These kids are divine.
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Day 1 was aces all around Random thoughts from poorly scribbled notes.
The additional 10k people at the festival could be felt. I did like the idea of having all the food on one boulevard away from the stages. It made for less of a clusterfuck in the food area; unless you were in line waiting for a burger from Kuma’s the food lines moved quickly and easily.
Taste-A-Palooza
Young the Giant’s Sameer Gadhita left a piece of his soul on the Bud Light Stage. Los Bunkers, despite sound issues that plagued the Play Station stage all afternoon, were a delight with their 60′s pop soaked tunes. They also can take credit for having one of the biggest crowd swells of the day. I saw several kids walk by the Play Station stage on their way to the bar and they’d stop and join the crowd to dance to Los Bunkers. Grace Potter & The Nocturnals brought their blues-rock to the Bud Light stage. Despite the howling and Tina Turner-like dance moves, Potter seemed much more subdued than at last year’s North Coast Festival. I caught the beginning and end of Les Butcherettes who were one of the most intense experiences I’ve had a festival ever. Teri Gender Bender throws her raw fuck-all energy in your face and you can do nothing but stand in awe. Gabe Serbian (drums) almost didn’t make it through their last song and at the end of their set puked on stage. Rock ‘n-fucking-roll, kids. I heard and saw a good chunk of Smith Westerns and they’ve remained the same: very polished performance, slowly coming through with band chemistry and audience banter. The Kills were fierce; Allison Mosshart growled and Jamie Hince didn’t even break a sweat. I wandered over to the south end of the park where the crowd was dense. I sat for most of Two Door Cinema Club’s set and was surprised by just how big a crowd they drew and each person jumped and danced along. A Perfect Circle was one of the few bands I was really excited to see and despite their reworked cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine” (which fell flat) the rest of their set was note perfect. How you imagine a big power rock festival band to sound. At this point things took a turn for the very weird. I finally found The Naughty Librarian in one of the south baseball fields. We caught the last half or so of Skrillex who turned Perry’s tent into a dance party, Afro Jack (whose set started late) continued the party. Festivals are all about the people watching and at Perry’s I had a blast sitting and watching/observing/judging/laughing. That’s where this video happened:
We stuck around for some of Girl Talk before heading home. The weather was gorgeous, the heat wasn’t oppressive, the kids had a great time and a few made a mess of things – not a bad Day 1. Here are a couple more pictures from yesterday but the full lot will be up on the Facebook Page.
Teri Gender Bender
Jamie Hince
Sufjan Stevens stopped by the WNYC studios and this happened. It is simply stunning.
Besitos to my friend, Ian (The Boy With The Broken Heart) for bringing this track into my life. It feels so good on a cloudy Wednesday morning.
Here’s a video that’s been sitting around collecting dust on the ol hard drive. A few weeks back The Naughty Librarian and yours truly were at the Aragon for the first of a two night stint watching The Flaming Lips perform The Soft Bulletin. This song. The sappiness. The last line that always slays. Excuse me while I go and make out with the nerdy gamer in the next room.
St. Vincent promised to unlock a song from her forthcoming album, Strange Mercy (Sept. 13), if #strangemercy became a trending topic. Well something went terribly right because a new track, Surgeon, has been released. The song jumps into a chill beat with reverb heavy vocals that puts you at ease, leaving you feeling like this song will save your summer until about halfway through when everything is turned on its head and the pace becomes frenetic and jumpy. Me gusta mucho and I can’t wait to hear the rest of the album. Click below and listen for yourself.
Featuring Neko Case. Its hard to do video at festivals when close to a mosh pit but luckily this video didn’t turn out too badly.
Today was the easy day. I didn’t get to Union Park until 4pm, just in time for No Age. I decided to wander for a bit at the start of their set and bumped into LA Seitz for a hot second before heading towards the area in front of the screen between the Red and Green Stages and that was where I spent the rest of the afternoon. You’ll be able to tell because today’s pictures are extra crappy.
No Age
No Age
This "look" happened more than once
Dancing Hippies
It was definitely a ton more crowded today so navigating between various stages in the sun and heat was just not going to happen for me today, I plan to torture myself with that routine tomorrow. Like I said, today was the easy day. No Age delivered one of, if not THE, fiercest set of the festival. I wrote in my notes, “if the rest is like this – then fuck to the yes!” (I really do write like that.) I was ready to get taken higher and then Destroyer happened. I really tuned this one out because I had dumb stuff like text messages and emails to respond to (I’m soooo cool, I know) but honestly, after the high energy set of No Age, it was really hard to come down from that high with a set that relied heavily on a saxophone. Again, saxophone. Sorry, maybe if someone else had preceded Destroyer it would have been a different experience.
Destroyer
Destroyer
Ugh...
This. Ugh.
It was back to the Green Stage for the Dismemberment Plan who were fun and woke up some of the crowd. At this point I was distracted by a fool (some random dude) running around in an old glory thong. As if that wasn’t disturbing and distracting enough, various people decided to go up to him and pose for pictures. At one point he bent over to put his beer down and his ass was not too far from my face. No me gusta culo.
Dismemberment Plan
D-Plan
Hipsters...
I want to see the whole thing - this was nuts
No. Just No.
Next.
DJ Shadow was the business. A huge white orb sat in the middle of the stage and we were supposed to see visuals projected onto the orb but the sun was very much out and it was hard to make out what was going on. Not even half way into the set, the orb opened to reveal DJ Shadow mixing with three cameras inside giving the fest-goers a close up of what was going on. This set got real. I saw a few people crowd surf and he packed it in, apparently he won the faceoff with Zola Jesus who didn’t have as big a crowd over on the Blue Stage. No Age was good but DJ Shadow was damn good.
DJ Shadow greeting the crowd
A look inside the orb
A peek inside
The night came to a close with a beautiful set from Fleet Foxes. This year’s Helplessness Blues was such an intimate album that like with Thurson Moore, I had concerns about how it would translate to a big festival setting. Where Thurston failed, Fleet Foxes succeeded. Their harmonies were perfect and angelic, each song beautifully executed and full of soul. I was a happy Bee in heaven and rode that wave all the way home. 2 down, 1 to go!
Fleet Foxes
FF
Sigh...
Tell us how you really feel Ghostface Killah. The 2nd Annual 10 Softest N***** In The Game list made my afternoon.
If you were lucky enough to be at this weekend’s Wilco-curated Solid Sound Festival you had the opportunity to get first dibs on the band’s new single “I Might” with their cover of Nick Lowe’s “I Love My Label” as the B-side. The single won’t officially be available for purchase until July 19 and their new album, The Whole Love, is due in September.
Personally, I’m loving this new song with its prominent fuzzy bass and crunchy guitar solo. If this is what ‘Dad Rock’ sounds like then sign me up. More, please!
