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Friday
Tonight I got kind of a late start with the music-seeing. I was a
bit tired and needed some food, so we headed out for my first barbecue
of the week - finally! After that, I headed downtown to catch my favorite
indie rockers Say Hi (formerly Say Hi To Your Mom).
Eric Elbogen continues to write really nice songs with some
very quirky soul, and even though he has relocated to the west coast
from the east, it hasn't sunk in entirely yet… he's not yet all
coffee and sadness and drudgery. The new Say Hi record is great, and
I was anxious to hear a few of the songs live. The band rocked it
out as much as I would have hoped, and even a bit better than the
last time I got to see them… still rocking, still cute and poppy.
I had to get over to a parking lot somewhere on Seventh Street to
get set up for the Zookeeper show, and luckily made it over
in time to catch Those Peabodys play their set. This highly
energetic three-piece makes solid punky rock, like Mission Of Burma
with a bit of Sabbath thrown in. They have an amazingly great
drummer and lots of cool rhythms lying underneath sonic guitars and
solid bass lines. Both guys are good vocalists, but in the parking
lot setting it was hard to hear them at times. They rocked it in a
sweet 70's style hooky way, but with quite a bit more angst than those
band would have ever been able to conjure.
The Zookeeper set was great, a bit rough around the edges and a soundman's
nightmare with limited PA and no monitors, but it was quite DIY punk
style, and went well. Not the best show of the week, but probably
one of the top ones.
As the 'Keeper ramped it down, I ran over to try to catch the end
of the set from England's incredible  tastemakers,
South. I haven't heard their last record and haven't seen
them live since SXSW some years ago… They seem to have gotten
a bit more straightforward with their sound, working in tiny parts
of Paul Weller-style disco, but not enough to be considered
bad. The music is less artsy, but still very Brit-ty, and the cool
switching of instruments seems to have been tamed as well…
of course, with only four guys on stage, it's less necessary. Perhaps
they only came over in abbreviated form for the festival and still
maintain some of the things I miss in their regular show. Adult
Oriented Rock stations should be taking notice of this band now
they're a bit straighter, their sound contains almost an Outfield
vibe on the newer songs… what's old is new again, again. Thankfully,
at the end of the set the band got a bit more sonic and much more
as I remember them to be… this was a good little bit of Brit
fix to get in at the end of the night.
-David DeVoe
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