popwreckoning

It’s been nearly a decade since the Felix Culpa began their marriage of progressive indie and post-hardcore. In 2002, the conception of tFC was a milestone for DIY indie across the nation.

Humble and committed, the group avoided the detuning spotlight of labels for years to come—neglecting to capitalize on the band’s art was perhaps the most noble and influential act, one of which many artists would follow. Because great art takes time. And great music takes even longer, as any worthy musician would claim. Despite the passing on several offers from well-known record labels, the Felix Culpa still managed to make their name through publication and self-promotion. Appearing in popular print magazines such as Alternative Press in their early years, and later signing to the renowned No Sleep Records (La Dispute, The Wonder Years, etc.), tFC prove to be the essence of honest hard work.

With the release of two EP’s and two studio full-lengths, Sever Your Roots being their most recent including a bonus EP entitled Bury Your Axe, the Felix Culpa flirt with ideas of starting a new chapter, bidding a bittersweet farewell to their fans.

The group announced in early October that their farewell would take place at the Metro in Chicago on December 9, 2011. Supporting acts include close friends in Monday’s Hero, Sainthood Reps, and El Oso. Tickets for the farewell show can be found here.

Felix Culpa – Our Holy Ghosts

Visit the Felix Culpa’s Official Page to find updates, music, and information on future projects!

Written by Stephanie Castor

November 11, 2011. A date that only happens every hundred years, and a date that is fall party central. Up To Eleven is having their party in celebration of their 10th Anniversary with over 30 bands in six venues. A few bands include Murder by Death, Lazer Sword, Matt Pryor, Ricky Fitts, Spirit is the Spirit, O Giant Man, Minden and of course many many others.

Wristbands for access to all venues are $20 and available at the Granada. All proceeds will go to benefit HealthCare Access and Music in Public Schools. Prices for individual venues on the night of are:

Granada – 18+ / $15 (Murder by Death)
Bottleneck 18+ / $12 (Lazer Sword)
Jackpot – 18+ / $5
Replay – 21+ / $3
Taproom – 21+ / $3
Love Garden – all ages / Free

For a downloadable schedule directly to your phone, scan this:

www.uptoeleven.com/111111
www.facebook.com/Eleven.Turns.Ten 

Due to illness, Gym Class Heroes are canceling their remaining tour dates. The Dirty Heads and Gym Class Heroes have been co-headlining a tour since Oct. 9.  The Dirty Heads, however, will continue to play as sole headliners, with the exception of the Milwaukee show on Nov. 4 which has been canceled completely.

The Dirty Heads released a statement regarding the issue:

“While we hope Travie gets better soon (nothing worse than being sick on the road), the last thing we wanna do is cancel the whole tour.  So no matter what happens we wanna stay out and keep playing music and putting on the best shows we can for you guys. Whether it’s playing for 2 people, 20 people or 2000 people we are staying out. Thank you guys for your continued love and support. We love you peace!!!!  And it’s the first time we are playin’ some new songs!! Hope you enjoy.”

Gym Class Heroes also issued a statement on their website saying “We promise as soon as Trav is back on his feet, we’ll get back out soon to see you.” To read the full statement go to gymclassheroes.com.

Remaning Dates:
11/2 – Chicago, IL @ House of Blues
11/5 – Columbia, MO @ The Blue Note
11/6 - Kansas City, MO @ Midland Theatre
11/8 – Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre
11/9 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex/Rockwell
11/10 – Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory
11/11 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox SoDo
11/12 - Portland, OR @ Roseland Theatre
11/14 – San Francisco, CA @ Regency Ballroom
11/15 – San Luis Obispo, CA @ Club Slo Brew**
11/16 – San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
11/17 – Tempe, AZ @ Marquee Theatre**
11/18 – Las Vegas, NV @ House of Blues
11/19 – Anaheim, CA @ The Grove of Anaheim
11/20 – Santa Barbara, CA @ UCSB – Hub**
** originally without Gym Class Heroes 

Anders Trentemøller ran his North American live tour through Liberty Hall in Lawrence, Kan. on October 19. He’s a Danish electronic composer with a fantastic ability to play with the power of a show between his forefinger and thumb.

