Coverage From The Bay Bridged
Our friends at The Bay Bridged are providing exclusive daily news, live-blogging, podcasts and other great content leading up to and throughout this year's Festival.
Deerhunter Reigns in Noise Pop Opener
Words By: Joseph Hayes
Photos by: Nicole L. Browner
To the uninitiated tourist or otherwise, SF’s Sixth Street off Market is the ultimate subterfuge for a city heralded as a European-esque metropolis with flowing bohemian culture, Victorian architecture and its extraordinary landscape. This zone, like the underbelly of a Summer of Love acid trip gone so permanently awry, is a purgatorial rendition of the waking life.
And here’s Mezzanine, down the alley, sitting prideful like a once poor hipster’s warehouse space gone Club MTV set. It is the opening night of the city’s most distinctive musical tradition established in the post-lovefest era and there are a smattering of industry types in polished leather, bespectacled art students from the Academy and Institute looking gloomy in hoodies, alien beer promo prom queens in red and white silk, live blogging itinerant iPhone tappers in the corners of the balcony, that guy from the Dodos, DJ Aaron Axelson’s perfectly dazzling blonde Point Break bangs over a pair of decks, and wait of course, John Vanderslice…over there! Indeed, it must be the opening night of Noise Pop.
And Lilofee….wait, who’s Lilofee again? They’re new and local, but they’re performing with playful airs, sharp mechanical saw hooks and a robust, nearly robotic rhythm section. And this woman, the front woman, she means business. We should get a DJ and have a dance party. Wait, we should get Lilofee and have a dance party. But not a happy happy party, maybe one where your roommate just lost her job and she needs to dance that sh*t the f**k out. In any sense, who could possibly command the attention of this chatty pack of music enthusiasts all trying to hail the bartender for their first round of the night? A for effort.
Shrouded in fog emerges the heir to what is noise and pop, enter Bradford Cox, who is not in the House of Blues. This is not the old Blues, but a new breed of the most logical, illogical, melodic, discordant, blissfully quiet and dog whistle-deafening grey noise. Yes, we still remember the introverted mystique of My Bloody Valentine, and the classic, though begrudgingly dated anthems of a punked Sonic Youth, and the drug addled wanderings of Spaceman 3 and Spiritualized, but this is the end of reference. Or as my friend quipped, is Deerhunter the “American Radiohead”?
After three new songs, Cox asks us what is new, and promises to go “back in time”, but this isn’t the band who sounded like that band three years ago, or like the one who’s record leaked ten months ago, or the one who blogged a recording session from a scratched CD-R under someone’s bed, or who played the first three songs as the one who will play the last three songs tonight. Like an amorphous cluster of power cords and circuits tangled in an slowly building electrical fire in the nethers behind your computer stall, Cox and company dissipate into the smoke, knees melting into their amps, the stoic blazered bassist finally succumbing to the bottomed-out thunder he rolls off his wrists, and the microphone stand retiring to the back of the stage, leaving us with echoes on top of echoes, and a conversation of noise between your right and left ear.
Live Blog: Noise Pop 2009 Opening Night Party
Most of The Bay Bridged staff is headed out tonight to celebrate the start of Noise Pop 2009! Although admission was free, RSVPs went quick. But fear not, we’ll be here live blogging the event for those who couldn’t make it – or just want to relive it!
8:45pm – On our way to the Mezzanine now in a snazzy little Karmann Ghia! Can’t wait to see what the line is like.
8:53 – Waiting outside, the line is surprisingly short! Just hanging out to gather the Bay Bridged crew and then headed inside.
9:08 – Well, now we know why there was no line…everyone’s inside! It’s a madhouse in here.
9:23 – Fully equipped with libations – another half hour before the music starts. Large screens with projections of random colorful images are all around the place. Aaron Axelson of Live 105 is DJing.
9:33 – Lilofee just took the stage, a bit early.
9:38 – Playing their hit “Lock and Key.” Lead singer Kimi Recor is the focal point with lots of energy. The music reminds us of a harder New Order – with 80s synths as a base, but with more industrial sounds.
9:48 – Ben and Christian were just photographed with the Red Stripe girls. Classic moment.
9:52 – Recor’s stage energy just continues to grow, it’s pretty amazing.
10:09 – Lilofee is finished and the DJ is back on. People are scrambling, vying for their spots for Deerhunter. The crowd is officially packed straight back to the sound board.
10:10 – Deerhunter fun fact – TBB staffer just revealed that the lead singer of Deerhunter and Diplo (who are friends) share common ancestry! Little tidbit…
10:38 – Chatting with Zach of Rogue Wave and John Vanderslice. Great to see two amazing local musicians out supporting Noise Pop!
10:55 – Deerhunter just came on, through a sea of fog and blinding white lights. Now THAT’S an entrance.
11:02 – Started the set with a couple new songs. Nothing from the famed Microcastle yet, but the crowd is responding well to the songs.
11:10 – …so much so the few people in front if me are dancing like crazy. A great start to what should be another great year for Noise Pop.
11:15 – Picked up the pace and got the audience going a bit with “Nothing Ever Happened.” Sounds really great live, ending with a bit of a jam.
11:34 – Bradford Cox dedicates the next song to Harvey Milk, then clarifies “the man, not the band.”
11:41 – “Agoraphobia” is another one of the band’s great jams. The dreamy parts remind me of Atlas Sound, Cox’s excellent side project.
11:49 – The band closes out their set to strong applause from an approving crowd, but I’ve got a feeling they’ll be back for more.
11:53 – Clips of KISS’s Paul Stanley hyping up a crowd with his insane stage banter play over the speakers while the band is off stage. If you enjoy awkward hilarity, look for a compilation of Stanley stage banter that’s floating around online. It’s unbelievable.
12:10 – Okay, these guys put on one hell of a show tonight, with a loud energetic set that felt at times like I was watching the biggest band in the world. At the same time, they’re able to mix in tender moments with the anthems and spacey psych stuff. Very impressive and a great performance.
Stay tuned for a full review and photos from the event tomorrow!
Noise Pop: Tuesday Night Preview!
This is the first in a series of profiles of what’s going on each night during Noise Pop 2009. To see all of our festival coverage, visit our dedicated Noise Pop page, which we’ll be updating throughout the week.
Noise Pop kicks off Tuesday night with three shows featuring some of the festival’s biggest acts. The official opening night party is over at the Mezzanine, and if you haven’t already RSVPed, you’ll need a badge to get in to see the psych-influenced art-rock of Atlanta’s Deerhunter. Opening the show are San Francisco electro-poppers Lilofee, who are quickly establishing a name for themselves with high-profile shows like this one and a soon-to-be-released debut album. If you have RSVPed, get there earlier than later to make sure you get in.
Deerhunter – “Nothing Ever Happened”
Another popular Tuesday ticket will no doubt be Antony and the Johnsons at the Nob Hill Masonic Center. The Crying Light is Antony’s newest album and it has some stunningly beautiful and heartbreaking songs. Experimental composer William Basinski opens the show.
Antony and the Johnsons – “Epilepsy is Dancing”
Finally, Mountain Goats fans will want to check out City Arts and Lectures‘ evening with John Darnielle “in conversation and song” at the Herbst Theatre, particularly now that Wednesday’s show at the Swedish American Hall is now sold out. Darnielle’s one of my favorite songwriters and performers, and if you’ve ever read an interview with him or followed his blog Last Plane to Jakarta, you already know he’s smart and engaging and should make for an excellent show.
