Arcade Fire - Reflektor Tour

Tess and I (with a crew of others) went to the Arcade Fire show at The Gorge Amphitheatre during their Reflektor Tour to celebrate an anniversary of sorts. We had gone to see Arcade Fire in Asheville, NC during their Neon Bible tour in May of 2007, so it was our 7-year Arcade Fire tour anniversary!

The weekend involved camping at The Gorge, seeing one of the most important indie rock bands of my indie-music-listening-career, at one of the most beautiful venues, all while dressed in elaborate costumes, and partying with friends, so you could guess that it was an epic concert weekend.

Opening Acts

So I had heard that Dan Deacon was opening, which I was excited about, being a big Dan Deacon fan. We caught his set from the drinking area. He didn’t do any elaborate technological crowd-interaction which he is known for doing on occasion, but his set sounded good from where we were.

But even crazier to me, was that The Antlers opened for Dan Deacon!  …and since I had no idea that was going to happen I missed all but 2 of their songs. I literally sprinted in from the gates, when I heard them playing. I love The Antlers! I wish I knew they were opening. NO ONE could have appreciated that show more than I would have.  I do find that line-up to be strange; depressing music: The Antlers, dancy-repetitive electronic music: Dan Deacon, and then Arcade Fire?  I’m cool with it, just a weird genre mash-up.

Addressing the Formal Dress

For the tour, the band had requested that attendees wear “formal dress” or wear a costume. At the beginning of the tour, there was an official looking note on the ticket saying “formal dress or costume required”. This got people’s panties all in a bunch, thinking they were actually required to wear formal attire. Since then folks found themselves in 1 of 2 camps: those who think it’s silly to dress-up, and those who think it’s an awesome idea.

I find myself in the later of those 2 camps: enjoying dressing up in elaborate garb to go to shows. Who doesn’t like an excuse to dress up? It is FUN!

And by dressing-up I don’t mean a tuxedo, I mean an Arcade Fire rock version of formal dress. 

I’ll tell you what; there is no better way to get a crowd ready and into a show than have them start getting into the vibe, the second the get dressed for the show (or long before).

Our whole concert-crew got clothes at the thrift store, and we had a costume-painting-party the day before the show, where we literally painted our costumes with spray paint, regular paint, and booze. We had a great time creating our costumes. And I hate to brag, but I think they turned out pretty fucking awesome **brushes shoulders off** (extremely ornate shoulders that they are).

Our Crew at our Campsite with the lantern that would lead us home. 

Heading to the show

The back of my jacket, handiwork courtesy of Tess.

Superlative: Best Dressed

True Story

So we didn’t spring for the extremely expensive General Admission (GA) tickets, but instead got the cheaper seats, just back from GA. When the show started, we moved forward and were up at the front barricade of our section, dancing and grooving to the tunes. About 1.5 songs in, a bouncer starts saying something to Tess and I just assumed he was telling her and I to move on, or go to our seats, etc. But the conversation went something like this…

Bouncer: Are you guys big fans?

Tess: Uh…i..uh...YEAH!

Bouncer: You want to come up here? (motioning towards the GA area)

Me: Seriously? Really?

Bouncer: Yeah, just come on around.

(so we sprinted out of our section, around the divider, and into the GA area!!!)

Me: Thank YOU!!!!

…and so, for no apparent reason that I can fathom (other than the possibility that our elaborate costumes caught his eye) that awesome bouncer-dude let us up to the front-front!!! … from where we watched the whole show!!!! True. Story. No shit. Mind-blowing crazyness.

Our vantage-point from the fancy GA area!!! thanks random nice bouncer !!!

And what a great show it was.
Complete with incredible visuals (see the YouTube videos), and lots of people having a good time being dressed all crazy.

It was great to hear songs from their full catalog from some of my very favorites from Funeral, to the new stuff from Reflektor. (there are few songs from Reflektor that I really don't like, that I wished they skipped, but C'est la vie).

The Setlist courtesy of Setlist.fm

As a lead-in (and outro) to Rococo, Arcade Fire did a quick homage to Nirvana, by doing a few lyrics from Smells Like Teen Spirit  (The Gorge is basically a long-drive extension of Seattle and most of the attendees very likely made the journey from Seattle).

