F Yeah Fest

Tag : Jelly Stick

While most Americans were sitting in lawn chairs, surrounded bybeer and barbeque, watching the local parade, some were slamdancing and dodging flying water bottles. Those who gathered forthe F Yeah Fest were the most eclectic and socially awkward groupthis holiday weekend, and the leader of the group was TotallyMichael, the guy who opened the show. As he danced through thecrowd shaking his hips and knocking butts with high school girls,he looked like a mix of Hellogoodbye and Gwen Stefani's Harajukugirls. Bad dancing aside, his set of repetitive but addictingfast-paced pop songs got everyone to dance like the awkward whitekids they were.
Part of F Yeah Fest's appeal is its mix of music, art and comedy.Before the three remaining bands, Chicago comedian Hannibal Buresskept the crowd laughing with his jokes about 24-hour pawn shops,racist porn and Guitar Hero. Although it was his first time doingcomedy on a music tour, he said he liked mosh pits because "Ican punch like the white kids and get away with it." The crowdstopped laughing when comic Nick Flanagan came on. He opened upwith a crack on Cleveland and should have known things could onlyget worse from there. The rest of his set was embarrassing towatch, and Flanagan finally realized no one was enjoying his penisjokes except him.
Crystal Antlers then took the stage and proceeded to ignore theaudience. Not until the set was finished did the band acknowledgethe crowd with a brief, grunted "Thank you." The band'sheavy songs were dotted with occasional screams and moans. Whilethe lyrics weren't there, the musicianship was impressive andinnovative, but the band seemed to spend half its time playing thefinal song. Brooklyn's Team Robespierre was a throwback toold-school punk, complete with fist-pumping anthems, but featuredless anarchy and more dancing. It was difficult to tell the bandmembers from the audience as they all came together for a danceparty/mosh pit in the middle of the floor. Team Robespierre got theaudience revved up just in time for Monotonix. Seconds into theIsraeli band's first song, the lead singer drenched a few peoplewith bottled water causing everyone to step back. Between pickingup the bass drum, humping the Simpsons pinball machine and invadingthe audience's comfort zone, Monotonix was more about theatricsthan music, which isn't a bad thing on a tour dubbed "FYeah."
Rythym Fest
Nelson Ledges, Thursday, July 3-Sunday, July 6
When you've got a campsite as filled with freedom and equality asyou do at Evan Kelly's Nelson Ledges Quarry Park in Amish-gawkingGarrettsville, you have to believe it when Evan introduces"one of the best pyrotechnics shows in the COUNTRY!" Theman means it, and backs it up with crowd-startling flybys, a guytrying to set the record for how long he can stay ablaze, theendless volleys of lights and the legions of freaks, love bunniesand true believers. Now jiggle all that together with a more thangenerous line-up of musical genius from across genres - with twoRock Hallers as anchors on two separate nights - and what we hadhere, folks, was a full-on weekend of cosmic bliss for every one ofyour war-ravaged senses.
I couldn't make night one, featuring the meticulous jammers Moe.,but I'm sure they sparked a good buzz what with all their merch Isaw everywhere when I arrived Friday "morning" and easedon into the calming fracas. After a slew of promising acts - mostnotably legend Airto Moreira, his wife Flora and Identity, and onthe side-stage the Ragbirds, rootsy folk-poppers with a pixie whoalternates between stirring fiddle licks and high-end singing - itwas time for the fireworks and Mickey Hart, for three decades theheartbeat of the Grateful Dead. He brought his psych-rockpercussion-heavy experience to the stage with five drum experts,including master Giovanni Hidalgo, who opened by stripping the skinfrom his very palms. With a solid mix of Dead classics sprinkledin, a Linda Ronstadt manque but prettier, and bassist George PorterJr. who sounds like he sings lead for the Holmes Brothers, thesmiles of marvel were never-ending. It was Americana at its finest,an honor to witness.
