Milwaukee’s Summerfest cannot come soon enough. Where else can one hear the Roots for the cost of three General Mills box tops? Tom Petty for the price of general park admission? Where else could you conceivably see me run? I don’t pick up the pace when the cross light turns green and cars are clearly headed toward me. But when Ben Folds is rocking out on one stage and Guster is jamming on another, you just might catch me dashing in and out of streams of casually strolling walkers. How can I possibly wait until the end of June?
It may not be Summerfest or the Vans Warped Tour, but the WSUM-sponsored Party in the Park offers the opportunity to begin working on those summer music festival abilities. Plus, it is this Saturday, not in eight weeks.
Three stages. Sixteen bands. Eleven DJs. It does not require the precise execution of a larger venue, but I already know who plays at what time. Traversing James Madison Park does not require marathon endurance, but I need to be ready to scoot when The Northern Pines Band ends at the East Stage five minutes after headliner … And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead begins on the West Stage.
Fortunately — or perhaps not, if sharpening mad fest skills were my priority — there is a disequilibrium among the stages. Organizers may have found a nice balance between bands traveling across town and those trekking across the country, but the West Side hosts the powerhouses. Park partiers need not move an inch all day to experience the auditory pleasures of bands ranging from Blake Thomas and the Downtown Brown to The Appleseed Cast. And with the local headliner playing the same platform as the national one, I will find myself a happily immobile audience.
If you have not yet witnessed all the glory of Madison’s Awesome Car Funmaker, you now have no excuses. No cover charge or age discrimination. No frustrating finals or irritating Mifflin discrepancies. No argument — save perhaps extreme, extreme curiosity — could justify hitting up math-rockers Czarbles at the East Stage when ACF performs.
Fellow bands such as the Selfish Gene and Apparently Nothing become as enthusiastic as the common fan for a reason. The voting board for the Madison Area Music Awards declared ACF the best rock group with ample cause. The King Club recently had Minneapolis’ Interpol-esque hipsters the Melismatics open for ACF on good grounds.
No one rocks a stage quite like Awesome Car Funmaker.
Certainly, the classically rock-and-roll sounds are pleasing all on their own. The quartet of frontman Ryan, bassist Justin, keyboardist Brendan and drummer Andy records quite well. The debut album Green Means Go tears up headphones and stereo speakers with ease.
The band members’ lyrical abilities are nothing to scoff at either. Singing, “Super soaker, slip ‘n slide / Hit a bump and take a dive,” could sound frivolous from any other voice. But pairing light topics — references to Mr. Rogers, not-so-subtle comparisons of pirate plundering and sexual conquest — with heavy guitars and tight drums suggest a shade of Andrew W.K. brilliance. It may not be philosophy, but it is pretty damn fun.
Yet this alone is not making the band notable. What keeps its name in your mind and the abbreviation on your lips is that hard-rocking live performance.
There is always precise execution of tunes. There are always excessive amounts of energy maintained throughout a set. There is never a replicated performance. Enthusiasm may manifest itself from dancing to “Toxic.” It may come from the four boys in tight, pink T-shirts. However that adrenaline hits you, it leaves you coming back for more.
And as ACF garners notoriety around town, headliner Trail of Dead has become infamous for tearing apart stages around the world.
I have long been hesitant to give in to the likes of the Austin, Texas, band Trail of Dead. Rather a guiding life principle than a musical preference determinant, I tend to avoid things that scare me. With a touch too much yelling, a tad excess of explicit anger, the sounds scared me. Trail of Dead may still receive heavy criticism for its latest album Worlds Apart, but in toning down the hardcore auditory assaults, the band made the listening experience far less frightening.
From signing on to major record label Interscope for the 2003 album Source Tags and Codes, Trail of Dead members — founders Jason Reece and Conrad Keely, guitarist Kevin Allen, drummer Doni Schroader and new bassist Danny Wood — heard another nickname. Though unlikely narcissistic, über-intellectuals Keely and Reece paid much attention, press put the band’s name alongside the term “sell-out” more often than preferable. Trading in the “art” adjective to the indie-rock sound, such criticism is warranted. Maintaining the fierce theology, the criticism is unfounded.
Consider “Worlds Apart” lines such as, “And our soccer moms and dads / Who raised us brats on these TV ads / I know that they sleep at night / Their conscience is intact / They’ve convinced themselves of that / Giving money to Jesus F***ing H Christ.” The sounds may be more accessible, but the ideas are no less intense. Counting themselves among the likes of the Strokes and the White Stripes, Trail of Dead found strength in popular recognition without compromising the critique of that culture.
Regardless of approval, Trail of Dead still pleases with an assault on the stage as in the days of indie label Trance Syndicate. Moshing, guitar-smashing. I may appreciate the sounds, but the 6:45 p.m.-scheduled start will signal my first migration of the day. Expecting an electric performance beyond my voltage, I can make room for those ready to rumble at the front with Trail of Dead.
As with all festivals, the good mix intermittently with the less good. Luckily, with the wide range of musical appeals, there will always be a little bit of the good for someone. Trail of Dead not your sound? The DJ stage is not far. Need Latin schooling? Que Flavor is nearby.
Do you hear that? There is nothing quite like the sound of music festival season in the air.
Christine is a junior majoring in English. The Ben Folds-Guster run is only hypothetical — she avoids running at all costs. She can be reached for questions or comments at [email protected].
