The turnout for the "hardcore" bands over at the Majestic Theater was low all night, just like it was on Wednesday and Thursday night. On Friday night the place was almost packed, but once Madball finished (around midnight), the majority of the fans cleared out. Some people have been saying that the fans for the "hardcore" bands far outnumbered the fans for the indie music next door, but that was really only true for one day. If Madball hadn't been on the bill, it wouldn't have been true at all. Some of the under appreciated "hardcore" bands shouldn't complain about the low turnout. It could have been much worse. They could have been sitting on the side of the main-stage during the whole festival, waiting for their chance and never getting it.
Lonely Fridge sat patiently for four nights, hoping in vain for a chance to play for the crowd. Why shouldn't Lonely Fridge get to perform? It's made of stainless steel, making it far more hardcore than any band there that week.
You're probably getting bored of my poorly written, one paragraph summaries of the bands over at The Magic Stick. I'm getting bored of it too. Aside from finding One AM Radio a bit catchy, , and seeing Phantasmagoria for the third time in one year, not much impressed me that night. Except for Y△CHT (I'll just spell it as Yacht for the rest of the post, because I also find the shapes in place of letters thing to be annoying).
Yacht was selling and signing merchandise at least an hour before they performed.
The band seems to be part music, part belief. They had pamphlets about the history of triangles throughout the various religions of the world. As seen above, they even had handouts on Yacht approved tattoos for their fans. The band even scheduled a lecture on their philosophy and beliefs for the following afternoon. Did anyone go to that?
After some difficulty getting the projector working (good hustle, soundguy), the band got underway. They had brief videos arranged for each song, and before each song started, someone in the band hit the button on the remote to get the next clip started.
Yacht's fast paced and energetic songs had the crowd moving around a lot. Adding to that, the band often interacted with the crowd. During one song Claire walked amongst the audience, putting her hand on people's forehead as though she were giving them blessing, and every fan received it that way. Claire's dancing and bold confidence adds so much to the band's show, that it's hard to believe that she's only been with the band for the last 3 years of its 9 year existence.
During a break between songs, the band had a question and answer session. The most popular question was "Can I dance on stage with you?". So they put on a beat and let two guys dance on stage. One of them was way more into it than the other one.
The last song of the set was Voodoo City, and the everyone in the crowd was jumping up and down in time with the music.
Then it was back to more selling and signing. They never assigned a "merch boy/girl" to do the selling for them. They interacted directly with the fans for every sale. I have to say that while most of Saturday didn't excite me much, Yacht's performance was the highlight of the festival for me, and I'm going to try to catch them every time they come back to town.
Now for me to make some conclusions about the festival as a whole. I never understood the joining of "hardcore" and indie music for this edition of the festival, and had it not been for the booking of Madball on Friday, the hardcore element would have been a total flop. At least for a venue the size of the Majestic Theater anyways. I predict that in the future, Fucking Awesome Fest will separate the "hardcore" element and give it its own festival on a different weekend, while limiting FAF to just the Magic Stick and Garden Bowl, the way it was done last year.
Despite all my bitching and moaning, there were a lot of great highlights for me during this festival. It was the first time I've seen Pewter Club, Pink Lightning, Heavy Cream, Hans Condor, The Ettes, Ty Segall, and Yacht. I even enjoyed seeing Bane and Terror at The Majestic Theater. I could watch that circle pit in fascination for hours.
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I'm a dork, I live in the Detroit area, and sometimes I take blurry photos on an outdated camera
