Ok so after an incredibly busy last few months, I was now headed back down to Austin for the Fun Fun Fun Fest. These always look totally awesome and have such an insane and random lineup and yet I’d never been to one until now. The lineups always looked good but there was always something in the way etc. But with the promise of Public Enemy, Henry Rollins, Kool Keith, and Slayer all in one weekend, I was ready for action.
2011 Fun Fun Fun Fest – Nov 4th-6th – Auditorium Shores – Austin, TX
Erin has a house in Austin and actually claims Austin as home when asked and she’s always excited about going down there when we do, so the drive down was actually really fun. Her having a house down there makes it super easy and I was looking forward to a great weekend.
Nov 4th
I get in the guest line and get our wristbands and to my surprise the guy behind the desk hands me a shitload of free drink tickets. He’s wearing a Boston Red Sox hat and says that we met at a Never Got Caught/Clutch show a few years ago. Thanks man!
It was after 7pm before we even got there but the festival had started at noon – the only act I wanted to see that was left was Public Enemy.
Last month, I was at the All Tomorrow’s Parties event in Asbury Park where we saw PE put on one of the best shows of the year and threatened to steal the entire festival.
So needless to say I would have already been looking forward to the show but after what we saw just a few weeks ago, the anticipation was even higher.
They have the stages set up in pairs right next to each other, so that the minute one stage stops, the next one can begin immediately so its continuous non-stop music – one of the better ideas that the Warped Tour has brought to the table.
We were actually standing directly behind the two stages watching Four Tet do his thing –
We were actually pinned between this trailer that was the dressing room and the back of the stage when a few things of mention happened:
One – was that though we really enjoyed PE in New Jersey, one thing was that the soundcheck was excruciating – It went on for almost as long as their set and was led by what I can only imagine is some relative of Chuck D’s that he needed to give a job to. This older, extremely over-bearing man with zero time-management skills who’s idea of getting the crowd ready was to scream “AAAAHIGHT??” – About one million times.
Well while we are watching Four Tet, sadly for him the soundboard was to his right while PE and annoying stage mgr were soundchecking to his left.
PE’s stage mgr was actually shouting orders to the soundman at the board thru Four Tet while he was performing on stage!
I couldn’t believe it – Four Tet, a super nice guy would occasionally (and incredulously) shoot a look over at PE’s stage mgr with a confused smile as if to say: “Can you not see that I’m actually in the middle of my set right now dude?”.
Two – While we are watching this, again its a tight squeeze and only one person can pass between the back of the stage and the dressing room & see that Chuck D was squeezing his way through.
Three – So after Four Tet wraps and again so that the music can be seamless PE is about to start and we are now standing on the side of the stage a mere feet from where they will be performing, when suddenly the entire stage/backstage area is cleared as if the President is coming to watch PE (maybe he was? – I could see that) – Instead it wasn’t the President, it was actor Ryan Gosling and company. Sadly, their will be much more about him as this post progresses.
Public Enemy
Ok so now we are kinda half in the photo pit and half in the crowd and let met tell you something, Austin is passionate about their politics and they are equally passionate about their Hip-Hop and now here were the kings of the game ready to get down. Their was nearly a mini-riot before they even took the stage and when they hit all fucking hell broke loose.
I didn’t know if they were gonna stick to what they have been doing this year which is all of Fear of a Black Planet but the show certainly started out that way.
The effect was briefly transformational, Chuck brought the crowd back into the present by referencing and praising the nationwide “Occupy” movement. Flavor Flav followed that by thanking the crowd for making him the biggest reality television star ever. Thud.
In effect completely loosing all of the momentum that the first three jams had whipped everyone up in.
At one point he brought his teenage Godson up there who he commanded to freestyle rap on the spot – It appeared that Flav might have only met this kid once before and it was probably earlier today and to please his famous Godfather he might have mentioned that he “rapped”. The fear on this poor kid’s face that Flav was throwing his teenage ass to the wolves, was almost as cringe-inducing as the one “rap” the kid actually made which was:
“I came to the fest to have fun, because I’m Flavor Flav’s Godson”
The crowd moaned but clearly felt for this kid –
In spite of this and other Flav shenanigans, the set was not only genuine but it also extended the PE political mythos further into the group’s third decade.