Here is a YouTube Playlist of (just about) the full concert, shot by many YouTubers, and compiled here thanks to the internet and someone named Suffrin Succotash:

Pickathon 2014

In the summer of 2014 we had the pleasure to join some Portland friends and go to an absolutely chill and awesome music festival located just outside of Portland, known as Pickathon. Now I know that it’s already too late, and you have assumed this is some kind of bluegrass festival, but back it up a second. I made that misjudgment as well, based on the name, and while it may have been something like that in its early years, it has matured into an amazing festival showcasing a range of music and pulling some excellent bands

While there isn't much out-there as far as coverage of Pickathon, (and certainly nothing of the caliber of this blog), here are few good articles about the festival: 

This interview gives a good overview of the festival vibe. 

This article discusses Pickathon and has coverage of the 2013 festival.

This 2014 line-up video has a good visual representation of the festival.

The Stages

The festival grounds are made up of a large camping area of trails meandering up into the forest, and the main venue area where most of the stages are located. The stages are quite unique and provide for interesting and different crowd experiences. Many of the stages provide for an incredibly intimate feel (especially for a festival).

The appropriately-named Woods Stage is nestled up in the forest within the camping area, and is a beautiful and visually awesome venue. Large enough for a big-name artist to play, but small enough for an intimate-feeling show. This stage is really cool.

The Barr Brothers playing the Woods Stage (from Pickathon 2012)  (I did not take this photo: photo by John Keel)

In a bit of genius, the Mt View and Fir Meadows Stages are placed right next to each other, and act as the main stage, allowing one act to setup while another plays right next to it, keeping the music flowing. Clever.

The main stages: Mt View and Fir Meadows

The Starlight Stage is located near the food trucks but also a bit too close to the main stage, so if the schedule has overlap, the sound does too.

There are 2 indoor venues inside barns on farm. The Galaxy Barn is small and intimate venue to see a band, if you are willing to brave the crowds and the heat. This barn could use a bit more ventilation, as it was unbearably hot and overpacked. But that is to be expected when you can see bands like The War on Drugs in such a tiny venue.

Here is an interesting short 8-minute documentary on the design and construction of the very cool Treeline Stage (of 2014)

The Food

Festival food is provided by a plethora of delicious Portland food trucks. All of which are incredible! Portland has awesome food trucks. And the food is not ridiculously overpriced, just regular food truck prices (so only a little overpriced).

Some hungry festival-goers at the food trucks,
but the only one you need to know about is Pine State! (one of our favorite Portland eateries)

In a very successful campaign to curb waste/garbage, the festival uses only reusable custom-labeled festival-swag steel cups which you can purchase, or you can use your own reusable container. They also have a genius dish-trade system, in which you essentially buy access to dinner-ware, which you can drop off to be washed, in trade for a token. When you buy your next meal, you just trade the token for the dinner-ware. Then at the end of the festival you make the final trade of the token for a clean set to take home as festival swag! All of the dinner-ware is very nice, high quality, festival merch that you essentially rent, and then get to keep! And it saves literally tons of garage from being generated.  It is very convenient, simple, worthwhile, and easy movement to get behind. Seriously genius! 

2015 edition of the official Pickathon dinner-ware: Plate-bowl, fork-spoon, and Klean Kanteen® stainless steel cup.

Tess enjoying a Pine State Biscuit

The Festival 

The festival grounds are beautiful, secluded, and forested. You cannot beat camping in the woods, which is something that is unfortunately fairly rare to find at festivals.  This is the type/size festival that can still pull-off campfires within the venue grounds, which is cool and rare at festivals (campfires are restricted in the camping area). The festival is family and kid friendly. It even has a entire dedicated area for kids activities and entertainment. There is also a night-life feel to the festival in the evenings, but not as much of late-late-night vibe as many other much larger festivals. 

All of this is just like a 20-30 minute drive from Portland, making its proximity absurdly convenient for that city. The festival grounds are so beautiful and you feel so secluded from society that it could easily seem like you journeyed 5 hours to get there, but when Portlanders are done with the awesome weekend, they simply pack-up, and are back home in 20 mins! Absurd.  I don’t know of any other outdoor camping festival that is that easy/convenient to any city.

The Music

The lineup of the 2014 festival was pretty solid. Here is what I remember seeing. (I'm sure there were others, that I have forgotten.)

[This blog-post was written long after the festival, so I’m sorry to say that I don’t really remember too much about the music. Here is what I do recall.]

