Quarterlifeparty

Being at Red Rocks for the first time, I was constantly taken aback by the atmosphere at this place, it’s one of the most beautiful venues I have been, or even just places I have visited in general. And here I was thinking Coachella was the best music festival around.. .Monolith, a completely different animal, is just as good for different reasons:

1. This is as intimate of a festival that I have been to, there is an outdoor area and a small indoor area with 3 stages, so it’s like going to see a band at a small club when you get into those rooms. I don’t know of any other festival that does this. I guess you could say SXSW, but that’s a different classification. This makes me wonder if any has ever had an all indoor festival, maybe where every band plays in a different part of an abandoned mall. Sure you have this huge amphitheatre, but that’s the only large stage, and it’s never hard to get close to any band. Maybe it was just the attendance was down because of the weather on the first day, but they still could not possibly fill monolith with a massive crowd where things get too overwhelming, I think just the way things are laid out prevents that. And I mostly compare this to how crowded Coachella gets at night.

2. It’s never hard to go see a band play because of timing, it doesn’t seem like many things crossover and I never felt rushed. I had time to actually enjoy the surroundings and the only reason I was tired at the end of the day was more because of the beer than anything else, which you could drink anywhere on the festival grounds.

3. The scenery is impressive, not flat and expansive, mountainous but still secluded.

Of course there were some CONS as well, like the steps you have to walk up from the amphitheatre, by the third time your legs are dead, but it’s a small price to pay, my criticisms against it are minimal.

ANYWAY, on to the actual music.

Thao with the Getdown Staydown
Thao With The Get Down Stay Down “Know Better Learn Faster”

We started off day 1 dry, and that would last maybe through two performances. You might have heard of this band before, I had not, but since seeing them I have seen them throughout blogland quite often. Either way, they were a really good start to the festival, full of energy and for such a new band that had the disadvantage of having no stage setup, and being in such a large venue, they really got the crowd moving. They did exactly what I want out of every band, make me want to go out and listen to their entire album.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros “Home”

This is one of those bands that has a ton of band members on stage, and you get the feeling that they just add and drop band members “willy nilly” (this is a completely uneducated guess, but they looked like they were somewhat of a commune). This was some good soulfull rock/folk music. The lead singer got the entire crowd into it, dancing freefully around the stage and belting out a voice you didn’t expect when you first saw them. This is a guy who looks like he came from a Phish concert and his voice sounded almost like a Dan Auerbach, smoky soulfullness. The other singer was of the female gender who had a very deep bluesy voice (although sometimes hard to hear) and who looked incredibly (re: abnormally) happy the entire show. The two singers sang to each other a lot of the time and I assume it was a couple because they pulled off some somewhat funny Sonny & Cher moments during and in between songs. This is an album I definitely recommend purchasing since there are at least a few songs on it that warrant repeat listening.

Frightened Rabbit
Frightened Rabbit “Keep Yourself Warm”
The Midnight Organ Fight is one of my favorite albums of last year that I just began listening to this year, so this was one of those bands that was high on my list to see. They were also the first band of day 1 that really could fill the sound of the amphitheatre. As slews of people missed this show to avoid the rain, and packed themselves inside, we embraced the wetness and Frightened Rabbit provided a good soundtrack for this. As my umbrella kept turning inside out, Frightened Rabbit belted out “Keep Yourself Warm” in a much harder version than the album. These guys were one of the highlights of the entire festival, and if they can play the big stage at Red Rocks then I can’t wait to see them in a smaller venue.

Monotonix
Monotonix “Flesh And Blood”

Absolutely crazy three-piece from Tel-Aviv. At first I thought they might be a wham city band since a) they played on the ground with the audience and b) the lead singer was wearing nothing but red racquetball shorts, but I was wrong and knew it once the thick Israeli accent started belting out lyrics. Think heavy metal Gogol Bordello. Some interesting things about this act.

1. The lead singer stood on top of the crowd, pulled down his shorts and stuffed a microphone up his butt! Well not completely up it, but definitely put the mic to his ass, and then continued singing into it.. that must have been a very sweaty smelly microphone and I really hope The Thermals windexed that thing before they went on.
2. It was almost like a cartoon, watching this hoard of people move around on the ground you could barely even see the band, except for when you would see the drumset rise above the crowd, or the lead singer pop his head out. By the end, the lead singer had somehow propped his drumset up above the crowd, on god knows what, and began playing drums and taunting the audience. Insane.
3. The stage where the bands usually play on was covered with photographers, it seemed like that was all part of the show.

