On the Carrie stage, Deerhunter had just started their set, and of course the first thing I noticed was frontman Bradford Cox wearing a woman dress, a wig and a hood matching the dress… oh this has been done before but it always works as a way to attract attention… He was skinny and looked like Joey Ramones or Ric Ocasek in a drag… Deerhunter played a long set with songs from their recent release ‘Monomania’ and older tracks from ‘Halcyon Digest’ and ‘Cryptograms’ – someone posted the setlist on the web, otherwise I would have never been able to figure this out! I have to say, I had never listened to them before and thought they had a good pop sensibility often lifted into a sort of psychedelic rock, heavy on reverb… they were loud, but not too energetic and a bit eccentric with some extremely long songs, which were losing themselves in some hypnotic haze. I couldn’t (and didn’t really want to) stay for their whole set as Thee Oh Sees were playing at the opposite part of the fest, on the Miranda stage.
I have seen John Dwyer and his band a couple of times, but I couldn’t miss them, they are just too good to be skipped. They didn’t disappoint of course, Dwyer was still holding his guitar like a firearm and doing his whoops over their surf-punk music, the energy on stage and in the audience was tremendous, and almost everyone was happily crowd surfing over my head. It’s hard to match this euphoric atmosphere going on at their raucous shows, and Saturday night was no exception, with bodies piling at the top of each other and people just having a great time. Dwyer dedicated a song to Sean Carlson, the founder of the FYF Fest, and it was another of their long psychedelic fight, with all the musicians packed in the middle of the stage while jamming. Meanwhile, I was thinking about TV on the Radio starting on another stage at the same time, and had one of the hardest decision to make…
But there was no regret as TV on the Radio was fantastic, bringing their funky psychedelia to a powerful level on the Carrie stage. When I say ‘fuck,‘ you say ‘yeah!’ When I say ‘fuck,‘ you say ‘yeah!’ shouted singer Tunde Adebimbe to the crowd, playing with the full name of the festival… And it was the beginning of a vibrant and colorful set, which made me decide to listen to TV on the Radio much more often than I usually do. They announced they were working on a new record and played a few new songs such as the slow falsetto-sung ‘Million Miles’, and ‘Mercy’, a song with an infectious tempo that I hear quite often on an independent radio here in Los Angeles. With hits like ‘Wolf like me’, they sounded very good live, they had attracted a huge crowd, and if some people may have packed the stage to see the next band, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, there was no doubt the reception they received was translating a mad appreciation. They gave a muscular performance, but stayed totally humble, as Adebimbe just mentioned ‘Flag’ half set, when the Black Flag reunion was about to start playing on another stage. It was like an invitation to leave and check out what was going on over there
As there was no way I would pass on this second Black Flag reunion, I caught them half set, and totally enjoyed what I saw. According to the long setlist hanging behind them, they played an impressive number of songs with many Black Flag’s hits, no mystery there, just as the other Black Flag revival did a few months ago. But I have to admit, I got a little bit bored by Greg Ginn version of the hardcore band when I saw them in July, on the contrary, this Keith Morris-Dez Cadena-Chuck Dukowski-Bill Stevenson-Stephen Egerton team was total fun. May be what was missing in July was Morris’ aggressive wit and Dukowski’s baby smile! The Greg Ginn team sounded austere, this one sounded visceral, I mean I didn’t care much for Ginn’s extended long jams and his electronic theremin! As everyone, I just wanted to have fun and feel the adrenaline rush of the songs.
I just had 5 minutes to run to the Carrie stage to see Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the last band of the day. The crowd was once again huge, probably one of the biggest of the festival. It was really hard to get closer than I already was and when Karen O made her stage entrance, people went nuts. She totally became on charge till midnight, commending the stage with her signature howls and shrieks and other weird noises, restlessly moving from one side to another. She was wearing a shiny glittery short outfit with car driving red gloves and pink high socks, and she kept modifying this outfit during the set. I have no idea if there were other people on stage (of course they were!) but Karen O was the only person thousands of people were looking at, she was the headliner herself, she was the whole show, doing some ferocious antics, throwing a giant eyeball to the crowd, grabbing her mic and using it like a whip or a lasso, even beating the hell out of it at the end, her own version of the old-fashioned guitar-smashing. Beside Karen’s ferocious moves, a rain of white confetti dropped over the crowd a few times for everyone’s joy and this giant eye bouncing over people’s heads looked like something coming straight from a cartoon, or a Flaming Lips show. Karen O didn’t hold anything, that’s a fact, she built an explosive tension minute after minute with some crazy twists and looked like an untamed animal vacuuming all attention; she was totally vicious and everyone was in love.