Sending everyone home happy with the belief that the hit parade they’d just seen was part of something far more meaningful. Whether it was that or not was almost entirely immaterial. Friday’s headlining spot was built on the idea of Public Enemy as a relevant and provocative cultural constant, and if you went into the night holding that stock you certainly were not’t in selling mode at its close. In that view as well as most others, it was a success.
Setlist –
Contract On The World Love Jam
Welcome To The Terrordome
B Side Wins Again
911 Is A Joke
Meet The G That Killed Me
Show Em Watcha Got
Bring The Noise
Don’t Believe The Hype
Cold Lampin’ With Flavor
Can’t Truss It
Night Of The Living Baseheads
He Got Game/Anti-Negro Machine
Burn Hollywood Burn
Black Is Back
Timebomb
Shut Em Down
Rebel Without A Pause
Fight The Power
Epilogue – Now during this, the other main attraction (and perhaps for some the main reason for coming) was that Danzig was staging something of a career retrospective and even more importantly something of the closest you will get to a Misfits reunion by including a set of Misfits songs to be performed with famed Misfits’s guitarist Doyle Von Frankenstein.
I mention this because sadly this festival will be remembered mostly for Danzig’s complete and total meltdown (in a history of his meltdowns) and besides Ryan Gosling, this is all everybody talked about for the rest of the festival. Apparently he had made some really weird demands involving soup that even when they were met didn’t prevent the show from melting down and the Misfits portion never happening. Lots of soup jokes followed the rest of the weekend.
You can read festival organizer Graham account of the situation here –
Now let me say this – Even if PE weren’t playing I would have skipped this – As completely blasphemous as this will sound, I do not, nor have I ever cared even an ounce about anything to do with Glen Danzig, not even for a second. I have never owned a Misfits record, nor do I care to, I couldn’t even tell you the names of any of their songs if Metallica hadn’t covered several of them. That is how completely uncool and unpunk I am and what a total square I am, and I could give two shits who knows it.
However, I do know that the band holds great importance to many many people, and I’m sure it was more than one person’s decision to come based upon this appearance and to have Danzig shit all over it is really lame and unfair to them.
After-show –
Kool Keith – Empire Automotive
One of the cool things about this fest too is much like the ACL Fest the organizers take advantage that Austin is the live music capital of the world and host after shows all over the city. I love Kool Keith and was glad he was booked to do his own late-night weirdness in his own setting, instead of on a big stage in the middle of the day. And let me tell you something, this show couldn’t have been any weirder even for him.
Since we had only seen really one act we were still roaring to go, and even if I was tired I would have made the effort to see Kool Keith.
So much weirdness, where do I begin? First of all it was weird/typically Austin cool that he was playing in an auto body shop.
Secondly, when we got there which was around 10:30pm he wasn’t going on for like three hours haha.
I had wanted to see Trash Talk but they had just finished and when I asked the merch guy who was coming on before Keith, he turned into this caricature of a human spouting slang so cartoonish I thought I was being Punk’d.
So for three hours we sat in this body shop waiting for the weirdest (and arguably the most talented) MC of all time to come on. During which time we had beer spilled on us which seemed like a half a dozen times, but Erin and I were actually in good talks and good spirits.
Then finally Kool Keith took the stage –
He had Kutmaster Kurt DJ’n and he came out as usual, but then it was a mess from there on out. Kurt would just play something, Keith would rap a known song over it, and then if he didn’t feel like finishing it, he would just abandon it, leaving Kurt to catch up. This has value as theirs probably not a rapper alive that can effortlessly freestyle like that and just move and shift at will. On the other hand its execution feels like the ramblings of an insane homeless man.
