Forecastle 2010 Day Three

Forecastle 2010 Day Three

The final day of Forecastle 2010 felt like the final day of a music festival: bleary eyed, sunburned, spent, fatigued, dehydrated, malodorous and worn down. Pushing through that by any means necessary in the pursuit of auditory rapture, and early Sunday had a lot to choose from: Vandaveer, Dar Williams, Sara Watkins, Minus the Bear, the Commonwealth, the Fervor. Crowds grew as the day got going, all leading up to the evening sets, beginning with the West Stage at 7:00 with She & Him, that combination of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward. Releasing two albums over the past couple of years, the band is set perfectly as a breath of fresh air with those sweet vocals drenched in reverb and that Brian Wilson-like production. It sets everyone at ease, caters to those exposed nerves that need soothing. Into the first song, the crowd is politely chill, and in Louisville, we are nothing if not polite. As though shaking off the funk, excitement breaks through the mere absorption of the band and the people make their appreciation known. A lot of what She and Him do is very 50’s, like what all the radios play at a classic car show, or a late night commercial advertising a compilation of cruisin’ classics, sponsored by Quaker State. But man, that voice is pure beauty, heavenly, otherworldly. The band is in great form and dynamic: they shuffle, gallop, follow the cues of the bandleaders. She loves her tambourine and the crowd loves her. A two-song encore ends with an amazingly soulful version of “I put a spell on you” with just her and M. Ward and a few thousand of their closest and newest fans.

I ventured over to the East Stage to see Company of Thieves, a band that has recently had a surge of popularity in this city. In the midst of a new recording period, they took a break for a flight to Louisville to play Forecastle and didn’t disappoint. Opening with “Oscar Wilde” and taking most of the crowd by surprise, the band was clearly enjoying the moment and focused on its continuing trajectory. Genevieve is always amazing to watch, to physically see such a huge voice come out of such a tiny body, her animated movements and sparkley dresses engaging the crowd. The band sounded great and the vocalist also treated us with appropriate use of the tambourine. There was a great element of that elusive groove running through their songs and kept the people in front of them moving.

The last time I saw Spoon was in Austin on their riverfront, Auditorium Shores, so it seems fitting to see them again on ours. The band opened with one of the most perfect opening songs, “The Beast & Dragon Adored”, much to the pleasure of the onlookers feeling the teeth of the guitar and resonating boom of each intricately placed drum hit. But the crowd is more mesmerized by this display than hyped; a hip begins to move, followed by the leg bounce, and now a head nods in rhythm, and I can see shoulders begin to connect with the axis of the hips and they glide and move. Spoon is a monsoon, a tidal wave demanding crowd submission with sheer ferocity and tenacity. Those guitars cut in just the right place, bass is perfectly distorted, piano notes hit exactly where they are supposed to and nowhere else. The second song, “Got Nuffin’”, is exceptionally longer than their normal songs, but the straight strums and eighth-note repeating attack of the bass throb has placed the crowd firmly in their palm. A six piece brass section of saxes and trombones, from Louisville nonetheless, backs up the band on a few songs, further endearing the crowd to their hearts. By the fifth song, “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb”, there’s not a person not gyrating in some fashion or another. And if they aren’t, it’s because they’re dead inside. At one point, Britt Daniel, the vocalist/guitarist, dons a bass and jumps into a drawn out, sparse throbbing intro, feeling for all intents and purposes like a techno song, and right when it would normally go the typical “oom-siss-oom-siss” techno part, the drummer does some crazy fills and the song ends. The band rolls through “Is Love Forever”, “Don’t You Evah”, “Fitted Shirt”, “I Summon You”, “Written In Reverse”, “I Turn My Camera On”, “The Underdog”, and “My Mathematical Mind”, closing the night with “Black Like Me”. I realize that Spoon always makes me want to get a telecaster. This is also one of the last thoughts I have for the evening. I took off after the Spoon set, and rightfully so, have a nice pang of regret every time someone describes the Flaming Lips show to me. Next year, maybe I’ll personally get sponsored by Red Bull.

