Some undisclosed personal reasons have kept me from attending the first two days of the Forecastle Festival in Louisville, but fortunately I’ll be heading down there in the morning to cover the last day of the festival. I’ve never been to the Waterfront Park in Louisville, so not only am I looking forward to spending a nice warm afternoon taking in the beautiful scenery nestled along the Ohio River, I’m also excited to see a lot of bands I’ve been wanting to see for awhile and maybe even stumble upon some things that aren’t in my planned schedule.
I can tell you that I’m most excited about what will be just my second Flaming Lips show, although I’m not really happy that Against Me! is playing at the same time. Spoon has been one of the more consistent and I think better indie rock bands over the past decade or so, but I’ve really only been listening to them for a few years now, and I’m just excited to see them (if not more) than the Lips. I’m also hoping to finally see Ted Leo and the Pharmacists (although their set overlaps Spoon’s) and it looks like I’ll get to see the entire She & Him set (at Bonnaroo last month, other conflicts only allowed me to catch a few songs of their set – The National was that conflict).
There’s also this weird thing I’ve been hearing about called Cirque Berzerk, an L.A. based punk rock freak show with scary looking clowns, acrobatics and I think some fire pyrotechnic type stuff, and a lot, lot more. There’s also a bunch of bands that I don’t know too much about but have only read up on, and I think after seeing bands like Company of Thieves, Morning Teleportation, The Ravenna Colt, Jukebox the Ghost, The Pass, Death on Two Wheels, Vandaveer, and Dawn Landes and the Hounds, that I’ll be going home with a handful of new musical favs.
Of course I can’t forget the beautiful Sara Watkins, formerly of Nickel Creek, and a couple bands who’ll be representing the Cincinnati area, like 500 Miles to Memphis and newcomers Pop Empire.
Check back on Monday for a full review of what happened Sunday at Forecastle, including lots of pictures.