Better late than never, right?
Another festival came to town last weekend and I made a last minute decision to be there for the final day. Wrecking Ball had four stages and over 60 bands gathered for celebrating 25 years of music at The Masquerade. The Wrecking Ball website boasted that stylistically, rock, punk-rock, hardcore, post hardcore, emo, and all of the flavors in between were represented at the festival. I primarily stuck to what I love….
Planning for any festival is essential and listening to the band line-up helps narrow down the music that interests me the most. I chose to attend on Sunday due to a couple of the bands were ‘no brainers’, because I have blogged their songs or I have them on my playlist. Then, I considered the new bands I was excited to explore. Here is the simple compilation of my photos and experiences that rocked my day!
Oh and yes, I had to do the ultimate wrecking ball photo….. don’t judge me. It was just a spontaneous happy moment!
There were the bands, because a festival is all about the bands….right?
My day began with the energy infused….You Blew It from Orlando, Fl.
No festival experience is complete until the guitarist shreds while crowd surfing.
We worked our way closer and then of course this happened!
It was time for a much less intense set. Next came the calm, shy, but talented and thoughtful Frankie Cosmos…
She seemed genuinely surprised at the venue and the audience. She was so shy behind the stage lights and each song was sung with her eyes closed, but she belted the songs out with purpose. I couldn’t help but appreciate her and the apparent camaraderie of her band members. They were having fun, chatting it up between songs and chuckling at who knows what. Here’s a little more about why I wanted to hear her, the back story from a post I did a while back. Oh and I found this one too!
Then, with creativity and poetry power, the band of Girlpool became a force of witty punches and masterful musical presence.
I thought I would share a tune I haven’t already blogged. If you are curious about my other post….here is my post on Girlpool. They were funny discussing the stage they were playing on….’Hell’ at the Masquerade and both chuckled about Girlpool in Hell, and the wild tweets that might come out of it. After their set, I quickly chatted with Cleo about their song writing and she assured me, they (she and Harmony) collaborated together on all of the songs. There is something so raw and interesting about them and I am not alone in my fandom. They had many in the audience singing along and cheering their music.
From there, I took a break to grab some food while waiting on Desaparecidos (yes, I had to check and re-check the spelling). Weirdly, after a yummy food truck dinner, we went to another stage and thought we were up front and ready, but we were at the wrong stage. It was a glorious snafu because the band playing, The Appleseed Cast was truly amazing. They played their hearts out to an appreciative and tight crowd.
I hope you notice the three guitars up front. All three guitarists were talented musicians and the riffs were mind-blowing and full of diversion. I am a new fan of this band from Lawerence, Kansas. You probably already know them due to their eye-popping six albums! The Appleseed Cast plays the kind of jam that is perfect for a weekend and pure listening pleasure. Chris Crisci, and founding member, has warm vocals that add so much to the music, while the drummer never slows his energetic pounding and punctuating of each song. Here’s a track from their 2013 album, Illumination Ritual, “Great Lake Derelict “.
So mesmerized by the music, I couldn’t leave and found that I missed the first few songs of Desaparecidos. Such is a festival with wonderful music distraction…too many bands and not enough time to hear them all.
When we finally arrived at the outdoor stage, they were playing full tilt and the crowd was having a blast. This was as close as we could get…
They played some powerful, pumping music that had heads bobbing throughout the crowd. I have blogged them before so check it out, here. Conor Oberst, of former band Bright Eyes, is the lead singer and his familiar voice belted out ‘fight the establishment’ lyrics. Desaparecidos take their name from the word given to political dissidents who mysteriously disappeared under Augusto Pinochet’s right-wing dictatorship in Chile from 1973-1990 for questioning his and his government’s mode of rule. Their music plays on that theme with passion.
Then, as the sun was setting and the last bands were playing I caught another band that was new to me. Somos, a four piece band from Boston, Mass. They are Michael Fiorentino- Vocals + Bass, Phil Haggerty- Guitar, Justin Hahn- Guitar, and Evan Deges on Drums (check out the photo I caught of him with perfect head swinging hair).
With a new album coming out and a bunch of touring dates this fall, you might want to catch them live. Check them out on Facebook to keep up with their music and shows. If you like the music, you really don’t want to miss them perform. Their Facebook page describes their sound perfectly,
“The Boston band works in catchy, passionate three-minute rock songs recorded with too much punch to be lo-fi, too melodically contoured to be punk.”
So with that last set, I called it a night. Fall is almost here and the music scene is going to be so insane! I hope you’ll stick around and listen with me.
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