Forecastle 2010 Day Two

Forecastle 2010 Day Two

Saturday began for me at 3pm at the East Stage, where a band known as Mucca Pazza was set to begin. Twenty to thirty people enter the stage, all in non-matching marching band uniforms. Guitar, accordion, trombones, saxophones, bass drums, toms, sousaphone and pompoms come together in what can only be described, by themselves nonetheless, as a circus punk marching band. It sounds like the soundtrack to a Tarrantino directed James Bond movie filed in the 1920’s. All instrumental, it’s one of the most entertaining shows I’ve seen yet, and it’s possible that the most fun was had on stage. Maybe they were the ones in High School marching band that got kicked out because they were too weird. All the better for us. It’s a great and inspiring set and almost makes me forget that I’m already sunburned.

Over on the West Stage, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals took the stage to a sizeable crowd and performed an eclectic, genre spanning set that made it difficult to pin down. Her voice definitely has aspects of Dolly Parton and Sheryl Crow, but depending on the song could be classified as country rock, jam band, and southern folk pop. The sound was good, guitars had great tones and a B-3 filled all the right spaces like a good organ should. Her songs cover all the bases to meet your multi-genre needs.

By 5:30, the crowd really begins to thicken as the showtime for Cake grows close. There are many Cake t-shirts down front, and as I have learned through extraneous chatter, there are a lot of fans of the band in this town, and that excitement can be felt. They take the stage and leap immediately into the one two punch of Comfort Eagle and Frank Sinatra, ensuring that the tide of the crowd is with them. Vocalist John McCrea is bent on two things today: crowd interaction and his vibraslap. Both are featured prominently in the set. A melodica appears, as well as a guiro, that wooden Latin percussion instrument with cylindrical grooves that you rake a stick across. Cake seems to be in top form, both tightly professional and energetically enjoying what they are doing. The hardcore fans are up front, but there are also a lot of softcore fans, with a cursory familiarity of the band (as the guy five people behind me who keeps shouting “Run The Race!!!” repeatedly, apparently wanting to hear the song whose actual title is “The Distance”), or those who have no idea who the band is, as evident in the couple behind me. She says she likes them because they are rock and roll like the Rolling Stones. When the band did their version of “War Pigs”, I’ll quote her now saying, “Now that’s what I like, when all the new bands like Cake (!) play the old songs. This was worth it, there’s my seventy bucks right there.” Personally, I had forgotten how good cake was, and truly enjoyed the show. And as the lady behind me nonsensically pointed out, “Looks like they want to have their CAKE and eat it too!”

Both unfortunately and fortunately, I missed the first half of Devo’s set due to filming Kyle’s interview with Cake. By the time I made it back out, it was a fully involved Devo show, with their silver grey uniforms that come in handy if you are shooting a film and need a stuntman to be protected while being lit on fire. Their sparse stage was as welcoming to the crowd as their message when “Whip It” came out in 1980 and said “Hey, not only is it ok to be geeky and different, it is awesomely preferable to be geeky and different!” Their set was upbeat and really enjoyable and the crowd was with them all the way. Are we not men? We are DEVO!

On Saturday night, after Devo, it’s pretty safe to say that the hyped up crowd was quite ready for the Smashing Pumpkins. Not so fast! Collect yourself, pace yourself, savor your anticipation. Apparently situations such as this call for a DJ. You might be resting in the media tent recovering from the creeping signs of exhaustion, nursing your purchase from the taco truck, when you notice the rhythmic ripples pulsing at the top of your water cup, Jurassic Park-like. Then come the crushing, interior organ shaking, oxygen destroying bass hits. It might remind you of high school parking lots and rumors of cruising, metallic rattling, the grinding apart of joints meant to remain joined. Hypothetically. The act on the main stage, after Devo and before the Pumpkins, is known as Bassnectar, a DJ, or electronic music artist, out of San Francisco. His appearance has an Andrew WK vibe, with his long hair and white t-shirt, but most comparisons stop there. The set is an amazingly integrated audiovisual presentation, with a full movie sized screen blending colors and images and flashes to accompany his blend of beats with the occasional pixies, nine inch nails, beatles and white zombie thrown in. It’s coreshaking, and the glowstick kids are happy. Waves of people were jumping in rhythm excitedly and ratcheting themselves up for the headliner soon to come.

