George and I are both wrecked from being on our feet all day. Although it is late, we wanted to share more with you before officially calling it a night. George has some phenomenal pictures to post, but I took some quick shots to help you visualize the day.
We used the press area as our meeting place and escape. However, we had to fight for space in the tiny tent and fight for a place to set up our cameras and laptops to bring the festival to you.
George was hard at work most of the day; taking and uploading his pictures.
If George has one weakness, it is screen-printed concert posters. There were literally dozens of different vendors for this kind of specialty item and hundreds to choose from. It was the proverbial kid in the candy store kind of situation.
I had some fun browsing around in the record sale, but I resisted my urge to walk out with my arms full of LPs. Seems that there were plenty of great deals, though.
One highlight for us was the plethora of unique mustaches. George diligently kept a tally whenever there was a few minutes of downtime.
On a more serious note, there were some incredible bands and wonderful people at the festival on Saturday. My personal highlight was Beirut’s beautiful hour-long, horn-heavy set. Zach Condon and crew brought new life to the songs and had the crowd singing, clapping, and crowd-surfing along to their own unique blend of Eastern European folk-influenced rock. The National closed out the night with an incredibly intense set in which the band had the audience roaring in approval through the duration of their time on stage.
Bowerbirds, Cymbals Eat Guitars, The Antlers, Doom, Yeasayer, and Matt & Kim all had great showings as well. I missed some of the bands on the bill, but there isn’t enough time to get everything in, unfortunately. We were very busy throughout the day, but we had a blast. We hope you’ve enjoyed following along. We’re doing our best to keep some good stuff coming your way and we’ll be helping put together a nice rundown for Indy Underground when we return on Monday. I’m going to catch some sleep after I post my interview with the Antlers, but we’ll be back at it in a matter of hours.
Take care and goodnight!