The general tone is dark and ominous, with pleasant variations and light notes in between pieces with heavy bass beats and synthetic technic glitches. He does fantastic work on the tables, skewing samples varied by the cluster of knobs, wheels, and sliders under his bangs which cover his intense eyes the majority of the show.

 Xylos, a band from NYC, opened for Trentemøller for roughly thirty people spread about the main floor of the venue who found it nice to be able to sit on the step a set of paces away from the stage. By the end of their show, the number probably tripled.

Together for a little over a year, they play a dance-y sort of indie-rock through an array of instruments including two MIDI devices, a keyboard, drum set (both synth and standard), bass, guitar, bells, tambourines, hand claps, and anything they may have found in their tour bus. They control all these over the setlist with five members.

Being an opener, they had a spatially compact set which caused some issues along with minor audio problems, but they handled them fine and had fun. Their merch table had an oldschool Lite-Brite with ‘Xylos’ lit up, each letter to its own color. We bought two of their albums. Definitely worth checking out if you’re into the genre.

By the time Trentemøller had set up and gone through last-minute sound adjustments, the lower level of the venue had been filled to a point where you couldn’t see open floor, but it certainly wasn’t packed. The hall was not without black colors, piercings, and makeup. The size of the crowd kept it relatively tame throughout, but those who enjoy his style got to see a solid performance.

Alongside Anders, a four-piece band accompanied his electronics with two guitars, a bass, and drum set. His domain on stage included two keyboards with MIDI controllers on top of them, a splash symbol with two woodblocks clamped to its stand, and a Little Legends toy piano with a glockenspiel on top. He was wearing black leather boots, dark grey pants, and a black shirt with a black vest over it. Al Davis would’ve loved the scheme.

He smashed the symbol often to create a very offsetting tone, which supplemented the glitchy effects. By the end of the show, a sector of the symbol had cracked nearly to the center. I didn’t believe it was going to make it through the show, and in fact, it didn’t. The bassist smashed it with the neck of his instrument, sending the symbol, stand, and woodblocks to the ground near the end of the set. It never made it upright again.

The stage had screens capable of raising and lowering to center focal points of the arrangement and provide backdrops for video effects and reflected light. LED strobes, flashbulbs, dark red lowlights, bright bursts. All stimulating a sense other than our hearing from start to finish.

Trentemøller himself had quite an animated stage presence. He moved around his domain, eyed the crowd over his tables, jumped with timely precision, cheered along with the audience, and seemed to be having a great time doing it. There was a sort of quirkiness and uniqueness to his style of entertainment. He smiled so often while playing. The live band did as well.

Errors couldn’t be spotted easily because the genre brings glitches and dissonance with it. The glitches and dissonance are not a negative thing with the sound. It’s all very controlled and well-thought. They played as if they were having a total blast, and it resonated into the crowd, creating a general sense or feeling that what they were doing was correct. Additionally, the band did well with crowd interaction. They got everyone amped up for the drop-ins, the big hits. It’s the sort of music you enjoy moving to.

For his popular hit track “Miss You,” he started alone on stage with the movable screens raised, blocking out the sides and back, to focus attention on himself in the center of the stage. He controlled samples on the tables while playing the glockenspiel on top of the toy piano. It looked very neat and controlled, professional, like watching a hibachi chef. They never screw up, and they’re usually smiling.

The piece’s composition is very calm and beautiful. As the song neared its peak, the screens started to lower and the live band added instruments slowly to mesh with his samples. The distortion and effects kicked in, and the sound jumped to an awesome level.

Around half of the setlist included songs from the album The Last Resort. They finished the show with “Silver Surfer,” all smiling and seeming to really enjoy the atmosphere. After the end fade, Anders and the band came together with bright lights on them to close off the evening with applause, claps and waves.

I’m very glad I got to see them live. I’d like to see him in a full house with more crowd energy someday. The mixture of electronic work and live instruments, while incongruent to his albums, meshed well for a fantastic sound.

Review and photos by Mitch Favrow

Neon Indian visited Kansas City’s Recordbar on Tuesday. Although it was originally booked for Wednesday, the last minute change didn’t seem to deter any fans from coming out to the show.

It was a hot, sticky, cheap drink kind of night. Though a good majority of the, sold out, 18 and over crowd didn’t partake in that last part.

