The ghost of Carew Tower, or something festive for The All-Star Game. You decide.
Saint Motel had a good audience in spite of the rain. Also, the fountain is red. Very red. Praise be to the gods of digital photography for post processing.
Still, praise be to the gods of digital photography for post processing.
Those are guys in old school uniforms repelling off a building. One might ask, what this has to do with baseball.
No comment needed.
Saint Motel put on a super fun show. There was much awkward dancing.
Saint Motel playing at Fountain Square.
At 6 AM, the paint was still wet. Guess what idiot rode her bike through one before she noticed they were wet? Yep.
I appreciate the on sidewalk directions complete with arrows that stretch blocks.
The red lights on the fountain were less tricky in daylight. That could be said of most things when photographing. Unless the object is ugly.
I always think this kid is strangling that duck. Pretty sure that’s not what the artist intended.
Airports aren’t ideal for writing under any circumstances, but particularly so for describing the sun-baked joy of a music festival. The recycled air drives all sensory memories down the memory hole. Even the coffee is rendered ineffective in stimulating the creative process. As friendly reminders about TSA regulation filter in yesterday might be an echo from a past life.
With a fifty percent chance of rain yesterday, day three of Bunbury Music Festival, all scheduling felt tentative. Sawyer Point looked as exhausted as many of the fest attendees. Grass laid down under the weight of so many stomping feet. Evaporated beer, among other unmentionables, warmed on the concrete. No amount of trash management can erase the days past.
500 Hundred Miles to Memphis started the day, as the crowd was chasing the sleep from their eyes and booze from their livers. This would be the only moment for regrouping with The Front Bottoms taking Yeatman’s Cove stage in thirty minutes. Shakey Graves, Jessica Hernandez & the Deltas, Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, Atmosphere, and Manchester Orchestra all packed in the following three hours. This left the last couple hours of the fest with just Twenty-one Pilots and Snoop Dogg.
Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band overflowed with charisma and bombast. If Reverend Peyton’s was the Labrador of performances, Shakey Graves was the Greyhound, delicate, graceful, and beautiful. Twenty-one Pilots are incredible performers, and yesterday was no exception.
All the great music culminated with Snoop Dogg’s closing performance. He was late. He was late by forty-five minutes. He was backed by a couple of DJ’s, a vocalist, and a dancing human in a dog costume. He covered many songs. It was a disappointment, especially considering all the musicianship that was on display earlier in the weekend. Check this one off the bucket list.
Wow. I am exhausted. Yesterday was all about will power. The highlights were excellent performances by The Avett Brothers, Reverend Horton Heat, The Devil Makes Three, and The Decemberists. Here’s my shots.
After day one, I had over seven hundred pictures to sift through. Here’s a sampling of what I got. Admittedly, my editing was a bit slapdash. Here’s the highlights of what happened.
Father John Misty was shockingly great to watch. Bleachers and Matt & Kim couldn’t have been more fun. I missed the meet-up to go up front for Bleachers, so I had to make do with not so great crowd shots for their show. I had a little regret that I was running around taking pictures for their sets, because I really wanted to dance my pants off. I had my very expensive gear out when it started to rain in the second song of Tame Impala’s set. I was disappointed to leave them and find cover for my gear. The Black Keys sounded great, as they have every time I have seen them.
It’s time. It’s time to sort out what I am seeing at Bunbury Music Festival. This exercise always feels obnoxious, but I will refer to this an absurd number of times this weekend to ensure I see everything I want to. Here goes.
Friday
2pm Wussy
230pm Markham
3pm Multimagic
4pm Father John Misty
430pm Temples
5pm Catfish and the Bottlemen
530pm Mini Mansions
545pm Bleachers
645pm Matt and Kim
730pm Royal Blood (so bummed to miss WTM)
845pm Tame Impala
945pm Black Keys
Saturday
2pm Zack Longoria Project
230pm Playing to Vapors
3pm Austin Plaine
330pm Bummers
4pm Motherfolk
430pm Devil Makes Three
515pm Graceful Closure
615pm Decemberists
715pm Reverend Horton Heat
830pm Old Crow Medicine Show
945pm Avett Brothers
Sunday
230pm 500 Miles to Memphis
3pm Front Bottoms
345pm Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
415pm Jessica Hernandez & the Deltas
530pm Shakey Graves
6pm Atmosphere
630pm Brand New
815pm 21 Pilots
915pm Snoop
Huzzah for local music! I checked out Multimagic at MOTR pub this past winter. In the dark, packed bar they hammered out their indie pop tunes. Here’s a link to my blog about this event. That night ran off the rails, but that was independent from how great Multimagic sounded. The Cincinnati local music scene has those of us who are out many evenings of the week checking out shows. It also attracts weekend warriors who are just looking for lots of drinks and a good time. This latter group was out in full force that night, and rowdy is an appropriate word to describe their behavior.
