Ice Cream Man

FYF Fest, my how you’ve grown. I remember you back in 2005 (your second year, I believe) when you were just a charmingly cobbled together free festival in Echo Park. I wandered up and down Sunset Boulevard to various venues, merrily clutching a 40 of Mickeys in a paper bag seeing bands like The Dillinger Four, Mojo Filters and Toys that Kill. Thankfully, we’ve both grown a bit since then. You’ve got your big bro Goldenvoice helping you out and I’ve somehow wrangled a job! I didn’t go to the previous FYF Fest’s at Los Angeles State Historic Park, but based on my first trip this weekend I say, “Congratulations, man!” Sure, there are a few kinks to work out, but overall it was a raving success. This is LA’s version of Coachella, maybe, just more indie, and I hope it stays that way.

Ian was on his maiden voyage with Bessie and thanks to Ben & Jerry’s and Jakprints he was able to give away a couple thousand free treats backstage. We promise to snap more cream pics next time, which will likely be Doheny Days this weekend.

Highlights
– Reasonably priced tickets ($89 total for both days)
– Not-too crowded beer garden between Main Stage and Hill St. Stage that allowed walking back and forth over the hill with beer/cocktail in-hand to easily view both stages
– More free schwag than I could imagine (seriously, I should’ve bought a lottery ticket this weekend)
– Dude with crutches crowd surfing at Gold Panda
– The Hundreds carnival games
– FYF bubble suds letters floating away in the sky
– Cheap Blood Is The New Black t-shirts
– Meeting the amazing Touch Vinyl guys (look into them, there are doing great things)
– Interviewing Future Islands just before their amazing performance (coming soon)
– Bands on Hill St. Stage going on early and adding 5-10 minutes to their sets (props to Future Islands, Father John Misty and Atlas Sound)
– Clean and line-free Porta Potties

Lowlights
– High potential for sprained ankles due to footing/gopher holes
– Coachella parking lot levels of dust
– James Blake’s amazing performance being drowned out by sound bleed from Tanlines (who were also great)
– Scarcity of food (vendors running out of food around 9 p.m. on Saturday night)
– I <3 Spicy Pie changing their logo (booooooo!  keep it classic!)

Favorite Performances (in no particular order)
– King Khan & The Shrines (complete with 3 crowd-surfing tambourine players)
– M83
– Gold Panda
– Future Islands
– James Blake (when Tanlines weren’t drowning him out)
– Tanlines (when I wasn’t trying to listen to James Blake)
– Dinosaur Jr.’s “Feel The Pain”
– Chromatics’ cover of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill”
– Yeasayer (and they’re amazing Creator’s Project stage set up)

Great Things Overheard
– Tanlines, “…we’re playing the comedy rave tent!”
– Bradford Cox (Atlas Sound) sound checking after Aesop Rock, “Can I get a lot less ‘bra’ in the side fills.”
– Jeremiah being asked by our new friends (we met at a shared picnic table) after photographing Health, “Did you capture the magic of the hair whips? They’re beautiful.”
– Q: “Is Gold Panda down tempo?” A: “Nope, he’s folktronica.”

Best Things Eaten
– My fill of Spicy Pie (4 slices, yikes!)
– Deano’s Deli turkey sandwich (that garlic-mayo spread is amazing)
– Babycakes’ vegan cookie sandwich (I can’t believe there’s no dairy in it)

Trends
– Film cameras
– Aztec patterns (still)
– Free sunglasses
– Fancy fishnets
– Boots
– Ear stretching (haven’t seen this many since 1990’s era Lollapalooza)