Purity Ring took the stage at 9:30. An hour late, rumored to be due to a very lengthy soundcheck by the headlining band. The bar was dark and quiet as the layers of deep, rich synth created a long swelling intro. Soon this was interrupted by a dry electric drum beat and the night had begun.

The Canadian band fronted by Megan James was a very a pleasant marriage of avant-garde, artsy, electronic music and a more mainstream, pop oriented sound. Their set was made even more impressive by the neon colored banner hung behind them and a creative DIY light show. The audience responded enthusiastically after almost every number. Sometimes playful, sometimes dramatic, this opening act toed the line very well.

Up next was Com Truise, DJ Seth Haley from New Jersey who used a live drummer in his set.

“What’s up Kansas City?” Haley quietly murmured, and then received a deafening response of hoots and hollers. The crowd was obviously getting excited at this point. I spied a few glow sticks light up around the room. Haley asked for the stage lights to be turned off and Com Truise’s set began.

The music was much more static and had less structure than that of the opening act’s. The set went from song to song smoothly creating a kind of trance-like moosh of beats and synth. But the dance-happy crowd didn’t seem to mind the repetition. Just before people were danced out Com Truise thanked Kansas City and ended his set with a hard-hitting, fuzzed out closer.

Finally, it was time to see what Neon Indian had to contribute to the evening. Some more delays during stage set up and a rather lengthy line check from the band only heightened the intense anticipation. When the music finally hit it was crisp, clean, and refreshing. Neon Indian are a very bold kind of electronic band. Instead of hiding the music in dark, muddy synth (much like the first two acts did) they let the melodies cut through with a bright clean tone. This sound is backed up by a very precise drummer and an energetic, bubbly frontman.

The leader of the band is Alan Palomo. He seems reserved and maybe even a bit shy at first, but on stage in the middle of a set he is in his element. Palomo is a confident and capable musician and frontman. And as a team the band is unstoppable.

The music is undeniably catchy, with keyboard melodies that continue until you simply can’t live without them. Though Neon Indian doesn’t quite offer everything to your standard radio listener they were by far the most mainstream and instantly likable act of the night. This is due to the simple structure of their songs and the repetition of the finely honed, catchy melodies. This is what 90% of the sold out crowd wanted and expected. An audience that Palomo called “the most insane crowd on tour.”

Near the end of the set Palomo admitted that, in the middle of their tour, he had lost track of which day of the week it was. So, he simply dubbed it “full moon day” and with that the band continued to work the crowd into a frenzy. When it was time for an encore the frontman graciously skipped over any more build up saying, “Usually this is where we leave the stage and try to act inconspicuous….But we just want to play another fucking song for you guys!” That song was “Heart: Decay”, from their newest album, and it was a solid song to close the set.

If you are a follower of the Kanas City music scene then you have probably been to Recordbar more times than you can count. Recordbar has established itself as one of the best venues for local and regional acts in the city. On this night, however, the venue was put in the position to show it’s true potential. It wasn’t a local bar crowd. This band brought these fans out. This big event shows that Record Bar is an elite music venue that has so much to offer the Kansas City music scene and music fans around the midwest.

Talking to Alan Palomo after his set I was able to ask him what he thought of the Kansas City fans and the venue. He responded with a big smile and said that the turn out was more than they had hoped for and called the night “awesome.” For Kansas City and Recordbar it was an awesome night that will hopefully land even bigger acts and bring more concert goers out in the future.

Review written by Mat Shoare

From the very beginning of Death Cab for Cutie‘s set at City Market on Monday night it was obvious that Death Cab has only sweetened with age. The mix of tweens (with their parent accompaniment), the typical Kansas City concertgoers, and those just looking to  be ‘Followed into the Dark’ made for a crowd that seemed unsure as to what to do when the music started. The opening song “I Will Possess Your Heart” made this all the more obvious. The elongated intro (as compared to the radio edit) left the casual Death Cab fan slightly confused, but for the avid music listener it built the perfect tension that would soon be released in a two hour set of Death Cab’s finest.

