So I went to bed fairly pissed off on Saturday, but looking ahead to Sunday I really wanted to end the festival on a high note. DANDY WARHOLS! MONOTONIX! PASSION PIT! Weather be damned, god damn it! I woke up determined to get a good start on the day: some Bloodys, some barbecuing, some sunshine. Sounds good, yes? As is the case on Monolith Sundays, the crowds are a little slow to enter the venue. It’s nice because it give you a chance to walk around without constantly avoiding or bumping into people. For my money, I think it’s the best time to be there. You can get really close to the stages, the bass beats from the dance music hasn’t taken over the entire place yet, and there are still paper towels in the bathrooms.
We had every intention of getting in early to see the last part of Jim McTurnan’s show on the madeloud.com stage, but we were turned away at the main entrance by a sad, lonely, angry old man who didn’t want us kids to have any fun. He may as well have said to get off his damn lawn. Even though our group had media and VIP passes, he said we “needed a ticket to get in.” Not very VIP, if you ask me. What a bastard. “Strike one against Monolith today,” I said as we walked all the way back up stairs to “check-in” (read: walk right-the-fuck in) at the upper entrance. We followed the signs to the “SHOW” where local favorites The Knew were finishing up their set. There was lots of hair on stage and in the audience. Out-of-towners were treated to a great performance by one of Denver’s most likeable rock bands, who I suspect are not far from having one of their songs show up in a Nissan ad or a Jennifer Garner movie. You laugh, but The Knew will be laughing all the way to the bank, sucka.
Not really sure what I did until 2:00. Probably searched for beer.
The Grates went on around 2:00. Patience, their literally bouncy lead singer, said something along the lines of, “this is a fun one to bounce around to” and when the music started she immediately made about 300 boyfriends of the fellas in the audience. I probably took about 200 pictures, because she wouldn’t stop freaking smiling! The Grates had more fun than anyone I’d see at Monolith up to that point. They looked thrilled to be there and shared that excited energy with the crowd. Yeah, I was dancing the photo pit, what of it?
After The Grates told us, “hey mates, it’s okay to have fun at Monolith!” we went downstairs to see another Denver group, hip-hoppers The Pirate Signal. Um, these guys are going to be fucking huge. Wow. DJ A-What started spinning some beats (using more than just a MacBook even!) when Yonnas came out to a half-full Rock Room. He moved to the front of the stage and gave those lucky enough to be there an amazing performance for about 40 minutes. Yonnas has the most eloquent rapper-banter I’ve ever heard, his back stories for Love In The Time Of Swine Flu and Jiggle It had the audience laughing just moments before they started bouncing and throwing their hands in the air (like they just didn’t care). The Pirate Signal was one of the few acts that really fit the Monolith vibe. I hope to see them on next year’s lineup.
We hustled upstairs as TPS was finishing up because I wanted to see Monotonix. Like most people, their music was take-or-leave; it was the show, the spectacle, the raw hairiness, that attracted me to this show. Monotonix had no need for the fancy “stage” at Red Rocks, instead they bring their instrument out into the crowd and perform right next to (and often on top of) those who pay their bills. Because of this, the photo pit was moved onto the SoCo stage. Yes, I took the stage at Monolith this year. Actually it kind of sucked on stage. The angles were all wrong, there were too many bodies, and it felt like it was more fun on the floor, which was literally bowing under the weight of the jumping audience. I was up there long enough to see Ami Shalev sign the damage waiver, then dive into the crowd, then pull down his pants for first time. As they wandered away from the front of the stage, I left my perch and went down to make sure Ms. Ivyy Goldberg wasn’t being harassed by any stray moshers. To my delight, I found that Shalev and guitarist Yonatan Gat had moved right next to her! She was loving it, and shot this video for us all to enjoy:
Aside from the security thing to start the day, Monolith was rolling so far. The bands were a perfect 4/4.
