Thursday…

Worn out but happy we got up early to get to the Found Magazine Party at the Red 7. We tried to get there early because we were worried about getting in (I don’t know why) but we had a terrible time parking and ended up missing the first few acts. We did make it in time for The Tallest Man on Earth who was brilliant. He snaked his way around the stage, crooning his off kilter folk songs to an enthusiastic crowd. We moved outside to see Human Highway, Nick Diamonds’ new project. They played with a band called Magic who they’re on tour with. Some terrible comedian came on next to introduce the Hard Lessons. I’m not sure if he was trying to be terrible or if he really was just bad. The Hard Lessons rocked pretty hard. They’re a husband and wife duo with a drummer that plays old school blues rock. The guitarist got crazy at the end of the show and climbed around on the supports for the tent. After them was Lucero who were surprisingly tight and engaging.

The Hold Steady closed out the party. We’d come mostly to see them, thinking we couldn’t get in to most of their other shows. They played a killer set, as always. The crowd was going crazy, shouting lyrics and jumping around in pure joy. There were two old couples standing next to us in the front row. I mean old, they had to be in their 70’s. I felt a little bad for them because I’m not sure if they realized the crowd would be so rambunctious. My favorite part of the set was when Craig Finn pointed at the four of them during the line of “Stay Positive” that goes “The kids at the shows, they’ll have kids of their own.”

We left to get some food then headed to the Central Presbyterian Church to see Grizzly Bear. We caught the end of the set by Girls, a fuzz-pop band from San Francisco. Their sound got lost in the church and was mostly muddy and unimpressive. They were followed by The Rural Alberta Advantage who were contrastingly totally impressive. They played lo-fi folk songs with heart and power that resonated beautifully in that venue. They ended their set by walking down the middle aisle and playing a “goodnight song” without mics. Grizzly Bear was also super impressive. The generally sparser arrangements on their new album came out like a dream in the expansive church. They played some new favorites like “Two Weeks” and included classics like “Knife” and their cover of “He Hit Me (and it Felt Like a kiss)”. The church was a great choice but almost too nice as I think I passed out a couple times due to exhaustion.

We went from the church straight to the Radio Room for the Sub Pop showcase. They had terrrrrrrrible sound all night. Vetiver sounded flat and boring and Blitzen Trapper was mixed like it was a hip hop show. We stayed for a few songs, I thought that even with the bad sound “Furr” would be decent, but it was caught in the same muddy hole that the rest of the songs were in. Feeling slightly tired we decided to leave instead of suffer through the rest of Blitzen Trapper and hope that the Handsome Furs sounded better.