimentalists all the more to their longtime fans in attendance.

It didn't help that the Lips' set was entirely comprised of their extra-hazy and sometimes downbeat 2002 album "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots." Also, frontman Wayne Coyne's always-rickety voice sounded extra hoarse at times. But hey, nothing that couldn't be overcome with some giant bouncing balls, an oversized disco ball, looming pink robots and a balloon wall that read "[Bleep] Yeah, Twin Cities."

The Killers traveled all of two blocks to get to Target Field from their gig a night earlier, when they played a thrilling warm-up show at First Avenue. They opened the Target Field set with the megahit that ended Thursday's club gig, "Mr. Brightside" — as if flipping things on end in the sprawling, outdoor ballpark vs. the tightly packed rock club.

"You are witnessing our big-league dreams coming true tonight," frontman Brandon Flowers said.

In the festival and nightclub sets alike, Flowers and his urgently paced, dramatic but still flashy and fun-loving crew demonstrated how they're operating on all cylinders nowadays. And both shows featured one of the best-played Prince covers of recent memory, a high-energy, almost Queen-like spin on "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man."

Attendance aside, TC Summer Fest's first night could be deemed a win for the Twins. There were no overly long lines, plenty of food and drink options, excellent stage production and very little of the acoustic troubles that are inherent at U.S. Bank Stadium. On a beautiful summer night, it was also nice to hear fuller performances from all the acts instead of abbreviated festival sets.

Here's hoping the festival itself isn't short-lived.