It would seem to be the norm in this day in age that when you are touring right after an album release, especially one as notable as Codes and Keys, you would tend to play mainly songs from that album, this was not the case with Death Cab for Cutie. It wasn’t until their fifth song they decided to introduce a track from their new album “Doors Unlocked and Open,” and did so to an enthusiastic crowd. In all, Death Cab only played five songs, out of twenty-three, from their most recent release. Those five were matched by five from Transatlanticism and another five from Plans and even included one track from their first release You Can play These Songs With Chords.

The most impressive part of the show for me was the reserve that Death Cab has. Their sound was flawless, never overplaying, and not like most Rock n’ Roll shows where you have a ringing in your ears for weeks. The one word that stayed in my mind from the entire experience was tasteful, Death Cab is always tasteful. Not even a two-drummer drum solo got out of hand, their lights only added to the atmosphere of City Market and never took away, they sounded exactly like you would hope they would, almost as if you were listening to their records at home with your 5,000 closest friends. Don’t get me wrong, they played their hearts out, but it seems as though they have perfected their craft to the point that they know what needs to be done, they know how to keep a crowd enthralled, they know how to appease old fans and new, and most importantly they know when to stop.

Setlist:

I Will Possess Your Heart
Crooked Teeth
We Laugh Indoors
A Movie Script Ending
Doors Unlocked and Open
Long Division
Grapevine Fires
Codes and Keys
What Sarah Said
I Will Follow You into the Dark
Title and Registration
You Are a Tourist
The New Year
President of What?
Company Calls
Some Boys
Soul Meets Body
Cath…
We Looked Like Giants
The Sound of Settling

Encore:
Brothers on a Hotel Bed
Stay Young, Go Dancing
Transatlanticism

Wayne Zimmerman contributed to this review
photos by Casey Osburn

Pardon the horrendous pun there.

Friday was quite the evening, running from…well I guess there were only three venues, two of which were two doors down from each other. But regardless, it was definitely a night to remember.

It began at Backspace, where Drew Grow and the Pastor’s Wives started the lineup (which also included The Globes, P.S. I Love You and the Thermals). I would have stayed for the whole night at Backspace, but I’ve seen the Globes and the Thermals several times, and had no wish to see P.S. I Love You.

But Drew Grow and the Pastor’s Wives were perfect. This small venue (which is a cafe before anything else) filled comfortably while there was still some light in the sky. The stage was barely elevated, making the crowd literally face to face with the band, and much more intimate. I wish the set had been longer, because it felt like it was just getting to the really good part when they finished the set. But really, the whole set was the good part – the giant intense gospel-tinged folk rock. Don’t be fooled by the “gospel” and “folk” in that sentence though, Drew Grow and the Pastor’s Wives are still pretty darn heavy – so much so that you can feel it from your throat to the soles of your feet.

After their set, I looked at my schedule for the address to the next venue – the Someday Lounge. And lo and behold – I stepped out the door, looked to my left, and there it was two doors down from Backspace. I had to walk but maybe 50 feet. Maybe.

This place had a completely different energy – it was darker and more quiet, and a bit smellier. I’d gone there to see the Music Tapes, a.k.a. Julian Koster, of the Elephant 6 Collective (also see Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, the Apples in Stereo). I’d seen the Music Tapes as part of an Elephant 6 Collective show back in March at the Vera Project in Seattle, and he was by far the most memorable and more charismatic of the group (sadly Jeff Mangum didn’t show up to that). So I had to take advantage of the chance to see Julian Koster again.

I’ll just say this – he played a saw with a violin bow. And there was a 7-foot metronome. Enough said.

After the first half of the Music Tapes’ set, I had to skip out to make it across town to the Doug Fir, where I’d be spending the rest of my evening.

It’s not like it’s a long drive, but on Portland roads, if you get turned around or don’t find parking right away, it can take awhile.

I was hoping I’d make it for the last bit of Pickwick’s opening set, but I was too late, sad to say.

However, I did get a nice surprise.

I knew absolutely nothing about the next band to play, Lost Lander. So I used my trusty Google phone to dig up some dirt on this band. It turned out that it was a project of songwriter Matt Sheehy and none other than ex-Menomenaut Brent Knopf. So they had to be good.

