So I just got settled in at Hopscotch. I’m sitting in front of Port City Java on the corner of Fayetville and Martin and things have already gotten interesting. Check in was a breeze. Walked up, gave my name got my pass and walked out. Then I figured out that there is absolutely nothing going on right now. I don’t really know anyone here right now, so I’m just watching people walk around. It’s pretty awesome I guess.
I’ve been working on getting Madi Diaz to Columbia for weeks now and it finally looks like it’s going to happen. It also looks like we aren’t going to be doing the show. We tried to be the ones to throw Madi Diaz a huge welcome to Columbia party with tons of people and a WUSC promotion, but their booking people decided otherwise. Needless to say I was really bummed out about this. Ten minutes after I find that out I sit down at a my little table here outside and the guy beside me answers a phone call from Madi Diaz. Seriously though, what are the odds of that?? I wanted to grab the phone and be like “SAVE YOURSELF! DO THE SHOW WITH US! WE CARE THE MOST!” but I didn’t. I didn’t even say anything to him.
Shows tonight don’t start until 8:30.
On schedule for tonight are
Dinosaur Feathers, Last Years Men, Jack the Radio, Yardwork, The Love Language and finishing the night off with Black Lips. Shows over by 1:30 tonight. Next two nights will be crazy.
OK, so as I was writing this yesterday and writing about how there was nothing to do, I was actually missing out on a party and then the internet cut out. So I went down to the Raleigh Denim party, ran into Pat Wall (Free Times) the guys from Shuffle Magazine. I’d never met them, but they were cool dudes.
I then took off to see Dinosaur Feathers at Kings Baracade. They are a hip little retro sounding band with a blogspot. Everyone is middle aged here and uber alt. Most of the bands are so hipster that no one has heard of them. People must have heard about Dinosaur Feathers though because it was the most sold out show I attended last night. Inside was at capacity and there were hundreds of people in line outside.
Our 9PM show was Last Years Men at Lincoln Theater. The young band from Chapel Hill also have a retro garage rock sound, but they don’t have a blogspot. Their live show was fairly high energy with some cool gimmicks. Screaming into the guitar pick ups is always cool and they pulled that off well. They closed out their set by going crazy. Bass player picked up the singer, rammed him into the other guitarist, other guitarist cuts his hand, rips the strings and bridge off his guitar and the set is over. But did they walk off the stage like rock stars? Hell nah, they had to pick up the mess they just made and get their equipment off stage. It was refreshing to see how much fun they had.
My main goal of last night was to see Yardwork. The Charlotte outfit are the best live, most humble band I’ve seen on the regional level. They played at a venue on the edge of the festival by the railroad tracks called The Union. Good crowd was there, not packed by any means though which is a shame. They put on a hell of a show as usual. One of the only bands that can rock out and it not compromise their ability to play music.
On our way to go see The Love Language we stopped in to see Xiu Xiu. They sound pretty much like Octopus Jones with more synth. Great crowd at Xiu Xiu, but by this time most of Hopscotch had congregated at Lincoln Theatre for Love Language. There was never a line outside, but inside was slammed. We managed to make it to the back corner area. One of the great things about Hopscotch is that it features almost all regional and local talent. The Love Language is another NC crew that are on local powerhouse Merge Records. Their live show ended with balloons coming around the building pictured above. They had to get to their next set in a hurry.
Black Lips finished off the night and completely slayed. Black Lips don’t give a shit and they do what they want. Girls got on stage and started dancing. They were into it. And when the bouncer tried to get them off stage and was verbally abused by the Black Lips guitarist. I mean, it actually made him sound like more of an asshole, wanna be punk rocker than anything, but it was still funny. The girls weren’t hurting anything so whatever. The dude was just trying to do his job. The crowd for Black Lips was the best part. They were going crazy crowd surfing and doing this bro thing where they were pushing each other and taking out mid 20’s, middle class, sexual aggression on each other. The Black Lips were into it and I was seriously entertained watching from above.