I’ve already covered Wussy and Walk the Moon. If you preferred the pop sounds of Walk the Moon over Wussy, Multimagic is the show for you. They have just as much pop goodness, and less of a young and rambunctious following. They don’t have anything up for sharing on Youtube, so this Spotify link to one of their songs will need to suffice. They play at 3 on Friday of Bunbury 2015.
Wussy is a great local band. I often miss our local acts at fests because I have many opportunities to see them outside fests, and when I must choose between something I love but have regular access to and something unknown that I don’t have regular access to, I pick novelty. Wussy kicks off the fest on Friday at 2, and has no competition for the first half of their set, so I am guaranteed to catch part of their performance. I can’t think of a better start to a great weekend.
If you are traveling for Bunbury, here’s what you need to know. Wussy has been praised by Rolling Stone and SPIN. Their albums have achieved critical success in spite of Wussy’s sparse touring. The band members all have day jobs, and getting out of town for tours is a challenge. But here in Cincinnati, we’re lucky. We have them all to ourselves. If you want a little taste of the Cincinnati indie music scene, don’t miss this band.
Check out their performance on KEXP:
All the feels that I have about discovering music lives in this song. A voice comes through the speakers and grabs hold of your soul whispering that you aren’t alone. This unexpected connection wrenches hope and joy out of what can otherwise feel a mundane existence. NOTE: this is a subset of the video above.
Wussy – Teenage Wasteland:
(Verse)
Do you remember the moment? You finally did something about it.
When the kick of the drum lined up with the beat of your heart
Stuck in the corn with only a transistor radio
Making paths with the soundwaves and echoing Oh Babyloh-oh-oh-on(Chorus)
Yeah, we heard your beat real loud and clear on the last one
And we were pulling for you a thousand times a day
And it don’t take much to sound like a sleeping prophet
When your misery sounds so much like oh, so far away
Too far away, too far away
(Verse)
Do you remember the night you finally heard something about it?
When the kick of the drum went off like artillary fire
And if you’re wondering, man, oh yeah, say that it got to us
The shackles nd the (???) would scream like ohr, yeah yeah yeah
(Chorus)
Yeah, we heard you clear, real loud and clear on the last one
I must have listened to you a thousand times a day
And for one short breath, it sounds like the world is ending
It’s floating in space, but then it (???) so far aways
So far away, so far away
(Chorus)
Heard you loud and clear on the last one
We were potting for you a thousand times in a day
And it don’t take much to sound like a sleeping prophet
When your misery sounds so much like oh, so far away
Too far away, too far away
Three cheers for local music going national! Cincinnati loves their hometown band as much as the band loves Cincinnati. Their last show at Bunbury was high energy and loads of fun to watch.
And congrats to Walk the Moon for having a radio hit right now. I’ve seen these guys numerous times before, they were signed to a major label. They always put up a fun show. While many might complain that their fans are rambunctious, I like to lean into their exuberance. FYI, this video was recorded here in Cincinnati; the building they are in is The Mockbee in OTR.
I love The Black Keys. I love that they are died in the wool Akron boys. I love their raw blues sound.
I saw them at the Madison some years back. The venue is small and sweaty and remains nicotine stained despite years of being smoke free. It was my ideal setting to see them. I was doubtful I would enjoy seeing them two years following at US Bank Arena. I couldn’t conceive of their sound translating well to that cavernous venue. I was surprised.
I also saw The Black Keys at Lollapalooza years and years ago. They were unknown at the time, and played bright and early. The crowd was patiently staking out their spots for Nine Inch Nails, and barely engaged. The sound was awful.
I am ready to have that unfortunate fest experience erased from my mind. This context will be different simply because The Keys are successful enough to headline a fest. Here’s to my second experience with the Black Keys.
There’s no plausible explanation for why at twenty years old in 1996 we were listening to The Mama’s and The Papa’s constantly. Mama Cass’s sweet harmonies would emanate from the boom box in the living room of our house in Clifton. AM Radio blared in our kitchen for all of my first 18 years of life. All of this primed me to fall in love with Temples.
Temples bring all of the things that I love about 60’s pop without the acid-soaked lyrics. I love them. Check out the visuals in this video; they say it all. The Mamas & Papas would dig it. Temples play on Friday at Bunbury.
Kate's Queen City Notes 