Saturday…

The last day was finally here. We decided to kick it off slow at a free festival in a park called Mess With Texas. It didn’t turn out to be so slow. Cut Off Your Hands started and played some solid rock songs to a scattering of kids sitting on the lawn. Team Robespierre and The Death Set were up next. Team Robespierre started to set up their instruments in front of the stage on the lawn and some of us wandered up to get a closer look. They started the set by asking everyone on the lawn if they wanted to “come learn how to ruin your life” and launched the high energy clusterf*** that was their set. The keyboard stand broke about 30 seconds into the first song and it became clear that they were all a bunch more intoxicated than the crowd. The broken keyboard stand became a launching pad for anyone who was crowd surfing whether they liked it or not. The set featured a lot of yelling the line “Motherf***ing Death Set!” and crowd surfing a probably very confused nine-year old deaf boy. He seemed to have lots of fun at it though and the crowd was very careful to keep him safe and put him down gently. His dad looked really proud of him. The heartwarming mess ended in the only way it could have, with a lot of puking from the singer of the band.

The Death Set was crazy but considerably less so as they played form stage and kept most of their antics confined to its borders. The singer did find time to climb the supports and the guitarist crowd surfed on the knot of probably less than 50 people, but all in all it seemed lax compared to Team Robespierre. King Kahn and the Shrines threw down their dirty garage rock/funk next followed by a blast your ears set from Cursive. We walked downtown after that set, just to make sure that we could get in to a party to see Chairlift later on.

We did get in, easily and we probably could’ve stayed at the park longer but instead we saw Loney, Dear for a second time. They had less sound trouble this time but still weren’t as impressive as I’d imagined they might be. Their sort-of endearing Swedish demeanor gave me a positive impression anyway. Titus Andronicus rocked out next but the crowd was too sparse to make the set in any way meaningful. They put their heart out though and props to them, I imagine that gets harder and harder for bands as the festival wears on. Chairlift was after them and definitely worth it even though they only did four songs. They played my two favorites (“Planet Health” and “Bruises”) from the album Does You Inspire You that is getting re-released by Columbia later in April. I discovered that there is more than blatant sexuality running through their music. Their singer is a “superbabe”.

It was time for our nightly break. This one took a little extra time. We tried to get back to Emo’s for Efterklang at the Agency Group party but were thwarted by the badge line and made it in just in time for An Horse. They were ok, kind of like Tegan and Sara from Australia. They were followed by Voxtrot, Austin’s own, who put together a strong set. They seemed a little unprepared as the singer broke two(!) strings on his guitar in the same song and didn’t have a back up. We left halfway through and ran off to the Mohawk to see the end of the Panache party. We saw Health first, who I’ve seen before and were fairly unimpressive a second time though still interesting. Monotonix was next and closing the night. They were the real reason we’d came and well worth it.

Right when they went on I suddenly had a ton of energy I hadn’t had before. I don’t know where they found it in me but I couldn’t help but smile at the hilarious antics that made up their set. It started with a 10 minute drum solo due to some guitar issues during which the lead singer dispensed with the formalities and took off most of his clothes. They climbed on everything they could reach and made general mayhem. I don’t really remember any songs but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that the drummer crowd surfed on his kick drum while the rest of his drum kit was held up around him for him to play as he drifted around. Amazingly, he kept the beat. After a finale where everyone on the floor in front of the stage was ordered to sit down, the singer screamed “OUTSIDE!!!” and led the cheering crowd to the street where he climbed a street sign and made odd movements with his arms. Quieting the crowd again from his perch in a streetside tree-box, promising “SHHHH! IT”S GOING TO BE SPECIAL!” The crowd waited expectantly until he jumped in the air yelling “THANK YOU VERY MUCH!” at which point the crowd converged on him with hugs and congratulations.

It was a good end to the week.