CAMERAPHONIC

The first day of the festival for us was one where we were running a little late and trying to make the rush to catch the main stage openers, Fleet Foxes, before their set was over. We made it with a few minutes to spare, but I will include those photos with the ones below since they took the slot of The National later in the day.

Second up was Dengue Fever, the Cambodian influenced pop rock outfit. I’d seen them at last years inaugural Treasure Island Music Festival and while they drew a larger crowd this time around, I felt a strange sense of deja vu watching their set and feeling as if little has changed for their live show. Sure the lead singer is out there and very charismatic, but it just wasn’t captivating to me. I haven’t seen a club show of theirs so I could be very wrong, I should make an effort to change that.

Dengue Fever Myspace
Pre-Order Dengue Fever’s Escape From Dragon House now!

The Shaky Hands

Not much to say about this band, I dropped in on their set, snapped a couple shots and ran off to grab a bottle of water and catch Beirut.

The Shaky Hands Myspace
Pre-Order Lunglight from the Shaky Hands!

Beirut took the stage with horns blowing, accordions wheezing, and the strings singing. Showcasing songs from their upcoming album, they played to an enthused crowd. The apparent Spanish styling of the new record was very apparent in the bands 45 minute set.

Beirut Website | Myspace
Buy Gulag Orkestar and Pre-Order the new Beirut T-Shirt released for Insound 20!

Ozomatli Website | Myspace
Check out Ozomatli records at Insound!

So while taking a break during Ozomatli (I gave my camera to my friend, Rylan, that’s actually his photo up there) from running around all morning, a note got posted on the press trailer saying that The National had canceled. Pretty lame considering I was really looking forward to seeing them. Soon after that, the note was added to stating that Fleet Foxes would be replacing them! Great news!

For the second time that day Fleet Foxes had taken the main stage. Starting out with an introduction by Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office, The Last Mimzy) where he pretty much rambled for 10 minutes. He started with the dictionary definition of a fox, followed by what is a Sasquatch and if it were real… where was it, and then he introduced “The Fleet Foxes”.

The band broke out into their set with more energy than earlier in the day and to a much larger crowd. Robin’s brother was seen both on the side stage and photo pit taking video of their performance as well. For a crowd expecting to see The National that afternoon, Fleet Foxes made the stage their own and captivated them all.

Fleet Foxes Myspace
Buy their self-titled release, Fleet Foxes, now!

Destroyer Website | Myspace
Check out Destroyer’s Your Blues!

David Bazan is an artist I have been following for near 10 years now, so it was a pleasure for me to be able to catch him again at the festival. He’s currently wrapping up recording his upcoming full length release for Barsuk so he played a number of new songs as well as some classics from his Pedro The Lion days as well as a couple from his side project, Headphones.

David Bazan Website | Myspace
Buy Bazan’s first solo release Fewer Moving Parts!

The Breeders played to a really ecstatic crowd. Unfortunately I had been having too much fun the first day and was feeling the alcohol’s effects during this set. This is maybe the only in focus shot I got of them. Carrying on…

The Breeders Website | Myspace
Buy The Breeders new album Mountain Battles!

REM is one of those groups who I’ve shared a lot of “love/hate” relationships with. On one hand I used to love to listen to their older albums, Document, Green, Automatic For The People, and Monster, but at New Adventures In Hi-Fi they lost me somewhere and I had kind of written them off. It wasn’t until I heard that La Blogotheque’s, Vincent Moon, had been working on and finished a documentary with them that I had my interest peaked again. I saw a few rough clips from his work and their new songs and fell right back into being excited about their closing set.

The band took the stage just as it began to drizzle a bit again. Throughout the day there had been on and off sprinklings and we’d learn that it would be something that continued all weekend. Stipe and the band exploded onto the stage not realizing how slippery it would be and while he almost took a dive, his guitarist wasn’t so lucky. Taking off with the first song off Accelerate, “Living Well Is The Best Revenge”, they went from energetic new songs to classics and did not even have to win the crowd over. They were already there waiting for REM to bring it.

REM Website | Myspace
Check out Accelerate now! I highly recommend it!