FYF Fest 2016, August 27 & 28, at L.A. Sports Arena and Coliseum, Exposition Park

By this time we knew how these festivals work, and FYF Fest in particular, our big, local fest, and what we could get away with in our day(s). We’d gotten the hang of getting to shows just in time to see the headliner (a scheme that often worked), and we applied the same thing to a weekend festival. Once the set-times came out (an event second only in excitement to the line-up reveal) we could make a plan, a necessity when there are other adult concerns in life (which could also be a friends’ kid’s birthday party). As much as Carla & I go to festivals and FYF to hang out with our people as much as see bands, we don’t usually bother to get there early without reason, and sometimes we get fairly surgical about it. There’s also the consideration of leaving two hours to get in, so it might necessitate using up a lot of the day and being there early but just not getting to see bands right after parking (which can also take a while then the walk from). Sometimes going one day is just an obligation for the two-day event and since we planned for the whole weekend in the first place. And so was our Saturday at FYF that year. We’d planned the whole weekend for it anyway, and had the headliner we most wanted to see, even if it was just because we probably wouldn’t see him anywhere else outside of a festival. So, after the walk from the parking and the line (both just as we’d planned), we got in to wander, to see where we wound up, which initially included some of Shellac, maybe just to establish seeing a band even if it wasn’t anyone we planned for; it was late in the day/early in the evening, with the sun going down, and without much of any other draw on our attention we just wandered, ending up for a minute at Air, who hadn't much advanced beyond their sound (still playing most of Moon Safari) but still had the merit of establishing it in the first place, and Ty Segall, who we always seem to wind up near anyway, whether we know someone in his band or not; we finally got around to seeing Kendrick Lamar (touring for Damn), the big draw, by far, for the weekend. It wasn’t too long before then that I had discovered To Pimp a Butterfly and found out the hype about him was true, if not understated, and that his stuff was too good to be pigeon-holed as just “rap”. FYF had progressed far beyond just being a punk show, even branching out to include hip-hop groups not just as novelty, so Kendrick might have been reaching to win over the indie and punk kids, and headlining the bill was at least enough for all the cred. He put on a full-blown show and pulled a lot of the crowd at the fest, though we didn’t see the beginning and left before long to beat the crowd out. It might have been a truncated day but for the event we got enough out of it, especially with a bigger day behind it.
Missed: Peter Bjorn, & John (probably just as well since we didn’t keep up after “Young Folk”), Diiv (I had the album ahead of time but it didn’t do much for me), Vince Staples (a renowned local guy but no one I knew), Grimes (who I should have known but didn't bother with at this one), Oneohtrix Point Never (if only by the association of having remixed a NIN track, but no reason to see even with the remote possibility of that in the set), Hot Chip (who perpetually have never done anything for me, even if they were lumped in with a lot of other acts that I’ve liked), Explosions in the Sky (who could probably be great if their songs had words), Moby (who I didn’t realize had some valid work, even after Play, but not enough of a pull to see).

