Friday, at the South Side Works, the New American Music Fest got under way. We missed out on Tiny Masters of Today, but caught the beginning of NASA's dj set...which started out with some Black Sabbath. Good times...bonus points for the green body-painted dancers and break dancing dudes...
The Black Keys were next. Probably the best band of the weekend (or at least my personal fav). We had video of "Set You Free," but some dumb ass deleted it. Captain Beefheart was covered...
We missed out on The Roots because of the Tapes 'n Tapes show (see post later) which was being played at the opposite end of the South Side at Club Cafe. Saturday started out with The Duke Spirit. Nice start to the day. Felt sort of a Blondie vibe...maybe it was that whole hot blonde lead singer with 5 piece backing band thingy (actually, they only list 4 members, but I swears there were 5 dudes on stage) . I enjoyed them. Oh...did I mention Liela Moss is kinda hot...
Black Mountain. I really liked their self titled debut Black Mountain. I thought the follow-up In the Future was eh. Because I was so psyched to see them live, I was that much more disappointed afterwards. Sorry, maybe it was just the fest atmosphere, but they just didn't do it for me at this particular moment...
I'm not a Gnarls Barkley fan, but they were definitely one of the highlights of the day. Lots of energy, which was needed at this point. One thing, though...when playing "Gone Daddy Gone," I wish they would mention to the crowd that it's a Violent Femmes cover. Maybe it'd be different if you're covering The Beatles, Stones, The Who, or what not. But I'd wager that at least 50% of the young audience on hand doesn't even know who The Femmes were. Perhaps an interest would spark, and a kid who didn't know any better would be more inclined to pick up the Violent Femmes most glorious self-titled record from 1982...which may proceed to change said kid's life :)
I love Spoon. More so than any other band that was in attendance. But it seemed like it took them too long to get into it. Back in April at the Carnegie Library Music Hall...Britt Daniel and crew were most awesome. But again, I just wasn't feeling it. Maybe it was just me...maybe it's the whole fest thing (sidenote: I do think some bands are better for this type of atmosphere than others). Maybe it's the short set. It just seemed like as soon as they started rawkin...it was over. Oh well, I still stand by them...
The Raconteurs flat out rawked. I'm not the biggest fan, but they were really good. Easily the best performance of the day. I've got one minor issue regarding Jack White. I'm not a big fan of this whole walking on stage at the start of your set with your back to the audience, continuing to play geetar while not facing the crowd, and when it's your turn to sing...we finally turn, acknowledge the crowd, and sing your part into the mic. Almost to say..."Hi! It's me! I'm the big rock star you've been waiting to see!!" I dunno...just seems a tad pretentious. I actually like Brendan Benson better. Maybe that's blasphemous to say within The Raconteurs camp, who knows. They were kick-ass though...so much so that I may actually buy a record...
Bob Dylan was the big attraction of the weekend. I've always liked Dylan, so there's no need to diss a legend on these pages. We'll just leave it at that. I can at least say "I've seen Bob Dylan."
Overall good times. Anthony Kiedis made his way on stage to introduce The Raconteurs, and concluded with a "see you next year." Hopefully, that's the case. Not to sound greedy, but let's upgrade to two stages, though (ala Pitchfork...too much down time in between sets).
Lots more PICS HERE.
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