burned all my notebooks...what good are notebooks: FYF Fest 2014 Wrapup

Thursday, October 2, 2014

FYF Fest 2014 Wrapup

FYF FESTIVAL

EXHIBITION PARK, LA

23/24 AUGUST, 2014

A scorcher of a weekend, both on and offstage for FYF Fest 2014. Full coverage was executed with Sam Saturday for both Saturday and Sunday, via The Owl Mag. Day one heralded all the challenges of adapting to a new venue, along with some technical quirks on my end, making for a long day. Day two was a tribute to the quick reactions of Fest organizers, working hard to mitigate the issues they could. With cookie-cutter festival lineups becoming more predominant these days, FYF walked a fine line between friendly faces and trailblazers, saving their biggest punches for returning indie heroes.

Camera/computer shenanigans saw the bulk of my Saturday photos perish, including those of a monster set from Run The Jewels, one of the unquestioned Day One highlights. Did manage to salvage some video of Angel Olsen and Slint, both inside at the LA Sports Arena, and even those were truncated due to overheating/battery life, but will still give you an idea of what transpired. Sole non-phone pictures to survive were from the Saturday night set of Japanese heavy music titans Boris, an unrelenting set that put an exclamation point on the day.

ANGEL OLSEN

SLINT

RUN THE JEWELS

One of the weekend's best sets: Killer Mike and El-P are Run The Jewels

BORIS

Sunday rolled out much like the arc of the festival itself: problems were solved, and despite another hot day, things fell into place, and the day was spent careening between friends and bands, an ideal situation. Sunday was all about the new discoveries, from Dutch psych master Jacco Gardner and Wales' own Joanna Gruesome to Pennsylvania's Balance And Composure and La Dispute, from Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was an ear-opening day, segueing into the tried and true of Built To Spill, a first time in too many years bone-rattling performance from the almighty Blood Brothers, and wrapping things up with an overwhelming audio/visual feast from hometown hero Flying Lotus. By the time things concluded Sunday, the initial issues of the fest seemed a million miles away. The only questions remaining concern future venues. Will renovations be completed on State Historic Park for a triumphant return in '15, or, given the upsurge in attendance, will the festival stay at Exhibition Park? We shall see...

JACCO GARDNER