Curtains On does P4K Music Festival 2008, Day 2 - Sat Jul 19, 2008

The Usual Suspects

Day 1 was ok, but the real fun for me started on Day 2. My initial idea for this festival was to check out as many bands I hadn't seen live before, but soon I realize that I have seen most of the bands that are playing this festival, so I ended up seeing the usual (good) suspects. I am not complaining at all... some of these bands are some of my favorite bands these days and I don't mind seeing them over and over again. But the day started with a newbie to my ears: Jay Reatard,


The hype is deserved. Jay Reatard is great punk/rock. Not my thing tho, but the guy rocks hard. He barely stopped to tune his guitar in between songs, and all his interaction with us, besides giving us a middle finger when he was done, was to tell us really fast and shouting the name of the next song he was about to play. No time for breathing.

Caribou, aka the best drums around, were next,


Seriously. You want to see the best drums live? Go to see these guys right now. This was my third time with them and I don't mind getting together with them again. After some ten minutes of technical problems with a keyboard, Dan Snaith took us into his very alive pop/rock showing off his talents: on drums, guitar, flute and keyboard (plus being a Mathematician!)... what else do you want?

Have you heard of this very hyped new band Fleet Foxes? If you read Pitchfork, of course you have. This is what they look like:


A very positive (and overrated I think) review on Pitchfork of their debut album must have been the reason for a big crowd to be checking out a band at an early 3pm. Unfortunately that time slot was not the right one for them. Fleet Foxes have pretty nice tunes, and really pretty, but that was not the kind of music I wanted to hear outdoors, sweating and under the sun. I thought FF sounded like somewhere between My Morning Jacket and Band of Horses, but after yesterday I am gonna have to add one more band to the mix: Grizzly Bear. As of now, I love all those three bands, and instead of being a good thing to hear them so much in Fleet Foxes music, it actually annoys me. Maybe we can have a good time another day, foxes.

Well, time for lunch and then back to the party... I was blown away by Dizzee Rascal:


I have the good Boy in da Corner, but I need to get his new album in one of the many tents the festival has selling CDs and vinyls asap. Yesterday's awesomeness taught me the new material has a lot of fun in it and that I should not miss him next time he comes to play a small venue around NYC. I had missed Dizzee Rascal's live shows in the city way too many times that it was fair I finally gave him a chance. It actually worked the other way around... He finally gave me the chance of seeing him live and I still can't thank him enough. I know what to play in my next party in my apartment.

Next, I overheard Vampire Weekend's set from very very far, and then heard the goodness of !!! off Myth Takes plus some new boring songs they were trying on us:

After deciding that !!! not only recently lost one key member but the soulness he brought along to the band, I went to see one of my favorite artists, Bradford Cox with his solo project: Atlas Sound,


Last time I saw Atlas Sound, Bradford was on stage with four more people, giving a full body to the music on his debut album as a solo project, Let the Blind Lead (...), and making its songs sound way less ambient. I told the friends I was with that what they were going to hear was good but nothing like what they had heard on record already, and I ended up being wrong. Bradford got on stage solo, and only with his mic and some electronic stuff sounded very much like his album does. As Atlas Sound, Bradford played several songs I hadn't heard before that he might have posted on his blog recently, plus some three key tracks from Let the Blid Lead (...). He made us wish we must had been on something...

... and if we had, it would have been perfect because Animal Collective's subliminal live experience was next:


I don't think I need to say anything else about this band... having called them one of my very favorite and very representative bands of this decade should be more than enough to give you an idea. Ok, maybe I should say that they are still playing Panda Bear's Comfty in Nautica and insist one more time that their new songs are seriously out of this planet. [more photos]

Caribou @ Bowery Ballroom - Fri Mar 28, 2008

Brad Weber

I heard yesterday that Brad Weber, the drummer of Caribou's live shows, fell from a ladder and fractured his wrist. I have no idea how Dan Snaith, aka Caribou, is gonna replace him, because to me he is the best drummer I have ever seen live, displacing LCD Soundsystem's Pat Mahoney from his throne, and together with multi-instrumentalist Dan Snaith, the heart of Caribou's show. Seriously, you can't take your eyes off from Brad while he hits those drums like if it was the last time he is going to, and man, he enjoys it so much that makes you wish you were able to do it too.


Before the show started I was already thinking all the good things I was going to write about Dan Snaith's live show, since this is the second time I see him and no record on this blog was around, but then Brad took the protagonism of the show as he started playing... let's skip then the usual admiration for my fellow Math Ph.D. musician. Besides, I think most of you already know and/or have read how genius and capable of giving life to his very computarized music Dan Snaith is.

The show started right away with one of my very favorite tracks on Andorra, Sundialing. Andorra is Caribou's latest album and the one that introduced me to Dan's music, but I don't think it is his finest to date. The Milk of Human Kindness is for me his truly masterpiece, so far, and off from such a great album Caribou continued their show with Brahminy Kite, without stopping. If you happen to have The Milk with you right now, please play that song and tell me whether you know someone on earth who can reproduce those drums live. Well, Brad Weber and Dan Snaith, together, they can and they will make you feel you owe them more than the $25 you paid to be in the same room with them.


The show continued with an ok version of Melody Day, which live doesn't sound as powerful to me as it does on record, and a gift to old-school fans from the era of Manitoba, Skunks, off the album Up In Flames. They played a couple more songs of that album, Bijoux and Crayon, after the standout Yeti from The Milk, and over all did a great job taking as back and forth all along Snaith's discography. They also played After Hours and She is the One from Andorra, and for my pleasure, A Final Warning, Bees, Hello Hammerheads and Barnowl from The Milk (yes!).

Barnowl was particularly amazing. The bassist and second guitarist kicked really hard giving us lots of distortion and feedback while the awesome double drummers were taking care of the beat like no others. Dan and Brad would hit their drum sets pretty much in a complementary way... when one was hitting the other one was about to do it too. It was perfect.


My only complain would be that since the drums were up in front of the stage, as they should be for this band, the bass was making vibrate the hell out of it and the noise coming from that vibration sometimes would arruine Dan's vocals, especially during Melody Day. So ok, not everything was perfect... but almost.

I wish Caribou had played some chill tracks from Up in Flames and from Start Braking My Heart, like Dundas, Ontario and Children Well Play Together, or some hip-hop influenced tracks from The Milk, but they did not, and they probably won't. Their show's strength is precisely what they do most of the time and it will be right there in front of you... it will be two unbelievable drummers showing you how to get it done. [photos of the show]

♫♫♫♫♫

Were you at the show? How did you like it?

Caribou Links: Stream Andorra, Official Website, MySpace, Wiki, YouTube, at Merge Records.