Mates Of State and !!! at Harlow's in Sac CA

Music:

I'm hoping to see Mates of State this Monday at Harlow's in midtown Sacramento. I saw them years ago at The Derby in Los Angeles and wrote a review of the show for No-fi Magazine. They were very high energy and it well worth watching them live, as the dynamics of their back and forth ping-pongish singing style is quite engaging. I have only been to Harlow's one other time, a few weeks a go, on August 26th where I caught  band I had not listened to much. The band was chk chk chk, also know as !!!. I was desperate for some fun and what I had heard of them seemed like they'd put on an exciting show. And they did. The crowd danced and jumped around while the lead singer danced around on the stage like a 1920's flapper having a seizure while attempting the Charleston...hard to imagine? He holds his arms down tight by his sides and flips only the hands up as he jerks the arms, straight back and forth and jumps. There was something charming about how he was dressed in simple little short shorts and a t-shirt. They are apparently from Sac, some of the crowd had a bit of a local hero vibe going on for them. There is one woman in the band and she can seriously rock it out. She too was dressed very casual, baseball hat, shorts and a tank top. Considering she looked older than most of the crowd and was also one of the few non-Caucasians, she looked a bit out of place on stage, until she shut any and all doubter the heck up with her fierce vocals and hot dance moves. She then went one step further by calling out the door guy who had apparently refused to let her in the club earlier because he did not believe she was in the band. She dedicated a song to him that basically put him in his place, just in case he did not already feel like an idiot. Success truly is  a sweet revenge! Aw yes it is!

San Francisco's Treasure Island Music Festival

Music:

This was the best festival I've ever been to. Plenty of air conditioned posh/comfy buses shuttling festival goers from the baseball stadium parking lot, free parking at this same location, I never had more than one person in front of me in line for beer or the bathroom, great music, not hot, not too crowded, a great location with views of the bay bridge in the backdrop, a couple of metal stadium seating stacks off to the side of the main stage for those who did not want to stand, a freaking ferris wheel, and it was $20 less a day than Outside Land's Festival. 

Outside Land's did have Radiohead (one of my top three favorite bands), but considering the sound went out twice and it was impossible to see the band because there were so many people there, I still have to say The Treasure Island experience was much better. At least Radiohead had big video screens, otherwise it would have been as bad as Beck earlier in that day before Radiohead, who could be heard but not seen at all. And the stages had artists playing at the same time, like most festivals, true, but Treasure Island did not have overlapping artists, and the walk from one stage to the other was maybe 3 minutes, also highly unusual. 

There were interesting vendors and it was so strange how every time someone accidently bumped into me, they gave me a heartfelt apology! I even lost my camera at one point and it was missing maybe 2o minutes before we went to lost and found and there it was! The funny guy who found it even took three pictures of himself on my camera for me to notice later when I was uploading photos onto my Facebook. I loved that. Thank you kind, silly stranger!

Now, the bands:

I am afraid I missed Port O'Brien, but I have seen them at The Echo in LA recently, so I survived missing out on this, but if you ever get the chance- check them out, because they are fun to watch live. They even pass out pots and pan and weird do-dads for the crowd to play along with them. We also missed Or, The Whale and John Vanderslice (saw him at Spaceland about six or seven years ago, he is a solid performer, but not one of my very favorites) and Tokyo Police Club. The Morning Benders sounded good, but I was anxiously awaiting Okkervil River, who I have seen in LA at the Troubadour. They are amazing song writers and performers as well. A highlight for me was that they played " Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe ". Then I hopped over to the smaller stage and caught Fleet Foxes, great 1970ish folky rock, very Hippie as well as classic rock fans friendly. Then I walked back to the Bridge stage and caught a great set by Spiritualized, I was very excited that they played "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space". Next, back to the smaller Tunnel Stage where I caught one of my favorite acts, The Dodos. I had seen them twice already in LA and I have never been disappointed. They put a lot of passion into their music and it comes across even stronger live. The drummer is famous for having a tambourine strapped to his foot which he plays while drumming and it is amazing to watch him, he has a lot of power and his beats work perfectly with Meric's infectious singing and guitar. They are pretty low-fi, which can sound good or bad, but The Dodos always sound full and raw, sometimes it's hard to believe only 2.5 members can create so much sound. Next, I saw Vampire Weekend on the main stage again, they are not one of my favorite bands personally, but they had one of the larger crowds (not including the headliners) watching them, as well as some of the largest groups of photographers clamoring for the limited press pass spots in front. I was not very interested personally in the next two bands, Dr. Dog and Tegan and Sara, so this was a perfect time to walk around and take in the sights. We only watched a small part of The Kills, though we really like them, our priority was to have a good spot for the final and headlining band, The Raconteurs. I'm sorry, not that the band isn't great and high energy, but Jack White's good looks and sexiness is hard to not be distracted by. That said, The Raconteurs did not disappoint, they were true rock stars in every meaning of the word. They rocked hard and long, the crowd jumped and screamed and Jack had everyone clapping along to songs, there was a great, connecting vibe throughout the audience. 

Now, all this said, I hope you do not attend this event, so that is stays small and so wonderful. But if you do attend, tell no one. Okay, maybe a of couple people. If you must. But please be part of keeping it the well organized and pleasant experience it is. It's all we have here and since I miss The Hollywood Bowl in LA so much, I am glad to have this.