I thought at first after reading about Lost Lander that Knopf was merely a producer and he worked on recording the album with Sheehy, but as I was standing up in front of the stage of the Doug Fir with some new friends, I look to my right and there is Brent Knopf. Naturally, I had a little bit of a fangirl moment. You see, I saw Menomena at last year’s Musicfest Northwest, and it was the greatest show of the festival – maybe of the year. When I found out that Knopf was leaving the band in January, I basically cried. So now that I was seeing Knopf again at Musicfest, I was overjoyed, even if it wasn’t with Menomena.

Lost Lander’s set was awesome, and not just because Knopf was in the back corner. It was one of my favorite shows of the whole festival.

After I was thoroughly pleased, AgesandAges took the stage for their exuberant set. Seriously, they were dancing all over the place, and I couldn’t help be dance and sing along, even though I didn’t really know any of their songs. The Portland natives certainly played to their hometown, because the whole crowd was rocking.

I enjoyed their set so much that I didn’t even care so much that they started 25 minutes late. But once they were done I realized that it was after midnight, when Givers were supposed to start at midnight. The time was starting to catch up with me.

But I didn’t care, because Givers was the band I’d been waiting to see all weekend, and the reason I’d stayed at the Doug Fir all night without switching venues. I wasn’t about to leave and come back, risking the venue filling up.

It was 12:40 by the time the Lafayette, Louisiana natives took the stage, and I loved every minute of it until 2 a.m. when guitarist Taylor Guarisco had to literally tell the crowd to shut up because the Doug Fir was kicking us all out.

I thought AgesandAges brought the energy. Pfft, they were good, but nothing compared to Givers. I don’t know where this band gets all their positive and joyful energy. It’s infectious, and with great songs like “Up Up Up” and “In My Eyes,” you can’t go wrong, even at 1 a.m.

Since I’d run into Guarisco at the Sasquatch Festival back in May, he recognized me at Musicfest as well, so we chatted a bit after the show, at 2:30 a.m., because sleep is overrated. It was nice making a reconnection with a band, and when it’s a band that charming, with that much talent, and that close to hitting it big, it made me feel that much better.

Well done guys, well done.

So I’d say Friday was a success, wouldn’t you? I mean, I don’t regret staying up until 3:00 a.m., and that says something.

For more photos from Friday, visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/abbigshmail/sets/72157627636436068/

This was perhaps the busiest Thursday night I’d ever experienced. I went to four different venues within Portland and saw six bands.

Let’s get this started, shall we?

I ventured to the Wonder Ballroom, which sits in the middle of a suburban neighborhood, for headliners Brand New. However, I’d completely forgotten that the Joy Formidable was opening for them, but I’m thankful I got there as early as I did, because the Joy Formidable rocked my socks off. I mean seriously. I’d only heard one of their songs before this show, and I was an instant fan. This was the afternoon that I realized that the girl rockers were back. By the end of the festival, I noticed that only three of the bands didn’t have girls playing with them.

Ritzy Bryan is a fierce front woman, even though she stands about 5’3” in heels. Rhydian Dafydd (and that’s a Welsh name, so I guarantee ‘Dafydd’ isn’t pronounced that way) sweat through his shirt by the middle of the set, but then again it was at least 90 degrees in there.

This is a band to watch. I’m sure of it.

To be honest, after the Joy Formidable’s set, Brand New wasn’t all that special for me. It was nice to see a band that I’ve liked (on and off) since I was 13, but after the first three or four songs I was satisfied. I’m not big on too much screaming anymore like I was when I was in junior high, but Brand New put on a show worthy of 90-degree weather, from what I caught.

Thankfully the next venue I went to had air conditioning – the Doug Fir. I can’t tell you how much I love that place. It is comfortable, roomy, the food is good, there is free water, the bathrooms are relatively clean, and that places gets some amazing bands. And as well as a music venue and restaurant upstairs – the Doug Fir is also connected to a hotel, the Jupiter. Oh and did I mention that there is free street parking? Yeah, I love this venue.

On this particular evening, I went to the Doug Fir to see Portland’s own Brainstorm, whom I knew absolutely nothing about other than what the MFNW site said, and I was pleasantly surprised with the results. It’s an odd mixture – two well-coifed blonde guys, one on guitar and one on drums and both singing – doing catchy surf rock. Think Surfer Blood but switch out Florida for Portland, and that’s what you get with Brainstorm. Also, a few songs into their set, they brought out a female keyboardist. That’s one more on the list of bands with girls in them!

