Category: Festival Coverage
Previews, reviews and coverage from music festivals like Hopscotch and Moogfest
Hopscotch creates the optimal environment for music discovery. Many music festivals have multiple stages but few host fourteen venues for anyone with a wrist band to drift in and out of. This drifting brings about a method of discovering music that fits well with the Internet music age. We live in a world where the customer really is always right because their entire experience has been personalized for the individual. In this case, it is a personalized concert for three nights straight.
I had few artists that I absolutely had to see: Earl Sweatshirt, A-Trak, and Future Islands. Saturday was the most open out of all the nights. Other than Saints Apollo, Adult. and Big Black Delta, I had no shows planned out. Out of of all the new bands I saw perform, no show was more entertaining than The Everymen’s performance at The Pour House. I almost walked out before it even started, too. I went in ten minutes before the start of The Everyman but ran into DJ Sarahnade from Post Rock Block. right outside. She had seen this band earlier and was coming back for more.
“Piano’s over the head kind of stuff” she explain to me.
I was sold.
It turned out to be the best rock show I’ve seen in a long time. The energy and stage presence The Everymen had was outstanding, and the crowd showed it right back. Everyone for at least the first few rows was going hard to a the male and female fronted band. The lead singer/guitar player made for great mid-song commentary.
At one point, a duel was put forth between the sax and piano player. This ended with the keyboardist picking up his piano, laying one end into the crowd and just going nuts on it. This New Jersey band will forever be cemented in my memory bank.
My personalized concert ended up being spot on thanks to the amazing people who put the effort into making Hopscotch a success.
You can find their Bandcamp here – bandcamp
-Muta
(Not pictured above: The awesome and crazy keyboard player)
Hopscotch Music Festival has always been one of my favorite music festivals. It is one of the most diverse festivals ever. This year was no exception. The festival included everyone from blues legends from the 50’s (Ironing Board Sam) to one of the most iconic MCs (Big Daddy Kane) to the founders of both The Velvet Underground (John Cale) and Sonic Youth (Thurston Moore) to one of the greatest noise musicians from Japan (Merzbow) and everything in between. One of the greatest things about this festival is that while there were certain acts I knew beforehand, many of the acts I only learned about because of the festival. I discovered a lot of my new favorite acts by looking them up beforehand and listened to them or even just by being dragged to their set during the festival. Hopscotch Music Festival is definitely one of my most favorite weekends of the year filled with unforgettable experiences.
Thursday Highlights
-Thursday night I received my first unforgettable introduction to Body Games. They are an incredible new group from Chapel Hill whose brilliant indie electro-pop complete with a great lights show and Lion King projections had they whole crowd grooving along. They even covered Michael Jackson’s “Will You Be There” from Free Willy which oddly enough fit perfectly as everyone nostalgically danced along.
-New local stars Sylvan Esso blew everyone out of the water. Their beat-driven breed of infectious electro-pop had everyone dancing and Memorial Auditorium shaking.
-Kurt Vile and The Violators played last to close out the night at Lincoln perfectly with their warm wash of guitar driven rock as everyone lost themselves in his music.
Friday Highlights
-Thurston Moore, although not on the official Hopscotch bill, played a day show at Kings with drummer John Moloney. It was incredible to see such an iconic legend in a setting such as this.
-Future Islands have become local music gods so it is obvious that would be one of my highlights. Future Islands performed new-wave synth-pop to perfection as Sam’s antics kept the crowd entertained. They played many favorites from over the years as well as some songs from their upcoming effort that they announced.
-Speedy Ortiz was one of the bands I was looking forward to see the most of this festival and they did not disappoint. Their hour long set was rock solid made full use of the stage and filled every corner of the room with their guitar driven noise-pop.
Saturday Highlights
-As a fan of the Pixies and more recently of The Breeders, it was a dream come true to see them perform live at Hopscotch. The entire band was having a great time as they joked back and forth between songs off of The Last Splash. Their energy fueled that crowd as everyone sang and danced along. They even got to play a few more songs after the last song on their album that they were playing in full. Their performance was utter perfection and you could see the excitement of them playing together again.
-City Plaza not only knocked “seeing The Breeders,” off my bucket list, but “seeing Spiritualized” as well. They played a perfect mix of songs that spanned most of their career complete with projections and lights. The whole show and atmosphere was just an incredible experience as dusk began to settle.
Categories
Hopscotch artist map
With 170 artists scheduled to play the Hopscotch Music Festival, have you ever wondered where they all come from? Performers represent nine countries, 26 states and the District of Columbia. We decided to put that in perspective with a world map of Hopscotch performers, based on their hometowns listed on the Hopscotch website. Those with multiple cities are listed in each location and the dots do not represent the exact location of each band (we’re not that creepy). Sorry for the ad, but we didn’t want to pay to have it removed.
WKNC, along with our friends at WUAG and WXYC, is kicking Hopscotch Music Festival off right on Thursday with a free day party at Tir Na Nog featuring College Radio Showcase. There will be four bands and all sorts of fun from noon to five pm!
The lineup is as follows:
12:30: Ameriglow
1:30: The Human Eyes
2:30: Once and Future Kings
3:30: Solar Halos
For more information, check out the event page!
On Thursday, September 5th, the first day of Hopscotch, Raleigh’s Diggup Tapes, Asheville’s Apothecary, and Greensboro’s Bitheart Studios are taking over King’s and Neptune’s for a blowout featuring acts pulled from all corners of North Carolina. The schedule is as follows:
KINGS BARCADE:
Moss of Aura (4:30 pm)
Oulipo (3:30 pm)
The Bronzed Chorus (2:30 pm)
Zack Mexico (1:00 pm)
Neptune’s Parlor:
Casual Curious (6:00 pm)
Savage Knights (5:00 pm)
Alligator Indian (4:00 pm)
Heralding (3:00 pm)
The event is free thanks to Lone Rider Beer, whose locally-crafted microbrews will be on tap, and Nice Price Books. For more information, you can check out the event page here.