Sunday worked better for us for the fest, being the day we could focus on and make more of an effort to take in, including leaving for it earlier and working some luck to only spend 30 minutes getting in. I got into Preoccupations when they were Viet Cong (a spectacularly ill-advised name, the story of which is probably less interesting than why they chose the name in the first place), and thanks to Tana on our camping trip, and they got out an early-day set that didn’t need to stand out one way or another; if it were up to Carla we might have missed Banks & Steelz, flying under the radar without their recognizable names as Paul from Interpol and the RZA. Luckily I caught it, and they ended up being a high-point for the fest. The angular music set to hip-hop beats and rhymes was disconcerting coming in on it cold but anyone can trust either of those guys to do something worth the time. They both went back to their own projects after that, but for us to get them even for a moment was a treat; soul-legend Charles Bradley was making a name for himself with the indie crowd when soul might be a harder sell to a modern audience that could be looking for it in R&B more attuned to hip-hop. But the guy was the real deal, and he brought as much energy and grit to the stage as anyone half his age. We got lucky to see him since it wasn’t much later that the passed, so we got a performance that became more special looking back; Father John Misty was arguably at the height of his fame, after the “Real Love” single (and around the Pure Comedy album), and I had been on the train, after being unable to avoid him in association with everything else I listen to. We, as a group, also couldn’t avoid the dudes with bushy beards and shaggy, long hair, which seemed to surround us, so we got back by naming them all "Misties". The man himself put on a sufficient high-afternoon set in sunglasses and a lightweight, open shirt, and spinning his cynical but tuneful songs for his flock, of girls too smart to go for that kind of thing and the dudes who may or may not be hipsters but still openly cop his look; it wasn’t until I was killing time and had randomly wandered to Ahoni that I came on the realization that it was Antony from Antony & the Johnsons. I wasn’t a big enough fan to be into more than his first albums but I had assumed that I would catch a new project (though it had been a big deal on eMusic, I figured it was for a reason beyond me). As it was I didn’t have enough time to get much more out of it than the recognition, but it was good that the new project could get a prominent place on the schedule, as well as being accepted with what could be a challenging or at least non-conventional character, though that would be the crowd to start; I never got how Mac Demarco was such a big deal. He was a dude who kept popping up on the FYF line-ups but he didn’t seem like he had much reason to have a place there. Maybe a local guy, sure, but L.A. has plenty of musicians that would kill to get in to that fest. He’s a tuneful guy but, really, just a dude with a guitar and a cap. But whatever it is I didn't pick up for the few minutes as we passed by, and if there was anything there I knew I could get it at the next one; Beach House are another band that always seem to be there, even when they don’t need to be. We might have caught a bit of them as we passed by, but by then I’d had enough of them. Haunting but not gothy light rock and I had parted ways by then; we caught a bit of Grace Jones while we were waiting, and I realized that it was probably a distinguished and distinctive appearance and we were lucky to get it but I only knew her from the weird, arty TV appearances back in the ‘80s (probably commercials, for what I don’t remember). That she was a musician was a level beyond to me, and nothing I could get my head around, in spite of it being more performance art on a large scale which could be more accessible, or because of it being such. As it was I figured that if I got it later a recorded performance could be just as good, and I could always say I was there anyway, but maybe there was just something mildly frightening about it -- and her -- coming in without proper preparation; LCD Soundsystem were the big deal for the day, finally earning a name big enough to headline, after being on the under-bill of pretty much every festival when they were originally together. It didn’t hurt that that this was part of their big, ballyhooed reunion, even if they’d only been gone five years, the length of time some bands take between albums as a matter of course (and LCD taping their last shows as if there would never be another and not just a cash cow to pay for their next side-projects). It hardly seemed like they had been gone anyway, with just a few new songs to mark any difference (off their "comeback" album American Dream), and while it was good to see them back as a musical and cultural force and hopefully not leaving again any time soon, it also made it easy for us to check in and get a few songs before heading out since there was work the next day. Such was our surgical strike for FYF, knowing exactly how to hit what we needed and get in and get out, filling the time between sets with whatever friends rotated in and out of our mutual presence, and maybe picking up some new music if not a new experience, then entrusting next year's fest to come soon enough and getting on with our lives in the time until then.
Missed: the Black Madonna (who I didn’t know, but Jenn said was great, and she has a great stage-name), the Black Lips (another “Black” band that get mixed up with a lot of others if they’re not the Keys or Rebel Motorcycle Club), Young Thug (who had been getting some press but didn’t have a reason to stand out for me), Chelsea Wolfe (whose full show we’d seen, without really knowing her, and who plays more local fests than she doesn’t so we went somewhere else).

Kendrick Lamar’s set-list:
”untitled 07 | 2014 - 2016”
”Institutionalized”
”Backseat Freestyle”
”m.A.A.d city (Part II)”
”Swimming Pools (Drank)”
”Collard Greens” (ScHoolboy Q cover)
”THat Part” (ScHoolboy Q cover)
”Free Lunch” (Isaiah Rashad cover) (with Isaiah Rashad)
”These Walls”
”For Sale?”
”untitled 02 | 06.23.2014.”
”Complexion (A Zulu Love)”
”Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe”
”Money Trees” (with Jay Rock)
”m.A.A.d city (Part I)”
”King Kunta”
”i”
”For Free?”
”Wesley's Theory”

”Alright”
”A.D.H.D.”

LCD Soundsystems’ set-list:
”Us v Them”
”Daft Punk Is Playing at My House”
”I Can Change”
”Get Innocuous!”
”You Wanted a Hit”
”Tribulations”
”Movement”
”Yeah”
”Someone Great”
”Losing My Edge”
”Home”
”New York, I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down”
”Dance Yrself Clean”
”All My Friends”

Father John Misty’s set-list:
”Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings”
”When You're Smiling and Astride Me”
”Only Son of the Ladiesman”
”Nothing Good Ever Happens at the Goddamn Thirsty Crow”
”Chateau Lobby #4 (in C for Two Virgins)”
”Bored in the USA”
”Holy Shit”
”True Affection”
”I Love You, Honeybear”
”The Ideal Husband”

Charles Bradley’s set-list:
”The World (Is Going Up in Flames)”
”You Put the Flame on It”
”Love Bug Blues”
”Heartaches and Pain”
”Let Love Stand a Chance”
”Changes” (Black Sabbath cover)

FYF Fest, August 25 at Los Angeles Historic Park

FYF Fest is just a regular thing for us now.  It's a convenient festival for us to get to and plan for and most of our friends are into it.  It becomes more of a weekend to hang out with everyone, but the constantly phenomenal line-up never hurts.  We got tickets and were excited about it but at the last minute we had to cancel going Saturday on account of a funeral.  We gave our tickets for the day to Tana and they had a good time.  We've gotten used to the reality of having to miss shows sometime.  It happens.  We missed the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV on the Radio, Flag (most of Black Flag but most notably without Rollins), the Locust (reuniting), Deerhunter, the Breeders (performing Last Splash), and Metz (who we didn't know but everyone was going crazy over).

