Once again, the highly anticipated Capitol Hill Block Party’s line up had the same fantastic quality from years past. Perhaps it even slightly surpasses last year a bit. Hard to say. What I can say is that everyone I talked with was diggin’ the music. This all-ages event with four fab stages - including one specifically for the underage crowd, the Vera Project - a beer garden, a smoking lounge (where interestingly absolutely no smoking was allowed), art, political and community booths, food, and much more, began Friday, July 25 and ended on Saturday, July 26. For the complete line-up of events and music go to www.thestranger.com/blockparty.
The up side of this type of music festival is that there are so many fabulous acts to choose from but that is the down side as well. Deciding who I absolutely had to see to cover for the blog was tough and then choosing who I wanted to check out and then who would just be fun to hear was not quite as difficult. It was sad to miss out on so many quality bands since each and every act seemed like they had potential for being my next favorite. It is like a marathon of music! I didn’t get to spend much time in any one place, but what I did get to hear was awesome. (Due to time constraints, I didn’t write much or load many photos, but there will be more commentary when I have a chance to upload more.) For more information on these bands, check them out on MySpace.
First up (for me) was Head Like A Kite playing the Neumo’s stage. HLAK is Dave Einmo and “live” (as opposed to dead, mind you) drummer, Trent Moorman. It is a patchwork of “found sound”, electronica and prog-pop. Einmo’s kinetic energy and enthusiasm had the crowd moving and grooving as he dripped with sweat, writhed and screamed.
Out on the Main Stage, U.S.E. had the crowd jumping, dancing, screaming, singing along. I only got to see them for a few minutes but it was easy to see this talented group had infectious pop styling combined with killer stage presence. The audience ate it up. Yum~o
Menomena hit the Main Stage full force with their musical equivalent to E. The crowd really ate it up and jumped and danced along to their catchy set.
The Dodos seem to have a fantastic fan base almost cultish in their fervor as do Truckasaurus, who over at King Cobra were in blackout conditions so the audience could see the video behind them. Very interesting stuff, that.
My favorite of the evening over at the King Cobra stage was Airborne Toxic Event. I totally expected Vampire Weekend to fit that space, but no - ATE won hands-down, because they put on an awesome show. The crowd totally was into them - singing along, dancing, captivated. This group is hot - fun, dancy, catchy, and I actually liked their songs - lyrics & music. This band was having a great time while they worked hard and it showed.
Dita Vox of Thee Emergency on the Neumo’s Stage was working the crowd and brother she knows how. The band was doing interesting things (”I am going to lie on the floor and if you don’t shout I’m going to die”) since that is their style - quirky and sparkling. They have an energy that transcends and brings a crowd together like no other band.
What has 25 people on stage who are not part of the act? Girl Talk! They were goofy & fun, a “mix-tape” style with sing-along renditions that wowed the crowd. I only could get shots of the audience the band pulled on stage - I did not get even ONE shot of the actual act~
Les Savy Fav started out slowly but turned it up several notches warming up the crowd until they were in a frenzy. The lead singer did a few, um, interesting things on stage with a hot pink vibrator and a guitar….a picture really is worth 1000 words.
Marco Collins, former on-air personality at 107.7 The End, introduced Washington’s illustrious Gov. Christine Gregoire, who introduced the the darlings of the East Coast College Crowd headliner of the evening, Vampire Weekend. Wow - Gregoire rocks the Governor’s Mansion with post-punkish modern rock - who knew?
There was an ocean of folks waiting for Vampire Weekend to come on stage. It was a larger and more raucous crowd than for any other Block Party headliner in recent memory. VW put on a fun, entertaining show, but they basically played their album to which the rowdy crowd sang along and that was just fine with them. It was nothing fancy, no mind-blowing excitement, but a good, solid show. For the kind of music they make, it was fairly mellow for such a revved up, drunk crowd. But in the end, everyone seemed satisfied that they got to see the band so it’s all good.
Lastly, due to the nature of the Block Party, many people do get drunk. In fact, one man got so drunk he punched my camera and the bastard broke my beloved Nikon. Son of a Bitch.
July 18th, 2008
Categories: Music . Author: JanKeira . Comments: No Comments