The Dandy Warhols made it 5/5. What a treat it was to see these guys perform. Arguably the most established band at the festival, I was surprised they weren’t headlining one of the days. If they had been, I probably would have stayed for it, regardless of the weather. They played a beautiful set that flowed and grooved quite contrary to Monotonix. It was another great Monolith moment, going from one style of music to another and having just as much fun. The smell of “the pot” was in the air. It was clear that some people had come on Sunday solely to see the Dandies, and they didn’t disappoint.
We were in such a good mood we did some handstands before heading to the itty-bitty madeloud.com stage downstairs. Red Wire Black Wire had amassed a decent-sized audience considering the surroundings and the mysterious location of the stage (the Monolith folks really need to make this locqation more accessible if possible). It was a nice mid-afternoon break for us; the weather was mild, the music was pleasant and poppy. RWBW was one of the bands I had heard (and enjoyed) one or two songs from and wanted to check out. They didn’t blow me away or anything, but if they come through Denver again, I’d like to see them play a full set. We walked back towards the main stage for The Glitch Mob, a group of DJs that I was more curious about than any act at Monolith. Having only heard Crush Mode I was skeptical about their live sound, their act, and the type of people that would come out for the show. The result was one of the happiest surprises of the festival. The beats were relentless and heavy, but totally danceable. It was like 40 minutes of music that would get you pumped up to run or lift weights. They came out with a ton of energy, dancing around the stage, throwing their arms all over the place, and screaming to the crowd (sans mics). The audience was bouncing in synch to the music and went nuts when The Mob finally let loose the beat on each song.
The fun continued at the SoCo stage, where Boulder DJs Savoy took full advantage of MSTRKRFT’s cancellation due to H1N1. They were able to play to at least three times as many people than if they had stayed downstairs, and being in such proximity to Boulder, it seemed like the entire CU campus was there. The boys on stage were clearly thrilled to be on a bigger stage, they were smiling the entire time and pointing to friends or familiar faces in the audience. Between Savoy, The Glitch Mob, Girl Talk, and the DJ spinning between bands (which was infinitely better than last year’s stand-up comics), the DJ lineup at Monolith this year was top notch. Back on the main stage, another act who could have headlined was taking the stage. Method Man & Redman predictably had a great nice turnout and put on a fantastic show. Meth was pretty upset about the mob of photographers between him and the crowd. At one point he stepped over and through us to get to the fans reaching out for him. He also was trying to incite the crowd to flood the front of the stage, but Redman said, “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Meth.” Clearly the biggest money makers of the festival, it was weird to see these guys playing on the main stage with two more acts to follow, but they played well past their allotted time and gave the fans more favorite tracks than they were probably expecting.
Having already decided that I was going to skip The Mars Volta (even the die-hards I met throughout the weekend couldn’t convince me), the end of a long weekend was in sight. The first of the final two acts of my weekend was Passion Pit who, after The Dandy Warhols, was my most anticipated band. They were kind of a letdown. They sounded okay, and they played a lot of songs that I wanted to hear (Sleepyhead included), but something was missing. They dirty sound you get when playing live didn’t really work for their highly-stylized sound. Would I see them again? Maybe. Will I continue to blow out my car stereo speakers listening to Manners? You betcha. Before going out to the parking lot for a tailgate nightcap, I hit the photo pit for Phoenix. I know everyone is ga-ga for Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, my guess is that it will end up on literally trillions of 2009 Top Ten lists this year (I’m setting the Rolling Stone rating at number 8), but I find their music to be the definition of average (here ya go; definition number 7). The live show was no different. Granted, they were not supposed to play the main stage, and the roadies did a great job making the show happen, but the energy was not there. Leading up to this show, the excitement and energy level of the audience and every show had been great, it felt very Monolith. After the first few Phoenix songs, my buzz had been sucked away. With a shrug, I circled back with my cohorts and we headed out to the parking lot to reflect on the festival. The consensus was anywhere between a 5/10 and 8/10. We’ll call it a 6.5.
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2 comments:
This is my favorite Empty Review YET.
I'm SO glad someone else shares my "meh" feelings about Phoenix!
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