Mr. Banana Grabber
Banned
Ive wanted to post this but I finally got approved and got thread-posting membership. Just by lurking through the best album of 2007 thread and countless others I have gathered the conclusion that the music I am about to list has a rather wide following, on this forum of course. In August of this year, I attended the Monolith Music Festival in the beautiful Red Rocks Amphitheater carved into the face of the flatirons of the Rocky Mountains themselves. This years iteration of the MMF (as it will be known throughout the rest of the thread) was the very first but hopefully not the last. The lineup included the likes of: Cake, The Flaming Lips, Spoon, The Decemberists, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Art Brut, The Kings of Leon and Ghostland Observatory, and thats just on the main stage. Boulders own Three-Oh-Three (our area code) performed in a flurry of pale, rap duo majesty as well as Rocky Votolato and other small acts. The festival spanned two magical days and marked my departure from high school and my first introduction to college life. Through this thread I will share my pictures (blurry as they may be), thoughts, feelings, opinions, actions and loves regarding the festival and hopefully youll enjoy them or find them interesting.
DAY 1
The day began like all other Fridays, sleepily. I had two classes before I could get down to the festival and I sat through those in an anxious and dreamy daze. My old roommate offered to drive both of us down for the first day, he picked me up and we drove down to Red Rocks. We spent the ride listening to the bands we were about to hear, discussing their music and anticipating what the night had in store for us. The road to Red Rocks is long and dusty and we thought it best to park as far away as possible and walk up the hill. College students, right? I was wearing jeans, a collared plaid shirt and a corduroy blazer. A fat, drunken woman told me that I looked like I was going to a job interview. I only wished the very worst for her. After walking the larger half of the Oregon Trail, we made our way to the top of the mountain. If youve never been to a music festival before then you could never begin to imagine how much merchandise we saw when we crested the hill. $40 for a Kings of Leon shirt? No thank you Mr. vendor, Im saving my money for sunglasses.
Anyone who has ever been to Red Rocks will tell you that their first thought is wow with a thousand os. The amphitheater is shaped like a big letter U. Dusty orange flagstone surrounds the seating area with sheer cliffs hundreds of feet tall. The sound waves are funneled to the top where they shoot straight into the night sky. I think of the article I read about the Bowie fans in Texas who shot radio transmissions from Ziggy Stardust into outer space to reach aliens or God or whoever. Im wondering what these same recipients will think later tonight when we pump a trillion watts of Short Skirt and a Long Jacket to them as well. I hope they wont judge us too harshly.
When I arrive, Ghostland Observatory is on the main stage. That pigtailed girl with the guitar has a nice ass. I remarked to my friend. That pigtailed girl turned around and revealed himself to be the lead singer of Ghostland Observatory. I hope my friend didnt hear me over the din of the keyboards. I didnt get any pictures but I enjoyed their music and I think you should check it out.
I saw this man doing an outrageous dance to the music and thought it fit to take a picture.
The following act was Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. For those of you who dont know, these guys are totally self-produced, self-written, self-everything. Even if you hate their music you should buy all their merchandise. They put on a decent show and happened to be snappy dressers. I didnt snap any pictures of this band either (I swear I have some!) but I really should have. Their lead singer did the most outrageous little scoot-dance during the double-guitar chorus of Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth.
The sun was setting and magic filled the air. Before it turned light again I will have seen Kings of Leon, The Decemberists and Cake from a row back.
The next act to come on was the Kings of Leon. They take the cake (haha) for my most enjoyable band that I hadnt gotten into yet for the first night. Id listened to a little bit of Because of the Times but hadnt fully gotten into it yet. KoL is comprised of three brothers and a cousin. Here they are looking mysterious and colorful.
And heres a real picture.
They wore all black, drank heavily, used their guitars as ashtrays and behaved much differently than the other MMF bands. They felt out of place but they were very good. They play good riffy rock with a nice soulful element to the vocals.
Look at those boots.
