Lowertown Music Festival!

I went to the Lowertown Music Fest on Saturday with some friends and had a great time.  It was a bit overwhelming, but the weather was perfect, and the music was nice.  Here's the breakdown, in order of appearance:

Koo Koo Kangaroo... was this humor hip hop duo wearing black sweatsuits trying to get the crowd going.  Their songs focused around such heavy subjects as PB&J, let me see your dinosaur, I'm drivin' the minivan, and others.  Although they had so much zeal in their performance and getting the crowd going, only a small percentage of the people there were actually playing along.  They did bring out a parachute though, which was pretty neat.  Everyone loves a rainbow parachute.

Frank Turner... is from Winchester, England, and is pretty cute.  He seemed like a cool guy and a good musician.  He mainly played fun, youthful songs on his acoustic guitar getting the not-yet-leg-cramp-ridden crowd going.  He even asked for a volunteer to play harmonica solo for him, and a girl named Rachel from Australia got to come up and do it.  It was nice that she was the one, because while she was up there, it was clear she knew all the words to all his songs.  He kept us singing along with him, yelling "I still believe," and other things.  At the end, we were to sing the chorus with him, all of us, as loud as we could, because he firmly believed that if everyone on that block sang together, something amazing happened, something philosophical, where there is no raised stage anymore, and we're all in it together.  It's a very nice thought, and so I sang and sang and sang. 

Peter Wolf Crier... I don't know much about them, unfortunately.  I enjoyed the performance though.

Tapes n Tapes... I'm afraid I only knew the radio hits for these guys, too.  Oh well.  They were a fun bunch.

Cloud Cult... over the past couple of years have really impressed me with everything they've done.  This was my second time seeing them, and it was great, as expected.  Aside from about ten minutes of technical difficulties after the first song, they were very smooth.  They have a new album due out in September (although it was for sale there, and from their website too, I believe,) and they played a handful of songs from that, but many of their older, so well loved ones.  They even did a Cloud Cult-ified cover of "Hey Mr. Tambourine Man."  They really owned the crowd, had and brought out a lot of energy.  During "Pretty Voice," while just near everyone sang along with the opening lines, Craig was visibly in awe, and said, "Wow, guys, that's great... Keep doing that."  And so we did.  I think a lot of people were there to see this band.  Definitely some great things from them.

Mason Jennings... is an amazing songwriter.  I overlooked him for so long, and it was just this year that I started getting into him.  I shouldn't have waited; his music is great. His performance was pretty much flawless. He played some of the songs from his last album, Blood of Man  (which I think is just great),  including some of my favorites from there, like "Pittsburgh," and "The Field," which pull tears from my eyes whenever I hear them. He played older songs as well, and everything was spot on.  There were a lot of hard-core fans singing all around, it was a nice atmosphere, as the sun slowly disappeared and left us in the bluish dim.  He played for a long while, and it was a great set.  He's a cool guy, and I hope to see him again.

Rock the Garden

Last Saturday, June the 21st, my dear friend Emma and I rocked the garden.
89.3 the Current along with the Walker Art Center were hosting an outdoor concert in their Sculpture Garden with a great line up of Eau Claire's Bon Iver, Minneapolis band Cloud Cult, Canada natives the New Pornographers, and Chicagoan violinist (and a personal favorite of mine,) Andrew Bird.

Bon Iver opened, and performed flawlessly. I worked my way up about 10 feet from the stage for Cloud Cult, another favorite of mine. They were absolutely wonderful and Craig really rocked out. They performed some of my favorite songs like 'Take your Medicine,' and 'Pretty Voice,' to which I sang along quite loudly. The New Pornographers were very polished, albeit bland in my opinion, (plus the sun was in my eyes) and ended their set with an Electric Light Orchestra cover. By then, I was three feet from the fence. Then finally Andrew Bird came on with Dosh and the guitarist whose name escapes me.

My HEROES!

I don't even remember what song he opened with, or what song he played second, or third for that matter, but every song was great. At some point, I asked him to marry me, but, he decided to ignore me. He did his lovely live rendition of 'Fiery Crash,' and I rocked out. He did a lot of stuff from Armchair Apocrypha, but a lot of older tunes as well. We pogoed to 'A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left,' and belted out the chorus of 'Plasticities.' 'Plasticities' was played right after a slight weather delay, if I remember correctly, and everyone sang along with no inhibitions whatsoever. 'Twas really a beautiful scene, Andrew and friends framed by the stage with the grey sky behind spitting out chain lightning. He played upon all of the audience's crushes and moved his little slight hips around very suggestively, all while jumping from guitar to violin. His sound was beautiful, just like his face. He finished up the set playing various songs like the Dosh-written 'Simple X' and 'Tables and Chairs' (which he requested we sing the violin part-- that sounded wonderful). He topped this day off by doing a wonderful solo encore with only his violin. I have to say, long live the Bird!
And then, it was done. All done. But much worth it. My feet won't ever be the same (stood in three inch heels for six hours, squatting down for six minutes once,) but I'd say that seeing four tremendous bands all in the same place was well, well worth it.
Andrew Bird photo from Mosaic Music.