Beach House won Day Three. Followed shortly by Milk Music. (Of course, that’s like when the Lakers destroy the Pacers or how the Yankees keep winning, but we’ll put that aside for now.
Beach House’s Victoria Legrand was in full-on Patti Smith in a black jacket mode, and the band’s geometric set was both retro and modern. They sounded really fantastic, though. It was one of those situations where the live show does sound just like the record, with the emotion turned up.
The day was full of surprises because I was less familiar with so many of these bands. A Lull was romantically compelling. Thee Oh Sees were like Scooby and Shaggy having an especially colorful trip. Dirty Beaches are still confounding too me, but though it was fun to watch them make noise. Milk Music were phenomenal. I could’ve watched them all day. Until Unknown Mortal Orchestra started playing, I had forgotten how much I listened to that album when it came out. They were really, really tight and fun. Ty Segall = wild, Jurassic stomp. King Krule’s genre-polyglot singing was, frankly, haunting. He was incredibly out of place at this festival, which may not have had a single slow tempo before his set.
Also… It’s easy to see why Lady Gaga showed-up to watch Kendrick Lamar. He’s got a great connection with the crowd, and is really sharp. In fact, it just occurred to me that he didn’t have a hype-man at all. Most rappers prefer to have a little support out there, but he pulled it off on his own. Iceage look so sweet when they’re not tearing shit up. Chavez have still got it. The Men were probably the most professional band of the day. They came out and played their songs very, very well. Which was great. I skipped Real Estate. Oneohtix Point Never failed to break the mold. Araabmuzik must be one of a kind. It’s one thing to listen to his music and dig the technical brilliance and originality of his beats, but to see him create that music live on-stage with a couple of MPCs is a whole other planet of incredible. The Field did break the mold, bringing a drummer and a bass/keyboard player with him. Axel spent barely a moment in meditation before breaking right into the dance-worthy stuff. Finally, you’ve gotta give Vampire Weekend credit, they play the heck out of those songs, and their set is like a technicolor carnival of bouncy rhythms and falsetto voices.