I headed over to the East Stage to catch the set from Edinburgh’s own We Were Promised Jetpacks. Signed to Fat Cat Records and label mates with Frightened Rabbit and Sigur Ros, I expected a lot from them. One minute into the eight minute opener, I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed; a rousing, explosive, tight and passionate study in the absurd musical equation whereby the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. An early sound issue that looked to be a dysfunctional cord only served to stir some of that Scottish anger, make them push to release and overcome. It was clear by the second song that this is exactly what happened. This is one of the most aggressive sets I’ve seen; a band with something to prove, intent on blistering. And it was really loud, too.

Back at the West Stage, the crowd continues to thicken as the LCD lightshow from Bassnectar is dismantled and the drums and guitars are checked. It’s the closest quarters it has been all day and begins to feel like the Great Lawn might implode. Planning perfectly the end of the previous set and the ensuing mass exodus to the lavatories, I find myself quite close to the stage with thousands of people at my back. Lights are tested, microphones are tested and anticipation builds. And builds. The Smashing Pumpkins take the stage, pick up their instruments and open up with Today, followed by Astral Planes, Ava Adore, and Hummer. As one of the bands that graduated from the school of Alternative Rock, they proudly wear their seriousness and disinterest on both sleeves, apart from the few times that smiles were flashed in recognitions of a fan’s excitement. Mr. Corgan told the story at one point about being escorted around town and asking his driver what they make here; the response, “Bourbon, baseball bats, horses, and hot Kentucky women” elicited much goodwill from the crowd, who were held with rapt attention for the majority of the show. And honestly, considering a lot of the stories I’ve heard regarding a Pumpkins show, I think Forecastle came away with one of the better ones.

Forecastle 2010 Day One

Forecastle Festival 2010

The ninth edition of Forecastle found itself occupying 75 acres of Waterfront Park in downtown Louisville, bringing its blend of music, art and activism to an expected thirty thousand people this weekend. Three main music stages showcased a stellar lineup, including the Flaming Lips, Spoon, Smashing Pumpkins, Devo, Cake, Widespread Panic, Lucero, Drive By Truckers, She & Him, Modern English, Arnett Hollow, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Vandaveer, Sara Watkins, Against Me and Company of Thieves. One electronica/dj stage, one circus stage, one sustainable living roadshow area and one outdoor extreme sports showcase rounded out the lineup of scheduled events.

Stretching from the Wharf to the Upland Meadow, the main stages hovered near the water to the north, while the dozens of food and merchandise tents were located along the southern edge, near and under the I-64 overpass. Everything from gyros to gumbo, burgers to pommes frites, tacos to a NY slice could be found along with ample serving locations and selections from the BBC. Merch tents were stocked with an assortment of shirts, beads, purses, hand painted clothes, rope sandals, flowy blouses, jewelry, hammocks, reusable water bottles, hats, screenprints, frisbees and other miscellaneous environmentally friendly items. A string of tents along this theme included EcoZone, Toss Out Fuel, Up a Creek and Eco-opolis.

Friday was a get-to-know-you day, a familiarization with the layout, scheduling and crowd flow details that inform stage and band choices, along with the navigation and logistics that requires. Manchester Orchestra shredded, blistered and chopped their way into the crowd’s spleen. Arnett Hollow offered their brand of Sunday-back-porch-good-time-having social occasion, their tight playing skillfully running the line between bluegrass & jam. After a short presentation of fireworks, Widespread Panic took the main stage, setting the crowd in a harmonious state, and the people twirled blissfully.

I made it a point to catch the Lucero set, headlining the East Stage. Setting up with vocals, electric, drums, bass, keys and lap steel, they brought a high energy punch to the night that electrified the crowd. With a gravelly, Marlboro voice that feels like Tom Waits if he were a tenor and raised in east Tennessee instead of LA, vocalist Ben Nichols leads this punk roots band through songs that can only be described as rollicking. Lucero seems to be trying to redefine what Southern Band means. I’m imagining a kind of one-upmanship battle between them and Lynyrd Skynyrd, a la LL Cool J and Kool Mo Dee. They look every part the working class Southern rockers they portray, as though an east Tennessee bartender bet that the six guys on the stools at his bar couldn’t form a band. And with lines like “She asked me if I loved her and I showed her the tattoo”, it’s clear that they win the bet in my hypothetical band-origin-scenario. There’s also a lot of liquid and cups being thrown at the stage, putting a nice spin on the Blues Brothers chicken wire bar scene, but in this case it’s the band that needs the Gallagher style protective plastic sheet.