I had forgotten why I haven’t been to BFD in years, until I saw some indie kids walking around on Sunday at Shoreline with t-shirts detailing the various recent line-ups. Oh right, that’s why. It’s all a matter of taste, of course, but to me this year was a return to form in terms of musical offerings.
Which is ironic, since I wouldn’t go to see top-billed Sublime even if Bradley Nowell rose from the grave and performed as the world’s first zombie frontman. Okay, I would totally go see that. But since there was only replacement frontman Rome, I was happy to skip it, and at the same time avoid all of the shirtless, white-boy morons showing off their underwear and lame tattoos as they waddled around the Shoreline. What did these poor losers do before the surviving members of the band figured out how to get the band back together? Right, went to see Sublime cover bands, I know.
But otherwise, the line-up this year was as musically varied and interesting as you could ask for within the scope of what sponsor Live105 is known for. With a little bit of heat relief in the form of a mid-afternoon breeze, plus a lot of skin and some of the best Shoreline people-watching opportunities since last year’s Warped Tour, it was a hell of a day.
In terms of musical highlights, Spoon delivered a fantastic set on the festival stage. Opening with new songs like “Got Nuffin” and mixing in fan favorites from their best album, “Gimme Fiction”—including “I Turn My Camera On” and a piano-drenched version of “I Summon You”—they just seem to get better and better live. Spoon is about the last band I’d expect to have Stanford cheerleaders dancing on stage, but for one song, there they were. The open-air setting agreed with their angular, off-kilter rock, leading to what passes for dancing in the indie set (mostly toe-tapping, with gusts of bobbing).
For actual dancing, and lots of it, the best bet was the Subsonic Tent, where Campbell’s Limousines were the highlight. They passed out multi-colored paper glasses to the crowd before the set, which was a cool effect by the time the whole place was jumping to “Very Busy People.” The group has added a live drummer, which puts a different spin on their presumably ironic lyric about how drum machines have no soul. They came on with a darker, harder new song that was almost industrial, but it gave way to their more upbeat familiar material. Vocalist Eric Victorino said their full-length debut album will be out in July. (Side note about the Subsonic Tent: what the hell is with BT? Is it just me, or is that guy basically playing exactly the same cascading breakbeat over and over? Good god, make it stop.)
As for the main stage, Silversun Pickups are one of the most interesting bands to break this year. Though actually a four-piece, they sound like part of the male/female duo bloc, akin to the Kills or the Raveonettes. More than that, they owe plenty to the Pixies, but who doesn’t? Whatever their influences or peer group, there’s something fresh and original about their sound. Though dwarfed by the cavernous main stage, which blunted the edges of their riffs and made me think they’d be much better in a smaller club setting, their energy shown through. By the time they delivered their big radio hit, “Lazy Eye,” the crowd was into it.
Certainly the most WTF moment at BFD was Hole’s set. As with so many Courtney Love-related things, it was hard to completely love it or completely hate it. Their cover of “Sympathy for the Devil” was trite, the new songs were just okay, and the delivery of hits like “Miss World” and “Doll Parts” was ragged. (“I’m old and it’s hard to sing, so give us a fuckin’ break,” she complained as part of a typically loopy running monologue.) But then, as they’re about to wind up, all of a sudden she starts talking about Alex Chilton, and launches into a beautiful cover of “Thirteen”—not the Danzig song, the one by Big Star. Thus did Courtney Love deliver, against all odds, the coolest thing I saw all day.
