Grade: A
Best Coast
I’ve become a huge Best Coast fan this year and this was one of the sets I was most excited for. It was perhaps a tad disappointing, all the bros I was with left for Girls, but I still had a great time. As had become usual by this point the guitars were too quiet until the second half of the set, but had been loud enough for all of Cave?, and that was an initial turnoff. Bethany Consentino’s voice is in many ways the primary focus of the songs and that was definitely shown off without the guitars. Thankfully she was more than capable, unlike The Smith Westerns, of getting through the songs without having to resort to effects. A lot of people say the songs are all the same, certainly they are lyrically, but if you listened to all the singles and whatnot the set consisted of all the previous hits with a good chunk of the new album, which I thankfully listened to a few days before. And when they played “When I’m With You” all the men and I collectively expressed our undying love for her and Snacks.
Grade: B+
Bob just looks like the chillest guy ever
Girls
I arrived a little late due to Best Coast but I think the only song that I missed was probably “Laura”. I had really dug Album but Girls set consisted mainly of newer songs that were all on the sleepy side, bad buzzband mistake. The songs from Album faired better but even “Lust for Life” was played slower on the album. Thankfully they turned up the volume and kicked up some stellar feedback at the end but I don’t see why they couldn’t have been more exciting during their set. I really wish I had stuck around for Washed Out instead. Oh well.
Grade: C
Beach House
Although Victoria Legrand seemed particularly frigid, or perhaps overcome by heat, both her Alex Scally and the drummer seemed really grateful to be playing be again; buzzbands come and go but Beach House have remained, champions of their craft. While they’re unique spin on Dream Pop would seem to go better they still killed it. I was really getting bogged down by this point and Beach House were just so relaxing that all the lower back pain just seemed to drift away. Most of their set came from Teen Dream but each song was certainly a crowd pleaser. They finished up with “10 Mile Stereo”, the most guitar driven song from their latest album and boy was it a way to go.
Grade: A-
Lightning Bolt
Even stranger than Beach House succeeding at a summer festival was the abrupt transition from effervescent dream pop to the onslaught of noise from Lightning Bolt. Two bros, that really looked out of place, followed me over from Beach House, which was even stranger that they were seeing them of all bands, and had no idea who Lightning Bolt were. I merely told them that they “were in for it”. With a massive stack of amps and old stereo equipment backing the two Brians took the stage to uproarious applause. When Brian Chippendale donned his mask it was equivalent to Batman suiting up for the first time, and in some ways even more exciting. Then the onslaught started and never let up. While Brian Gibson was pretty stoic and didn’t move much, Brian Chippendale went wild; it’s improbably to think how he can keep playing with such intensity for that length of time. Totally insane but it would have been a lot cooler to see them playing on the ground at a house show.
Grade: A-
Surfer Blood
I skipped out a little early on Lightning Bolt, its not like I was waiting to hear a particular song, to check out another popular buzzband, Surfer Blood. When I got to the B stage, the smaller one, it was overflowing and Lightning Bolt was pretty much masking everything—one bro told me that he tried to get in later and was unsuccessful. I made my way closer to the point where I could actually here and proceeded to enjoy myself; I don’t know why anyone behind me stayed, they wouldn’t haven been able to hear anything really. Surfer Blood ran through pretty much their entire album, with one or two new ones, and managed to play everything exactly as they had on their guitar driven record, looking at you Smith Westerns, a definite buzzband advantage. I tend to forget that their album is pretty subdued and it would have been nice to have a couple more bangers like Swim to throw at the crowd. Really that’s not their fault, the show would have been awesome at a club, but they’ll definitely be better when they have another album to mix in. I was pleased overall; these guys have the chops to keep going for a long time.
Grade: B+
Neon Indian
Feeling very tired, and having not listened to any of the next couple bands, I took some time to check out the records— picked up Zola Jesus-The Spoils and a Christmas Island record— and chill out a bit before riding the chillwaves. Most other festival coverage I read raved about Washed Out but I didn’t see anyone covering Neon Indian. Major Lazer had a dragon?! Fuck dude that’s awesome! Personally I believe that live hip hop can never truly be anything less than disappointing, too bad most people had no idea what they were missing. In some ways, Neon Indian’s set was way more fun than LCD Soundsystem, with a smaller but more dedicated crowd ready to go crazy. LCD can make you dance a little but not quite the same effect as what riding the chillwaves can do to you. The big worry with electronic groups is how they’re going to replicate that sound live. The record might be great but no one wants to see four guys that don’t have anything to do after pushing play. Fortunately Neon Indian managed to replicate everything live, there was a theremin!, and do so with a tremendous amount of energy. While Alan Palomo was busy working his Menudo moves, their super cute keyboardist Leanne Macomber was jumping up and down, and the guitarist was having fun riding the chillwaves as well. At one point the drummer of Real Estate performed an epic stage dive and everyone had the best time ever. The end.
Grade: A+
Pavement
After Neon Indian, the bros and I rushed over to get a good spot for Pavement. A little further back than I was for LCD Soundsystem but at least much better than The Flaming Lips last year. Pavement already had Christmas lights strung across the stage the whole day but it was still just as exciting when they came out. Back that up a bit: first off the owner of Drag City came out and pretended to be an ex-Q101 DJ that was supposed to be introducing Pavement. While the whole thing was a joke, it was a little unclear at the time if he was serious, most people were incredibly pissed off and started throwing bottles. The next day all the journalist coverage was chiding the masses for not getting the joke. Here’s what they didn’t get: it wouldn’t have mattered if hipster comedian extraordinaire David Cross had come out, people wanted Pavement and that guy cut out 15 minutes of their set, which meant no Summer Babe. Fuck you guy and fuck you news media for not understanding that people enjoy music.
After a false start, they’re still sloppy but in an endearing kind of way, they busted out Cut Your Hair. From there they played a set of all the favorites, minus Summer Babe, and they looked like they had a great time out their together, especially Bob Nastanovich who spent a great deal of time bouncing around the stage, screaming into a microphone. They didn’t play all the songs perfectly (did you really expect them to?) but they made up for it with an enthusiasm that could easily bring a smile to anyone’s face. Big issue though was the sound. My friend sent me a text during their set that was something along the lines of Stephen Malkmus is being backed by SunnO))): the bass just fucking killed their sound. I could get past it but the incessant roar wasn’t too fitting for slacker anthems.
Grade: A-
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