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FYF Fest 09/05/2009 @ Los Angeles State Historic Park (?!) “Hipster Woodstock”

F Yeah!

This was an obscene amount of fun.

A few of Gabe’s buddies hit up my apartment and chilled for a while, and we grabbed some hot wings on Colorado Blvd., then we hopped on the Yellow line from my apartment to Chinatown to see one of the most insane lineups of music I’ve heard of in a while.

We get there to encounter a gigantic line for Will Call, but some crafty line cutting manouvres later, and finding the shorter $8 ticket line, we finally made it in.

First on our agenda was fuzzed out, psych garage, “beach punk” of Wavves. His set was short but sweet. His drummer had an epic mane of metal hair, and they were down to rock. The droney, haunting, high pitched harmony yells were a great additional texture for the songs, and the crowd was super into it!!

The next in line was to be Dan Deacon, but he canceled last minute. Shit. Oh well. He was replaced by garage punk outfit “Carbonas” who I enjoy in recorded form but the vocals seemed a bit flat live. This fact was rectified by their pretty decent musicianship. It still rocked!

We stayed at the “Oak” stage for local heroes Mika Miko, who rampaged through a frenetic, rockin’ set. One of the two female vocalists has this amazing red telephone that they have amplified, and they wail through it! One of the girls also had a lust-worthy T.V. Yellow Gibson SG!

One of the arguably best sets was next- Me and the guys pushed forward to be in the pit for my all time favorites, the Thermals. Hutch wore an amazing Sleater Kinney shirt to fully rep the Oregon vibe, and they blew us away with an incredible set full of favorites old and new. Before they launched into their first song, Hutch and I went back and forth bantering about his mic check noises. A few of my smartass replies put a smile onto his face- and he replied, kindly enough, by playing a set that put a smile on mine. The pit got pretty crazy and we kicked up a ton of dust. Dancing and singing caused a problem in that when we left the pit, my entire being was coated in a film of dust, including my mouth and teeth. Gross! Worth it.

Dazed, dazzled, and starting to feel exhausted, we boldly tread towards the “Redwood Stage” where we would ultimately finish our night.

Hardcore stalwarts, “Fucked Up” took the stage and instantly a gigantic slam dance mosh circle materialized. The brutality and violence of the music instantly transmitted to the blood/sweatsoaked crowd, and it surged out of them in an orgy of flailing bodies, human catapaultings, stage dives, and what looked to be fights. Frontman Damian Abraham’s vitrolic screams, and over the top showmanship helped make this a memorable ruckus indeed, and he had it right when he did an improvisational rap declaring the Fuck Yeah Fest “Hipster Woodstock, coz we’re playing hipster punk rock”. Impressive stuff. My ears are still ringing!

Next up for me was the night’s second biggest disappointment, following the Dan Deacon cancellation. Tim & Eric of Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job! Took to the stage amidst an atmosphere of anticipation. I find their CD pretty entertaining, but they didn’t play anything I recognized, and their presence was a bit flat. I wasn’t too sad to see their set end.
They made way for No Age, another band of LA heroes. Their set reverberated with musical skill, and there was an amazing amount of cans being used as showers… It was raining soda and cheap beer and the effect was visually stunning! They played proficiently and it was a really good set.

Finally, we pushed forward to the pit for Black Lips, which ended up being the perfect cap to a pretty perfect day! The pit became a wall of humanity that bobbed, weaved, and pulsated in unison. Crowd surfing, total loss of personal space, bumping and grinding ensured that everybody will have gotten their quota for human contact for the foreseeable future. Their set was rowdy, and totally brilliant. They played a mix of favorites spanning most of their career, and “Bad Kids” might have been track of the day. Energetic, enthusiastic, and unstoppable.
When the dust settled, we were exhausted, and we had to take a cab home because the last train had departed 5 minutes prior to us arriving at the station… But the general consensus was, that despite our exhaustion, we were sad it was over. We were thoroughly rocked.
Thanks FYF Fest, see you next year!