We enjoyed some of it, when he was doing stuff like Get off my elevator and alot of the Dr. Doom tracks – but what we were enjoying more was watching people’s reactions and then watching them leave.
Not just because of the late hour, by the time he got to the real dirty stuff like Sex Style and Girl let me touch you there people were dropping like flies.
It seemed to have no rhyme or reason or no end. We even saw the guys from Workaholics walk out shaking their heads, but we stayed till the end.
Nov 5th
Finally get parked and get inside to start the day and the first thing we see is a wrestling ring set up right in the middle of the field with a match in full swing taking place.
Anarchy Championship Wrestling
That was something else I was loving about this festival was it kind of had a carny sleaze to it – It wasn’t glossed up like Lollapalooza, and the randomness of having wrestling and other events really worked. Not to mention, I’m a huge fan of wrestling –
Good times –
Graff was the guitarist for the greatest band that you have never heard, Course of Empire – seriously one of the best bands ever – that had a major label deal and the label had no idea what to do with them and they faded into obscurity.
Schmidt was in Funland with drummer Will Johnson that went on to become Centro-Matic and Clark Vogeler is now the guitarist for the Toadies.
I practically worshiped Graff in high school and we have had a great rapport for 20 years so it was really good to see him and catch up.
Speaking of the Toadies, right after this we ran into my buddy Todd who sings and also plays guitar in that band and had a good laugh as always.
Later that night we ran into and had a great laugh with the always funny and interesting, Wayne Coyne.Ryan GoslingAs if I give two shits, I wouldn’t be accurately describing the experience of the festival if I didn’t mention the mania over Ryan Gosling. I mentioned earlier about how we was responsible for us having to leave the backstage area of the Public Enemy to make room for his royal douchyness. The way that we exchange information is so insane these days that by Day 2 of the festival their was a Tumbler account documenting his every move at the festival.The minute we got backstage the first thing we see is Gosling and company being followed by a film crew that we would later learn was Austin filmmaker Terrence Malick shooting some candid footage of Gosling for an upcoming project –
Unbeknown to me at the time, but the girl next to him (looking like the constant filming is giving her a migraine) is Roony Mara – who went on to play Lisbeth Salander in the English adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – I just thought she was just some super babe worthy of Gosling’s status. I would actually meet her at this same spot four months later unexpectedly during SXSW – .
Ok movie stars and super babes aside, what caught my attention was out of the corner of my eye I spot true royalty. I was having a conversation with Franki Chan while Erin was in the bathroom when I spot Joe Lally.
I knew that our tardiness had all but caused us to miss his set, but I had to ask him anyway – so I approached and he confirmed that I had indeed missed it for which I started cursing the sky and we had a good laugh and a nice talk. Joe is one of the coolest ever.
Wugazi
Ok so when we ran into Joe Lally, I just assumed that he was on his way to see this thing called Wugazi, an apparent mash-up of Fugazi songs and the raps of the Wu-Tang Clan, who were actually billed higher than Joe Lally, a member of Fugazi himself. Not that I thought Joe would have any interest in this but I joked with him that it would probably make him look like a dickhead if he didn’t at least have a small peek and then I teased him about his curiosity.
He seemed to only have heard of it and knew that they were playing but convinced me he had really no idea that they were about to go on 15 feet away.
So we walk over there, where we stayed all of about 3 mins and Joe left before I did – the picture below should do the talking as to why –
Donald Glover
Another attraction of this increasingly weird festival is they also had a tent dedicated to name comedy acts. All I’ve been hearing this year is about Donald Glover as the heir to the throne. That throne being the lineage of Foxx, Cosby, Pryor, Murphy, Rock, Chapelle – and I’m a committed fan of all of these heavyweights so I was very curious and thought it would be fun so we went over to check it out. I knew that his guy also has a rap group that was gonna be performing later so I was a bit leery of him.
Dan Deacon
Though I’ve seen Dan Deacon numerous times and somewhat enjoyed it, the only reason we were over here to see this was because:
a) Their wasn’t anything else going on at the moment that we cared about
b) This stage is closest to the backstage refreshments and couches.
c) The act that we did wanna see was going on after him.