The War on Drugs

They put on 2 excellent sets. I caught the Woods Stage set, which was an awesome venue to see them. Their performance, their music, and the venue were far better than the lack-luster performance on the normal stage in the middle of the day at Sasquatch 2012). I then watched the Galaxy Barn set on the screens from outside, which was also very enjoyable. This band, and their new album are such good-listening.

The War on Drugs

Mac DeMarco 

I caught the Woods Stage set, and it was a good show. You could tell that Mac was having a good time. He did some crowd surfing which got the crowd excited.

Foxygen

I was so excited about this band, given how awesome their 1^st album was, but their performances were so crappy. They were washed-up, cheesy, awkward, and just pathetic. They had 3 backup singers which was cool, but their shows were just disappointing. A friend of mine, who also caught one of their shows at another unrelated venue had a similar take on their performance, maybe that is just the way the way it is.

Those Darlins

I love this band, but this show was fairly disappointing. I guess they were focusing on a new album, because I didn’t recognize the songs. Towards the end they played “Red Light Love”, and it turned into a full out dance-off. Apparently I wasn't the only one waiting to hear the old stuff. They were very much the people I expected/wanted them to be.

Those Darlins looking the part: all trashy and sexy.

(Note in this picture everyone is sitting down, and calmly enjoying the tunes.)

The end of the Those Darlins set. 
Now note that here everyone is on their feet, dancing a jig. 

This is when they played “Red Light Love”.

Destroyer (solo)

I caught this very intimate set on the very small Treeline Stage and it was enjoyable. I don’t know a lot about Destroyer’s solo music, but he was pulling out the deep-cuts, according to what he was saying.

Destroyer ... (Destroying it.)

The Sadies

I caught most of their Galaxy Barn performance on the screens from outside, hanging out in the grass, enjoying the scenery, and I recall that their overall stage-presence, outfit aesthetic and sound was enjoyable.

Nickel Creek

Tess knew and loved this band in days past. I have no knowledge of them. But I recall that this show was good, and they seem talented.

Our view (or lack-there-of) of Nickel Creek

Quilt

I remember this being enjoyable enough to try to remember to look them up further.

Leroy Thomas & The Zydeco Roadrunners

Leroy Thomas & The Zydeco Roadrunners

Festival-goers at the Woods Stage

Random life-size elephant statue on the grounds

I LOVE these awesome things hanging in the trees, illuminating the pathway into the woods. 
SO cool.

Festival-goers at the Main Stage(s)

Summary
This is an awesome festival, in a beautiful setting, super-conveniently located to an awesome fun city. It pulls excellent bands, and it is ever-growing into the prime festival, drawing better and better line-ups. It is not (yet) too big or too crowded. It is accessible, relaxed, and fun. The mentality and the vibe of the festival-organizers and festival-goers is just right. It may be damn near the perfect festival.

I am a fan of art installations at music festivals. 
you cannot have enough!

Pianos in the Parks!

Here is an awesome idea:

Music + Art + Parks + People
= 

The city and the Parks Department in cooperation with various organizations are placing 20 pianos in parks throughout Seattle and King County, which are decorated and available for anyone to enjoy. Project partners include: Seattle Symphony, KEXP, and City of Music.

I love this idea.  Kudos to those who pulled this together. I don't think it is an original idea, but it is still really cool.  NYC did something similar in the past. Maybe we got the idea from them?

The pianos are donated, restored and tuned by Classic Pianos and dynamically designed by the students, faculty and friends of Gage Academy of Art.

There is a competition for the best performance submitted video. See some of the performances. Also check the Facebook page (the home of the contest). The winner gets to perform at a Concert at the Mural.

At the end of the campaign, the pianos will be sold to the highest bidder in an online auction on www.pianosintheparks.com.  Proceeds from the pianos sales will benefit Seattle Parks and Recreation, King County Parks, Seattle Symphony, KEXP and Gage Academy of Art.

The Past is a Grotesque Animal - A Rockumentary

I am incredibly excited about the of Montreal rockumentary, The Past is a Grotesque Animal, by Oscilloscope, that is finally coming out this month! After a long and torturous wait, the epic tale of this epic band and the peculiar mind behind it all, Kevin Barnes, will be told.

As soon as I heard about this documentary, I was chomping at the bit to re-live what was, to me, a very important time in my concert-going career; following the cult-favorite indie band, of Montreal.

