A FreeFest Recap

FreeFest. When I first heard about it, I thought, "This is too good to be true." But no. It was true. A free, one-day festival at the historic Merriweather Post Pavilion in Maryland, somewhere between Baltimore and DC. Donations ($10 a piece for Jorje and I) made to a local charity. And it's super legit.

A little about the festival:
Three stages, shows from noon-11pm (Sept. 21st), a ton of booths and food vendors, and random things like Waterfall Swings, heart-shaped foam machines, and free suckers.

So Jorjette and I really enjoyed the day. I don't think either of us could have done more than a day (especially if there was camping, etc. involved) but it was a super solid chunk of shows and we would totally go back next year if we could score tickets again.

One quick story: We got "stuck" at the Pavilion Stage (the main stage) once we realized that if we left, we probably wouldn't be able to get back under the pavilion... and it was down pouring... and two of the main bands we came to see were on the docket. So we stuck it out for a solid six hours. It was a miracle we didn't pee our pants or eat an arm or something.

Oh, the only artist we wanted to see but didn't get to was Robin Thicke. Mainly because it was raining and that stage had zero shelter.

I could go on for a while so I'll just give a couple thoughts on each band.

Ghost Beach
Dance Forest
This new group from NYC started the day off with a lot of energy. Poppy, an electronic bent, and some great hooks. The lead singer was intent on making sure the crowd was 100% into the show, demanding "hands in the air" about four or five times throughout the show. But the band was tight and put on a good opening show.

Washed Out
Dance Forest
I've been grooving to Washed Out through the last few albums, loving the general vibe they set. Front runners of the chillwave genre, they know how create a mood. With that said, I wasn't sure what the live show would look like, especially as it's a heavily produced album. I was happy to see a full band (drums, electric, acoustic, bass, synth, plus a number of mixing boards), a surprise considering many bands in their genre rely solely on prerecorded tracks. So, good vibe, people were excited to be there, and they weren't quite as pretentious looking as I would have expected them to.

Chvrches
West Stage
Perhaps one of the most hyped bands of the year, I've been trying to avoid liking this band. But they've got something about them that just sticks with you. We missed the start of this set but, what we saw of it, they sounded great. They relied primarily on tracks and synth (not a favorite of mine) but they had a lot of charm and their vocals were on point. Also, the crowd was eating it up.

Icona Pop
West Stage
I only know this Swedish band through their radio single, I Love It, a sugary, easy-to-forget summer hit. To be honest, their live show felt about the same. Two female vocalists, occasionally playing an instrument here and there. They sounded decent but primarily came across as a parody of a European pop group.

City and Colour
Pavilion Stage
Shortly before the festival, I checked out City and Colour's album on Spotify and was loving the lead singer's raspy, soulful lead vocals over the band's full sound. Their live set showcased this very well. With that said, their genre of music may not have the most energy for a live set. Very glad to see them. Note: this was the first of four shows we saw at the Pavilion Stage, never leaving our seats. Also, how great is this venue?

MGMT
Pavilion Stage
Hmm, how to describe MGMT's live show? They're holding strong to their acid-rock vibe, politely ignoring the success of their two or three hit, pop singles. They sounded good, backed by their trippy computer-generated insect-men type videos playing in the background. It was a sitting concert... except for Time to Pretend and Electric Feel. 

The Avett Brothers
Pavilion Stage
Wow, the total highlight of the day. These guys brought an hour and a half of energy and passion to the stage. They were so excited to be there, performing and doing what they love. While their recorded albums sound great, they come across as relaxed and soothing folk. Live, they sing with so much conviction and emotion that it's hard to even reconcile the two. The stand up bassists wouldn't let his instrument touch the ground for whole songs, due to so much energy. The next song, three of them would gather towards the center of the stage, slowly singing a folk-ballad of theirs. They could have gone all night and I would have been entertained.

Vampire Weekend
Pavilion Stage
Modern Vampires of the City is my front runner for best album of the year. Although Jorjette and I have seen Vampire Weekend live before, I was psyched to catch their new material performed. I wasn't disappointed with how great they sounded live. And they hit all my faves off their new album: Diane Young, Step, Ya Hey, etc. For that, I was thrilled. Besides that, following The Avett Brothers is difficult. VW are masters of producing incredible sounds in the studio, yet performing their smart, preppy, world-music influenced rock with a lot of energy doesn't seem to be their top priority. I will say, since seeing them last, the crowd-response has become much more enthusiastic. Note: this is the fourth show we saw in the Pavilion Stage, a solid six hours without food/bathroom - we're diehards.