Next up, her majesty The Decemberists. I had the pleasure of seeing them once before this past May and I was looking forward to their return. Oddly enough, none of them remembered me nor did they invite me backstage. I can only assume this was due to the poor lighting. I didnt think their setlist was very strong this time around. I didnt recognize the first three songs and Im a fairly avid fan of theirs. I feel they do better in small venues but it was still nice to hear them again.
There they are.
Colin Meloy, you anachronistic scoundrel!
Another decent shot.
Hey mister, keep that guitar level.
If you havent heard of the Decemberists you ought to try them out. They have a pretty unique sound and sing very pretentious songs that very pretentious people tend to enjoy. They also drink wine out of those red beer cups on stage.
After the Decemberists played, Cake came on. I was a Cake fan before I was a fan of any other band at the festival. Unfortunately all of the pictures came out blurry but Ill post them if you guys want. They played an especially good rendition of War Pigs. Not much else can be said other than they still got it.
DAY 2
If I were to have one ironic wish granted it would be to open the paper and read about the Brian Jonestown Massacre Massacre. Brian Jonestown Massacre is a terrible band that broke up because the lead singer is a giant jackass. He kept on telling us to shut the fuck up while he was tuning. Really? Who the hell doesnt have their roadies to tune for them? Oh, the reason we were yelling? The crowd spotted this furry creature with a Viking helmet.
Is that foreshadowing or is that foreshadowing?
We continued to hoot and holler and whatshisface continued to behave like a child and drink cheap vodka right from the bottle. Then they got off stage.
The next band that came up was my run away band of the show. Id never heard of these guys before and they blew me away (you forgot to say away again.). Theyre a little British band called Art Brut and they are phenomenal. Just look at the names of the band members: Eddie Argos, Ian Catskilkin, Freddy Feedback (is that not the best name for a musician?), Japser Future and Mikey Breyer.
Here they are rocking out.
What I really loved most was the content of the lyrics and the crowd involvement. One songs describes lead singer Eddie Argos desire to fly into L.A., take of his shirt, ride a motorcycle up and down the beaches and then drink Hennessy with Morrissey (more foreshadowing) on these same beaches. All the songs are about alcoholism (in the fun way), sex, drugs and music.
Another thing that really scores well for me when it comes to bands is crowd involvement. Your music becomes ten times better when you get the crowd involved. Art Brut had this down to a science.
In case you cant tell (blurry, I know, sorry) thats lead singer Eddie Argos running around several rows of the crowd singing about Top of the Pops. Let me tell you, when you sing about the same material as the Kinks youre pretty ok in my book.
Later as I was running up the six mile flight of stairs, I ran into an unlikely fellow. I really dont know why they let a shady character like this into a nice music festival but I grabbed a picture with him.
Yes, thats Eddie again. We talked about sunglasses, the fact that we have the same burning desire to drink hard alcohol with the Moz and The Hold Steady. He also informed me that he had to sit next to the lead singer of Brian Jonestown Massacre for the duration of the show and that he considers him to be as big a jackass as I do.
One of the frontrunners and most consistently enjoyable bands of the indie movement (I know theyre all on labels) is Austins own Spoon. They played three separate festivals this same weekend, which says quite a bit about their fan dedication. They were very good at what they did but they werent especially heavy on the crowd involvement.
But damned if they didnt look good doing it.
This character was running around the crowds during their performance.
Pretty cool, huh?
When I say that a band was the best performer or the best with crowd involvement keep in mind that Ive added the clause, ..besides the Flaming Lips.
Before I show you the Flaming Lips segment I had a funny little anecdote. All day, my friend and I had been sitting crowd right a few rows up. The view wasnt bad but it wasnt great. We promised ourselves that wed be front and center for the Flaming Lips.
The entire day, several seats sat without people in them right in the middle of the crowd. The asshole had left a few seat cushions and hadnt stayed for a single act. As the sun went down, people became more anxious to get these seats free. I saw a few people arguing very animatedly with a bouncer. In my predatory concert state I went to see the commotion. The bouncer had declared that the seats were free and I snagged them. Score.
