Backseat Sandbar

I have a confession to make.  For years I would loudly proclaim my opinion that Lexington was vastly inferior to Louisville and that nobody in their right mind would ever want to live there.  Now, my love for Louisville hasn’t waned a bit (I still think it’s the greatest town in America), but Lexington is quickly making a case for being one of the most exciting towns in the Midwest.  With this year’s Boomslang Fest courtesy of WRFL, they are intensely upping the ante.

Boomslang is the follow up to the largely successful FreeKY Fest of last year which brought in national acts like The Apples In Stereo, Jolie Holland, and Mahjongg.  We even raved about it here on Backseat. This year WRFL bulked up the lineup to make it one of the preeminent experimental music festivals in the world with enough experimental psychedelic bands to even make Kenny Bloggins blush.  Before even hearing a single note, I knew going into the fest that I was going to be blown away by the likes of international pioneers like kraut-rock gods Faust, the Brazilian indie-pop masters Os Mutantes, and the viciously brutal Mission of Burma.  Rounding out the bills are some followers of those bands who haven’t missed a beat and are blazing some trails of their own like Atlas Sound (Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox), The Black Angels, Louisville stalwarts Papa M and Rachel Grimes (The Rachels), Bardo Pond, Hair Police, Burning Star Core, and Casino Vs. Japan.

THE CROWD

(It’s past somebody’s bedtime…)

(un-identified band playing in the billiards room)

I made my way to Lexington, but unfortunately missed the set by Rachel Grimes at 2nd Presbyterian Church.  I was told by some photographer friends that it was amazing, and I was even more bummed out.  She was a famed member of The Rachels which is especially interesting because almost every single band at the festival has been giving their best wishes to Jason Noble from the stage in light of his recent diagnosis of cancer (Jason was also an original member of The Rachels).

Since I missed Rachel Grimes’ set, I made my way straight for Busters where I was anxiously awaiting seeing the new place and blissing out on the great music that was on tap for the night.  My only complaint (read: constructive criticism) so far is that it would have been nice if the festival would have stuck to the schedule a bit more, but I got there right after the first band was supposed to start and the show didn’t start for almost 2 hours after that.  This normally would be totally expected (which I hate) and not a problem, but with the show running late it meant that I had to miss Big Fresh at Al’s Bar for the after-party which was a pretty colossal bummer. Oh well, I don’t know if I couldn’ve handled any more rock tonight than I got.

BUSTERS

First up for the night was Casino Vs. Japan who I was not incredibly familiar with, but was pleasantly surprised by.  CvsJ is a one-man wrecking crew of the ambient-minimalist-drone-core variety and he is a hometown boy.  He had only started warming up after his second song when Mr. Bradford Cox joined him from the stage and they performed two songs in collaboration.  I’m guessing this was due to time constraints, but Bradford seemed genuinely mega-stoked to be playing alongside CvsJ.  Unfortunately, CvsJ slinked off the stage after those 2 collaborative songs and left the stage to Bradford aka Atlas Sound.  Mr. Cox, whose other band Deerhunter put out (in my and others’ opinion) the best record of last year entitled Microcastle, then stammered through a few fantastic songs, but seemed totally flustered by the fact that there was such a giant room in Busters which allowed people to talk alot amongst themselves.  He claimed he normally made funny comments between songs, but he couldn’t think over all the talking.  He did leave us with a few gems like when he frustratingly reminded the crowd how much better he was taking their disrespect than they could expect from the Microphones dude.  After an audience member reminded him of that guys real name Bradford said, “Phil Elverum would not dig you guys.  Yeah, he would beat the shit out of you guys.  AND he’d be wearing a sweater too, and your blood would be all over it.”  He then explained that his set difficulties were largely due to the fact that he had been sick previously and spent 3 weeks in bed.  “After laying in bed for 3 weeks, everything just seems so pointless, you know, but not in a bad way.”  Thanks for the clarification there Bradford.  Regardless of any personal problems, his set was gorgeous and a few highlights were the title track to his new record “Logos”, a new tune which was a reverb-heavy appregiated drone freakout, and his last song which was supposed to be an Elizabeth Cotten song, but since he forgot how to play it he said he had decided to make one up on the spot and it was just about as good as everything else he played.  This means that he is either a master of his craft or that his songs are easy to create.  I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he is great at what he does because both of his LPs Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel and the newer Logos are fantastic.  All in all, it was a brilliant set which only confirmed my believe that he is more than just the product of modern hipster trends; he’s the real deal.

CASINO Vs JAPAN & ATLAS SOUND

After Atlas Sound, the Louisville band Parlour played.  Although they seemed to really struggle through a few songs, their giant ensemble of instruments had a few folks dancing and really enjoying what they had to offer.  It was hard for me to get into the set too much because I was in great need of a vegetarian sub from Jimmy Johns and I was pretty anxious to see the next band, none other than the larger than life Mission of Burma.

PARLOUR

Now, I have another admission here, I am not as well versed in the Mission to Burma catalog as I’d like to be, but that didn’t make their set one bit less enjoyable and confoundingly great.  I tend to write off bands who are on the reunion circuit, but there was no chance that MoB were going to let me do that.  They came out and within the first 5 seconds I was won over.  They hit and screamed through every song like they were still 20 years old and had more energy than pretty much any young band I’ve ever seen.  There is a brutality to the Boston punk scene of the early 80s which they are largely responsible for, and it hasn’t lost a bit of its edge.  Roger Miller and Co. shared singing duties as Miller led the group through one fist pounding punk manifesto after another.  Miller’s masochistic guitar playing is obviously largely influential on people like Thurston Moore and legions of punk rock wannabes, and he staked his claim on the punk rock crown and made it obvious why MoB is considered punk royalty.  In case some folks weren’t 100% convinced of their mastery of punk anthems, about 20 folks who couldn’t believe their eyes and ears lost all sense of humanity and formed a pretty ridiculous drunken mosh pit.  The annoyingness of being elbowed in the back was completely off-set by the happiness you could see in each of their faces as the screamed along to every word from their favorite band that they never thought they’d get to see.  They closed the set out with the incredibly exhilarating “Revolver” and the whole crowd had their fists in the air and it couldn’t have been better if it was 1982 in a packed Boston club.  My ears were ringing a bit after the set, but I thought it only fitting from the band that broke up due to the hearing loss of their guitar player.  I can’t express to you how epic this set was.  I have a hard time thinking that this set will be topped by anyone in the near future, let alone the rest of the weekend, but I still have yet to see Os Mutantes(!!!).

MISSION OF BURMA

Boomslang might have just saved the best for last tonight with kraut-rock patent holders Faust.  Many would claim that this band is the most influential German band of all time, if not one of the most influential bands of the past 30 years.  They, alongside Can and Kraftwerk, were largely responsible for the experimental-pop boom of the 80s.  There is a good possibility that without Faust, there would be no Here Come The Warm Jets and that is just not a world I would want to be a part of.  Faust came packing heat (and a cement mixer?) and reminded us that your rock bones don’t have to break after 40.  They seemed completely vital and progressive as any experimental band I’ve ever seen and were loud and grating in all the right ways.  With each song, they seemed to spiral further and further into insanity even having a cymbal stand break so the drummer threw the crash at one of the guitar players.  Craziness!  I was suddenly struck that I will never rock as hard as these Velvet Underground loving Germans (who are middle-aged).  I’m ok with this.

FAUST