I was talking about this the other day, and finally figured something out – Among the colorfully dressed hipster types and their ironic behavior and painfully white guys using hip-hop slang and unnecessary beards, the one thing they are trying to achieve the most is a “moment” – That “moment” can only come when someone gives them a reason for everyone to jump up and down in unison in what looks like a controlled riot – that is what they are after, and even if they band SUCKS, and trust me, most of them do – as long as they are having the “moment” that will make a great pic for the social networks of choice they are happy.
Be it at a Girl Talk show, or Matt and Kim – as long as their cinematically jumping, they are happy.
To make it even sexier, Deacon apparently doesn’t like stages to make it even more “I’m on your level,” , unconventional and pushes the potential for mayhem even higher – so while we were actually standing on stage – Deacon was setting up his table right on the other side of the barricadeThe sound for his set was atrocious, and you could tell it was killing him. And by extension, it killed me. He had the chance to get the crowd going on a few occasions, but overall a complete waste of time, other than it gave us a chance to actually stand on stage and get a great view. I looked to my right and their was fucking Gosling, dude was everywhere.
Kool Keith (substituting for Rakim)
Ok so we got word an hour or so ago that unfortunately Rakim, one of the acts I was most looking forward to seeing, had broken his foot and wasn’t going to be performing today. That sucks for all involved but holy shit as a replacement since he was in town (see above) – its Kool Keith to the rescue!
Right after he performed we ran into my buddy Igor, who took most of the pictures on this blog entry. He’s obviously a photographer and was running from stage to stage, so we only hung for a sec, but since he doesn’t drink he did give me his drink tickets. Thanks buddy.
Childish Gambino
Ok so as mentioned earlier, we had seen Donald Glover’s comedy set and now it was time for his rap act. For a guy who, a year ago, was mostly known—if at all—as part of the ensemble of a low-rated sitcom Community, the crowd hyped to see Gambino was staggering.
There are a couple reasons for it. Donald Glover, is an Internet phenomenon, propelled by social media savvy and a non-stop work ethic that has him crossing into many different worlds online.
Lykke Li
Making the most of the day since we really only saw once act and taking advantage of our Access passes, we then ran through the backstage thoroughfare up to the side of the stage to see Lykke Li who I am a huge fan of.
More than anyone else we saw over the weekend, her use of visuals (monochrome outfits, thick smoke, billowing curtains and percussion as theater) to enhance her performance really showed forethought and planning—
Li also transformed Dance Dance Dance from debut album Youth Novels into an awesome drumstick battle with a bandmate, which the crowd ate up. It was a rare moment that one noticed the band, who generally stood back and stayed far out of Ms. Li’s spotlight. As the show pulled into the closing with hit Little Bit,it was obvious some numbers had been cut due to the late start—most notably Love Out Of Lust, which was sorely missed.
Li has such a distinct mix of beauty, showmanship and style. I’ve seen her a half a dozen times before and though you may not be able to tell from the above picture how much she tries to downplay her beauty, always wearing these long shapeless over-size robes, but seriously is their any real chance of hiding of freaking ridiculously hot she is? – One of my fave shows of the whole weekend.
The Damned
If only Danzig had stuck around to take notes while British Punk band The Damned showed them how to command a stage and address their audience. Frontman Dave Vanian was dressed to impress with slicked hair, shades, and leather gloves to go with his polished duds. The band sounded amazing, and even the young ones in the crowd were pulled in for the set. The music was great, and the commentary was too, with Dave and Captain Sensible poking ruthless fun at Danzig and his soup.