A few hours later the man came back looking for his seats. He was 40 years of age or somewhere around there and had an Impeach Cheney pin on his hat. He wanted nothing to do with the people in his seats (us) but rather some girl whom he believed wronged him in some way. Long story short, he got kicked out.
When the Flaming Lips started playing again he came back, looking for trouble. He started shoving people, mostly girls due to his small stature. I, being a little bitch, ran down to the bouncers, Theres some guy trying to take my seats! Over the ecstatic crowd. No sir, you cant go on stage! as he pushed me back under the ropes. No, that crazy guy! (there was a lot of exclamation, it was loud) The same bouncer followed me back up and proceeded to violently throw the guy out. While being dragged, he announced that myself, these three girls, my friend and the bouncer were all part of a conspiracy involving George Bush and Halliburton. Needless to say the jig was up. Bush and Cheney arrived via Marine 1 and thanked us for the killer seats we bogarted.
If you dont know who these guys are theres not much hope for you. In addition to making accessible yet complex catchy music they put on one hell of a show. The released large green balloons from the top of the amphitheater, shot pounds of orange confetti into the night air and organized a light show that could give Helen Keller a seizure.
Heres lead singer Wayne Coyne setting up. The setup took the longest of any band but the stage looked entirely different than it had all weekend.
What could this be used for?
Oh, that.
The Flaming Lips have somewhat recently incorporated a large gerbil ball into their act. The band plays a song while Wayne gets in a ball and rolls around the audience. Are you starting to see what I mean by showmanship?
Typically, the ball rolls out of a large UFO with Wayne in it. The UFO was not present at the MMF due to disturbances abroad. It turns out that The Flaming Lips tried to buy radioactive lights from Russia to put on the outside of the UFO. The U.S. government caught wind of their plot of mass destruction and has since seized the UFO. Currently it sits in an undisclosed warehouse in middle America thanks to George Bush. Ive never been too political but Id say this calls for an impeachment hearing.
You can tell he misses his UFO.
Pretty good shot of them playing.
They played some really wild movies on the light board.
Zuh?
The feeling that overtakes (hah) you when The Flaming Lips are playing live with confetti and streamers and screamers cannot be accurately described through words, pictures or a lengthy combination of both.
Dance, you aliens!
So thats my experience with the MMF. I encourage anyone in the area to check it out or check out your own local music festivals. Im sure you all know this but you need to support live music. Concerts and t-shirt sales yield much higher returns for artists than CDs. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you ask lots and lots of questions.
DAY 1
The day began like all other Fridays, sleepily. I had two classes before I could get down to the festival and I sat through those in an anxious and dreamy daze. My old roommate offered to drive both of us down for the first day, he picked me up and we drove down to Red Rocks. We spent the ride listening to the bands we were about to hear, discussing their music and anticipating what the night had in store for us. The road to Red Rocks is long and dusty and we thought it best to park as far away as possible and walk up the hill. College students, right? I was wearing jeans, a collared plaid shirt and a corduroy blazer. A fat, drunken woman told me that I looked like I was going to a job interview. I only wished the very worst for her. After walking the larger half of the Oregon Trail, we made our way to the top of the mountain. If youve never been to a music festival before then you could never begin to imagine how much merchandise we saw when we crested the hill. $40 for a Kings of Leon shirt? No thank you Mr. vendor, Im saving my money for sunglasses.
Anyone who has ever been to Red Rocks will tell you that their first thought is wow with a thousand os. The amphitheater is shaped like a big letter U. Dusty orange flagstone surrounds the seating area with sheer cliffs hundreds of feet tall. The sound waves are funneled to the top where they shoot straight into the night sky. I think of the article I read about the Bowie fans in Texas who shot radio transmissions from Ziggy Stardust into outer space to reach aliens or God or whoever. Im wondering what these same recipients will think later tonight when we pump a trillion watts of Short Skirt and a Long Jacket to them as well. I hope they wont judge us too harshly.