An Alt-J / Lord Huron Show Recap

This past Wednesday (9/18) I had the chance to catch the Alt-J and Lord Huron show at the 9:30 Club in DC with my buds Ben, Jeremy, and Taylor. Alt-J has always held a place of intrigue in my mind though I wouldn't count myself a super-fan. With that said, their music is so full and unique that, when given the chance to catch them live, I jumped at the opportunity.

Front row!

As Jeremy did all the organizing/purchasing, it was only a few days before the show that I found out that Lord Huron was opening. Their latest (only?) album has been a favorite of mine over the last year, commonly creating a perfect atmosphere of smooth, folksy goodness.

As their music has a relaxing vibe, I thought the show might sound good but be a little bit of a bore, especially as the guys came out in their J. Crew / Levi gear. Yet I was surprised by how exciting of a show these guys put on. The lead singer lost his cowboy hat a number of times due to rocking out or playing percussion in addition to his guitar (something I absolutely love). We were able to nab front row spots, giving us a great view of the electric guitarist's fantastic skills in creating a great sound. All in all, they sounded great and put a ton of energy into making an engaging show. Check them out sometime if you get the chance.

Onto Alt-J. These guys just exploded with their first and only album. We were catching them on the first night of two sold-out shows at the 9:30 Club. The crowd was psyched to be there. And we could feel the energy up front.

The four piece band came out arranged in a neat row and started right into their song, Intro. The word "calculated" was mentioned many times in describing their show and I think that's fair. They enjoyed playing their music for their fans but they weren't necessarily intent on creating incredible stage presence, perhaps an indicator of the specific *ahem* culture their music creates.   

The lead singer, big red beard, all black outfit and floral shoes, sounded great both with his super distinct vocals and guitar picking. Bleached-hair bassist and pizza-delivery-boy drummer were on point. And put-together keyboardist created just about every distinct sound to fill in the gaps. While their album has some super creative sounds on it, it's always a little disappointing when the interesting parts are created solely by a synth... I guess my desire for a live show is to see something I wouldn't see elsewhere.

When performing off of just one album, filling a headlining setlist usually requires some additions. Perhaps the anecdotal highlight was Alt-J's cover of College's "A Real Hero" (the standout track from the Drive soundtrack). That, in addition to the pretty dynamic light-show that accompanied, made for a real good show. Again, check them out live and, perhaps more importantly, check out their album.

Bazan - A Night of Beard Rock

Last night, I had the chance to see David Bazan perform in Philadelphia at the First Unitarian Church. In many ways, Bazan (and his former band, Pedro the Lion) is the voice of a niche demographic of people mostly comprised of disillusioned twenty-somethings who have been disheartened with the state of life.

His albums are deeply personal accounts of questioning relationships, oneself, God, and culture. Lyrics are often beautifully cut and dry. And depressing. Yet I think they earn him credibility for the rare moments of hopefulness.

I had a chance to see Bazan perform during my Taylor career. He slowly strummed his electric guitar in the student union in front of an audience (including myself) that wasn't familiar with his music. I later discovered a few of his albums and became deeply appreciative of him. My former experience seeing him live and his penchant for house shows had me expecting a quiet evening of listening to his thoughts.

While sticking in a few other favorites in between the A and B side of the album, on this tour, Bazan has been playing through Pedro the Lion's album, Control. The album very much focuses on infidelity within a marriage. While it doesn't shy away from the carnal, it opens with a simple internal account of describing himself at the beginning of a relationship, saying "I need you," yet also wanting to keep his options open. It's heartbreaking.

Knowing the content of the album and based off my former experience seeing Bazan live, I was expecting a relaxed show. I was off-base.

The venue, appropriately enough, was in a church basement in downtown Philly. It was kind of the anti-house-show. It was dingy and quickly became sauna hot. But it was also kind of perfect for a good beard-rock show. At one point, Bazan jumped and did the leg split thing.

In between songs, Bazan has a routine of asking the crowd, "Are there any questions at this point?" The crowd, who proved their fan-dom by knowing just about every lyric, missed their chance to really engage with him. We did learn that Bazan has a thing for mashed potatoes and Gillian Welch's voice though. But unfortunately, no substantive questions were posed and thus, not many responses worth expounding upon.

Otherwise, the show was incredible. While the bassist fixed a guitar string, Bazan performed Wolves at the Door with just his guitar and voice, reminding me of how unique and incredible of a voice he has. Much of the rest of the show was spent rocking out through Control. What was lost in slowly pondering his lyrics during his slower shows was more than made up for by the raw emotion and energy put into performing an album that he described as the "only Pedro album he doesn't hate." He and his three piece band were tight and put on a show worth checking out.

My boo

I love my boo. And she loves me.