On Saturday, the same reverence was due, but this time dancing wasnot an option. Another jam-packed day, with Dave Katz, EkoostikHookah's keyboardist/architect, and his Jammers weaving such ablissful tapestry that all I could think was: Will somebody givethis guy a singer? Seamless tunes abounded all afternoon, leadingthe way into George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic. If you'venever seen this carnival sideshow of impeccable soul before, youmight want to slap yourself in the head right now. If I'd havebrought my notebook, I might have made note of some of theparticular songs that played. Instead, let me say that it was likeone long song that encompassed everything from Motown and scat tohill country and rap, coupled with sex-fueled theatrics that lockedthe eyes into the whole experience. He even had histwenty-something granddaughter along with his posse of 20-plus,with a throwback-sounding rap so dirty it could have only come fromone place. Clinton can't sing anymore, but just about everybody inhis entourage can, so everything works out best when he just sitsback and plays captain, tokes on some bud and rides the mothershipto one helluva beautiful place. In the morning, a yoga clinic onthe beach was said to raise many of the dead. My legs were stilljelly from all the dancing. — Dan Harkins
Peter Tork and the Shoe Suede Blues
Winchester, Saturday, July 5
Monkee Peter Tork returned to the Winchester with Shoe Suede Blues,a blues-pop group that's been his main project since the mid-1990s.Tork's roughly 90-minute set followed a well-paced pattern of aMonkees cover approximately every fourth song, with either originalor covered blues/R&B tunes in between. Tork focused on thebiggest Monkee hits, like "I'm a Believer" and "LastTrain To Clarksville," and those songs' new, soulful, bluesyrenditions proved way more interesting than straightforwardreenactments of the original recordings. By retooling those songsso distinctively, Tork took ownership of them in a cool, dignifiedway. "Your Auntie Grizelda" excepted, the Monkees hitsthat Tork performed weren't really songs that he originallycomposed or sang lead on, so Tork-composed, non-hit greats like"Can You Dig It" were unfortunately left out. Theaudience was predictably a crowd of Monkee-lovers, so although Torkkept the supportive audience engaged throughout, the Monkees coverswere the obvious crowd-pleasers.
The blues/R&B covers consisted of material like Slim Harpo's"Mailbox Blues" and Stick McGhee's "Drinking WineSpodie Odie." Because Tork is naturally such a clown, the mostserious and straightforwardly bluesy numbers sometimes felt likethey didn't quite add up, despite the solid musicianship and deeplove of the material by Tork and his backing band. The mosteffective cover tune was Louis Jordan's swing/jump-blues standard"The Chicks I Pick Are Slender and Tender and Tall." Thefun, whimsical spirit of swing aligned perfectly with Tork'spersonality and innate strengths as a goofy entertainer, suggestinga stylistic direction that Tork would be wise to further exploreand emphasize more strongly in the future.
Opener Michael Jantz's acoustic-guitar singer-songwriter set had alaid-back, slightly silly undercurrent that paired compatibly withTork's own vibe. — Michael David Toth
Type O Negative
House of Blues, Thursday, July 3
Type O Negative's singer Peter Steele, keyboardist Josh Silver,guitarist Kenny Hickey and drummer Johnny Kelly have successfullycoped with their own unique place in music history. Easily one ofthe more consistent bands both in studio and on stage, Type O neverdisappoint and on Thursday at the House of Blues it was nodifferent. The stage was set with the customary green accents andprops that Type O has made signature. Frontman Peter Steele'scorner of stage right had a neatly placed bottle of Jagermeister,rather than the usual red wine. Three green, unclothed mannequinswere randomly perched by monitors with black hairpieces both"up there" and "down there." The ravenous mobardently chanted the Type O anthem "You Suck! You Suck!"as the Brooklyn natives casually stormed the stage.
A dramatic yet shortened "Prelude to Agony" erupted fromtheir instruments, setting the atmosphere for the evening. Theuptempo "Kill All the White People" came next, enlistingthe pitgoers to engage in the moment. A spectacularly rare"Wolf Moon" kept the nostalgia growing while Steele'sbrawny stature and moments of muddled lyrics hinted at reportedturmoil of recent past. Devotion to his craft made up for anyshortcomings while his unparalleled vocal skill rang true and evenenhanced the original versions of each song. The traditional banterof the other members combined with Kelly's hair flips and grinsflaunted Type O Negative's prowess. Both new and old fans embracedperfect renditions of "World Coming Down," "SomeStupid Tomorrow" and the sing-along "ChristianWoman." Back to back "Kill You Tonight" and"Love You to Death" encouraged couples to both slap andhug their loved ones, while the popular "Black No.1"hugged the whole crowd. Begrudgingly (they have a rep to protect)the band embraced Cleveland's electrifying enthusiasm, which provedtoo contagious to deny. — Hannah Verbeuren