Fucking in the Streets

First, it should be noted that the Capitol Hill Block Party‘s
new layout—with the Main Stage at Broadway and Pike, freeing up
the main intersection at 10th and Pike for foot traffic—was a
welcome change from years prior, as you could actually move from stage
to stage freely.

The biggest surprise of the weekend was Micachu & the
Shapes, an arty, lo-fi London trio about whom many of my peers were
raving, but whose debut album, Jewellery, had left me cold. As I
approached the stage, I thought the band’s set was just going to
confirm my antipathy. It sounded like droney, half-formed art-school
shenanigans (and I like art-school shenanigans) with just a hint of
R&B buried alive underneath. But then they played a song that was
all rim-shot click, bass groove, and digital ringing percussion, and it
sounded great—drone as pop, the R&B clawing its way up to the
surface of the song (something about “old debris,” maybe?). The song
ended in an epic thrash, and then there was another groovy number that
spiked into noise at the end. I may have to revisit that record.

Built to Spill were expectedly fantastic, their fan-selected
set hitting many high points from their catalog. “You Were Right” was
scathing and skyscraping (and bong-scraping and ultimately hopeful). It
started raining just a little, pleasant and warm, during the kid-sized
wonder of “Big Dipper.” “Virginia Reel Around the Fountain” sounded
fantastic, even without Calvin Johnson’s parts (confidential to Jeff:
This is as close as you may ever get to seeing the Halo Benders at
Block Party). And, goddamn, it was great to see the band play
“Car.”

They Live! killed it in the headlining slot at Neumos that
night. The duo of MCs Dro Boy (aka Gatsby, Larry Mizell Jr.) and Bruce
Illest (aka djblesOne) are plenty entertaining on their
own—genial, cartoonishly animated, and totally on top of their
game—but their backup breakdancer, Chase, along with an
accomplice, damn near stole the show. Whether twitchily stalking the
stage like a meth-head on the song of the same name or pulling a lucky
lady onstage for a re-creation of Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the
Dark” video (complete with the Boss’s awesome Carlton-esque dance
move), Chase is the act’s not-at-all-secret weapon.

Saturday was more of a blur: The Pains of Being Pure at
Heart were sweet, but some found them a little flat (I will concede
that their live show isn’t quite up to the impossibly high standard set
by their self-titled album). Truckasauras debuted some fine new
material, glitchy and groovy and bass-thumping, in a sweltering Neumos.
Future of the Left delivered hilarious banter (asking for more
heat onstage; observing that they had more wristbands, but fewer STDs,
than a Mötley Crüe groupie) briefly punctuated by blistering,
bilious rock. Gossip ruled, never more so than during those
cymbal-destroying crescendos of “Standing in the Way of Control”
(interpolating Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” into “Listen Up” gets a
close second). Missed too much of Sonic Youth (I know, I know) watching
Japandroids, who kind of resemble a kinder, gentler Death from
Above 1979 live.