When I arrive, Ghostland Observatory is on the main stage. That pigtailed girl with the guitar has a nice ass. I remarked to my friend. That pigtailed girl turned around and revealed himself to be the lead singer of Ghostland Observatory. I hope my friend didnt hear me over the din of the keyboards. I didnt get any pictures but I enjoyed their music and I think you should check it out.
I saw this man doing an outrageous dance to the music and thought it fit to take a picture.
The following act was Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. For those of you who dont know, these guys are totally self-produced, self-written, self-everything. Even if you hate their music you should buy all their merchandise. They put on a decent show and happened to be snappy dressers. I didnt snap any pictures of this band either (I swear I have some!) but I really should have. Their lead singer did the most outrageous little scoot-dance during the double-guitar chorus of Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth.
The sun was setting and magic filled the air. Before it turned light again I will have seen Kings of Leon, The Decemberists and Cake from a row back.
The next act to come on was the Kings of Leon. They take the cake (haha) for my most enjoyable band that I hadnt gotten into yet for the first night. Id listened to a little bit of Because of the Times but hadnt fully gotten into it yet. KoL is comprised of three brothers and a cousin. Here they are looking mysterious and colorful.
And heres a real picture.
They wore all black, drank heavily, used their guitars as ashtrays and behaved much differently than the other MMF bands. They felt out of place but they were very good. They play good riffy rock with a nice soulful element to the vocals.
Look at those boots.
Next up, her majesty The Decemberists. I had the pleasure of seeing them once before this past May and I was looking forward to their return. Oddly enough, none of them remembered me nor did they invite me backstage. I can only assume this was due to the poor lighting. I didnt think their setlist was very strong this time around. I didnt recognize the first three songs and Im a fairly avid fan of theirs. I feel they do better in small venues but it was still nice to hear them again.
There they are.
Colin Meloy, you anachronistic scoundrel!
Another decent shot.
Hey mister, keep that guitar level.
If you havent heard of the Decemberists you ought to try them out. They have a pretty unique sound and sing very pretentious songs that very pretentious people tend to enjoy. They also drink wine out of those red beer cups on stage.
After the Decemberists played, Cake came on. I was a Cake fan before I was a fan of any other band at the festival. Unfortunately all of the pictures came out blurry but Ill post them if you guys want. They played an especially good rendition of War Pigs. Not much else can be said other than they still got it.
DAY 2
If I were to have one ironic wish granted it would be to open the paper and read about the Brian Jonestown Massacre Massacre. Brian Jonestown Massacre is a terrible band that broke up because the lead singer is a giant jackass. He kept on telling us to shut the fuck up while he was tuning. Really? Who the hell doesnt have their roadies to tune for them? Oh, the reason we were yelling? The crowd spotted this furry creature with a Viking helmet.
Is that foreshadowing or is that foreshadowing?
We continued to hoot and holler and whatshisface continued to behave like a child and drink cheap vodka right from the bottle. Then they got off stage.
The next band that came up was my run away band of the show. Id never heard of these guys before and they blew me away (you forgot to say away again.). Theyre a little British band called Art Brut and they are phenomenal. Just look at the names of the band members: Eddie Argos, Ian Catskilkin, Freddy Feedback (is that not the best name for a musician?), Japser Future and Mikey Breyer.
Here they are rocking out.
What I really loved most was the content of the lyrics and the crowd involvement. One songs describes lead singer Eddie Argos desire to fly into L.A., take of his shirt, ride a motorcycle up and down the beaches and then drink Hennessy with Morrissey (more foreshadowing) on these same beaches. All the songs are about alcoholism (in the fun way), sex, drugs and music.
Another thing that really scores well for me when it comes to bands is crowd involvement. Your music becomes ten times better when you get the crowd involved. Art Brut had this down to a science.
In case you cant tell (blurry, I know, sorry) thats lead singer Eddie Argos running around several rows of the crowd singing about Top of the Pops. Let me tell you, when you sing about the same material as the Kinks youre pretty ok in my book.