It's unfortunate that so many bands at FYF are fairly obscure and not local, often good but not big enough names that they'll likely ever be heard of again.  That's just the nature of a music festival, but especially for one that prides itself on its (mostly) non-mainstream fare.  FYF is about the music and how it is right now, not about how big the bands are or might be, after all.  But they have a pretty good track record of picking some bands that become something.  So there's always plenty to see and hear and that a future favorite band is early in their career out there.  As it is, though, often there are just bands filling the time and space before or between other bands or playing in the background or just providing a respite while having a beer.  Fear of Men were most of those for us, at best a warm-up as we got in and had our first drink of the day in the neighboring beer garden.  If I saw them around again, I'd check them out, though.  I think I even looked them up on Spotify at some point.  But at the time on that day, they were just a filler festival band for us; much the same about the Orwells, who I don't remember anything about; Chelsea Wolfe, though, was a stand-out.  Her name was getting around L.A. and she was just starting to break out, as far as she went.  She was a (relatively) big deal at the time, though she went on during the day, which kinda went counter to her aesthetic.  Not just how hot the band must have been under all the dark clothing and how the fog machine didn't work as well in the sunlight but also how her slightly-gothy, chamber-pop (a la Florence + the Machine) just couldn't bear playing during the day, and in L.A. to boot.  There were better environs for her but she did what she could with what she had and I'd like to think that she made an impression since she deserved it; I think the other kids were excited about Poolside but I think we just passed by them/him/it; I'd heard about Kurt Vile for a while but we didn't make a concerted effort to focus on him.  When we wandered by there was some scrappy, scratchy pop-punk that I never followed up on, but I left it to chance that he would find me eventually; also heard about How to Dress Well, and seemed like it added another edge to FYF's ever-burgeoning range, but we also must have been drinking at the time; I dig No Age, especially live, but it's too easy to take them for granted.  It seems like they play every festival in L.A., as they should if they have the opportunity, and they could probably function as FYF's artists-in-residence.  So, as much as we like them, we mostly skipped them, or watched them so minimally that I don't remember any of their performance.  But we'll likely get to see them again; I don't even remember Glasser but I had it in my notes that we saw them at least for a bit.  How much did we have to drink out there?; I've had Yo La Tengo recommended to me numerous times over the years but I just haven't been drawn to them.  The farthest I go is enjoying tracks they have on Matador compilations.  This day we might have walked by them to get from one beer garden to another and I might have plucked out a few tunes they did but nothing I remember and nothing that will make me any more likely to seek them out (though that's nothing against them); Washed Out were an expected highlight for me, one of the bands I really wanted to see.  I'm not always a fan of so-called chillwave but that's only because I don't want to try to take on yet another sub-(sub-?)genre.  But I quite enjoy easy, relaxing music that can wash over me while I'm doing something that's only marginally more involving (like work).  Washed Out, one of those hip bands that everyone seemed to latch on to for a while (maybe thanks to making the Portlandia theme), were one I got into as well.  I couldn't be sure how they would translate live, since those relaxing washes could lose every nuance in a field as well as being drowned-out by any nearby band with a guitar, but they did just fine: they keep the skeleton of the songs and the tones, they just reproduced it all with some volume.  It all hung together well and they were as good as any other band out there no matter the volume, maybe marginally better just because they offered more than just three-chord punches.  They also had a prime spot in the line-up, a bit after sundown, where they didn't have to compete with sweat and sun-produced lethargy and with the air a good deal cooler, to better match their sound; the only reason I might have been interested in Les Savy Fav was to catch their cover of "Debaser" which was my only point in interest in seeing them at Coachella years ago.  They didn't bring it this time either.  (And please be careful if you do a Google search for one of those performances.); I would say we missed MGMT if we might have had any intention of seeing them, which we did not.  It's amazing that they're placed high on a festival line-up among so many other better bands; Beach House were there?  Another time they didn't register to me.  They just seem to get buried in my attention when on a festival bill.  I think we were having a beer during their set.  Maybe there were a lot of people who showed up for them, perhaps more for their place on their inexplicably high position on the bill rather than their popularity; My Bloody Valentine were the biggest shock of the line-up, and a big draw for us, though by the time they came on, late Sunday, we were just about done for the weekend.  We both had to get up for work the next morning and it didn't seem worth it to make it to the end then have to fight through the crowd in addition to our battle with exhaustion.  Being there for the full set, up against the punishment of their immense volume, is not always advisable.  We were smart enough to bring our own ear-plugs, and took the ones offered at the show as back-ups, and we saw plenty of kids there who didn't bother -- too bad, since they probably didn't get to hear '14's FYF Fest.  I'd already seen them twice, and Carla had somehow survived the El Rey show, and they weren't playing new stuff, so there wasn't much reason to stick around (especially so we could duck out of the last song, which usually goes for 20 minutes, give or take 10).  It was great that they were there.  That was a huge coupe that probably gave FYF the cred to book other big bands in later years.  But for us we could take our enjoyment in just knowing they were there and we happily saw enough of them.

My Bloody Valentine's set-list:
"I Only Said"
"When You Sleep"
"New You"
"You Never Should"
"Only Tomorrow"
"Come in Alone"
"Only Shallow"
"Who Sees You"
"Wonder 2"
"Soon"
"Feed Me With Your Kiss" (false start)
"You Made Me Realise"