I made the trek out to Chicago beginning early Friday afternoon with my bud Phil Dokas, who allowed me to tag along with him for a very cheap price. We arrived at Union Park just in time for the beginning of Tortoise’s set. As much as I love The Sea and Cake and especially John McEntire’s drumming, I was bored by this band’s experimental, instrumental post rock or whatever (though, I will admit they are better than most of the bands considered to be in the same genre).
Yo La Tengo were atop my list of bands I was stoked to see, in spite of the fact that they played a total snoozer of a set at P-Fork ’06 (when they only played material from I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass, before that record had even been released). The band were way more exciting, energetic and charming this time around, and it really helped that it was a request set. “Let’s Save Tony Orlando’s House,” “Mr. Tough” and “Sugarcube” were the ultimate highlights of the night, and they even treated the crowd to a new song from their upcoming LP, Popular Songs, and it was nice. The only two disappointments were that they played all eleven minutes of “Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind,” (which, yes, I know has an awesome title, but the song is WAY too long), and that they didn’t play “Little Eyes.” I’ll take what I can get!
I had never heard The Jesus Lizard before, so obviously I didn’t care to watch them. This is when I met up with my hosts for the weekend, Alec Jensen and Emily Powers. Then, I eventually made my way over to the Built to Spill set. I only love one of their records, Keep It Like a Secret, but I REALLY LOVE IT. Quite possibly my favorite guitar album of all time. This also being a request set, I expected a lot more, but they played maybe three or four songs from it, tops. Bullshit. There were two major turn offs to the set: (1) no one but Doug Martsch seemed to care that they were there, and (2) TOO MUCH JAMMING. Major letdown.
Saturday was the day of the fest that I was least looking forward to. I mean, of course I was glad to be there, but there was the least amount of bands I cared to see that day. I started things off by checking out Cymbals Eat Guitars, whose 90s emo-ish Pavement record is totally good, and they did not disappoint.
Fucked Up was my #1 of the day, and easily put on the most entertaining set of the fest with Pink Eyes’ variety of stage antics and all the badass stage diving. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and their poppier and less dramatic version of The Smiths was cute and fun, and they were obviously floored by the crowd size for them, which makes me like them even more. The rest of the day was pretty hit-or-miss, and I only caught snippets of Ponytail, Yeasayer, Lindstrom and Matt and Kim.
I worry that The National are becoming a fratty dad kind of indie band. I love Alligator and Boxer, but I will not be surprised if I don’t end up liking the next one. Anyway, they were mostly boring, except for when they played “All the Wine” and “Apartment Story” back-to-back.
Sunday was by far the day I looked forward to most, and though there were a few bummer moments, it was fantastic. I got into Dianogah the summer before I went to college and was glad I got to see a few songs. Blitzen Trapper were perfect for a sunny afternoon at a music festival.
Women completely nailed it and put on my favorite performance all weekend. Their really noisy and messy yet somehow beautiful and catchy songs came across amazingly in a live setting, surprisingly so considering how intimate every performance during the weekend was not. They played most of what I wanted to hear from their 2008 self-titled masterpiece (“Lawncare,” “Black Rice,” “Shaking Hand,” “Upstairs”), plus four new jams, all of which were exactly what I was hoping for. The whole thing was perfect, really.
I didn’t pay as much attention to The Walkmen as I should have, but this was my fourth time seeing them live. They played some favorites from last year’s You & Me, plus some good oldies like “The Rat” and “Louisiana.”
I was pleasantly surprised by how awesome Vivian Girls were. Seeing them helped me to finally get their reverb-y pop punk. What I wasn’t surprised by was how flawless Grizzly Bear was. They might have felt a lot of pressure being the band to lead into The Flaming Lips’ set, but actually, they were even better. Both the Yellow House and Veckatimest songs were incredibly tight and either were exact duplicates of their album versions or had a completely different but awesome feel to them (usually due to Chris Bear’s more ridiculous drumming live).
The Flaming Lips were number two on my list of bands to see before I die, so needless to say, I was incredibly excited to see them. Unfortunately, and maybe because I was really worn out, their set was a major disappointment. They had an hour and twenty minutes and only played I think nine songs. They played boring versions of “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1” and “Fight Test” that each featured only one instrument, basically. This also was a request set and they made us suffer through two new songs, neither of them being very good at all. Wayne Coyne talked and talked and talked in between each song, wasting a lot of time. They only played “Race for the Prize” from The Soft Bulletin. My major complaints end there. They did play “Bad Days” and “She Don’t Use Jelly,” which pulled them a little out of the shitter.
So yeah, the fest wasn’t perfect or anything, but per usual, it was well worth the money, and I will probably be there again next year.
1 comment:
I agree with you on The National's next album probably being not that great. Not to sound too terribly elitist but I feel as though the band is picking up some so-so followers (such as One Tree Hill watchers or the general public who only really heard "Fake Empire" during the election) and I'm worried that they'll start catering to them/selling out. Just my opinion, though, which isn't worth much.
Post a Comment