Corndogorama 2008 Friday (Day 2)
After late starts from the Ohmpark crew all around, we raced through thick Atlanta traffic to make it in time to catch Twin Tigers. It was an intense drive across the city that included me lighting my hair on fire with a malfunctioning cigarette lighter, but we were jamming the new Sorry No Ferrari CD I picked up at their show Wednesday night, and it was the perfect soundtrack for the journey. We arrived just in time and I really loved Twin Tigers. They sort of reminded me of Deerhunter a bit. Very nice shoegazey stuff with everyone trading off vocals. Very much a highlight of the day for me.
After a slight break, it was time for Graboids, who I was very excited about seeing live because I really enjoyed their album from last year. Unfortunately their set did not live up to my expectations. Their post-rock power trio set seemed very lacking in power. It sounded nice and all, but the minimalistic, low-key, and simplistic approach just seemed too boring to me. The two long songs they did ambled around too long with rather unfulfilling build-ups. I’ve just seen too many really good bands like this lately enjoy such an underwhelming set.
I caught a little bit of Spy For Hire, and while they sounded very tight, they have this aura of poppiness I just can’t enjoy, so I skipped most of it to take in the Corndog atmosphere. The Corndogs were delicious, and there were plenty of other grub around in the complex. I only came for the pre-party night last year because I was at Pitchfork fest, but it seems like the festival grounds were much more extensive than I remember with a huge and ridiculously over-professional outdoor stage around the back of the building. I caught a little bit of some white-boy rap outfit called Dropbombz, and it just seemed weird all of the serious camera work being done for a crowd of like 15 people.
I went back inside to catch Antic Clay. His set was better than when I caught him earlier this year, especially the new song they closed with, but I still find myself wanting to hear his more downbeat, darker, slower stuff and live he and his band stick to rocking hard.
We took a smoke break back in the Danger Van and came back to catch a minute or so of Magnapop and I remembered I don’t like Magnapop. We then went back outside to hang and I won a WRAS shirt playing dice. Bellcurve came on stage outside so we went to see that, and it was thoroughly enjoyable. Josh called it “Electro-Reggae”, which was right on the mark. They had subliminal messages in their video feed with the cliche themes you would expect from such a style, but other than that it was pretty cool. I had to leave before their set ended to go to The Masquerade.
Since I’m no fan of guys playing lame dance beats and dancing in their underwear, I skipped out for a while to see a band I really have a crush on, Islands. The timing working out perfectly as I pretty much left Corndog exactly long enough for their serious set. I saw them twice at SXSW earlier this year, but both sets were very short, so it was cool to see them go through so much material this time. The main set was heavy in Arm’s Way songs with a encore exclusively made up of songs from Return To The Sea, and ending the night as I had expected with the truly epic masterpiece, “Swans”. This time Nick T wasn’t wearing any paint on his face, but he did break out some big white tinted shades at some point, and he had a couple of bottom halves of mannequins he was dressing, undressing, and dancing with. Overall it was a damn great show from a top-tier band.
I got back to Lenny’s with plenty of time to spare for Dan Deacon. He rocked the entire place with a typically amazing show. Lots of crowd interaction, and he played some new jams from his forthcoming album and they sounded great. The dude is just the best when it comes to a live dance party.
Overall the day was fun as hell and I’ve got to stop blogging right now so I can get to Lenny’s in time for Thy Mighty Contract.
- Posted by Davy Minor on June 28, 2008 at 4:28 pm
