@ZackTeibloom Rarely do two days of festivaling feel like enough, but that was a lot of fun packed into one little weekend. More than three fun’s. It felt like 8 or 9. I’m spent. It’s one of those, “I’m wearing a sweatshirt even though it’s not cold out because it’s comforting” kinds of days after a festival and I even made a good decision last night.*

The layout, amount of stages, crowd, types of bands etc. was eerily similar to Pitchfork. Not a bad thing. The two days were wildly different. The first day was perfect weather and my birthday, the second day was recovery, acceptance of the weather and then diving back in head first.

Friday was everything I wanted from my birthday. From the glorious 10 am brunch** to wall-to-wall shows from The Laughing (8.5) and LAX (8.8) early on to ending the night with blazing Cool Kids (9.4) and Pharcyde (9.0) with a whole lot in between.

What I really remember from the in between was the mosh pit at 7 Seconds, lots of sandwiches, booing MC Chris’ antisemitism, the happy meals***, the giggle fit at Todd Barry that made it’s way into the sound mix. Barry loving my over-laughing and Eric’s laughing at my laughing, but telling Rob to shut up. Catching just enough Yeasayer and Ratatat and smashing pumpkins**** on the way home, trying in vain to get the energy of way too much free red bull out of my system.

Saturday was the obligatory “rain as much as humanly possible” day we’ve now had at every major late summer/fall festival this year (Lolla, ACL, Voodoo, FFF) but once we embraced the rain and mud, it turned out even better than Friday for those brave enough to stay.

On the multi-purpose orange stage,***** Black and White Years kicked things off strong as I sipped tea to recover from being up until 5 a.m. with a heartbeat akin to the opening of “15 step.” It Will Destroy you painted sound scapes that perfectly embodied the rainy day feeling, but things really got kicked up a few notches on the blue stage.

The crowd weaving, extraordinary free-styling Astronautalis is a one-man wrecking crew with a mic and had us yell out words for him to freestyle like it was an improv comedy show. His “asians, lost sack lunch, syphilis, squirrels and the Twilight Zone” flow killed as he did all set, never staying on stage for longer than it took to press the next button on his laptop.

Alaska in Winter brought a keytar, an array of Russian hats and a fun one-man band in the rain as I acquired a poncho (Thanks Rob.) The rain stopped just long enough for Neiliyo to officially take the hype-man crown from Flava Flav****** at Car Stereo (Wars) as I watched proudly on-stage, dancing like… (Well, I’d say dancing like I’d never danced before, but that’s not true. I do this on a bi-weekly basis. Dancing like I always dance on stage.)

The rain picked up again and hardly let up the rest of the afternoon/evening, but we avoided it by hotboxing a poncho, the hard rock of Lucero and Mission of Burma and reveled in the one-two brilliance of Crystal Castles and Of Montreal.

More full reviews coming tonight/tomorrow as Chris gets around to editing pictures******* and I get my mojo back. When’s the next festival?

Top 5:

• Of Monreal 9.5
• Cool Kids 9.4
• Crystal Castles 9.2
• Astonautalis: 9.1
• Pharcyde 9.0

*I’m calling NOT taking Molly during Crystal Castles/Of Montreal a good decision, but looking at the face of the guy who offered it to me during the strobe light, screaming mind-melt that was the Crystal Castles set, I kinda wish I’d made a bad decision.

**Huge thanks to the new den crew for hosting and to everyone who got up super early on a Saturday and brought food and drinks. Also, bonus points to Eric for drawing this masterpiece to the left.

***You could get a beer and a shot for one drink ticket and they called it a happy meal. I’d like to institute this everywhere that alcohol is served from now on. Cheap beer and a shot for the price of one. Tell bartenders about this. We can make it happen.

****Every early November, I make it a point to smash pumpkins that are on display, but not carved after Halloween. Why are you putting your failure on display? Halloween came and went and you blew it. Saving it for Thanksgiving? Think again.

*****The Orange stage was brilliantly divided in two so the next band could set-up, allowing minimal lag time between sets on the main stage. This needs to catch on as well.

******Huge step for Neiliyo, even though it wasn’t his show. I believe in his solo material, but if he ever wants to be a hype man with a stadium touring hip hop act, I’m confident he could pull it off.

*******Andy may be slow on his feet post-ankle surgery, but at least he doesn’t run on CPT like Chris.

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