Fucking in a Ballroom: Fuck Yeah Fest with Great Northern, Jay Reatard, and No Age August 25 & 26 2007

My ears are still ringing from trying to walk through the crowd during Deerhunter's set at the Echoplex last night, the last night of the Fuck Yeah Fest in Echo Park. A year has passed already and I can still smell the beer lingering around from last time. This year though felt a lot less chaotic, more spread out and relaxed. And not a single freakin' beer spilled on me. WOOHOO!

This year I actually ventured out to both nights. However, Saturday we kinda got stuck at Taix. We were smart (albeit not that smart- the food was icky!) to get to the bar for dinner first and then just wait for the comedians to start up. It got so packed in there; thankfully there was air conditioning. I guess Bob Odenkirk was supposed to go on Sunday, but came Saturday, or was doing both nights... or whatever, regardless, a shit load of people showed up for him. I hate to say thankfully he went on second, following a killer set by Kyle Kinane. Because when he was done, a good third of the room left and breathing could commence. The whole night seemed to be, "Let's All Be Dicks to the Comedians". Which is weird, cause last year it was really relaxed. Anywho, some really entertaining sets came out of this audience/comedian "banter" with Matt Dwyer and Jarret Grode. Hil-AR-ious folks, really. And all the guys there were good too. Although I need to NOT shout out punch lines to my favorite jokes and then spend the rest of the night feeling like an ass- yeah, not cool.

Sunday night had a solid line up down at the EchoPlex. Great Northern, Jay Reatard, No Age and Deerhunter. Yeah, insanely good lineup in one block.

Ok. Need to stop here for a second and apologize for one- the lateness of this post and two- the cloudy details that will follow. I'm starting this post up again over a week later due to VACATION. One which was a long time coming and included me stopping all electronic-ness for a week. Ok, back to the post.

The Echoplex, just under the Echo, has it's pro's and con's against it's Big Little Sister upstairs. For tonight, the amount of space inside was great. You could drift to the back bar and not get stepped on and take a breath of not-so-stale air, and you can still see whoever is playing on stage up front. For multi-band shows like the Fuck Yeah Fest, with its crowds of people, the venue makes the crowds much more tolerable. However, the smoking patio, where even if you don't smoke and just want a breath of fresher air outside, is two sizes too small. It feels smaller than the Echo's area, which does not make sense because if your crowd is larger, why make the outside area smaller. I just don't get that. And on both fronts, air conditioning. God it got awful hot and smelly during Jay Reatard.

Oh, yeah, so the bands.... We walked in during Great Northern's set. And you know what? They sound exactly the same live as they do on the record. Not much movement, but enjoyable all the same. I hear them whenever I turn on Indie 103.1, which can be both a good and bad thing... Really, every time....

Jay Reatard was up next, and surprisingly, for the Echo, everything was running on time, even early at some sets. It was a bit jarring to go from the last set to this. If you've never heard Jay, read this post. I don't remember four people the last time I saw him, but maybe one was hidden. Either way, it's rare to see a whole band rockin' out at the same time like these guys. The bass player, who sorta resembles Jay himself, bobbed his head, screamed out lyrics and kept thrusting his bass up like the statue of liberty. There are no breaks between songs either. Jay Reatard yells out for the next song, and if his band mates do not start instantly, he growls the name of the song in frustration. Pumping out I don't' even know how many songs in around 40 minutes I did catch: blood visions, nightmares, hammer i miss you, i know a place, all over again... and a bunch more. He's always exciting to watch live.

No Age were up after that. Based in LA, these two kids came out of the Smell scene and now seem to be playing all over the world. Good for them, they're awesome. And so is their latest album. Anyways, the usual more spacey sounding tunes that are interspersed between the loud, pounding garage/punk beats sounded more static-y and harsher tonight. But really, just another facet to this duo that makes them fun to watch and listen to. They twisted through the many songs that make up their EPs and the latest full length, as well as some new tunes.

Oh, and the crowd surfing tonight. I guess this is not an unrelated experience from that last occurance I saw at the Matt and Kim show. Both during the Jay Reatard and No Age set: kids being thrown over heads. Craziness. I guess this is making a come back.

I really wanted to stick around and see Deerhunter. However, I was told they can be iffy live, and I was already counting the hours till my day job. So, I caught a couple minutes of their set at the beginning: loud, screaming loud. I'm sure it wasn't like that the whole set, but I made peace with myself for missing the rest of the it.

So yay! No beer spilled on me this year and a more positive, less crowded feeling showcase. Maybe next year I'll feel more inclined to review more than three bands, maybe.

One Plus One: A Night of (ALMOST) All Duos with Matt and Kim, Japanther, Mika Miko, and No Age Friday June 1, 2007 @ the Echo

Blarg. This should have been a week long concert going extravaganza, however Matt & Kim seemed to be the only stand out show worth making the effort for. The fact that I was witness to crowd surfing for the first time in forever was just one of the highlights Friday night over at the Echo.

There was a chance this show was going to (or had already) sold out so in an act of desperation we showed up at the Echo before the doors had even opened to try and get in. Waiting paid off, but getting there that early meant we would have to stay there for the next three or so hours. Usually this is horribly painful but tonight was an incredibly solid line up of bands that made sticking it out worth while.

What a night for duos. First up to play were Los Angeles guys NO AGE. They prove my point that two people can make a lot of melodic noise. Pounding the crap out of their instruments they still work through some interesting beats and harmonies. The great thing is that there is little difference between them live and their recorded stuff, it translates well, which sometimes can be a difficult task even for bands with years under their belts. I highly recommend going to see them, and you can if you're in the area on June 10 at the Smell, also playing with this band:

Mika Miko. They sound like a combination of late 70's NY new wave/punk and mid 90's lesbian hard core, except they look like they're 9th graders. This bizarre picture forming in your head right now actually produces some fun partying music. Scurrying around the stage, bent over instruments and telephone microphones, this group of girls pump out an obscene amount of energy that really got the crowd jumping around. And the crowds really do love them. They play constantly and chances are wherever you see a group of concert posters somewhere, their name will be on it.

Third up was Brooklyn based Japanther, the second duo for the night. Two guys with a bass and a drum kit and I'm pretty sure some sampling thrown in. They play hardcore anthem music that will make your ears bleed but you want to stay around and sing along. Lightning Bolt came to mind while watching them. Oh, and they had a telephone microphone too.

Headlining tonight was Matt and Kim, the third duo and second Brooklyn based band. These two kids are probably the happiest people on earth. I've heard this about them, but seeing them live, with Kim's giant grin plastered on her face the WHOLE time they played was kinda nuts. Their music is happy poppy indie stuff, sorta like Mates of State in reverse, except grittier, much grittier. The album hasn't seen much of the light of day but you couldn't tell with the crowd at the Echo, it was SO packed there with just wall to wall people. And it was wall to wall people pumping their arms in the air and singing along to the music. One thing about the songs they play is that they are catchy, but also seem meaningful somehow, like you can't help singing your heart out along to the words. And live, when you watch Matt belting out the lyrics it all seems connected. Anyways, tonight they played tracks off their EP and the full length including No More Long Years, Yea Yeah, Silver Tiles, and It's a Fact. And the whole time people crowd surfed. I'm not kidding, really, lots of people. The whole night was just waves of energy that culminated with probably the question, "How else can we show we're excited?" to which was answered, "We can dive off the stage."

The only downside of the night was the giant glass of beer that got accidentally poured down the front of me. GodDAMN there were a lot of people there.