Fun Fun Fun Fest Day 3

A Place to Bury Strangers
Orange Stage, 2:50pm

NYC's A Place to Bury Strangers faced the heat with a high octane, noise heavy set, playing from their 2012 release on Dead Oceans, Worship. The guitarists threw their instruments about onstage like cheap toys as the band produced a heavy shoegaze sound - think Jesus Lizard meets Jesus and Mary Chain - over the afternoon crowd at the Orange Stage.

Valient Thorr held the 3:30 spot at the Black Stage, conjuring up the best of fist-pumping, unashamedly nerdy, LOTR-loving 80s metal with the brutalist, beardiest beast of heavy, heavy rock.  Decked out in tight, tealish-green pants, red and blue boots and a wholelot of back hair, singer Valient Himself commanded the stage like a metal Richard Simmons, jogging in place, singing spine-chilling, Iron Maiden-esque melodies and getting his band psyched up.  Several songs in, V.H. joined the crowd for some synchronized dances - the move pictured here is called "Row the Viking Ship."
Winner of: Band with Best Beards.
Winner of: Best Use of Unnecessary Grammar.
Runner Up: Best back hair. #1: Damian Abraham of Fucked Up.






Japandroids
Black Stage, 4:20pm

Damn, I've been waiting a long time to see Japandroids. I remember being deliriously sick, fighting to keep awake while driving home from Montreal after a weekend of sleeping on the cold linoleum of dorm room floors. Then the first release of Canada's finest duo, Post-Nothing, came through the car stereo and I turned it up loud, and with the windows down, yelled all the words all the way home.

Drummer David Prowse and guitarist Brian King looked like they had already sweat a few pounds off before they took the stage and began with "Adrenaline Nightshift," one of several fuck-it-this-is-youth anthems from their 2012 sophomore effort Celebration Rock. And not to sound English major lame, but the adrenaline nightshift as an image works pretty well to describe the feeling of the Canadians' romantic, noise-filled, amped up attack: when Japandroids records are played, regardless of time or place, it's gonna get you hyped up. They seem to capture the ecstasy of late-night hangouts, when everyone else has gone to bed, and it's just you and your best buds in the moment and nothing else matters. 

Best KRTU spotting: JD howling and tearing it up right out front of the stage.



The Black Angels
Orange Stage, 7:00pm

 

These are my notes from the set of hometown heroes The Black Angels, and I think they'll do nicely. "Black Angels like all of a sudden you're in a hookah-filled room someplace you don't speak the language. Then you're back and its plain just rockin' out."

Fucked Up
Black Stage, 7:55pm

 (Photo courtesy of Stereogum)

After some mean stares and awkward maneuvering I managed to get onstage to see Fucked Up, although I soon learned that up on-stage was not the best place to experience the Polaris Prize winners' show.  A few moments after taking the stage, frontman Damian Abraham removed his shirt and jettisoned into the crowd, staying there, posing for pics, screaming his face off, and getting his face screamed off for the remainder of the set.  The band played from their 2011 rock opera David Comes to Life and the 2008 album that won them Canada's most prestigious musical accolade, The Chemistry of Common Life.  Seeing it live, it's hard to imagine Damian and Co. just practicing - cutting the presence of the audience to Damian's performance would leave him like a fat, hairy fish out of water.

From the stage, Fucked Up's unexpected band dynamic resonated strongly.  While Mr. Damian is the hardcore incarnation of Butterbean, hitting hard and heavy with each hook, the rest of Fucked Up seems pretty mild-mannered, pop-punking through their set with an energy level that waned in comparison to their frontman.  I guess it's just part of the jarring aesthetic - both visual and musical - that makes Fucked Up so great.



Photos, unless otherwise stated, by Rebecca Reinhardt.