While Saturday, May second was a fantastic day at the festival (and is also written about in a previous post), but Sunday was also interesting. Sunday, May third was not nearly as good in terms of music was concerned, but they did have some interesting artists play. The real reason I went on Sunday was to see Pixies, as well as to check out what Fall Out Boy was all about.
Pixies and Fall Out Boy were later on in the day, while Stop Light Observations kicked things off. These guys are a band from South Carolina and had a bit of a country-rock/americanna feel to them. they were very sing/song writer oriented, as well. They opened for Pixies, but unfortunately they were late and didn’t get much time to play. Literally, I think they played like four songs, thanked the audience and left. I was disappointed that they showed up late because they are an unkonw band. Since Sunfest has the curtisy to book unknown acts, the least the act could do is show up on time and play their entier slotted time. Plus for listeners like myself the longer a band plays the more of their flavor you get to hear. Within the time they did have to play they did this really cool song that was all about the library and all the boooks that are within it. I thought this was a very interesting idea to write a song about, because nobody writes songs about books and writings. Really the most famous song that even comes close in this category is “Paperback Writer”. The great news about these guys is, the tunes they did do sounded great, I just wish they’d gotten a few more in.
The day continued with Pixies, who did start on time. These guys are a rather raucous band, but their fans love them. This is the band for people who like extra super loud rock n’ roll, with some punk and metal sounds thrown in. These guys were all right for me, because their music distracted me from the fact that I was roasting in the sun. This band has a fantastic drummer (David Lovering) , as well as their killer bass player. Both musicians handled the band’s punk elements really well. Rhythum is essential in all genres, but it s, besides the anger and seriousness, what really sets punk apart from rock. It seemed like they got a ton of hits in, which is great beecause that’s what the audience came to hear. On a few of their songs they had a sing-along with the audinece. The most memerable one had to have been when the band broke into “Where is My Mind”. This song is so strange because it is like nothing else they did in the set. The thing that makes it so different is the fact that it is an acoustic tune. This band was quite an eye opener, but it caem time for the fest to move on.
I headed on over to the south stage after Pixies were done and saw one of the most interesting musicians I’ve ever seen. They were interesting in terms of their music, but even more so in terms of who they are as a person. I saw none other than, Matisyahu. This man is a hasidic jew who does reggae and hip-hop. He’s certainly unique in this way, but manages to still have huge succsess. This actually works when you think about it. I mean reggae as a genre has this gret peace, love and happiness aspect to it. So then who better to sing it than a man who loves God and respects God’s love for humanity. He also certainly changed the idea of hip-hop in the sense that his is much cleaner than the modern day style of the genre. I’ve got to hand it to the musical arranger of this group (Stu Brooks), because while Matisyahu is singing and rapping the band has to play. To me composing a piece of music to rap is really a difficult thing to do, but Brooks did a fantastic job for the Sunfest set. Plus having the music is great so the audience can go betwen paying attention to Matisyahu, from paying attention to what the band is doing. I really just payed attention to what the band was doing, because there was no rhythmic pattern to his rapping, therefor it just became continuous. Though his lyrics are continous and without rhythum at times, the man has a really high and fantastic voice, which I throughly enjoyed.
At the end of the day I sort of bounced betwen two acts, Fall Out Boy and Boston. Fall Out Boy was who I entended to see, but after a few minutes of them playing bouncy pop I got tired of it and went over to hear Boston. Now Boston had a two hour set, but by the time I gt over there the band only had a few songs left. Boston had this really cool organ heavy sound to a few of their tunes.. Although, like the Stone Temple Pilots these guys don’t have all of their original members anymore. In fact he only original member left in this band is the guitarist, Tom Scholz. He wrote all the band’s material, so really it’s his baby, in a sense. It was a huge sing-along for the last few tunes and I was a little unhappy about the fact that I had not come over and seen these guys for their whole set.
After Bost was finished I headed back over to hear Fall Out Boy. To my suprise when they pulled out their hits they did “Radioactive”. I didn’t know this song was written by them until Sunfest. I actually really like this tune and think it is very interesting. It has these great high parts, but also has this really cool rhythum and instrumentataion behind it. Plus luckily for me it doen’t sound like a bouncy pop song. After this they pulled out “Centuries”. This song is cool, because like “Radioactive it does not sound like a bouncy pop song, but also the lead singer (Joe Trohman) sings in his falsetto voice for the chorus of the tune.
Well the two days I spent at Sunfest were worht it. I’m excited to see who they will book next year. This festival is an all cards on the table festival. Plus with the gorgious waterfront and the great weather it really is a fun time, regardless of how big the crowds are.
