This was an all-for-Dave day. Sarah was fairly ambivalent about the two acts we were going to see—Wintersleep and Feist—but she knew I was keen on both, so she toughed it out on my behalf. There was a scheduling mix-up with Wintersleep, and their set started a bit later than advertised. Off the bat they had a decent crowd, but a mass migration started before they even took the stage. People just wanted to get a good seat for Feist, and when the band did start their set, other folks were just turned off by the reaaaalllly long slow-groove instrumental they played first. Without even trying, Sarah and I moved forward about thirty feet just by filling in the gaps that opened up in front of us.
Overall, I was disappointed with the band. Given, I only know about three of their songs, but they’re not terribly compelling performers. It was a set that required patience and attention—which may have been on purpose. Maybe the band knew that all the casual gawkers would piss off to go see the headliner, and only the true fans would stay. It reminded me of Hawklsey Workman’s set when he was playing in the same timeslot as The White Stripes last year. So indulgent, so self-involved. Masturbatory, is really the word I’m looking for. Wintersleep wasn’t quite that bad, but I just wanted them to try harder. The last song we caught though was “Weighty Ghost” and it was entirely awesome.
After that, we pulled up a piece of grass in the main field and listened to a bit of Feist. We’d seen her a few years ago at Folk Fest and she’s really good. I know that’s a bland way to describe her, but I choose these words on purpose. She sounds great, she’s a good performer and a strong songwriter. I think she’s better suited to a small stage though. She puts on a very intimate performance—so at Bluesfest that’s great if you’re twenty feet from the stage, less so if you’re one of the other five thousand people there. But I don’t want to come down to strongly on her either way because we didn’t pay that much attention. We listened casually to about five or six songs, then took off and got back home at the very un-rock-and-roll time of 10:45.
Overall, I was disappointed with the band. Given, I only know about three of their songs, but they’re not terribly compelling performers. It was a set that required patience and attention—which may have been on purpose. Maybe the band knew that all the casual gawkers would piss off to go see the headliner, and only the true fans would stay. It reminded me of Hawklsey Workman’s set when he was playing in the same timeslot as The White Stripes last year. So indulgent, so self-involved. Masturbatory, is really the word I’m looking for. Wintersleep wasn’t quite that bad, but I just wanted them to try harder. The last song we caught though was “Weighty Ghost” and it was entirely awesome.
After that, we pulled up a piece of grass in the main field and listened to a bit of Feist. We’d seen her a few years ago at Folk Fest and she’s really good. I know that’s a bland way to describe her, but I choose these words on purpose. She sounds great, she’s a good performer and a strong songwriter. I think she’s better suited to a small stage though. She puts on a very intimate performance—so at Bluesfest that’s great if you’re twenty feet from the stage, less so if you’re one of the other five thousand people there. But I don’t want to come down to strongly on her either way because we didn’t pay that much attention. We listened casually to about five or six songs, then took off and got back home at the very un-rock-and-roll time of 10:45.
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