Ed’s Note: As you will read, I wasn’t able to attend the second day due to a Midterm (Which I did well on, thanks), I handed Claire the reigns and she wrote out a nice little recap… I put in random pictures because we all know a post with pictures is more entertaining than words on a page…
All the rest of the photos came from: The Pus-Eye Blog
By a stroke of dumb luck and the nagging existence of my editor’s midterms, I found myself with a last minute golden ticket into the second day of this year’s Treasure Island Music Festival.
Nestled in the middle of the San Francisco bay, Treasure Island offered up high winds, cool temperatures, and a lineup worth braving them for. Due to extenuating circumstances, I was unable to get into the festival until the last folk melody of Vetiver had played, but after only a small wait the rich layered vocals and intricate sound pairings of Grizzly Bear had more than made up for it.
Following the release of their widely acclaimed third album, Veckatimest, in May 2009 the group has been touring extensively, playing a combination of their elaborate chamber-pop new record as well as older favorites from 2004’s Horn of Plenty as well as 2006’s Yellow House. Yesterday was no exception, interweaving a mostly Veckatimest set list with songs like “Knife” and “Lullabye,” both from Yellow House.
After Grizzly Bear’s melodious hour-long set, the wait for twenty-three year old wunderkind Zach Condon and the supporting members of Beirut began. Anticipation was heavy; in April of this year the band abruptly canceled the European leg of their world tour, citing the desire to make every show “as good as humanly possible.” Perhaps my overwhelming love for Zach makes me bias but, damn, they did just that. The intriguing combination of various world music, Balkan folk and Southwestern sounds that makes Beirut… well, Beirut, was there in full force.
Throughout the set every member (save for the drummer and the accordion player who, as a side note, makes really bad, yet endearing, pirate jokes to pass the time Condon needs to tune his finicky ukulele in the cold weather) was switching instruments allowing them to incorporate their signature brass instruments, stand-up bass, mandolin, and even sousaphone. Sappy as this will inevitably sound, I am probably never going to forget how it felt to hear the crowd join in to help the band close the set with “A Sunday Smile” as the sun disappeared behind the Golden Gate bridge.
Nighttime brought even more brutal winds, but the music and wildly overpriced beers kept the crowd warm. The Walkmen, The Decemberists, and Yo La Tengo all featured intriguing and trademark eclectic shows.
The Decemberists used the time to deliver a fantastic performance of their newest album, The Hazards of Love, from start to finish while Yo La Tengo, in traditional Yo La Tengo form, did whatever they felt like, to the crowd’s delight. But unsurprisingly the most shocking and theatrical show of the night was by far Oklahoma City’s The Flaming Lips.
The show started with a giant projected image of a woman in birthing position, absolutely no detail obscured, and the band running out, being “born” one by one. Singer Wayne Coyne was even covered in a plastic wrap to mimic an embryo. The plastic soon started to inflate, creating a huge hamster ball that allowed Coyne to do the classic “bubble walk” atop the screaming fans. The show progressed in the same absurd fashion, with confetti, lucky pre-picked festival goers dressed as aliens and bunny rabbits, streamers, and the psychedelic visuals that makes a Flaming Lips show so distinct. “I was worried that it would be too cold for people to freak out,” Coyne commented to the crowd. “It’s not too cold to freak out, is it?”
As the entire day proved, it most certainly was not, and Treasure Island Music Festival will continue to be on my festival circuit for many years to come.
0 Responses to “flaming vagina’s…”