This Is Not My Birthday

[ateolf]

Left off with Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. Picking back up. Yeah good set. This time she had eurorack instead of her Buchla Easel and she was doing some live patchwork which was pretty cool. Luckily, right after her set we were able to quickly make our way to the stage: front/center. We would not have had another chance. This when all of the This Heat fans solidified their stations (with several acts and hours left to go). Next was Circuit des Yeux. They had a very different lineup from Memphis Concrète. It was larger. The same drummer was there, but instead of double bass, they had an electric bass player (different guy) and a cellist and violinist. They were good again, but I think they may have been better at Memphis Concrète (the double bass really added a great sound and the atmosphere was both more intimate and ominous). Next was Girlpool. It was weird 'cuz they had a full band with a drummer and second guitarist. They were alright, but with the expanded lineup they sound a lot more standard rock'n'rolly. The drummer sounded like he should be in a hair metal or 80s hard rock band. They played a couple songs as just a two-piece in the middle of the set and those were better and reminded me what I liked about them. They weren't terrible as a full band, but they did lose a lot of what made their sound unique. Okay, and what we've been waiting for This Is Not This Heat! It was a really great set. I mean, sure they are a nostalgia act of sorts but they put energy and surprises into these familiar songs. It didn't feel at all like rote rehash. In addition to the two Charleses, they had a second drummer, another guitarist, a guy who played bass and keyboards, and a guy who played guitar and clarinet. While sound checking his vocals, Charles Hayward counted to sixteen, but sung in his voice, you know, HIS VOICE! And it was so surreally amazing. Anyway, their set went like: Horizontal Hold, S.P.Q.R., Twilight Furniture, Music like Escaping Gas, A New Kind of Water, Makeshift Swahili, The Fall of Saigon, Health and Efficiency. The bass player had checked to a line in Cenotaph but they didn't play it. Wish I could have seen them in a non-festival setting where I'm sure their set would have been a little longer and would have gotten a few more songs in, but I realize I'm lucky as hell to have gotten to see this at all! I mean, how the fuck did that even happen!? lucky. So no complaining here. And they ended with my three most favorite songs in a row (I mean, not that they could have had a bad song). Mostly it was stuff I'd expect to hear, but Music like Escaping Gas was a surprise, in a pleasant way. It's awesome they got in their more abstract stuff and it was exceptionally done live. Health and Efficiency also just fucking killed. It was a great way to close the set. At one point a balloon made its way to the section between the stage and the crowd. The security guard came and tossed it up back to the crowd and the person it went to immediately knocked it right on the fucking stage and the security guard immediately had this "dude! what the FUCK did you just do?!" bulging eyes and dropped jaw look (not angry, but dumbfounded and more of a "REALLY!?"). The balloon went up into the drums and the second drummer noticed and looked slightly annoyed but in a quickly shrugged-off way. Throughout the set Charles Hayward smiled a whole lot and just looked like he was enjoying himself and enjoying playing drums and playing that music. Charles Bullen looks a bit frail and his demeanor's less joyful, but maybe that's just his demeanor. It did remind me all anew just how incredible those guitar parts all are. So I turned 40 and saw my favorite band who it shouldn't have ever even been possible to even see (and sure, "This Is Not" This Heat, but it's closer than I could have dreamed I'd ever get). And as Mary Beth said, "So that just happened." We left the front of the stage and checked out the beginning of Kelela's set. It was pretty good. The guy who's the producer or whatever had some really interesting sounds he was making. I checked by the merch booth to see if there was anything new (we'd gone by first thing when we got in that day but there may have been more added later...there was...). There was This Is Not This Heat merch, shirts. They said they only had xl left so I tried to get an xl and then they said, oh actually we just sold the last one. Goddamnit! I know, was worth it being at the stage the whole time so we could be right up front, but still. Damn. We left after a little bit to go back to Little Goat for dinner. I had a chap chae burger (no bun) and it was really good but Mary Beth's "sloppy goat" (sloppy joe with goat meat) was phenomenal. There were also delicious goat chili cheese fries. We ended with their cake of the day called "funfetti" and it was pretty much birthday cake (à propos), you know, if birthday cake were really fucking good. It was stacked huge with many layers and an equally huge mound of whipped goat cream (yeah, goat, if you haven't figured it out from the name and the several mentions, that's a big thing of theirs). A great wrap up to the birthday, I must say.

What's next? Next is Sunday, yesterday, the last day. We swung by Little Goat for the third time in two days (yeah, but it was super convenient on the walk from car to festival and really good). This time I got their special which was a rhubarb biscuit that was like probably the best thing I ate all trip (a huge biscuit with pimento cheese and rhubarb and ham and probably egg, if I remember right...the pimento and rhubarb blended together surprisingly well). Mary Beth wanted more cake so she got the penultimate slice that was left (our server said he was going to get the last one for himself). Mostly the festival seemed to run hiccup-free, but getting in on Sunday was a pretty big hiccup where they couldn't let anyone in during the allotted time for some reason and we had to wait until after the day was supposed to start with more and more people queuing up. Finally got in and the day just had a late start. Poked around a bit. Finally camped out to be up front for Kelly Lee Owens. I could hear Irreversible Entanglements from across the park while waiting though and they were really good. Didn't know anything about them but pretty free jazzy. Good stuff and I'll have to check 'em out more later. Kelly played. That day it was very very bassy up front. I know they get it loud so it can be heard from farther back, but we were up close to those subwoofers and most of that day for the two acts we were right there that was almost all I heard (the bass). It wasn't bad on Saturday. I could hear everything clearly and well. I guess they were bass-happy that day (though Girlpool asked them to turn the bass down when the kickdrum started booming and someone in the audience asked for less bass). Kelly Lee Owens was pretty good. Japanese Breakfast was next. The bass-dominance was a little more distracting there. They were okay. Maybe better if I could have heard more instruments. I'd liked what little I'd heard before of their stuff, but it was kinda straightforward pop rock. Mostly wandered around for a bit after that. Mary Beth and I sat on a blanket in the big field between the two big stages. I went to the bathroom and by the time I got back she'd gotten a chance to get right up close to the main stage (third "row") and by the time I got back, she'd been closed in on and I couldn't reach her anymore. But that's okay. It gave me a chance to just wander around and eat and go to the bathroom some more times. Not a lot musically going on for a while though. Checked out a couple acts that were bullshit. Came back having had arnold palmer and pizza (the drink was first, should have had more forethought, they're huge ass cups so I didn't just wanna keep having to go to the portapotties the rest of the night so I didn't get a second after pizza). Okay, finally went back to the big field kinda in the middle where it wasn't too crowded and watched Chaka Khan's set. I mean, not super my thing but it was kinda enjoyable. Then I turned around and was just a little closer for Lauryn Hill. She did that album and I'm not super familiar with it but it was all pretty good. Met up with Mary Beth afterwards and we booked it outta there to catch Shake Shack just before it closed.

Now we're at today! We woke up and hit the road. Culver's on the way back (drank root beer, remember that in the future, Robert). Otherwise the drive wasn't too eventful. We're back home and back with Trudy and I guess it's soon time to get ready to get back to the usual routine. But I guess seeing my favorite band was a great distraction from the round number age-change!