I would definitely check out some of their other performances on youtube, it is very entertaining. It was tough to really rate the music with this spectacle going on, but I purchased the album shortly after and it’s some good raw and raucous music.

We Were Promised Jetpacks
We Were Promised Jetpacks “It’s Thunder And It’s Lightning”

The Scotts represented again with this very young band with very high potential. Just good straight up guitar licks and dynamically intriguing music. This is one of those bands I could see putting out a ton of albums, each one pretty similar to the last, but still consistently good. One of the few bands we saw at the indoor stages all weekend.

Girl Talk
Girl Talk “Bounce That”

Oh Girl Talk, sorry for scoffing you all those times in the past.. I just didn’t get it until this show, it’s not that your not a DJ (because you are), it’s that you aren’t an original DJ, like you don’t make your own songs (even if you kind of do). But who cares whether you’re a DJ or not, I’m certainly not going to buy a shirt that tells everyone you aren’t, because your show was entertaining as hell on day two and I chalk that up to this reason: your sampling was a lot more diverse live than on the albums, it was a lot of 80’s (pop, rock and rap).. a little tone-loc, a little shattered dreams, a little cure, I was pleasantly surprised. It made me realize that his live shows are probably always better than his albums because he doesn’t have to get rights to any of the songs. (ok, I’m no copyright expert, but seems like he would just have more leeway). Beyond the music, Girl Talk is a pretty damn good entertainer since he made the entire amphitheatre feel like my parents basement in high school (or at least what I always wanted my parents basement to be like in high school, in reality it was just me and my friend playing sneaking alcohol and paying techmo bowl till 4 in the morning wondering where all the chicks were).

Phoenix
Phoenix “Fences” (Friendly Fires remix)

Damn Good, sucks Mstrkrft had to cancel because I would have rather seen them than Mars Volta, but it was pretty awesome phoenix got moved to the big stage. Not sure how monolith thought they would fit them at the small stage since the theatre was packed! These guys are just naturals, they don’t really move around the stage much, they just have IT.

Passion Pitt

Very good show, didn’t exactly meet all of my expectations, but we were also standing pretty far back. They have a great album out and all and they pulled off everything you hear on the album, but it just didn’t capture the imagination like I thought it would.

Of Montreal

Of Montreal was pretty funny to watch.. the myriad of stage antics and just strange for the sake of being strange is entertaining, and they actually do have the music and live talent to back all that up. I felt like I was tripping when watching the show. Between the crazy psychedelic screen projection, the monk processional, and the tiger fight that ended in a tiger eating out a guys crotch it was pretty hard to even notice Kevin Barnes. They played a lot off of Hissing Fauna and the highlight of the set was definitely “Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse”.

Chromeo
Fun, fun, fun.. although three days later I don’t remember much, must have been the root beer schnapps. Definitely looking forward to hearing what kind of record they pump out with Hall & Oates.

M. Ward
M. Ward is in a class all his own, just seems already like a classic.. every song sounding like it’s off of old time radio. We were hoping for some cameos because of the great Monsters of Folk album he is involved with (and one of the members looks a bit like Yim Yames), but this didn;t take away from the performance. He rolled through a lot of songs off of Post-War, which is not what I was expecting since he has a brand new album out himself, but it was welcomed. he began the set with him on acoustic guitar playing “Sad Sad Song” and then the band gradually joined him like an homage to Stop Making Sense. Unfortunately, just like when I saw him at Webster Hall a few years ago, the crowd talked through a lot of the slower songs.

The Walkmen
I’ve seen the Walkmen so many times in the past few years, I wasn’t really looking to catch them at Monolith in lieu of going to see someone else I hadn’t seen before. But, we did manage to catch a couple songs of theirs and they were playing just as strong, although not sure their swagger worked so much in this festival setting. I love how they can just get up there on stage , just stand around and stare righ tback at the crowd and still pull off a good performance. Leithauser stares down the crowd when he isn’t singing, it’s somewhat intimidating, but fits their music oh so well.

Mars Volta
Eh, I’m pretty out on this band at this point, Sure they are talented as hell, they have some rockin music, but just because you can scratch your nails on a chalkboard doesn’t mean you should, and just because you can do it with flare doesn’t make it something I want to sit and listen to for an hour.

For this being only the third year that Monolith has been around it’s a pretty impressive festival, one that seems different than the rest. Despite the weather being bad on day 1 (although beatiful on day 2) Monolith providing unending entertainment and a solid lineup. I definitely recommend making the trek to Colorado next year if you have never been.

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