The Kickstarter Campaign

• Goal: $75,000
• Raised: ~ $95,000
• Backers: 1,124
• Funding period: Nov 12, 2012 - Dec 12, 2012 (30 days)

Originally titled Song Dynasties, the film was renamed The Past is a Grotesque Animal at the very end of the project, confusing everyone, (and briefly getting my hopes up that 2 separate documentaries were being released!). I happen to really like both names, although the later is a great re-use of a great song’s, great name (and is a phrase that I love).

I read somewhere that there was dedicated film crew capturing the Hissing Fauna tour, and there could be a ton of footage from that tour in the movie. THAT is great news considering, how awesome that album is and how spectacular that tour was. I also read that there are home videos of very early stuff the band did. In other words, there is a huge potential that this documentary will be incredible! (atleast, for of Montreal fans...).

The Movie's Evolution (and Delays)

There was some drama surrounding the KickStarter campaign (although probably only apparent to the die-hard obsessive fans). This was due to the expected release date constantly being pushed back, and back,…and back, without much explanation to appease the impatient masses and KickStarter backers. Originally slated for a March 2013 release, it is not actually being released until June 2014. A tormenting wait for those of us who expected it, wanted it, (and needed it) over a year ago.

The massive delay was due to the constantly expanding scope of the project (which changed immediately due to the success of the  KickStarter campaign), and the ongoing saga of the band in the form of changes to the band’s line-up, etc, which the documenters wanted to continue to document!

I also believe that the focus of the movie shifted to be more a dramatic portrayal of Kevin Barnes’ personal life. A twist that I am absolutely ecstatic about, as nothing would please me more than a glimpse inside the bizarre mind and tortured soul that is the mysterious Kevin Barnes. Contrast the original KickStarter promo video to the official documentary trailer to see the apparent change in focus.

Original Kickstarter Video  (note the release date at the end: "Spring 2013")

Official Theatrical Trailer 


Here is a sample of some of the later posts from the kickstarter discussion page, on the delays.

“Sorry for the radio silence these past few months. We’ve been plugging away and can finally say that the film is finished!.... …This has been a mammoth project that went beyond what any of us thought it would take to complete.  … Your patience throughout this process has been amazing. Thank you all so much for your support of the band and this documentary. We think that once you all see the film you will feel like it is worth the wait.”

So it is here at last! Can't wait to check it out! 
I seriously hope it is as good as these 2 trailers make it look, (and the $95k of available production funds should facilitate).

of Montreal – One Fan’s Journey

There is a special place in my heart for the band of Montreal, as there is for many of the band’s cult-followers. I would be remiss if I didn't have a post about of Montreal on this blog, so this long overdue post is finally here. Inspired by their upcoming documentary, I thought I would recount my perspective on of Montreal's scene throughout their rise to indie stardom.

of Montreal was my 'gateway-drug' into indie music. They were my first true introduction to the indie music scene, which kinda became my music scene throughout my 20’s. And what a wild introduction they were. After my 1^st of Montreal show I became an indie music fanatic, scrounging for as much indie gold as I could get my ears on. 

Their Evolution

Within a span of 3 years I saw of Montreal 5 times at 5 different venues, across 3 states!  … Drawn in by the guarantee of absurd, over-the-top, (but low-budget) theatrical performances, set to the best groovy indie pop songs of the time. Their shows were fun brief escape from reality.

These excerpts from my Concert Log demonstrate the period of my of Montreal infatuation.

Date			Venue	Location	Most Recent Album at time of show	Opening Act
March	2	2006	The Satellite Ballroom	Charlottesville, VA	The Sunlandic Twins	unknown
October	14	2007	Rams Head Live	Baltimore, MD	Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?	MGMT
November	1	2008	The National	Richmond, VA	Skeletal Lamping	Gang Gang Dance
April	14	2009	The Sonar	Baltimore, MD	Skeletal Lamping	Fire Zuave
June	13	2009	Bonnaroo 2009	Manchester, TN	Skeletal Lamping	many

Each new show was an entirely new, bizarre experience. But the best thing about being a dedicated fan (of any band really), beyond seeing varying tours corresponding to different albums, is seeing the transformation a band makes as they ‘make it’. And of Montreal’s transformation took the form of wilder and wilder shows to correlate with their overwhelming discography of progressively crazier albums.

