Kate's Queen City Notes

Blundering through Cincinnati, laughing all the way

Tag Archives: Bunbury


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Bunbury 2014: Must See Bands Kishi Bashi and Wild Cub

I got so engrossed in listening to new music that I forgot to mention the bands that I loved prior to knowing that they would be a part of the Bunbury 2014 line-up. It’s time to fix that. I was already familiar with Kishi Bashi, Fitz and the Trantrums, Wild Cub, Young the Giant, Flaming Lips, Varuca Salt, Red Wanting Blue, Andrew W. K., Ropert DeLong, Dead Sara, Foxy Shazam, Heartless Bastards, Young Heirlooms, Black Owls (I saw them at MOTR recently and blogged about it), The Yugos, and 500 Miles to Memphis.
I know some of these bands because they are or were local, and hence they play or did play around here often. Foxy Shazam, Heartless Bastards, Young Heirlooms, Black Owls, The Yugos, Heartless Bastards, and 500 Miles to Memphis are in that category. The other bands I have just run across in my indie music listening adventure. I saw Wild Cub at 2013 Midpoint Music Festival. I like them so well, that I saw them open for American Authors this winter. I saw Capital Cities and Fitz and the Tantrums this winter at The Madison. I saw Young the Giant when Walk the Moon opened for them a couple of years back. I know Kishi Bashi from his old band, Jupiter One. I saw them a couple of times, and I am excited to see K in his current project.
Speaking of Kishi Bashi, his music is great. He played 2013 Midpoint Music Festival. He packed the basement of the CAC. Even my VIP pass failed to get me in the door in a timely fashion, and I had to abandon seeing him to make Murder by Death. Given that I missed my last chance to see him, he is on my do-not-miss list for Bunbury. K plays a mean violin and has a bright pop sensibility, and I think his live shows feature some looping and live sampling. I love his cover of “This is the Place.”
2013 Midpoint Music Fest put out line-up that was a really diverse sampling of high quality indie lable artists. Wild Cub stood out to me for how 80’s retro their sound is. Turns out that most of the indie pop coming out of New York is decidedly 80’s washed, as evidenced by this year’s Bunbury line-up. Wild Cub was slated to play MOTR, which is a pretty small and poorly-laid out venue. They can’t help it. The built-in antique bar, that lends so to the aestetic also makes the performance space a bit awkward. I got to the bar early, anticipating a crowd. Once Wild Cub went on, the crowd was so packed in that I couldn’t stand more than three or four songs. But the bit I saw was excellent and kept me listening. I’m pretty excited about awkward hipster dancing to their set at Bunbury.


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Bunbury 2014: Must See Bands Bronze Radio Return and Bad Suns

I have two more must see bands to add to my Bunbury agenda. I love seeing live music. Descriptions of this love don’t fit in my less than skilled command of the English language, but these song lyrics by Bronze Radio Return come close to capturing it. I am super excited to see these guys in July.

We’ve talked about my weakness for 80’s pop before. Then this pick should surprise you in no way. The vocalist for Bad Suns would be the result of a union between Roland Orzabal from Tears for Fears and Dave Gahan from Depeche Mode. Given that Depeche mode is among my favorite bands of the 80’s this was a love at first listen. Side note: when you type Tears for Fears into Google, one of the top three auto-prompts is Tears for Fears gay. Heh.
One other note for any Bunbury fanatics like me, thanks to my friend Kat for bringing this to my attention. Currently, Lydia Loveless and Meg Myers are scheduled for the same time slot at Bunbury on Friday June 11 . I like the sound of both of them, but had panned on having to skip one or the other. Turns out Lydia Loveless is headlining Paddlefest, here in Cincinnati, June 21st. I’m pleased to scratch that conflict off my list. Plus, I would like to see Loveless in a longer time slot. Win/Win!


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Bunbury 2014: Must See Bands Cults and Holy Ghost!

I’ll admit it. I considered trying to sell my VIP Bunbury passes once the headliners were announced. With Forecastle snagging Beck, Outkast, The Replacements, and Jack White as headliners, that line-up is more appealing as far as headliners go. When I dig a little deeper in the Forecastle line-up there’s other gems like Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings and Band of Horses. Regarding Bunbury’s headliners, I’m not terribly excited about Empire of the Sun or The Flaming Lips, and I dislike Fall Out Boy and Paramore. Bunbury’s second tier acts are typically my thing, and there are some bright spots there for sure. Kishi Bashi, Wild Cub, Fitz and the Tantrums are all solid. While Young the Giant and Foxy Shazaam aren’t in my wheelhouse my past experiences at their shows prove that their performances will be excellent.

Line-ups aside, there’s the pricing difference. Forecastle VIP passes are about 500 bucks each. Because I bought my Bunbury VIP passes so early, I paid 295 for each of them. The question that I have to ask myself is thus, Do I want to see Beck, The Replacements, Outkast, and Jack White enough to sell my tickets to Bunbury and fork over an additional 400 bucks for a couple of Forecastle VIP passes? I will need to factor in money to stay in Louisville, so that will probably drive the additional cost up to 700 bucks.

This is the context in which I started listening to the second and third tier bands in the Bunbury line-up. I spent a couple of weeks listening to this handy Spotify playlist. And all I can say is wow. The second and third tier stuff is great. In the interests of keeping this post to a manageable length I’m only going to talk about a couple of my finds. But, I’ve found enough good stuff that my Bunbury agenda is already packed. Needless to say, there is no way I am selling my passes. Here’s a couple of my favorites.

