Sometimes
bigger isn’t better. While I wouldn’t classify the expanded
Fun Fun Fun Fest as a raging success, by no means was it a
failure. If anything it was a victim of its past success and
the inflated expectations placed on this year’s festival. I
would’ve preferred they didn’t add the third day, but I
appreciated that there were less scheduling conflicts. As
for Auditorium Shores, it may not have the advantages of
Waterloo Park, but I’m not going to blame the organizers for
that. Fun Fun Fun is still one of the premier musical
festivals and one of my favorite times of the year. Now on
to some of my favorites performances.
FFF Fest isn't
necessarily about discovering new bands, so I tend to see
the acts that I know will deliver. Mind Spiders are such a
band. Their self-titled release is one of my top
albums of the year, and I was really thrilled to hear
favorites such as World’s Destroyed, No Romance,
and Go!. The band even played some new tracks
off their new album, which is due in early 2012.
Now THIS is a
band that knows how to deliver the goods. The headliners on
Friday night were a disappointment at best - Passion Pit was
Passion Pit (sorry, not a fan), we all know about the Danzig
debacle, and Public Enemy was kind of a train wreck. So,
Spoon was a pleasure to watch.
After all the
SXSW buzz this band received (including some from this very
blog), I made sure I was in the front row for Le
Butcherettes. The performance wasn’t as wild as what I heard
transpired during SXSW, but it was highly entertaining
nonetheless. Lead singer Teri Gender Bender commanded the
attention of the entire crowd as she flailed and stomped
around the stage. Of course, it helped that the riot
grrrl-esque songs were equally catchy, angry, and danceable.
By Sunday
afternoon I was pretty wiped out and knew I wouldn’t last
the entire day. I stuck around for Ted, though, because he’s
one of my all time favorites. So much so in fact that I
named my daughter after one of his songs (you’ll have to
guess which one). Backed by The Pharmacists, Ted churned out
a string of his indie hits before closing out the set with a
bunch of Misfits covers, complete with a Danzig-like wig.
This was one
band that I kinda-sorta knew about. My friend Steve (aka
BabyStew), though, assured me they were
right in my wheelhouse and that I’d really dig them. Man,
was he right. They put on a blistering set and despite the
fact I didn’t know any of the songs, I was loving the entire
performance. Sadly, I had to bail a little early so I could
catch the aforementioned Spoon set.
- Dan Corbin -
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