After Brainstorm was Purity Ring, kind of an inexplicable band. When they started playing I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it or not, but that’s mainly because the lighting was stressing my out trying to get photos. But they were surprisingly polished and unique. Purity Ring consisted of a female vocalist and percussionist and male instrumentalist – and I say instrumentalist because I don’t even know what he was playing. He was beating on a set of pipes that lit up at the end, making different toned with each strike, so I’m not sure what to call it, but I just know it was cool.

I debated staying the entire evening to see Phantogram later that night because the Doug Fir was at capacity, but I had a couple more places I wanted to go.

First was Holocene – a venue I’d never been to – for Twin Sister. I saw this band open for the Morning Benders last year and they were Fantastic with a capital F. I fell in love with their sultry sounds at Neumos, but I was so disappointed with their set at Holocene. I didn’t think my tastes had changed that much in a year, but I just was not feeling their vibe on Thursday. Singer Andrea Estella looked wide-eyed and confused and awkward on stage, and their chillwave melodies were almost too chillwave so the rest of the band was half awake.

So either their set at Musicfest was a fluke or I was on a different wavelength last year. It probably didn’t help my attitude that night that a guy spilled his green minty drink on me. I smelled like toothpaste for the rest of the night.

Since I skipped out on Twin Sister early, I headed over to the Bunk Bar  – another venue I was unfamiliar with – to see one of my hometown heroes Damian Jurado. This guy is one of those Seattle musicians that hovers around open mics and you’ll see him everywhere, and because he is so good you feel a bit starstruck but considering how close the Seattle music scene is, you feel sort of silly acting starstruck. The Bunk Bar is a small bar with absolutely no light, but a friendly vibe and a great view from the outside window. It was especially awesome when several members of Seattle’s Pickwick and Sharon Van Etten walked in. That’s one thing that I really love about Musicfest Northwest – you’ll see one band at a different band’s set, like it’s a completely normal thing. But I guess in a city like Portland, that is a normal thing.

Pardon the pun.

I couldn’t resist.

But seriously though, as the kick-off to this year’s Musicfest Northwest (or MFNW for future reference), The Kills at the Crystal Ballroom were awesome. I caught maybe five minutes of their set at Bumbershoot, but this venue was so much better for them, with the smoke machine and creepy paintings of cherubs on the walls. The only downside was the fact that it may have gotten to be over 100 degrees in there at some point.

For some ungodly reason Portland was in the low 90s all weekend, and you know what that means for music venues – they’re even hotter. But surprisingly, I didn’t see anyone pass out the whole time I was there.

But back to the music, shall we? Eleanor Friedberger, of the Fiery Furnaces, opened for the Kills, with an understated, but stellar performance. It was virtually just herself up on the stage, and she was very well-received by the possibly-dehydrated crowd, and it made for a lovely opening set.

I’m just amazing that she survived that stage wearing all that denim. It was refreshing to see her without her brother Matthew, though her style stayed true to the sound we all know from her – gritty garage blues, but solo Eleanor had a bit more sassy pop to her. I liked it.

After the temperature of the room went up like… at least ten degrees, more smoke machines were turned on and even more people crowded in. Thank god for the free water station at the back of the room.

I will start off by saying – Alison Mosshart is one of the best front…women? I’ve ever seen. No, one of the best frontpeople – because she can stand next to Anthony Kiedis any day. I’m serious. This chick can rock her ass off – and it doesn’t hurt that her hair on this particular occasion was flaming red.

She’s crazy. Crazy awesome that is. She and guitarist Jamie Hince have all the chemistry two people need on stage, but it was so unspoken and understated that you almost forgot that there were two separate people on stage.

The Kills’ live performance was much bluesier than one would expect from the bands’ earlier albums. I guess Mosshart’s time with the Dead Weather rubbed off a bit, because the new songs were much heavier than previous albums, but just as good and just as sexy. And the opening number with “No Wow” was definitely not ‘no wow.’

Oh come on, I couldn’t not do it.

By the end of the evening, I was thoroughly satisfied with the Kills’ live show, even if I was a bit sweaty. Alison Mosshart might be my new favourite person to photograph. The girl does not stop moving!

