The annual Forecastle Festival in Louisville, Kentucky wrapped up late Sunday evening (technically it was early Monday morning), to a crowd of just over ten thousand people who fought through three days of sweltering temperatures to see any number of the one-hundred plus bands that were on the bill, including headliners and jam band road warriors Widespread Panic and alternative rock pioneers the Smashing Pumpkins – or what is left of the band. I only attended the third and final day, but I was able to witness astounding performances from indie rockers Spoon, indie-folksters She & Him and former Nickel Creek gal, Sara Watkins. My night ended on the highest of notes, with a mind-boggling experience (to say the least) from the kings of psychedelia, the Flaming Lips.
Just before the Lips took the stage last night, founder JK McKnight spoke briefly about the festival’s history, which dates back to 2002 when it was more of a small gathering in Tyler Park and as he stated, “featured more bands than attendees.” Since the beginning, Forecastle has played host to over 350 bands, 90 artists, 110 non-profit organizations and environmental activists like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Christopher Childs.
The festival has also seen a number of venue changes in that time, like Cherokee Park in 2005 and the Mellwood Arts and Entertainment Center in 2006. But perhaps it was the move in 2007 to the Riverfront Belvedere complex when the festival began to really take off. Now that they’ve found a new home in the magnificent Waterfront Park nestled along on the Ohio River, one can only assume that they have finally secured a place among the elite outdoor midwestern music events like Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza. As Wayne Coyne put it last night, “I hope this festival continues for 100 years.”
My Forecastle experience actually began shortly after 3:30 pm, when I was walking through the main gates and heard the angelic voice of Sara Watkins off in the distance. She was playing the ukulele and belting out an emotional cover of Linda Ronstadt’s “Different Drum.” I actually divided my time equally between 500 Miles to Memphis and Watkins set, which for the most part included songs from her 2009 debut album like “Any Old Time”, some songs from her Nickel Creek past like “Hop High My Lulu Gal” and some covers like the John Hartford classic, “Long Hot Summer Day”, which she ended with and dedicated to the Ohio River, despite it being written about the Illinois River. Meanwhile, over on the East Stage, Cincinnati’s hometown country-punk heroes 500 Miles to Memphis, ran through mostly new material from their 2010 release, We’ve Built Up to Nothing, while occasionally throwing in the classics from their 2007 debut, Sunshine In A Shot Glass.
Up next on the main stage after Watkins, was Seattle’s Minus the Bear, a band I literally new nothing about. Although I was clearly out of the loop and had never heard any of their material, I was quite impressed with the high level of experimentation going on and their use of electronic loops and loud guitars. The exact same thing can be said for Atlanta’s Death on Two Wheels, who were playing on the East Stage after 500 Miles. Although unfamiliar, I left their show not so much as an instant fan, but to the point that I think these are bands I have to keep on my radar.
I like to think that life and music are in a lot of ways very similar. You can go to all kinds of great lengths to be prepared for just about anything that may be thrown your way, and you can even tell yourself to expect the unexpected, but can you honestly ever really be prepared for that thing, that emotional, moving moment in your life, that just hits you like a ton of bricks? On Sunday afternoon, I learned that, no, you definitely cannot be prepared for this moment. This moment I’m referring to was the performance of She & Him.
I was quite familiar with the beautiful and breath-taking Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, having heard their two albums, and even having seen a bit of their performance at Bonnaroo last month. But in all my years of concert attending, never in a matter of a minute or two has a band exceeded my expectations so highly. There’s really nothing I can say about this show that could make you understand just how it felt. This show was simply brilliant and truly immaculate. For seventy-five minutes, Zooey’s voice (with more soul than the word “soul” itself) channeled throughout the area of the main stage. From the opening number ”I Thought I Saw Your Face Today”, to a couple songs out of Ward’s catalogue, to to the encore that featured covers of “Roll Over Beethoven” (which Ward sang most of) and “I Put A Spell on You” to everything in between, every second was pure musical bliss. At one point during the show, Ward himself even said that this show was “not too shabby for our first time here.” I happen to agree with him. I also believe that during their last number, which only featured Zooey singing and Ward playing quietly on the guitar, that they did indeed cast a spell on the audience. But by the time anyone could realize this, both Zooey and Ward had left the stage, where for the next two or three minutes, the chords that Ward had played on his guitar continued to repeat through a small looping device.
As hard as I imagined that it would be to top what I just witnessed, one band did just that, although in a much different way. Led by Britt Daniel, Austin’s Spoon (backed by a Louisville-based horn section) ran through mostly selections from their more recent albums, especially 2010′s Transference and 2007′s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. Despite it being their first show in the city in about five years, they kept the old fan favorites to a minimum, only playing a handful of these like the opener “The Beast and Dragon, Adored”, “I Turn My Camera On” and “I Summon You” – all from 2005′s Gimme Fiction – and ”Jonathon Fisk” from 2002′s Kill the Moonlight. At times they were more experimental (“The Ghost of You Lingers”, they also covered The Damned’s “Love Song”), while other times they remained a bit more poppy (“You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb”, “Black Like Me”) but all in all, and with the addition of the horn section, their songs came to life and created a sound that I was not expecting. Their show next month at the Madison in Covington should easily be one of the best tickets in town this year.
Even before the Flaming Lips were scheduled to take the stage at 10:30 pm, front man Wayne Coyne could be seen wandering all around the stage, conducting the crew and making sure every aspect was perfectly in place for what is one of the most complex setups of any band I’ve ever seen. It was a familiar sight still fresh in my memory, as I’d just seen them for the first time last month at Bonnaroo, so it felt good to see the giant rainbow and the two giant disco balls again. Before I knew it, 10:30 had come and gone, and it was actually nearing 11 pm before they would even take the stage. The lights went off, and then came the opening notes and a lit up psychedelic rainbow. The entire band (minus Coyne) had emerged from inside the rainbow, with Coyne lagging behind, waiting to be tossed out into the crowd in his bubble. Two groups of young, female dancers graced the side stage areas, all dressed up in neon orange jumpsuits. Smoke machines, giant balloons and confetti all filled the stage and sky, and smothered anyone in the audience nearby. After a few minutes of crowd surfing, Coyne was rolled back onto the stage in front of the rainbow, where a video showed a kind of psychedelic, neon yellow cartoon woman acting out the motions as if she were giving birth. Coyne, inside his now-deflating bubble, acted as if he were exiting the womb and being born into the world.
Although the Lips came on about thirty minutes late, they still played a ninety minute set, which featured the fan favorites like “She Don’t Use Jelly”, “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” and the closer “Do You Realize?”, but actually featured a larger selection than normal of newer material from their album Embryonic. And of course, what Lips show would be complete without Coyne ranting and raving between songs, saying things like “Tell Muhammed Ali we all say hi” and “Spoon is backstage smoking a lot of pot, so everyone else should do the same.”