There was a period of escalating novelty that correlated with the amount of expendable income they had as a band, and that made for some fun shows (and an interesting retrospective of their evolution). The sets got more and more elaborate, the outfits more ornate, the props more intricate, the extras more numerous, and the technological wizardry more complex (projectors), all adding up to a more surreal psychedelic epic event. But they managed to maintain that homemade low-budget delivery.

@ The Satellite Ballroom - 2006 
My friend and indie-music-mentor, Cheato (as he was known in college), convinced me to tag along to their show at the small (now defunct) venue known as the Satellite Ballroom in Charlottesville, VA.  That show was a crazy experience, which changed me in weird and profound ways. Ok maybe not that crazy, (I just wanted to use that phrase), but it did really open my eyes to the indie music scene.

Kevin came onto the stage in a wedding dress; giving a first impression to set the tone for all future of Montreal performances.

Things to note: the small venue. the lack of stage adornments/sets/props (beyond costume changes). and those dated digital cameras! 

 

The Late B.P. Helium.  I seriously think Kevin fell off the stage at this point.

Glam rock mode

one of several past band members who looked exactly the same

Here is a video I took at the show of a cover of  The Final Countdown by Europe.
(Sorry for the bad audio/video.)

The song was part of a Medley of this order: Lysergic Bliss - The Final Countdown - Requiem For O.M.M.2. The Final Countdown was substituted in for the part of Lysergic Bliss where they do the a capella part, which was a bummer cause I really wanted to see that live, but nevertheless this was an amazing medley! I was on a big Final Countdown kick at the time due to Arrested Development, so this was a perfectly timed cover song. 

@ Rams Head Live - 2007 

This show was a stunning show, as expected, but it blew my expectations away. Starting off with the opening act of several extremely young-looking dudes, MGMT, who put on a show that wow-ed us all. This show really showcased of Montreal's evolution. When you compare this show to their show at Satellite Ballroom (2006), it was obvious that this band had come a long way. The extensive stage setup, their ramped-up stage presence, the props, the costumes, the extras, the lights, the projectors, the everything! Not to mention it was the Hissing Fauna tour...

Unfortunately, I dont think I have any pictures of this show(?).. .except this one...

Erin snapped this photo of Me and Steve chatting with Kevin after their excellent show at Rams Head Live on their 2007 Hissing Fauna tour. We mostly talked about books. After I mentioned that I diligently  followed up on his Story of the Eye reference,  he recommended that we read Everything Is Illuminated, (which we all did. Haha!).

@ The National - 2008
By far the most outlandish of Montreal show that I’ve seen. At this point they had ramped up the crazy stage antics to an extreme, pushing the boundaries of absurdity and abrasiveness. It was the day after Halloween and tons of people (more than usual) were dressed up.


 

Needless to say, I am pretty excited to see a ($95k funded) rockumentary devoted to covering the music and antics of my all-time-favorite, cult-favorite band, throughout the exact timeperiod that I was (somewhat) a part of this bizarre "scene".  It is titled The Past is a Grotesque Animal.  and it is available this month!

Rose Windows - The Sun Dogs

Rose Windows - The Sun Dogs

While at the coffeeshop at which I often find myself working, I was unknowingly grooving to the background music, when I suddenly became aware of how much I was enjoying the tunes. Inquiring into the matter, the barista revealed that the band was Rose Windows, from right here in Seattle.   I added the band to my literal list of bands to check out, and it very soon has become my current top album.

They sound like elements of Jefferson Airplane mingled with occasional hints of The Doors: trippy Jim Morrison-esque lyrical imagery (try Native Dreams), and that background organ (very Doors-like).

The song This Shroud, sounds like Jefferson Airplane covering a song that Jim Morrison co-wrote with Tool. yeah... check that out. 

This band can rock some impressive electric guitar, electronic organ, and let’s not forget the flute, which all go quite well together into their impressive psychedelic rock revival. The vocals ain’t nothing to shake a stick at either.

I also happen to love the band name. I feel it is a great visual representation of their sound. Like some sorta  synesthesia induced image of the music, which sounds hazy like it is transposed through tinted glass.

Walkin’ With a Woman is a hauntingly beautiful song with a sick guitar solo. 

I love the flow of “The Sun Dogs II: Coda” and then those exquisite strings kick in about ½ way through and take it to a whole new level.

… just listen to the whole damn album.  It is impressive. It is solid.

And…Check out their excellent Live on KEXP set, below.