Random Awesome Dudes | Photo by Nik Christofferson
After a mostly fair weathered first day, things took an ominous spin as grey skies and a chilly breeze threatened rain for a majority of day 2. Reality also set in early on that crowd energy and performance quality was certainly lacking. As a whole, I was not overly impressed with a few of the bigger names on the bill, and was just plain bored with a few others. A full day of live music is better than 99.999% of anything else I rather be doing, so I’m not complaining but was definitely a little bummed out that one band in particular pretty much sucked. I try to be mostly positive so here were the highlights, lowlights (again very few), and a few photos to boot.
Who I Saw:
Massive Attack, Pavement, LCD Soundsystem, Kid Cudi, They Might Be Giants, Public Enemy, The xx, Dirty Projectors, The Long Winters, Midlake, Caribou, Vetiver, The Tallest Man on Earth, Avi Buffalo, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Fruit Bats, Local Natives, Martina Topley-Bird
Highlights:
Caribou:
Caught a partial Caribou set, and it was my first. Loved the way they circled up in the middle of the stage. Their poppy psych rock swirled in the early afternoon breeze, and their extended tribal percussion interludes echoed in the canyons. It was a great start to the day, and I almost started dancing.
The Long Winters | Photo by Nik Christofferson
The Long Winters:
John Roderick and friends proudly took to their mid-day main stage slot with delight and previewed a bunch of new material. I found the set to be a lot of fun, and it really opened my eyes as to why Roderick is so beloved locally. When I saw them a few years ago at Sasquatch, I was lukewarm at best. Turns out I may have misjudged them a bit or maybe I’m a little more open minded to the indie rock music than I once was. Either way, it’s always a good time watching musicians who seem to be thoroughly enjoying what they are doing. When they launched into a surprisingly faithful cover of the Grateful Dead’s “Touch of Grey”, they completed the task of winning me over.
Fruit Bats | Photo by Nik Christofferson
Fruit Bats:
The Fruit Bats played an inspired foot stomping set on the tiny Yeti stage. One of the best performances of the day. Period.
LCD Soundsystem:
Great live band and excellent festival act. James Murphy won me over immediately, not so much for his singing ability or showmanship. I was more amused by the fact that a guy that looked like someone’s middle aged Father or a high school English teacher orchestrated one the biggest dance parties of the festival. I’d go see these guys again for sure. Oh snap, Bonnaroo is next week, stoked for a late night second round.
Public Enemy:
Of course Public Enemy was a highlight, but the PA cut out at least 5 times during their set, leaving most of the audience in the drizzling quiet while the lucky folks in the front 10 or so rows continued to get the full experience. Boos turned to cheers each and every time the PA kicked back on, which actually became comical after the 3rd time. Luckily the outages didn’t affect some of their bigger hits, as both “Bring the Noise” and “Don’t Believe the Hype” put a charge into the large crowd. The only downside to the spectacle was I’m pretty sure half the folks who got their groove on during Public Enemy’s racially and politically charged performance had really no idea who the fuck Chuck D was, and were probably only excited to take iPhone photos of “that dude” from “Flava of Love”.
Massive Attack:
Wow! So it’s not just a clever name? MA was enormous, humongous, and MASSIVE! for lack of a better adjective. Sounding really nothing like their records, their headlining set has given me a whole new appreciation of the live power of electronic music. I wondered aloud for weeks prior to seeing them live, “why they would be slotted as the headliner over Pavement.” Turns out, Pavement is a terrible live band and Massive Attack is an amazing live music experience, so the jokes on me. With mesmerizing light show, theatrics, and deafening beauty, Sunday’s headliner put on the best performance of day 2 bar none. An achievement that I would say really isn’t all that common.
Lowlights:
The xx:
I still do not get The xx, even though it was fun to photograph the massively popular indie rock “fads”. While it’s true that the open-air festival atmosphere probably didn’t do them any justice, it’s also totally possible that they are just a boring band that some shitty indie rock blog promoted and now everyone thinks they are rock royalty. The jury’s still out.
The xx | Photo by Nik Christofferson
Pavement:
...was horribly sloppy, drunk, and boring. Not a way to make an impression on 20,000 people, though I suppose Pavement does have a reputation for sucking live and 19,999 people didn’t seem to care. I on the other hand stood there trying to figure out what they were attempting to do. Maybe they are genius’, and their grandiose plan all along was to reunite, get drunk every night, play shitty cause they don’t care, and cash the enormous checks while a bunch of indie rock drones in cut-off jean shorts and florescent “Risky Business” sun glasses sing along between sips of $14 non-alcoholic margaritas. Am I missing something? Maybe this should this be in the highlights?
Cymbals Eat Guitars:
Excruciatingly aweful. Shame on you KEXP! Shame!
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