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Fun x 4
Fun Fun Fun Fest is an organic party with a unique Austin vibe that well represents several of the key music scenes for which the city has become legend in this part of the country. In its second year, the fest is basically an amalgam of everything wonderful about the Red River music scene. You have the indie rock of places like the Mohawk, the hard-core and punk scenes so familiar at places like Room 710 and Beerland, and the DJ acts seen everywhere from Beauty Bar to Emo’s. With local vendors, a manageable crowd of 6,500 or so that allowed for easy and unobstructed viewing of almost every band, and familiar faces at every turn, Waterloo Park seems like it’s playing home this weekend to one big Red River block party; add the complement of perfect weather to the mix, and you have a recipe for one of the most enjoyable music events in this or any town.
The highlight for me Saturday had to be Okkervil River, a band about which I have heard plenty but never had the chance to enjoy live. The homegrown talents rocked a set composed primarily of tunes from ‘Black Sheep Boy’ and their latest, ‘The Stage Names,’ an album about which music critic Michael Corcoran has a borderline obsession. Following Okkervill, I managed to enjoy a few songs of Of Montreal before being bored with their over-the-top synth-pop, which in small doses can be entertaining, but after a few songs grates on my nerves. The androgynous Kevin Barnes knows how to get a crowd, and his band, going, but the hyper-bouncy rythms of the glam pop outfit lost my interest after a few songs, before recapturing my attention with a ’70s-era funk tune that seemed culled from the Beck catalog.
Indie rock stalwarts the New Pornographers were crippled by some bad sound throughout but played through a complication of which they may have been unaware, to a crowd which seemed to know every lyric belted out by Carl Newman and the tambourine-rattling Neko Case. I wrapped the night up by taking in the much ballyhooed Girl Talk over at the DJ stage. DJ Greg Gillis began his set by telling fans that he played part dance music and part chill out music, but it was evident that the dance portion would be highlighted on this cool November evening — within seconds the small stage was filled with tweens bopping up and down, hands swaying with the beats, almost engulfing the Pittsburgh DJ known as Girl Talk. Unfortunately, the park setting and rather weak amplification made it hard for Gillis’ set to permeate the entire audience. Gillis had made a name for himslef, and rightly so, by taking 10 second snippets of blasts from the past and mashing them into a musical collage that keeps audiences dancing along as the music seamlessly transitions from the Jackson 5 to Earth, Wind and Fire, and Steve Winwood. Steve Winwood, you say? Yep, pretty kitschy, eh? The set kept people on and near the stage bumping for the length of the set, but I left feeling the musical experience would have been a little more at home at Emo’s or even Spiros.
Random sighting: In addition to seeing about 75 percent of the people I know in Austin, I was also alerted to the presence of Matt Bonner of the San Antonio Spurs taking in some bands at Stage 1.
(Pictured: Diplo performs on the DJ stage on day 2 of Fun Fun Fun Fest. Photo by Benjamin Sklar FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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