Saturday, September 19, 2015

Hopscotch Music Festival Day One - Thursday Night (Raleigh, NC, 9/10/15)

After an excellent day party at Slim's, it was time to hit the "real" Hopscotch Music Festival (well, the real Hopscotch is the day parties, but...).  First stop was City Plaza for Ought.  They were a replacement for Deerhunter, who had earlier cancelled their summer tour dates, a bummer to a bunch of their fans.  Ought, however, performed admirably in their substitute role (what is this, a sports article?!).  Anyway, they brought their angular, 80's influenced guitar rock to the stage, and music fans were none worse for the wear.

Ought...
Godspeed You! Black Emperor were up next on the big stage.  Friends of mine have sworn by this band for some 20 years, and I always thought they were a band I would like.  I'd just never got around to listening to them (musical locavore that I am, see last blog post).  They began by setting an intense atmosphere with plugged-in cello and violin, very slowly building towards an eventual crescendo.   Other members trickled onstage, adding the more typical rock menu items, as rain began to likewise trickle.

Their intro did drag on a bit... part of me thought they were going to stop cold and break into Mark Knopfler guitar, and Money for Nothing.  Maybe waiting in the increasingly heavy rain added to that feeling.  But at the same time, the rain seemed appropriate for the sound of this band.  Several hundred fans hung around with (but mostly without) umbrellas.  As I left early to catch my first local band of the night, it was still raining.  GY!BE echoing across downtown made a fitting soundtrack for my trek through the dark, wet streets.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor...
Next stop was Deep South, always a good Hopscotch setting.  They know how to do lights and sound there.  Echo Courts are a local band (Greensboro; all NC is local to me) that, like Ought, also bring 80's influenced guitar rock to the stage.  Echo Courts' brand, version, is somewhat less angular and more curved.  Softer edges make their sound one you that you're more apt to melt with than dance to.  I had only seen these guys once before, and was glad I made it my first club stop of the night.  There's a lotta good music coming out of the Triad these days.

 Echo Courts...
The hard Hopscotch decisions really started at this point.  I had planned on catching Wildhoney at King's next, and some of both Advaeta's and Silent Lunch's simultaneous gigs starting midway through Wildhoney.  Yeah, impossible.  That's Hopscotch.  But you try.

However, people at Deep South were talking up Acid Chaperone, up next there.  Since I had a long weekend in front of me (and it was raining), I decided to stay put and check out a local band I had heard little about and never seen... always a good strategy.

Raleigh's Acid Chaperone came off as a more metallic Zack Mexico.  They were about four songs in before I realized there were little to no vocals.  I didn't even notice, or care.  Such was their rocking, veritably (the rest of this write-up will be in Olde English).  Yea, as they held the crowd enraptured...

Nevermind.  Basically, they rocked,  Very tight, ton of stage energy.  Much fun.  

Acid Chaperone...
Missing Wildhoney, and finally accepting that I couldn't be two places at once, I took the advice of the guys in Ghostt Bllonde and head to the Lincoln Theater for Brooklyn's Advaeta.  Pretty good, growling, Bikini Kill-spawned rock.  Didn't bowl me over, but what I caught of them was a good show.

Advaeta...
Back to King's to successfully (for once) fill of my Hospcotch calendar... Dad and Dad followed by Jenny Hval.  Sometimes Hopscotch makes me feel like a frazzled account manager:
So Dad and Dad are a Carrboro band I've seen a handful of times before, and each time, they've gotten better.  This night, as is often the case with locals at Hopscotch, they brought their A-game.  They always had a kind of dance groove to them,  It used to be a bit poppier, but has morphed into a darker, more electronic groove.  They've got a really great rhythm section.  The lighting fit (amazing what a little aluminum foil will do), and they put on an amazing show.  Unfortunately, they'll be laying low as a band for awhile, as one of the members has moved across the country.  Damn!  Just when they were getting good!

Dad and Dad...
What I had heard of Jenny Hval earlier was enough to make me feel that hers would be an interesting set, if nothing else.  Scandinavian, female vocalist, high pitched voice... Bjork light?  You could do worse.

Well, interesting it was, to say the least.  I wasn't up front at first, and just heard what I thought was feedback.  This turned out to be Hval caterwauling.  I didn't think she was onstage yet, but as I approached, I realized she was lying, stage front, on a partially-deflated yoga ball, face directly in the crowd.  Pseudo-twin fake blondes jumped around the stage in hospital gowns.  They were as feral children, dancing random steps, loving on each other -- and sometimes Hval -- and shredding plastic bags, or whatever else they could get their hands on.

At first, I thought this was just weirdness for weirdness' sake.  But the more she continued, the more I saw Hval was committed to what was, essentially, a performance art piece (probably about objectification of and violence towards women, but to each their own interpretation).  And the more she committed, the more I did as well.  Her wail would eventually morph into more controlled tones, revealing a refined voice belied by the initial impression.  The overall feeling at the end was that you had witnessed something intense... and entertaining, yes, but with disturbing undertones.

Jenny Hval...
Battles (another Brooklyn band; who isn't?) was likewise a band that I knew, at least, would be interesting.  More "fun", sure, but also different.  What struck me was that here, for the second time in a night, I was watching a band that I didn't realize until halfway through were basically instrumental.  And again, I didn't care.  On the recordings, I thought they sang some of these songs.  But live, it seemed that what vocals there were were pre-recorded (computer-generated?) samples.

Interesting way to get a singer.  But the members of Battles are so busy doing god-knows-what on their instruments that they wouldn't be able to concentrate on signing anyway.  While I couldn't really see what the bass player across the stage was doing from my vantage point, the drummer was, simply, a maniac.  And the guitarist/keyboardist was all over his multiple instrumentation, and at times the stage as well.  Battles made a kind of complex pop that got your brain and your feet moving all at once.  Between them and Jenny Hval, it was nice to get an injection of national (well, international) spice into my Hopscotch menu.  And it was a great way to close Hopscotch Day One.

Battles...
Up next, Friday day and night shows, including Ghostt Bllonde, Naked Naps, Faults, and Pile.

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