Built to Spill/Raveonettes/etc. at Siren Music Festival, July 18th, 2009

    Had a weird week, with an unexpected Party Nite(TM) occurring Wednesday following some beer drinking and dominoes.  Followed that shit up with the free Superchunk/Versus show at South Street Seaport on Friday and was hoping to have a decent-size crew assembled for the Siren Festival on Saturday, which frustratingly didn't happen... some folks had (legitimate) prior commitments while others decided to just flat out fucking blow me off.  So, long story short, as it turned out my only company at the festival would be my own dick in my hand.  Meh.

    Got to Coney Island about quarter to five and walked around, getting the lay of the land (not going to harp on this too much, but going to festivals alone is a straight fucking BEATING any way ya slice that shit), walking past the Stillwell Stage where Future of the Left was performing.  Didn't stick around for much of their set, but I liked what I heard... kind of mathy and alty and shouty.  Walked up onto the boardwalk and back around before settling on a large lemonade and some BBQ Pork with pad Thai, which I wolfed down while waiting for A Place to Bury Strangers to take the stage.  5:30 sharp, they ripped into their first song, one of the newer ones not found on their self-titled record from '07.  I stuck around for the first few songs before heading over to the W 10th Ave stage to catch The Raveonettes' set.

    Wormed all the way up to the front, hoping to hear some of the new songs the Raves have been working on for their new album, which didn't happen... a few songs in Sune mentioned that since the new album was just recently completed they didn't have enough time to practice the new ones.  Minor bummer, but whatevs, live Raves is always rad, no?  This was to be the 10th time I've seen 'em, for fuck's sake!  Well, not exactly.  This turned out to be the worst set I've ever seen by them, hindered by Sune's guitar being practically inaudible as well as some real jackass hecklers behind me.  Or maybe the Raves are just vampires and they wilt in the light (first time I've ever seen 'em outdoors).  Never mind.  Decent, but not up to their usual awesomeness.  Here's the set list:

Hallucinations
Dead Sound
Let's Rave On
Here Comes Mary
Young and Beautiful
Attack of the Ghostriders
My Tornado
Expelled From Love
Black/White
Love in a Trashcan
Red Tan
Lust
Blush
Aly, Walk With Me
Twilight

    By this point, my back was pretty trashed and, I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't looking forward to Built to Spill's headlining set in the least.  I'd seen them once before in '06 at Warsaw on their tour for You in Reverse, and walked the fuck out because it was so boring.  At the show my pal Sluggo commented that "Built to Spill is the ultimate cock-tease band because they get so close to rocking out but they never do."  After the Warsaw show I had to agree. 

    Anyway, by this point I had the choice to head back home possibly in order to see another show elsewhere (La Otracina at Union Pool or Oxford Collapse's final show EVER among them) or stick around for the BTS set.  I came to the conclusion that the hour-plus trainride would only further my embittritude, so after futilely chewing on a $2 shish kebab made of an undeterminable meaty substance, I walked back to the W 10th St. stage.  Weaseled my way up as far as was comfortable and busted out the one-hitter... aaaaah.  And not only that, holy fuckin' shit -- the first song I caught was probably my favorite BTS song, "Strange," which led into a cool jam.  Mood improving!!  As the set went on, it became pretty obvious that BTS is, in fact, totally fucking awesome, a notion I wish I'd realized years ago.  Seriously, riffs galore, sick solos and plenty of sweet jamming.  Highlights for me during the 90 minute set were "Virginia" and a tripped-out version of "Conventional Wisdom," although to be perfectly frank I'm not familiar with anwhere near the entire BTS catalog.  There was a ton of great shit I'd never heard before which I'll have to make myself familiar with tout de suite. 

    OK, laundry time.  A quick scan of Oh My Rockness reveals few interesting shows until the amazing Harvey Milk/Torche double-bill at MHOW next Sunday, which is going to be fucking unreal.  Muddd. 

   

   

Comments

[one eye]

hey tuddd's muddd

i apologized several times about the siren fest. i was a)pretty shaken/abstract about the death of someone i knew b)totally fucking hungover from a night of sheer debauchery with you and the club 325! forgiveness is a step closer to god, friend!