We made a pilgrimage to legendary indie-record store Bill’s in Dallas where he charged her an exuberant amount of money for this one record, that some fat friend of hers stole that she wanted to replace. On the way home we also realized amid her excitement for getting the record that he never gave her back her change, in effectively doubling the price of the record! – We joked that we should have taken advantage of Bill’s homosexuality and had me purchase the record instead. I of course had never even heard of this band before that day which later soon contributed to her exit. I used to joke when people would ask me why we broke up I would reply “cause I have bad taste, and I don’t know anything about Crass” ( that and course my bad hygiene,which is a contradiction in terms if you think about it) – But hey, I didn’t know anything about her other favorite band, Ween, either and look how THAT turned out – Hang in there kids.
Major Lazer
….and then we walk just a few yards over from something tried and true to something new and fun, but really, really stupid. That’s the beauty of a festival like this. The ridiculousness was all in place, even amplified – more dancers, more songs, the Major Lazer in question still sports a bleached Mohawk and yells ridiculous catch phrases. “IS ANYONE DRUNK TONIGHT? WE’RE GONNA GET YOU DRUNK TONIGHT!”
…and you would think I would have – as this point of the night we had seen 7 bands, two wrestling matches, several movie stars, a comedian and enough dust covered hipsters to last a lifetime. But when you get locked in the tendency is to take it as far as you can, at least that always tends to be my tendency – see what I did there?
Aftershow –
Mates of State – The Parish
Ok, I always do this, and its so stupid – I convince myself that I have to do certain things, or therefore I’m lame and old, or just lame whatever. I get these stupid ideas in my head and make decisions because of them, no matter their practicality. This would be a perfect example.
Given all that I had been through in the past 24 hrs – drove from Dallas, saw Public Enemy and then a Kool Keith after-show, and all that we had seen and done today, it would be more than fair to just go home and go to bed.
But oh no, their was an after-show and so I kept pushing. One logical said that could be said is that it seems that when we are out doing stuff, her insanity begins to decrease, but left to the idle playground of the goddamn devil than all hell breaks loose, so I wanted to stay out as long as we could.
The other side of that is that, I don’t care one bit about Mates of State. I’ve never owned one record, couldn’t’ tell you one song and the few times I have seen them they were painfully average and boring.
So why was I here?, so fatigued I could barely stand – but soldiering on just so I could get to the finish line so that I could be satisfied that there wasn’t anything left to do that we hadn’t done. It’s a real character flaw of mine. We finally leave there when they finish and mercifully get home around 2am.Henry Rollins officiates wedding
Though I’m from the Dallas/Fort Worth and I don’t know them at all – I had heard that Henry Rollins was gonna be hosting the nuptials of Dallas-area residents and fest attendees Steven Hart and Page King prior to his show later tonight. This I had to see.
During the brisk and mildly absurd but ultimately touching ceremony, Rollins addressed the couple on the importance of the day before they exchanged their vows.
“Right now the two of you are surrounded and vastly outnumbered by people who want nothing more than your great happiness, and it’s safe to say many of them want for your happiness more than their own,” Rollins said. “With 7 billion people in the world and more than 200 million people in America the chances of you two intersecting are frankly against you. The fact that you found each other borders on being a miracle.”
A brief exchange of vows, ring exchange and first kiss was followed by a serenade by Internet sensation the Sexy Sax Man, who earned plenty of laughs and cheers from the crowd that was still applauding the new couple. This festival is freaking awesome.
Del the Funky Homosapien
Being the life-long student of Hip-Hop that I am and a long time fan of Del, I’ve never seen one of his solo shows. Proud to say that I have seen the Hieroglyphics as well as Deltron 30/30 but never just him doing his solo stuff. So I was very excited to check it out.
However the one thing that embarrasses me about the whole thing is their is an air of elitism that has nothing to do with me and socially it really gets on my nerves. Its so typical and boring that most of these groups play to nerdy, mostly white male (like me) audiences. But where I differ is I hate when they get on that “This is REAL hip-hop, this is the real shit” – and think they are better or somehow evolved than Lil Wayne or Drake. I personally can’t stand the music of Lil Wayne or Drake but its not because my tastes are so sophisticated because I’m so enlightened to what Hip-Hop really is.
