What was Day Two, Wednesday, of MFNW 2013 was formerly Day One before they expanded the festival to a six-day music marathon. But the day still had a Day One vibe to it, perhaps because the festivities didn't begin until 8:00 pm. I occupied much of my day at Powell's Books.
The biggest event of the evening was probably Deerhunter at the Crystal Ballroom, with Lonnie Holley opening. But I had just seen Deerhunter at Bumbershoot, and even though I thoroughly enjoyed the set - one of the best of that festival - my night instead revolved around the second biggest event of the evening, the Scottish synth-pop band Chvrches at the Roseland Theater.
But first I took the No 20 bus across the river to see the band Eyelids at the Doug Fir Lounge.
Eyelids are fronted by Chris Slusarenko of Guided By Voices and John Moen of The Decemberists and Stephen Malkmus's band, The Jicks. We recently saw Moen playing drums with Black Prairie at Eddie's Attic. Moen and Slusarenko take turns singing and leading the band, and their approaches are quite different - Moen's songs are much gentler and pastoral, while Slusarenko's are rougher and more aggressive. The variety kept the set interesting, and the band seems comfortable switching gears between each song.
The highlight of the set, at least for me, was their closer, when they brought Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate, The Baseball Project) and a singer named Jerry A on stage with them to cover Gun Club's Sex Beat.
I even found a Dude-I-Was-There video of the song on Eyelids' web site.
Wynn was hanging out at the Doug Fir because The Baseball Project was headlining that night, but I didn't stay - I knew that I'd be seeing TBP later in the week. Instead, I took the bus back over the river again, and went back to The Roseland Theater, the site of the previous evening's hip-hop slate, to see Chvrches. When I got there, there was already a huge line stretching down Burnside, but I was able to walk right in thanks to the privileges of the VIP wristband. The outstanding dj/performer XXYYXX was already playing as I entered.
Here's a little taste of his mind-bending sound; it's even trippier live and on stage. Amazingly, he's only 17 years old!
XXYYXX will be playing right here in Atlanta at The Basement on Halloween night, just a few nights from tonight, but I won't be going as I instead have tickets that night to see The Orb (talk about trippy and mind-bending!).
At 10:00 pm sharp (the festival organizers do an outstanding job of keeping everything on time, as people plan their whole evening around getting from venue to venue to catch their favorite acts), Chvrches took the stage, beginning my week-long crush on singer Lauren Mayberry. The club was at capacity, but I was able to get close enough to get a reasonable line of sight.
Chvrches have next-big-thing written all over them. Their music is catchy and fun, Mayberry is an engaging performer, and their first album hadn't even dropped yet at the time of this show (it finally dropped Sept. 24). Their songs can and will be used in movie soundtracks, car commercials, and what-have-you, and they'll be playing Atlanta's Variety Playhouse on November 26.
Criticisms: While Mayberry's voice is appealing, her range is rather limited and she doesn't emote very much in her songs. Keybordist Martin Doherty took the vocals for one song during the set and erupted into a passionate closing verse that was a welcome relief to the icy coolness of the rest of the set. Still, these are minor complaints, and something the band already appears to be correcting.
Here they are at Terminal 5 in New York back on September 22:
So that was fun. Just like the night before, after Roseland, I walked the couple blocks up Burnside back to Dante's, where I had seen Summer Cannibals, Black Bananas, and Redd Kross. I got there in time to catch Redmond, Oregon's Larry & His Flask.
To say this band was energetic would be an understatement. Their sound was reminiscent of the Andew Jackson Jihad, and not only did they play their peculiar brand of Appalachian folk-punk fast and loud, encouraging the audience to dance, holler at them, or at least to do something, but the members themselves were jumping around, crashing into each other, and appearing to be having a blast on stage. At one point, the bass player leaped up and grabbed a rail hanging from the ceiling, and swung himself back and forth over the audience. These guys were madmen.
The Dante's audience responded in kind, slam-dancing and jumping up and down in one of the most kind-spirited mosh pits I've ever been in. Everyone was smiling, and even after knocking someone over, they'd extend a helpful hand to get back up again. All of the pushing and shoving was made so much more interesting by the fact that the beer-soaked floor was so slippery it was difficult to even walk on, much less ricochet off of the bouncing, gyrating crowd. To paraphrase the World's Most Interesting Man, I don't often mosh, but when I do it's to Larry & His Flask.
If you're game and want to mix it up with us, Larry is bringing the Flask to The Earl on October 27.
After the set, I was covered with sweat, some of it even mine, but there was one more band to go.
Murder By Death play haunting songs and murder ballads in the tradition of Johnny Cash and early Tom Waits. I had wanted to see them during the rain-soaked Shaky Knees Festival but missed them due to schedule conflicts, so this was a chance to make up for a lost opportunity.
Even though they didn't start until midnight, they played a 90-minute set, blending driving rock with folky flourishes of cello and mandolin. Quite frankly, they outlasted me, and I finally called it a night shortly after 1 am. But frontman and raconteur Adam Turla was still going strong and showing no signs of slowing down.
In my defense, I needed to get a good night's sleep, as Day Three was when MFNW was going to really start getting intense, beginning with a 10:30 am set back at the Doug Fir by none other than Chvrches.
I wanted to be ready.
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