Vampire Weekend, Hold Steady, and More Take Over Seattle
It Happened Last Night
Champagne Champagne / Photo by Alex Crick
Day two brought a welcome performance by local choral rock collection, Fleet Foxes. Sporting Josh Tillman as their new drummer, the bearded group beautifully executed songs from the Sun Giant EP and their new self-titled longplayer. The swarming streets paused to enjoy new and old favorites such as “White Winter Hymnal” and “Mykonos.”
The loveable Hold Steady cheerfully captured the audience's attention. They opened with “Multitude of Casualties” from Separation Sunday, but moved on to play plenty of tracks from their latest release, Stay Positive. Frontman Craig Finn’s merry demeanor inspired the ever-growing audience to dance and sing along.
Things came to a close with a performance from DeVotchKa. Female fans swooned over lead singer Nick Urata’s reverby vocals and romance-novel lyrics, but the entire crowd was intrigued by DeVotchKa’s parade of unique instrumentation (including a sousaphone, accordion, and Theremin). Urata turned his mic to the crowd during the sorrowfully beautiful “How it Ends” to let the them sing the chorus, and sousaphone specialist Jeanie Schroder riled up the audience with hand claps during “Last Push."
The audience was completely smitten with the performance to the point that rogue fans would hop on stage (to the security team’s dismay) and those who remained on the floor were leaping and clapping between shouts of “hey!” on the upbeats. The mix of Spanish, Eastern European, and indie rock influence was the perfect culmination of one of Seattle’s most colorful music celebrations.
Click here to see photos from Day Two of the festival.Click here to read about Day One of the festival.
07.29.08 10:55 AM
I barely made it to the Rock the Bells at Merriweather this past Sunday. I tried with all my might to surprise my man. But alas our plans were twisted in the air as his return from Paris got delayed due to our much needed wind and rain! After he filled me in on the mass vomiting episodes on Air France and the 400 plus crowd of non-us passport holders in the airport, we hopped in our rented mini-cooper and sped down 95 in hopes the Pharcyde wouldn't pass us by. We got there in time to hear Nas murder "IF I Ruled the World. After downing one plastic cup of red sangria, we headed to the backstage to catch the real show. Pos and Dove of De La were chilling anticipating Tribe's performance along with the rest of the 3000 plus crowd. We peeped Jay Electronica, scepter in hand posing for the flicks. Phife stood beside me towel draped over his head while Q-Tip previewed some of his solo tracks which i'm sad to say I'm just not feeling. I still got love for tip though. My photographer friend brought over some dreadlocked dude with a thick mustache to meet me. I later found out it was FatLip from Pharcyde. Tribe killed it. From the front to the back, heads nodded in unison and everyone lost it on "Can I kick It" , ELECTRIC RELAXaION and We got the Jazz. When it was over, we headed back to the dressing room to meet up with our friend to find Redman about to get his cheeba cheeba on. I was so pissed that we missed him and Meth's show which I was told was the beast. I had no doubts remembering the tour they did with Jay Z years ago. There are six more dates left on the Rock the Bells tour. From my own personal experience, I'd advise you to get a damn good seat, stay away from sangria in a plastic cup, and forget your friends and get there early. Oh and bring a towel. seshat