I’m a white dude from Texas – how would this ever qualify me to the authentication of an originally all-black and completely original art form started in the South Bronx before I was born?
I just like what I like and leave the bullshit to the bullshitters, so that’s why it was disappointing when Del went off on some elitist non-sense for most of the time he was on stage.
The other was, I don’t know what she had taken or how much of it but whatever it was it had completely taken hold as every few verses I would look over at her and she was struggling to stand with her mouth wide open, eyes in the back of her head and completely unable to hold it together.
Even when I tried to hold her up she kept falling to the ground and gesticulating in ways that were beyond her control. It was terrifying, embarrassing, and I had no idea what to do about it. People were moving out her way like the casualty she was, while others were looking at me incredulously like “What the fuck is wrong with her?”.
I should have just gotten us out of there right then, but I was so disgusted with her and all that she had put me through and now the thing I had been waiting for all weekend, the 1-2-3 punch of Rollins/Posehn/Slayer were all up next and I perhaps selfishly, I wasn’t gonna let her bullshit blow it for me.I got her some water and we sat down for a bit. Thankfully she loves Henry Rollins and so I was hoping that this was gonna hold and keep her attention but having to stand and listen to someone talk for an hour is an undertaking in any condition.
Henry Rollins
We get over there and it felt like forever while we were standing there. People around us knew she was in bad shape and it was embarrassing and I had this fear that Rollins was gonna come out right as she finally nose-dived and then he would know it too and there would be a big scene.
We were right up front, (she is very short) and of course right when he starts, what looked like the local basketball team shows up and decided to stand right in front of us. I was aggressive with them and I didn’t care. Finally Rollins takes the stage and things are looking up.
Freaking awesome as always.
Brian Posehn
Though we only caught the last half of Posehn’s 30 minute set – it was funny as hell and I was certainly in the need of a good laugh. Feeling inspired as always after seeing Rollins, it was great to laugh, if only for a sec before Slayer. I was also enjoying that, if you don’t know already that comedian Brain Posehn is a HUGE metal fan and one of its biggest ambassadors outside of the Metal community. He was a regular on the Sarah Silverman show and other Comedy Central programming. So this had to have been a freaking DREAM for him – instead of doing his bit in small two-drink minimum comedy club in some Midwestern city, here he was performing like a rock star on the biggest stage of huge festival in front of 10k people, in effect opening for Slayer. How fucking cool is that?
Sounds good –
Slayer
There was a genuine roar from the crowd as the band—obscured on stage for the very beginning of the set by a huge white sheet upon which they projected pentagrams—launched into the brutal opening riff of the title track from 2009’s World Painted Blood. It’s okay, guys. Slayer is here.
The band’s set proceeded to dish out absolutely, non-stop, pummeling metal, because that is what Slayer is and does. If you wanted anthems of destruction and odes to Satan, then Slayer is your band.
Slayer is a singular, iconic artist. It’s more appealing now than ever, to more people than ever, to hear a band that just does what they do without any of those other concerns.
Slayer does not care how y’all are doing’ out there tonight, Austin. (Singer Tom Araya did make a “Are you having Fun Fun Fun yet” joke early on)
To drive home where I was mentally, you would think I would have OD’d on Slayer by now. This was my third show this year and my fifth in 13 months and have seen at least another dozen shows or more over the years, but I needed this. Being objective about the actual performance would be impossible for this night, normally I stand in the back and rawk a bit but overall I’m an analyzer, I don’t go for that “This is where you let your aggressions out” bullshit – but I needed an outlet for my frustrations so desperately, and holy shit is their a better therapist than a fucking Slayer show?
Yes there where other bands there that I knew and liked, but I needed something that I knew every word to – and let me tell you something, I rawked harder than I ever have in my life, and perhaps more than anyone there. You know that guy that you kinda fear because he’s so into it? That was me – I even almost jumped into the pit –
Saw this in the bathroom backstage –
We finally get out of there and instead of heading the Beauty Bar for Diplo‘s after-show party, I had to get her home and I was so beat I was ready myself.
