Continued from Day 2
We got there around 1:45 or so, in time to hear, but not see, the last few DIRTY PROJECTORS songs. What I heard sounded OK, but I can’t really review them since I didn’t listen that intently and since we arrived late and what not.
Since it was hotter and more humid than the previous 2 days, with the previous day’s rain already a memory, we stayed in the shade as much as possible. This meant staying relatively close to the Connector stage, where Japanese metal band BORIS started their set. Having never seen them before and largely unfamiliar with their music, I liked what I heard. They owe a surprising debt to ‘80s power metal (I heard lots of JUDAS PRIEST and ‘80s speed-metal in their sound) and played well, but ended their set after only half an hour for some inexplicable reason.
After that, we headed over to the Balance stage and caught the last few songs of HIGH PLACES’ set. A male/female duo, they reminded me a lot of low-key indie-pop ala YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS.
The next band, HEALTH, a noise-rock duo from Los Angeles, was supposed to go on at 2:15 but they were running late so they didn’t actually go on until 2:45 or so. I liked them at first, but after a while their spazzy freakouts felt forced, almost as if it was noise for noise’s sake, as my fiancee pointed out during their set.
At 4:15 or so (at the same time LES SAVY FAV were rocking the Aluminum stage), I then witnessed what was perhaps the best set I saw all weekend. It’s great when you see a band you’ve barely heard of and they blow you away and this is what happened here. My friend MIKE BENNETT recommended KING KHAN AND THE SHRINES, as he specifically wanted to see them, so I tagged along and boy were they amazing! It was just pure, animalistic, rocking garage punk fun. Some of the songs had a distinctive Nuggets feel and others had an early ‘60s frat-rock vibe, but to paraphrase a commenter on Brooklyn Vegan, every time that Animal House stuff was hinted at, they just obliterated it! KING KHAN is a charismatic and very funny frontman and watching him move around on stage (and sometimes in the crowd) is a big part of the fun, as is his between-song banter. Before one song, he cracked a joke about how Indian people never do anything without taking their shoes off and before another, he playfully chastized the crowd for being rich before playing a song called “Welfare Bread”. Anyway if you ever have a chance to see this band, go do it! I recently bought their just-released U.S. debut The Supreme Genius of King Khan & The Shrines because of this performance and it doesn’t disappoint. I can only imagine how great the show would’ve been in a small club.
After taking a long break to hang out, eat, buy records (I scored RUTS DC’s Animal Now, THE SOUND’s Shock of Daylight and THE ALLEYCATS’ Escape from Planet Earth all in one stand!) and sit down for a while, the next band I went to watch was SPIRITUALIZED. I went to the same spot that I was at the day before for THE HOLD STEADY (right behind the soundboard) and once again, the view and the sound were absolutely perfect (well Spiritualized’s guitar amps went out for one song but this was just for a minute and then it came back up). They were great, playing a bunch of stuff from the superb new album Songs from A&E. They also left room for some oldies like “Come Together” (from 1997’s breakthrough Ladies and Gentlmen We Are Floating in Space) and a SPACEMEN 3 cover (“Take Me to the Other Side”).
DINOSAUR JR then took the stage and blew everyone away. The set was more similar to their show here last year on Labor Day than the awesome show we saw when they first reunited in Northampton, MA back in 2005. Therefore, we only got one song from their self-titled debut (when they were still known as DINOSAUR), which was LOU BARLOW’s “Forget the Swan”. They also played some songs from their ‘90s records (which didn’t feature Barlow and where J MASCIS assumed total control of the band). From these albums, the highlights included “The Wagon” (from 1991’s Green Mind) and “Feel the Pain” (from 1994’s Without a Sound). Of course, they added a few songs from last year’s stellar comeback album Beyond and when they finished with the sublime “Freak Scene”, everyone was satisfied, even with the short set and all.
After Dinosaur Jr’s set, SPOON (who annoyingly had been sound-checking some horns, which prompted someone in the crowd to voice a funny complaint which was something to the affect of “I didn’t know “Freak Scene” had a trumpet part) closed out the show on the Aluminum show, where Spiritualized had blown me away an hour earlier. Unfortunately, though, I just wasn’t feeling it. Spoon is one of those bands that I’ve always liked, but I’ve found very hard to love with the exception of 2001’s masterful Girls Can Tell, still one of my favorite albums of the decade. Thus, after 20 minutes of their cold, clinical r’n’b influenced newer material, I wanted to leave and after we watched part of their set from the bleachers all the way in the back, weariness and my indifference to Spoon’s set won out and we headed back to the hotel.
Overall, although I didn’t like everything I saw, there were enough incredible performances to warrant a return to this affordable, generally well-run and convenient festival. My worry is that they may outgrow the space at some point as it felt way more crowded than last year. Nevertheless, we’ll see if next year’s lineup will get us out to Chicago again next July.