Later as I was running up the six mile flight of stairs, I ran into an unlikely fellow. I really dont know why they let a shady character like this into a nice music festival but I grabbed a picture with him.
Yes, thats Eddie again. We talked about sunglasses, the fact that we have the same burning desire to drink hard alcohol with the Moz and The Hold Steady. He also informed me that he had to sit next to the lead singer of Brian Jonestown Massacre for the duration of the show and that he considers him to be as big a jackass as I do.
One of the frontrunners and most consistently enjoyable bands of the indie movement (I know theyre all on labels) is Austins own Spoon. They played three separate festivals this same weekend, which says quite a bit about their fan dedication. They were very good at what they did but they werent especially heavy on the crowd involvement.
But damned if they didnt look good doing it.
This character was running around the crowds during their performance.
Pretty cool, huh?
When I say that a band was the best performer or the best with crowd involvement keep in mind that Ive added the clause, ..besides the Flaming Lips.
Before I show you the Flaming Lips segment I had a funny little anecdote. All day, my friend and I had been sitting crowd right a few rows up. The view wasnt bad but it wasnt great. We promised ourselves that wed be front and center for the Flaming Lips.
The entire day, several seats sat without people in them right in the middle of the crowd. The asshole had left a few seat cushions and hadnt stayed for a single act. As the sun went down, people became more anxious to get these seats free. I saw a few people arguing very animatedly with a bouncer. In my predatory concert state I went to see the commotion. The bouncer had declared that the seats were free and I snagged them. Score.
A few hours later the man came back looking for his seats. He was 40 years of age or somewhere around there and had an Impeach Cheney pin on his hat. He wanted nothing to do with the people in his seats (us) but rather some girl whom he believed wronged him in some way. Long story short, he got kicked out.
When the Flaming Lips started playing again he came back, looking for trouble. He started shoving people, mostly girls due to his small stature. I, being a little bitch, ran down to the bouncers, Theres some guy trying to take my seats! Over the ecstatic crowd. No sir, you cant go on stage! as he pushed me back under the ropes. No, that crazy guy! (there was a lot of exclamation, it was loud) The same bouncer followed me back up and proceeded to violently throw the guy out. While being dragged, he announced that myself, these three girls, my friend and the bouncer were all part of a conspiracy involving George Bush and Halliburton. Needless to say the jig was up. Bush and Cheney arrived via Marine 1 and thanked us for the killer seats we bogarted.
If you dont know who these guys are theres not much hope for you. In addition to making accessible yet complex catchy music they put on one hell of a show. The released large green balloons from the top of the amphitheater, shot pounds of orange confetti into the night air and organized a light show that could give Helen Keller a seizure.
Heres lead singer Wayne Coyne setting up. The setup took the longest of any band but the stage looked entirely different than it had all weekend.
What could this be used for?
Oh, that.
The Flaming Lips have somewhat recently incorporated a large gerbil ball into their act. The band plays a song while Wayne gets in a ball and rolls around the audience. Are you starting to see what I mean by showmanship?
Typically, the ball rolls out of a large UFO with Wayne in it. The UFO was not present at the MMF due to disturbances abroad. It turns out that The Flaming Lips tried to buy radioactive lights from Russia to put on the outside of the UFO. The U.S. government caught wind of their plot of mass destruction and has since seized the UFO. Currently it sits in an undisclosed warehouse in middle America thanks to George Bush. Ive never been too political but Id say this calls for an impeachment hearing.
You can tell he misses his UFO.
Pretty good shot of them playing.
They played some really wild movies on the light board.
Zuh?
The feeling that overtakes (hah) you when The Flaming Lips are playing live with confetti and streamers and screamers cannot be accurately described through words, pictures or a lengthy combination of both.
Dance, you aliens!
So thats my experience with the MMF. I encourage anyone in the area to check it out or check out your own local music festivals. Im sure you all know this but you need to support live music. Concerts and t-shirt sales yield much higher returns for artists than CDs. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you ask lots and lots of questions.