Not a ton of photos this year because I thought my camera's battery was dead when it was actually user error, so bummer for that. This was a better Saturday than last year's, all told, and that's mainly because of Animal Collective's set. That band--good lord. I think they're the only relevant band making music these days. Other folks make nice stuff to listen to, but A.C. is just on a different level. Can't believe I didn't get to hear "Brother Sport," though.
Day started out with the sweetest of rains, so gentle, like it didn't want to trouble you with getting wet, and then it left and the clouds just kept the sun off you for much of the afternoon. Cath and I were ready with our parkas and hats, though, just in case. Later in the day, Cath got to meet the designer of the Califone t-shirt she's wearing here, just by chance.
Apart from the music, this festival is all about ironic t-shirts and tattoos. I wonder if some day kids will get ironic tattoos. Most of the "clever" t-shirts just make you go "ugh," especially the hand-scrawled tank-top that read "This shirt is not ironic." Whoa--what a head scratcher that one is. Two shirts made me laugh: (1) 20-something guy wearing a shirt that said "#1 Grandma"; and (2) a shirt that said, simply, "Pot." Not that I condone drug use, but that is funny.
Almost all the tattoos I saw, including the one above, were ugly. I think tattoos need to be simple, in clean lines, iconic. Those like the one here just get too busy and from afar end up looking like bruises.
These two guys were sitting next to us before the A.C. show started. One of their friends found them and asked what happened and one answered "we fell." I think they thought they were at Burning Man, where antics like this are taken as evidence of . . I'm not sure what, but it's something the cyber-hippies out there would appreciate.
Did a fair bit of lounging around at stage B, playing Gin with these cool card Cath bought. For the record, these were my favorites sets of the day:
1. Animal Collective. I need to devote my life to seeing these guys live as many times as possible. That, and being a good parent to my kids, but really the latter. Kids will raise themselves.
2. Caribou. They played pretty early, and not as long as they could have, but I really liked the way they all faced each other and the drummer-facing-drummer drumming. I didn't expect him to be able to make his music translate live, but it was pretty dang great to see and hear.
3. Ruby Suns. Lots of this had to be looped or played-back or whatever, and I really wish he had brought one more band member there to flesh out the live sound. But still, the beats were really great and some of the harmonies, too.
4. F*** Buttons. Two guys with suitcases full of electronics facing each other across a table, but totally dynamic. It was cool how they cut their last song on a dime and then just walked off the back of the stage.
5. Atlas Sound. Dude was totally nervous at the beginning, but it was great for the 20 minutes or so I saw before we had to go to try and get a good position for A.C.
I missed some good stuff, like Dizzee Rascal and The Hold Steady, but there were more tough decisions this year than there were last year, with more good stuff going on at once. A great festival though, with lots of nice folks everywhere you go.
And I can't believe I missed out on running into Nathan and Joe. I was completely looking forward to watching A.C. with them especially, but after seeing them briefly during Caribou, I lost them and never saw them again all day. Shoulda had their cell # with me. Next year, we'll plan it better.
And Joseph, if you're back from Ghana yet, I only had one key--it takes two keys to open your apartment. No big deal. You can just pay us half the cost of the hotel room we ended up getting. (jk--not sure how I messed that up)
Andy Goldsworthy does these cool "rain shadows" when it starts to rain, but you can imagine my surprise when I packed up my tent today and discovered that it had the same idea. Such an inspiring, arty place this part of New Hapshire.