In many ways. But oftentimes specifically and tangibly through concert tickets given to me for special occasions.

Like to Youth Lagoon concerts. Me so excited. And I love you, Jorje.

A Very Independent Concert Night

Jorje and I spent the 4th of July shopping at Edinburgh (too many sales...), scampering around Indy for the afternoon, and then seeing Florence + the Machine later in the evening. It was, as Jorje put it, one of the best concerts we've been to. Florence and the band sounded great, she had a fantastic wavy green dress on in which she loved to twirl around in, and fireworks finished the show off. Here are a few pics from the Touch ... I forgot my actual camera so these will have to do.

White River

Yours truly

Florence + Fireworks!

Dog Days

Calvin - Festival of Faith and Music

Headed up to Calvin for their Festival of Faith and Music conference later today. Goes through Saturday. Artists such as Matisyahu, My Brightest Diamond, Jon Foreman, and the Civil Wars will all be there. There will also be some fantastic workshop and keynote addresses. Probably most excited to spend the weekend with my IFC cabinet. If all goes as planned, should be a fantastic weekend.

Local Natives (w/Suckers): A Concert Review

Percussion and vocals.

These are two things that can turn a concert from enjoyable to transcendent. While listening to NPR's All Songs Considered (NPR's music podcast) coverage of the recent South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, I noticed that they kept commenting on how this year's festival was really strong due to these two elements. So I'm going to agree with NPR (like any good, young progressive should and would) and reiterate that great percussion and vocals make for a great concert.

With that said, Kenan and I (above) attended a Local Natives concert at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor on Monday night. Luckily, great percussion and vocals were present as well.

The opening band were the Brooklynites, Suckers. I didn't bother checking out their music beforehand but these guys put on a really great opening act. Their set included a lot of energy and their lead vocalist (while reminding me of little of Jack Black) had a lot of character to his voice. I was also impressed by how multi-instrumental these guys were (as were Local Natives). There were times when the lead singer was strumming his guitar, banging a drum, and alternately whistling and singing, all at the same time. And everyone in the band did this to some degree or another. All this to say, they were really fun and their music, while foreign to just about everyone in the crowd, was very engaging.

Now onto Local Natives. After multiple recommendations of this band, I finally checked them out a couple weeks ago and, after a couple listens, I was hooked. Amidst other admirable attributes, they have great harmonies that beckon the listener to sing along, forcing me to fall in love with them. I also saw that they were playing the Blind Pig and my brother had been a mega-fan of their song, Airplanes since MySpace was cool/used, so we bought tickets to the show.

The show eventually sold out, making for a crowded standing area but which also made for a very energetic crowd. Going back to the opening line of this blog... this band knows how to sing. And not only that, they know how to get everyone in on the singing. The band had 4 of its 5 members mic'ed, adding to the group mentality of the vocals and they often had at least two members singing, even during the verses. This also encouraged the enthusiastic crowd to sing along with all of the choruses. The following is the shaky (I had to groove!) video of their crowd favorite, Airplanes:

I'm a sucker for great drums as well. So when I see that a band has a drummer plus someone else on another drum/cymbal, I know there's going to be some great beats. And I was certainly satisfied with the percussion the Local Natives provided. They often just went to town on the drums and this, coupled with the vocals, made for some incredible moments. The drum solo later on in the song Who Knows, Who Cares is one of my favorite moments on the album and, although I don't think I caught it on tape, here's part of that song:

The band played all the songs I was hoping for (not surprising considering they only have one album) but it was a good length of a concert. They repositioned themselves for a few songs in the middle (showcasing their ability to play any instrument), slowing it down a little bit, only to pick it up at the end with the song above and then an encore performance of Sun Hands.

OK, enough of my blabbing about my concert going experience. My final verdict: if at all possible, see this band live.

The Antlers: A Concert Review

In opposition to college, this year has been a slow year as far as concerts go. Not that there's been a shortage of them, it's just that I don't have a boat-load of scenester friends to encourage me to hit up the latest shows. So while I was debating whether or not to go to The Antlers concert last night, I had two options: I could go to the concert alone and count it as a low-point in my post-college, post-friend life, OR, I could go to the concert alone and count it as a celebration of my independence. I guess I'll go with the latter.

The Antlers are an indie band from Brooklyn, New York (which is where just about every indie band is from nowadays). They put out an album last year titled, Hospice. It's sort of a "sad elegy for a dying friend" type of an album that critics eat up. The album commonly has moments of naked emotion that are often coupled with the lead singer's wanderings into falsetto-land. The album also has quite a few moments of just noise. Enough so that it really annoyed me while listening to the album, but!, I kept coming back to it largely due to some of the more melodic songs (i.e. Two). I really wanted to go to the concert in order to make some sort of final verdict on the band.