What happens when you combine 60’s pop sensibility with Best Coast and a sense of ominous darkness? You get Cults. I know I shouldn’t have been surprised that their video boasts footage of Jim Jones. But I was. It’s such a sunny sounding song against such a dark event. Given that I have a sweet tooth for cathartic art and music, of course I love it. I’ve listened to both of their releases, and I am excited to see them at Bunbury.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned my love of 80’s pop in the blog before. Let it be known that when “Africa” by Toto comes on my car stereo I am that lunatic enthusiastically singing along with the harmonies; 80’s pop is my cat nip. This admission will actually explain a number of my Bunbury favs. Given that I lived through the 90’s when indie rock was all guitar and little melody, and NEVER keyboards, I can tell you how happy I am that melody and the love of synth is back in new music. This brings me to Holy Ghost!. Seriously, I will take roughly 10 seconds of this video before my love of this band will be explained. Oh 80’s influence, I welcome you back. And clearly so does Holy Ghost!.


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A Break from Books: Bunbury Music Festival in Review

I’m taking a break from books for this post. Bunbury happened a little over a week ago. I went. I had the most rock and roll experience in recent memory. Here’s what happened.

I live within walking distance of the park in which Bunbury takes place. I have been to other music festivals, Lollapalooza and multiple Warped Tours. I jumped at the chance to attend a festival that wouldn’t require travel and lodging, even with a line-up that wasn’t wholly in line with my tastes.

Bunbury distinguished itself from other fests by supplying free water and misting stations as well as abundant beer booths-including craft beers, local food vendors, shady napping spots, porta johns, and cell charging stations. In addition, the organizers had the forethought to issue color coaded wrist bands that indicated both what type of pass you purchased, but also your over/under 21 status, allowing you to leave your id at home once you’ve picked up your wrist band.

Bunbury 2012 was so enjoyable that I purchased VIP tickets for Bunbury 2013 without a single band announced and zero information on the VIP amenities. The VIP three day pass was $295 as opposed to $90 for the standard three day pass, so it felt like a risky decision at the time. I was not disappointed.

Before I get into the specifics of the shows, the VIP tickets were well worth it. First, there was a generous area sectioned off in front of the main stage, enabling me to walk to the front of any of the headliner shows. In addition, there were intimate shows in the air-conditioned VIP tent, after which the band members chatted, took photos, and signed autographs. The drink specials in the VIP tent included dollar water and sodas, 2 dollar beers and malt beverages, and 3 dollar wine and mixed drinks as well as free Street Pops (yum!) and free food around dinner time. Considering beers outside the VIP tent were 6 or 7 dollars, I estimate that the VIP tix saved me 100 or 150 dollars in food and drink for the weekend. To top it all off, the musicans cycled in and out of the VIP area, Brent Dressner from The National for example. This is where I ran into one of the guys from CAKE, who complemented by tattoo. Oh, and Peeta from the Hunger Games movies was back there.

Now then, these are the bands that I saw, followed by my abbreviated highlights and, in some cases, lowlights.

Friday: The Features, American Authors, Delta Rae, Tegan and Sara, Sky Ferreira, Walk the Moon, DeVotchKa, fun.
My thoughts: stand out shows were Walk the Moon for being adorably proud to be playing to their home town and DeVotchKa for being one of the best performance bands ever. Random discovery: Tegan and Sara are tiny women. If there was such a thing as pocket lesbians, they would be it.

Seriously. They are tiny, tiny women.

Seriously. They are tiny, tiny women.

Saturday: Margaret Darling, Vacationer, Bears of Blue River, Taylor Alexander, Chairlift, Twenty One Pilots, Black Owls, We Are Scientists, CAKE, Atlas Genius, MGMT
My thoughts: Atlas Genius sounded excellent. Their show sounded almost exactly like their record; not a single note was missed plus loads of energy. Without question I will be getting tickets to see them when they come back in the fall. The Black Owls and CAKE sounded incredible. The guys in those bands appeared to be in their 40’s or 50’s and have the confidence and skills of seasoned professionals. Bears of Blue River get the award for sounding awful. They were a sloppy, out-of-tune mess. MGMT gets the award for being insufferable pricks for refusing to play “Kids”. Only Radiohead can get away with that crap.

Sunday: A Silent Film, Camera Obscura, Belle and Sebastian, Yo La Tengo, The National
My thoughts: A Silent Film was a wonderful surprise. They were great to watch and sounded like a pleasing combination of U2, “Where The Streets Have No Name” era, and Coldplay divided by Keane. Belle and Sebastian had adorable banter with the crowd. Yo La Tengo redeemed themselves for the abysmal performance they delivered the last time I saw them. Finally, The National melted my face off with rock and roll. Matt Berninger jumped off the stage for “Mr. November” and wandered through the crowd, all the while people patiently passed the microphone cord between them to enable Matt’s wandering. He walked right past me on his way back up to the stage. I have never seen a crowd simultaneously keyed-up and controlled. I was able to solve a longstanding mystery. How can he perform in a vest and button down shirt without melting? The answer is he sweats though all his layers of clothing. They finished with “Terrible Love” Matt wandered back into the crowd to dole out set lists, his half-finished bottle of wine, and improbably his microphone stand. I am curious to know who made it out of the gates with that last item.

Over-all, Bunbury was great. I was truly sad when it was over. I can’t wait until next year.

Matt Beringer sweat on me.

Matt Berninger sweat on me. That could be a command or a statement of fact.