Monday, September 28, 2009

death to the sun (9/26)

Death to the Sun was nothing short of incredible. Much thanks to Ricardo from This Heart Electric for organizing such an enjoyable day of music and hard hanging out. The venue was amazing, the line-up was loud and diverse, the beer was cheap, and before we knew it we'd spent 13 hours watching bands and people.

(click images for larger versions)

American Legion


American Legion


Miami's American Legion is a pretty big place, complete with a sizeable bar and huge, beautiful backyard facing Biscayne Bay. There were so many places to hang out (on the steps out front, in the lobby, the bar/lounge, an indoor "patio" area where the bands ended up playing after a brief visit from the cops, the yard and bay front) and all of them were consistently packed. That's another thing that made this such a success: the turn out (cheap booze and no cover probably didn't hurt). By the end of the night there were several complete crowd turnovers with about a 1/3 of the audience sticking around for most of the show/bands...pretty great considering there were (rough, conservative estimate) probably close to 300 people in and out the whole day.

Space Voodoo Crystal
Space Voodoo Crystal


Space Voodoo Crystal opened the show and set the bar pretty high : Twinkle-melody by way of twitchy booty beats and freestyles aimed at the bay. Apparently this was their first performance with an MC and he did a pretty good job maintaining his flow and conjuring hooks/choruses when appropriate. Much like Sonic Chicken 4 the other night, if the context of the performance were a little different (middle of the night when everyone's good and sauced vs. 3PM) crowd response might have been a little more high energy, but as the opening act it was their duty to warm people up and heads were bobbing more towards the end of their set than the beginning. They've uploaded their demo on Mediafire so here's that. There's a bit more of an ethereal/spaced-out vibe to the recorded material than to the hip-hop-psych style of their performance.

Ouija

After two-piece garage rockers Ouija, the cops showed up and asked for the show to be moved inside. Though this caused a slight delay, it was probably for the best. It's our experience that, for some reason, live music proves to be so much more immersive of an experience indoors. That's not to say it can never work outside or that an exotic locale won't enhance a performance, but a combination of acoustics and having a clearly defined enclosed space sucks you in just that much more.

biscayne bay


Fishing, however, is always done best near the sea.

Danny Denim
Danny Denim

Little Beard


Little Beard ushered in the evening with a pop'n'roll-shoegaze combo; an appropriate tribute to the recently departed sun at a fest paying homage to the end of summer.

Curious Hair

Curious Hair played a handful of set standards, including a particularly solid rendition of their heavy on the harmony classic "Sunshine." There was some buzz (or maybe in usual Hair fashion some shit talk) about an all covers release featuring material from a pretty ubiquitous classic rock band. We know you're dying for the details so stay tuned.

Nived + Hydro
Nived N Hydro

American Legion

BFGF

BFGF

The variety of music at Death to the Sun (one element which made the show so much fun) became especially apparent during BFGF. In terms of genre, there was seriously something for everyone and BFGF catered to people looking to get down. A DJ/vocalist electro-pop combo, their live show was heavy on the stimulus with trippy projections and dance numbers. The moves had a bit of a work-out vibe to them and their energy was infectious: the vibe transformed pretty seamlessly from rock show to dance club and it was all at the hands of this sharp/clever duo.

Raja Khan
Raja Khan
Raja Khan

teepee

Tee Pee played a very different set than the one at Sweat a few nights back. That was excellent solo space pop from the garage; this was a total psychedelic assault of swirling pedals (featuring veteran squelcher, Alex Diaz) ferocious sax and nonstop runaway train free jazz drumming (think "Wipeout" but you're actually getting wiped the fuck out). Tee Pee knows what's up and we can't wait to see him/them again.

electric bunnies

The Electric Bunnies were loud as shit!

hahahelp!
hahahelp!

impromptu flamenco sesh

At some point a pack of dudes in full flamenco regalia rolled up and started playing in the back patio. A small crowd gathered, some people danced. Only in Miami.

dino felipe
dino felipe

Wow Champagne describes Dino Felipe as sounding like "flicking radio stations randomly and landing on a great pop song each time even though the signal isn't the best." Sounds about right. The reviewer goes on to say "Does that make any sense? I wish i was more lucid but I just wanna sleep," which also works for our purposes, as Dino went on at about 2 a.m., a full 12 hours after this event got going. And guess what? He killed it. Yeah, he sang (with effects) over prerecorded tracks and, no, you couldn't hear the tambourines the girls were shaking (maybe that wasn't the point?) but his was still one of the best of the night. Much like BFGF taking up the role of party-aerobics instructors, Dino was the MC of being out of your head. Lot's of scurrying, some chair tossing, some amp scaling, all to perfectly blown out pop masterpieces.

this electric heart
This Heart Electric

vandals
death to the sun
death to the sun

All hail Death to the Sun

3 comments:

p said...

sweet, a productive evening written in stone. on the internet. it was cool of you post post our demo on this thing too. cool site

IIIIIIIIII said...

met you out there briefly.thanks for the roofless flyer.death to the sun was a blast.ricardo did an awesome job putting it together and promoting it.hope he throws more of these.great wrap up of the event btw

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