By Tyler Fassnacht
Last night was disappointing in terms of who I didn’t get to see. Antlers, Low, Iran, Fruit Bats, Ganglians and Wavves to name a few, but the bands I did get to see kept the quality high.
My first show of the evening was at the Project Lodge, which is actually a really fun place to see a show. It is small, but very open and it has a big DIY feel to it. Plus it is not located exactly downtown which can be nice when trying to park and just walking around. Anyway the first band I saw was Nuclear Woods, which apparently was their last show. Nuclear Woods were a local band who I feel finally started playing a bunch of shows and getting a little recognition. The drum and bass duo play noisy, technical music; think Death From Above 1979 without vocals and more emphasis and cool bass parts. This was the third time seeing the band for me and every time they seemed to just get better. The first time I saw them (coincidentally also opening for Maps and Atlases), I thought they were awful because they couldn’t keep together and they were a lot less melodic than they became later. This time however, I felt like they had finally become accomplished, which was a nice treat for the fifteen or so people who got to witness the band’s last show.
Next on the bill was Maps and Atlases, who include intricate guitar lines in their music, with a lot of tapping and other advanced playing techniques. The thing about Maps and Atlases is that, even though they almost strictly have complicated guitar parts and the majority of their songs include tapping to a certain extent, they don’t come off sounding pretentious, or worse, gimmicky. When the band started, the Lodge was packed and deservedly so, because the band came on and just powered through their set, without missing a beat, always playing incredibly tight. I feel that this band could easily have fit in on to Friday night’s showcase with Cougar and Collections of Colonies of Bees, but that might have been just too much of a good thing.
After Maps and Atlases I headed over to the Orpheum stage door to catch BLK JKS, but apparently due to some schedule switching or maybe delays (there seemed to be a lot of delays at this festival), the Occidental Brothers were playing at 9 and BLK JKS were pushed to 10. I must say though, that I am really glad I got to see the Occidental Brothers. The majority of the group was from West Africa and they played tropical, slightly westernized African music. I say slightly westernized because they used electric guitar extensively and had a drummer that often used rock beats. With the percussion and horns though, it just made me, and many other attendees, feel like dancing and I think everyone was having a good time. As they finished their set, the singer imparted some suggestions to the audience, “everyone make the good love tonight!”
Continuing with the African theme, BLK JKS were next, who hail from South Africa. This band unfortunately really fell victim to the bad sound at the Stage Door, and the fact that their mixer didn’t seem to be doing their job didn’t help either. For the first two songs it was almost impossible to make out what was going on, but finally after a while the mix seemed to be level and the band started showing why they are being spoke of as a new buzz band. This was a band that relied heavily on rhythm, which was held down by their beast of a drummer. The band played psychedelic songs, with swaying guitar sounds and ripping guitar solos. The drummer also, seemingly on a whim, changed rhythms and tempos several times a song, with the whole band playing right with what he did. They seemed to really excel in their long instrumental sections, which could have been jamming for all I know, but it worked.
Sadly my night, and festival ended with BLK JKS, but it was a pretty damn good note to end on. I’m sure that the rest of the bands playing late into the night were great as well and I really am excited to see what this festival can bring next year.
MP3: BLK JKS – “Molalatladi”
