Tangled Up in Wires Goes to Fun Fun Fun Fest

(Image borrowed from AV Austin because I lost my camera like a couple months ago and wasn’t that close to Les Savy Fav anyway)

So, since I live in Austin, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to check out Fun Fun Fun Fest. Now in its fourth year, Fun Fun Fun Fest is a small festival that focuses more on getting quality, buzzy bands than big names to headline. If you’re a fan of standardized testing (and who isn’t) you can think of it like this:

Lollapalooza : Pitchfork Festival :: Austin City Limits : Fun Fun Fun

With a stacked line-up and beautiful weather all week leading up to it, I set off for Waterloo Park on Saturday afternoon, looking forward to two days of excellent music. Here’s who I saw and what I thought, band by band:

Times New Viking: First, I had to represent Columbus by seeing these guys. I had never seen them live, but I was pleasantly suprised. Their fuzzy, noisy sound was well-suited for the outdoors (and the glorious weather we had on Saturday – 78 and sunny) and they didn’t lose a beat from the record. An excellent way to start out the day.

The Night Marchers: I wandered over to the Black Stage to meet some friends and The Night Marchers were playing while I was over there. They were pretty boring and they had one song where the singer, amusingly, never sung any lyrics; he just yelled “WOOOOOO” the whole time.

Shonen Knife: Shonen Knife started life as a Ramones cover band before making their own music. They are three Japanese women who wear bright dresses and rock out and while that all sounds great, the music was a little too bland for me. It sounded like they had never really advanced past the Ramones cover band phase and I think there was too much gimmickry to cover for a weak sound.

James Husband – The stage name of James Huggins, a member of Of Montreal, James Husband makes fuzzed-out Elephant Six style music that was decent, but didn’t leave too much of an impression on me. He’s definitely not the showman that Kevin Barnes is, but then who is.

MC Chris – I didn’t really see MC Chris (nerdcore is annoying), but I had to share this story. As I was walking to the bathroom, I passed his stage and someone yelled out a request. Then MC Chris went off on the guy and was like “Of course I’ll play my hit, you fucking idiot. I’m just saving it till the end so no one leaves and I can pretend I have a fanbase!”

No Age – “Did you feel that?” asked drummer and singer Dean Sprunt after a particularly engaging performance. The answer was definitely yes. This is probably the band I was most looking forward to and they did not disappoint. They were rowdy and fun, even inspiring an impromptu mosh pit towards the front.

Death – I honestly wasn’t expecting too much out of Death. Their story is fascinating (in case you don’t know, they were a band in Detroit who was playing punk music in 1975, a year or two before The Ramones and The Sex Pistols, but never saw a release or got any recognition because they refused to change their name) and I really liked the record, but I thought it was more interesting as an archaelogical find than an actual album, plus after 30 years I’d figured you’d lose a step or two. But I sure was wrong. They had a intensity and immediacy that few of the other bands at the festival had and it was great to see them finally getting a moment in the spotlight.

Fucked Up – My ears were still ringing the next morning from the ferocious, passionate assault leveled at me by Fucked Up. The ironic mosh pit at No Age had nothing on the one here, egged on by frontman Damian Abraham jumping into it. Most of the show drew from their amazing second album, Chemistry of Common Life, and I could see Fucked Up leading a full-on hardcore revival.

Les Savy Fav – Not to be outdone by the portly Abraham (who took off his shirt one song into Fucked Up’s set), Tim Harrington went from a wedding dress to ultimately wearing nothing but a set of purple leggings at the Les Savy Fav show. The highlight was undoubtedly when he crowd-surfed ON TOP OF A LADDER, which he rode like a surfboard. One fan jumped on to the ladder, grabbed the mic, and started singing and, for his troubles, Harrington climbed on top of him and humped him. All of that really happened.

Destroyer – I wanted to see Jesus Lizard but they were running late, so I ducked over to see Destroyer instead and was so transfixed by Dan Bejar’s lush melodies and fantastic voice that I couldn’t pull myself away. There were only about 50 people at the stage, so the show had a hushed, intimate feel, despite taking place at night on a festival stage. It was the perfect ending to day one.

This Will Destroy You – Day Two started with the grey sky, but everything was dry until This Will Destroy You came out. It started drizzling literally the moment they started playing. Fortunately it didn’t detract from their Explosions In the Sky-esque post-rock, which was hypnotic, but also had a bit of a hardcore edge.

Fuck Buttons – Unfortunately it rained harder by the time the weekend’s other fuck band came out, so I was hiding under a tree on the other side of the stage. Still, Fuck Buttons put on a good show and their ambient, electronic meandering sounds quite good live.

Atlas Sound – I was really excited to see Atlas Sound but, unfortunately, this wasn’t really the right venue. They needed a more intimate, less damp circumstance for their dream pop to really shine. I was also a little underwhelmed by the live version of “Walkabout,” which was hamstrung without the presence of Panda Bear. Still, Cox did his best to put on an entertaining show, defying a joke about jam bands in the festival by saying he would “jam the fuck out whenever I want” and playing the beginning of “Fly Away” before asking the audience if they liked Lenny Kravitz (a question greeted with icy silence).

Car Stereo (Wars) – Austin has its own Girl Talk and his name is Car Stereo (Wars). The difference between the two is pretty much negligible, but it was a fun show nonetheless. Car Stereo (Wars) also had his own hype man who, dressed in a blue button down and pink shorts, was basically a bro-ed out Flavor Flav.

Broadcast – By this point it started pouring so I was in no mood for the ambient explorations of Broadcast. It was an awful atmosphere to see them in, so it doesn’t feel fair to review their show.

Health – Fortunately, the rain died down and things  got a lot better. I stopped by Strange Boys randomly and was really impressed with what I saw before moving on to the band that turned out to be the show of the festival. Health is a noise band from the Smell scene that also spawned No Age and live, they absolutely tore it up. I was expecting to see another blog band that wasn’t very good live but instead they had crazy energy backed by a set of truly fantastic songs. I can’t recommend them enough.

Mission of Burma – Mission of Burma seemed a little calmer than I was hoping, but all in all they played a good set, even if it leaned a little heavier on the new stuff than I would have liked.

Crystal Castles – After having the chance to see them twice and missing them both times, I finally got to see Crystal Castles and I was not disappointed. Their show had a manic energy and the crowd went totally nuts and Alice Glass jumped around and assaulted audience members with a strobe light.

Of Montreal – Of Montreal’s ridiculous show was the perfect way to end the festival. Kevin Barnes has gotten even crazier since I last saw him and this time the show included molesting ninjas and an entire vignette where kids unwrapped a Christmas gift as their proud parents looked on. After starting with a few songs from Skeletal Lamping, which may be the first record ever made as a cover story (“no honey, Hissing Fauna wasn’t about all the sex and drugs I did while we were broken up, its just my new direction. Look at this new album I made”) they tore into the old stuff, even finishing with “The Past Is a Grotesque Animal.”

The King Khan & BBQ Show – They were supposed to play a set at Fun Fun Fun but it got mysteriously cancelled, so to make up for it King Khan & BBQ played a free aftershow at Red 7 which was insanely fun. It was a small, crowded space, and the band thrived in it, making for a fun end to a fantastic weekend.