By Kathryn Pinto
Day 2: Sunday evening started with a beeline to the Sunset stage to
see
Walking Sleep. They owned every ounce of momentum built up from playing an Echo residency in April and a new album, Measures (released May 25). They
sounded great, they even looked great up there framed by the
Sunset Bridge overpass. In the crowd were members of the Monolators, most of
the Henry Clay People and RFSL Brad, fresh from a big win with the laptop doctor. Brad on the
Walking Sleep’s “Just Like Heaven” cover, “I don’t think I’ve heard that song
before.” Kathryn: “It’s
the Cure.” Brad: “Oooh,
the Cure.” Kathryn: “I
think it came out during your
hiatus from music.” Brad: LOL.
Between sets on the Sunset stage, I caught a couple songs of
Foreign Born’s solid straight up indie rock. Meaniwhile in the beer garden, a couple of
enormous fans--a Mastiff and a
Newfie mix--from the canine contingent stole the show. Presumably they were hoping to catch Vice Cooler & Hawnay Troof.
Voxhaul Broadcast sound like they cut their teeth on a milk crate full of Clash records and whole mess of dirty soul. The gravelly-voiced front man, in slim
black jeans and worn-in combat boots looks and sounds like your high school crush. They played new songs and tossed CD's out into the audience.
[The place clears out at 8:55 when the beer garden closes.]
The Like, a four-piece
channeled 1960’s girl groups from their outfits to their Amy Winehouse hair, down to their woo-ooo backup vocals . The look seemed a bit more polished than the music, but they played
some entertaining songs including once called “Walk of Shame.” “Everybody in
the audience knows what I’m talking about,” quipped the singer, “except maybe
that baby sitting on your shoulders, there. You’d better not know what I’m
talking about.”
As soon I saw 60 Watt Kid play,
I was reminded why Avi Buffalo respects this band so much. The band has
some very good guitar playing in the vein of Explosions in the Sky, or
a more self-indulgent Wilco. The vocals are no so much singing and
lyrics as vocals as a musical
component. It's good stuff, but very much boy music that loves itself a
lot.
So Many Wizards owned the room at El Cid from the moment they started playing on the Buzzbands stage. The sound was about 3,000 times better than the last time I saw them at the
Silverlake Lounge. Maybe I loved the set so much because it was the
first time I was
warm and sitting down all evening, but I wasn't the only one who was
impressed. Frontman Nima Kazerouni has charisma on stage, one gets the
sense that he is the real deal. After premiering a new song "I Don't
Care What We Do" and revealing a set lit on his iphone, the band had
the place packed and everyone in El Cid on their feet clapping,
hands overhead.
pretty sure walking sleep played Lovesong rather than Just Like Heaven, great fest review though!
Posted by: alexis | June 01, 2010 at 03:27 PM