Wednesday, Jun. 28, 2006 | 09:29
Intonation Festival 2006
Friday night, 23 June 2006, my girlfriend and i were worn out. we'd just moved the weekend before and we'd spent the week unpacking and moving around furniture. we hadn't had a weekend off in a while, and we were staring at a july full of busy weekends. i looked at the calendar and realized we had the vice-curated 2006 edition of Intonation Festival to attend the next two days. that was not going to be easy.
The first thing we realized was that we weren't nearly as excited about this line up as we had been the year previous. we hadn't recognized too many band names at the 2005 Intonation, but many left us pleasantly surprised. We had the same problem this year, but the ones we knew weren't exciting us and the ones we didn't know a little research explained why. they just weren't that interesting. who needs another indie rock band?
The first day, the 24th, we showed up in time to catch Jose Gonzalez with his acoustic guitar. it's not a good venue for that, solo singer-songwriter performance, but he tried. my girlfriend thought at times he sounded like he was ripping off Nick Drake, and the rest of the time he was boring. I tried to like it--i like what i've heard elsewhere--but it wasn't working. we went to see what was for sale under the tents.
not much, it turned out. some clothes, some posters, some magazines, some records from hi-fi. not the vast trove of used cds i scoured last year. a real disappointment. eventually we found a place to sit for the next two acts, not being interested in anything until Rocky Erickson to the stage. it appeared not too many other people were. the audience wasn't nearly as full as in 2005, but the weather was better (cooler) and the grass in better shape. from afar we heard High On Fire's sludge metal and Chromeo's trashy, vocodered dance music. Chromeo was like low-rent Daft Punk. more daft than punk, though.
oh, the Stills snuck in there, after High On Fire, but they were more boring indie rock from Montreal. no Broken Social Scene they.
Roky can still play, despite being clearly acid damaged. His lead guitarist appeared to be in charge, telling Roky what the next song was and making sure he didn't space out during his solo, which as a little sad. the songs were good, though, and we enjoyed it. we moved before the encore to get a good spot for the next band at the other stage.
The Boredoms are amazing. we saw some of the soundcheck, while Roky finished his set, and had no idea what to expect. they'd set up three drum kits in a square, with the fourth side having a set of keyboards and microphones. we zoned out for a bit, but suddenly this japanese guy with long dreads was shouting into a microphone while two other japanese guys and a japanese girl (Yoshimi who battles pink robots) situated themselves at the kits. what followed was mind-blowing. the three kits together were tribal and hypnotic, while Eye (the shouter) played something on the keyboard and howled now and then. his keyboard sounds were more drones than melodies, which fit well with the circling drums. their timing was impeccable, and as songs flowed into each other (i could tell the difference from the keyboard part and slight shifts in drum patterns) i felt i was going to float away. now and then Eye would step into the middle of the square and shout, sometimes in a language, sometimes primal animal howls. it was stunning. toward the end of their set Yoshimi turned around to play another synth and sing a pretty melody while the band played disco-inflected rock beats. it was a brief interlude before Eye's screaming returned. then it was back into the drum maelstorm, which was thrilling. we agreed their set alone was worth the price of admission.
Ghostface was next, followed by Lady Sovereign and The Streets. we strolled over to the t-shirt booth and got me a Boredoms t-shirt then left. what i heard of Ghostface sounded like standard bass-heavy hip hop, though at least he was rapping instead of taking five minute breaks between songs with filler talking and hype. in retrospect it would have been nice at least to have seen Lady Sov, and i hear Mike Skinner puts on a good show, but we weren't up to it.
the next day we didn't roll into Intonation until a quarter of 4, just in time to see Annie. Euro-dance with guitars, from Norway. we'd been afraid of rain and cooler air, but standing in that field it was dry and warming up, sun coming out. i dropped my umbrella, pulled off my shirt, and danced. i danced the whole set. it was fun, probably the only set i saw that weekend that inspired me to move. Annie didn't have much of a stage show, but she was energised. i felt it.
after that we walked around, found the same disappointing things as the day before, except that, to make matters worse, they had fewer t-shirts for sale. the artists we liked, Annie, Blue Cheer, Jon Brion, didn't have anything for sale. eventually we settled in the sun while Lupe Fiasco talked about whatever (he's supposed to be a rapper, but he only did four or five songs in 40 minutes, one of them cut short even). after him was the Sword, a better metal band than High On Fire. toward the end of their set we positioned ourselves for Blue Cheer (yes, the original Blue Cheer) and enjoyed the sounds from the other stage.
while we sat in the sun we watched these girls in odd BBC America get-ups (british bathing wear, very strange) walk around with a dirty old man in a dirty old mac. he would stop in front of someone now and then--usually a seated girl--and expose himself while blowing his whistle. i'm not sure what he was revealing, but it didn't look any better than if he'd really been naked. it was weird, an odd way to promote British television in the United States. also, some woman walked by and said to me that she enjoyed my dancing. she was older, probably married, probably there for Blue Cheer. she said people really got a kick out of my dancing, that they were even filming it. i haven't found it on the web yet, but i'll keep looking. you look too.
Blue Cheer rocked, though i was having trouble getting into it. it wasn't quite as out there as Roky Erickson, and was mostly about sex and drugs. they were impressively heavy, though. i figured they'd sound kind of weak because a lot of older bands didn't emphasise the low end quite as much as they do today, but these guys had a modern sound. they probably played better than any of those indie rock bands i missed. i'm glad to have seen them, though it might have been nice to get a shirt or something. a Blue Cheer shirt might have been cool.
from there we skipped out on the encore to get a good spot for Jon Brion. that was a good idea, because he got crowded quickly, and he was worth seeing up close, if only because Benmont Tench and Glenn Kotche joined him for a few songs. Brion has a wide range of rock history behind him, and stands firmly in the pop guitar rock land with quirky arrangements and solos verging on wankiness. most of his songs were built on loops, which he recorded on the spot. he'd play 8 bars on the kit then his loop machine would take over. the kit was tight and dry, without much resonance, but when it looped it was booming. he'd layer piano and bass with that, then sing and play live guitar for the song. sometimes Tench would join him, which was a real treat because the guy can play. on a few songs Kotche showed up for live drums, but i wasn't noticing much of a difference. they did some of Brion's origionals, plus rousing renditions of "Baby You're a Rich Man" and "Waterloo Sunset" (which Brion called the best song ever). it was an exciting, invigorating set.
after that we got some sandwiches from the Robinson's booth and ate on the curb. Robert Pollard played but i've never been a fan of him or his former band (him and whoever was around). we left half-way through his set, and thus missed the last two acts, one of which was Bloc Party. i cannot remember who followed Robert Pollard, but i think it was hip hop. oh, Dead Prez. apparently they went major label, went more commercial. i'm not sure i'd want to see that. i probably would have liked to see Bloc Party, especially if i knew their music, but i was tired and couldn't be bothered to labor through the swarm that would be waiting for the train afterwards. the weekend was by no means sold out, but it would have been a pain going home at the end. besides, it looked like rain.
