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The
"Fest Full of Rock" indie festival took place
in town this past Saturday. Had it not been for a blurb
on Dischord's website, I wouldn't have even known about
it. After seeing the list of performers, I proceeded
to buy tickets online just to make sure I got in. Good
thing too, since the place eventually sold out. While
there were a lot of bands, I'm just going to focus on
Q and Not U, which was one of the best performances.
We
caught a few early bands, some of which were decent
and some that just sucked, and left to get my digital
camera around 4:30. When we got back around 5, the place
was packed with people catching the start of Denali's
performance. Their set was excellent. I was expecting
to just sit through it waiting for Q and Not U but I
ended up liking most of the material so the wait was
bearable, even enjoyable. They finished the set and
began clearing off the stage so Q could set up.
I'm
not sure why I was anticipating Q so much. I had their
album Different Damage which I was kinda into,
even though it seemed a little repetitive. Just being
a Dischord band was enough to get me excited I guess.
So they set up with all kinds of instruments; two guitars,
a bass, drum set, a small keyboard, and various percussion
objects. After they took the stage, the bassist then
applied "war paint" to his face with a thick
magic marker. And then they launched into their set.
The
first thing that immediately struck me was how intense
they were. From start to finish they never let up. The
bassist was all over the place, spasming and jumping
around, almost knocking the keyboard over a few times.
The drummer was pretty stone-faced but laid down a solid
beat, and the guitars were noisy but somehow worked.
The guitarist and drummer kept to their respective instruments,
but the bass player also interchanged between a second
guitar, percussion, keyboards, singing, and a weird
mouth instrument thing.
The
only gripe I had was the guitar tone being a little
on the sharp piercing side, but I can't say it detracted
from anything. Most of the material they played was
from Different Damage so I recognized a lot of
it. While the music is kind of experimentalish and isn't
for everyone, the band still rocks hard live and the
album material is surprisingly good live. So it might
do you good to check them out, if you have the chance.
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