Monday was by far the longest of the three days gallivanting around the Seattle Center, as it started at 12 Noon sharp. I met up with some people over at the Fountain Lawn stage for Motopony, one of Seattle’s newer phenomenons. I saw them play live for the first time last summer and recently heard their song “King of Diamonds” on 103.7 The Mountain, which is pretty big actually.

Frontman Daniel Blue can really put on a show, I’ll tell ya. Their early (and I mean early) afternoon show made me wish they played more around the city.

My camera and I moved over to the Free Yr Radio stage for Lake’s acoustic set, since I knew I couldn’t make it to their main set later in the day because of such a full schedule. While I found several times that weekend the people doing the short impromptu interviews at the stage were quite awkward, Lake was so chill that it made the set that much more enjoyable. I’m sure it was easier for the girl doing the interview as well.

Curtains for You was next, and they were one of the main bands I was looking forward to on that Monday. They opened for the Head and the Heart back in January at Neumo’s, and the atmosphere at the EMP Level 3 stage on Monday was just as warm and inviting as the Neumo’s show. It felt so intimate and fun – almost like a living room show.

After that was a trifecta of local talent – starting with Grand Hallway, whose brand of indie pop can only be described as majestic, with the strong instrumental melodies and orchestral quality.

I then headed over to the Free Yr Radio stage again for Ravenna Woods, since I wasn’t sure I’d be able to make it to their set later. I’ve seen them several times, so I didn’t feel that bad. But their acoustic set was fantastic. Again, dealing with the awkward interview, frontman Chris Cunningham laughed it all off with a giant smile, after rocking out to my favourite of their songs “We Want It All.” Which reminds me, I need to see if I can get into that Nirvana Nevermind exhibition, because Ravenna Woods is playing at it.

Back to the EMP Level 3 stage I went, and this time for Lemolo, who had quite a long line waiting to get in to see them by the time I got there, and it was already at capacity. It warmed my heart to see so them – like so many local bands that weekend – get such a strong audience. The two girls put on a lovely show, like always. The best part was when it sounded like everyone in the room started singing along to their song “Open Air.” It was a bit surreal, even for me.

After my heart was thoroughly warmed, I ventured into the Exhibition Hall for the first time that weekend for Eisley’s set. To tell you the truth, I used to listen to Eisley about 4 years ago, but have since moved on with my musical tastes. Because I hadn’t listened to them in forever, I was expecting something completely different at their show. I was not expecting them to rock so much. Thankfully I did see their show, or else I would have gone on thinking that they still did breathy lite indie pop. These girls have come a long way since Room Noises in 2005.

Vendetta Red was also in the Exhibition Hall that afternoon, and even though it wasn’t much of my style of music – this classic Seattle alternative punk band rocked the house. It definitely was nice for those fans to get to see Vendetta Red play live after their four-year hiatus.

The final act I got to see in daylight was Sharon Van Etten, who I had never seen before and didn’t know what to expect. While for the first couple of songs, it was only Sharon and her guitar on stage, her charm commanded the audience for a fantastic, rather stripped-down set.

Then the next hour of my evening went like this – ran over to Phantogram, stayed for a few songs and they were amazing. I was surprised because last year when they played Musicfest Northwest it was a bit underwhelming. After that, a couple of my fellow photographers and I ran across the Seattle Center to see Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside at the EMP Level 3 stage, and she was adorable, even if she admitted to being a little hungover. Then literally as soon as we were done shooting, we skidaddled over to the Key Arena to find some seats for Hall & Oates. Yes, Hall & Oates.

The main reason I saw Hall & Oates was not because I had been dying to see “Maneater” live, but merely the fact that I could say that I’d seen Hall & Oates play. The audience inside the Key Arena was hilarious – the exact opposite of the teenagers the day before. It was a bunch of middle-aged women singing their middle-aged little hearts out, which was endearing to say the least.

So it was the end of Bumbershoot 2011. It was a wild ride, but my week was far from over, as I’d be driving to Portland two days later for Musicfest Northwest the rest of the week. Stay tuned for that coverage coming soon!

For more photos from Monday, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/abbigshmail/sets/72157627482031965/