The "festival" with the silly name
This Saturday I weaseled myself into the Be the Riottt festival. Yes, the venue sucks. But there are a lot of bands I want to see, so what the hell. It turned out to be a big work party, which wasn't exactly a bad thing. I remember when I went to concerts in Toronto it's always only me and 2 people who went with me, and I'm still enjoying the novelty of randomly running into too many people. I do want to know people who don't work at my company and don't know C. :laugh: Only semi-kidding, I love my geek friends.
The Wrens: Took the huge main stage as easily as they took the ones at Horseshoe Tavern, or Bottom of the Hill. It seemed like in the meantime they've (or at least Charles has) been seduced by pedals and guitar noises. They played only songs from the Meadowlands, but differently. I liked the opening "This Boy Is Exhausted", with just two guitars to start, and the rest of the band joined in. Charles came out in leather jacket and sunglasses-to fit in with the setting? I love him; he's always so into the performance. I liked the song after the last song: flying to the keyboard, banging out "This Is Not What You Had Planned". The Wrens, they were a very special band for me. But I don't know if that performance would impress people who didn't already love them.
Explosions in the Sky: I caught only the last half of the show: 20 minutes of continuous music! I don't have a lot to say about them other than they sounded great.
The Presets: Never heard them before and wasn't too impressed. They definitely made the crowd dance, but shitty trance made people dance too. All the songs sounded the same (as in the basslines were all the same, and there weren't much else to the songs). The lyrics were self-consciously trendy, ie. let's talk about sex, blah blah blah. Hello! I'm 14 years old! Reminded me of a trendier MSTRKRFT with worse music (not that MSTRKRFT was that great) and better haircuts. Some people from work seemed to think they're awesome, though. :shrug:
Xiu Xiu: I'm always surprised at how loud they were. The percussion were turned way up, and the contrast between the crashes of the cymbal and silence were stunning. Talking about contrast, the pretty vocals and the noise on "Hello From Eau Claire" were just as stunning. Not talking about contrast, Je t'aime the valley :blood curdling scream:! I always think that Final Fantasy took a page from Jamie Stewart.
Girl Talk: Only caught the last 5 minutes. When I went in, there were tons of people dancing on stage, which reminded me of the Justice/MSTRKRFT show I went to some time ago, but clearly it wasn't as good as Justice. :laugh: Couldn't hear the music at all.
The Rapture: Another one I don't have a lot to say about. It's what you'd imagine it to be. I had a lot of fun, but it's not a cerebral kind of fun, and I could almost see the parallels between them and the Presets. The Rapture was much better music in my opinion, however. I even grew to like their new album. I do like Luke as a frontman.
I missed Deerhoof because the schedule conflicted with the Rapture, and I decided to stick around with the assorted people I ran into instead of running off by myself. Deerhoof's from around here; they'll come by again. I have a feeling that a "real" venue would be better for them anyway.
And today I jumped out of an airplane at 18,000 ft!
The Wrens: Took the huge main stage as easily as they took the ones at Horseshoe Tavern, or Bottom of the Hill. It seemed like in the meantime they've (or at least Charles has) been seduced by pedals and guitar noises. They played only songs from the Meadowlands, but differently. I liked the opening "This Boy Is Exhausted", with just two guitars to start, and the rest of the band joined in. Charles came out in leather jacket and sunglasses-to fit in with the setting? I love him; he's always so into the performance. I liked the song after the last song: flying to the keyboard, banging out "This Is Not What You Had Planned". The Wrens, they were a very special band for me. But I don't know if that performance would impress people who didn't already love them.
Explosions in the Sky: I caught only the last half of the show: 20 minutes of continuous music! I don't have a lot to say about them other than they sounded great.
The Presets: Never heard them before and wasn't too impressed. They definitely made the crowd dance, but shitty trance made people dance too. All the songs sounded the same (as in the basslines were all the same, and there weren't much else to the songs). The lyrics were self-consciously trendy, ie. let's talk about sex, blah blah blah. Hello! I'm 14 years old! Reminded me of a trendier MSTRKRFT with worse music (not that MSTRKRFT was that great) and better haircuts. Some people from work seemed to think they're awesome, though. :shrug:
Xiu Xiu: I'm always surprised at how loud they were. The percussion were turned way up, and the contrast between the crashes of the cymbal and silence were stunning. Talking about contrast, the pretty vocals and the noise on "Hello From Eau Claire" were just as stunning. Not talking about contrast, Je t'aime the valley :blood curdling scream:! I always think that Final Fantasy took a page from Jamie Stewart.
Girl Talk: Only caught the last 5 minutes. When I went in, there were tons of people dancing on stage, which reminded me of the Justice/MSTRKRFT show I went to some time ago, but clearly it wasn't as good as Justice. :laugh: Couldn't hear the music at all.
The Rapture: Another one I don't have a lot to say about. It's what you'd imagine it to be. I had a lot of fun, but it's not a cerebral kind of fun, and I could almost see the parallels between them and the Presets. The Rapture was much better music in my opinion, however. I even grew to like their new album. I do like Luke as a frontman.
I missed Deerhoof because the schedule conflicted with the Rapture, and I decided to stick around with the assorted people I ran into instead of running off by myself. Deerhoof's from around here; they'll come by again. I have a feeling that a "real" venue would be better for them anyway.
And today I jumped out of an airplane at 18,000 ft!