The concert was held at Ann Arbor's The Blind Pig, a venue I had previously never been to before. It has a cool bar/small concert feel to it and, according to their website, was Nirvana's favorite venue at which to play... so that's kind of awesome. Anyhow, a band called Phantogram opened. Comprised of a male/female duo on guitar/synth (respectively), the band used pre-recorded drum loops, a lot of reverb on their vocals, and a strobe light to create some pretty stellar dance-ish music. My life wasn't changed or anything but they had a cool sound that, after their final request before their final song, had the crowd dancing. Here's a short video:

Next up, The Antlers came on stage. They only have the one full length album and an earlier ep so I was familiar with just about all of the music they played (which is always nice). Overall, they put on a good show, transitioning from bare vocals to loud noise rather well. The emotive feeling their music evokes translated well to a live performance. Unfortunately, their drumming was a bit choppy and they commonly played their songs just a little bit different from their album. For one, they never pulled out an acoustic guitar (sorely missed on their single, Two). Secondly, they have some great synth interlude parts to their songs that they just didn't hit as solidly as they could have. Both of these things hurt the performance in my view as they didn't achieve the range of sound the album covers. With my grievances expressed, I do think they put on a good performance.

Here's an acoustic-free, Two:

After they finished their set, they left the stage for about 30 seconds, then came back on for the encore (I hate when bands leave for a long time... as if they're not coming back). They played two more songs, the first of which was a cover of The xx's VCR, a song I really love so I was pretty excited about that and forgave them for any misgivings I had with their performance. (The (crappy) video is below.) So they finished on a high note and overall, it was a good Friday night. Check them out if they come around your part of town.

Brandi (not Brandy)

My friend Lance Hill (you may know him from the "Famous for No Reason" campaign) drove the three hours from Taylor's campus to meet me in Ann Arbor, MI for a concert by none other than Brandi Carlile. Honestly, I hadn't heard more than two of her songs before tonight but was drawn in when Rachel Sawyer (thanks much) contacted me a few days ago and said she could get me and a friend "on the list." Although her voice kind of annoys me in the two singles I'm semi-familiar with, I'm always up for a free concert. So, for the first time in my life, I got to say, "I'm with the band" and received a VIP sticker (which we didn't really use... but the envious glances by hardcore fans were fantastic).

A singer/songwriter named, Angel Taylor opened for Brandi. Her soulful voice was great but the instrumentation from the three-piece band wasn't something to write home about. Unfortunately, the strongest effort was a cover or Jet's "Are You Going to Be My Girl?", acting as a bit of an outlier from the rest of her songs. She mumbled a lot between songs as well, making for awkward silences following what I presumed were jokes. Overall, mediocre performance from a young (she's only 21) artist... she's got time to improve.

Brandi walked onto the stage and the first thought that came to my mind was that she was like Tina Fey, just substitute a Southern drawl for Tina's thick-rimmed glasses. Hailing from the Seattle area, I'm not sure where the voice/accent came from but it helped in making for a strong stage presence, always making the audience feel like they were close friends with her and the band in some Southern hospitality sort of way. Interesting and relevant stories (e.g. an account of a friend's suicide or meeting and recording with her teenage idol Elton John) kept me in-tune with the set and helped keep me from disconnecting (something that often happens when seeing an unfamiliar band).

Opening with a 5-piece acapella (sp?) song, I enjoyed the variety of song performances throughout the night. She and the band commonly switched from full standard band (+ cello) to a more stripped down guitar/snare/acoustic-bass set up to a completely unplugged voice/guitar. Since her inception as an artist, she has toured with "the twins" (the lead guitar and bass players). They were a living cliche in how eerily similar they were, making me think of cinematic twins such as the bad dudes from the second Matrix or the Weasley twins from the Harry Potter series. Anyhow, they were skilled musicians and served as strong supporting vocalists (there's a lot of "ooo"-ing in her songs).

The variety of instrumentation served as a good foundation for her strong lyrics that made for an engaging evening. Although not my exact style (her voice still kind of annoys me), her lyrics had a way of drawing the listener (me) in. While the crowd there loved her, it was a bit weird being completely unfamiliar with an artist's music while sitting amongst her biggest fans. My favorite line came from a guy sitting behind us, "You know what Brandi is really good at? Everything."

While I may not have been as enthusiastic about her music as the rest of the crowd, it was a good show, it was great to see Lance, and it's always great to feel like an insider (thanks again, Rachel). Filling the encore performance with solid renditions of Johnny Cash's "Jackson" and the Beatles' "Let it be" didn't hurt things, either.