Fun Fun Fun Fest '10: Day 3 (Part 1)

Magic Kids

My, how the kids have grown. Hard to believe this was the same band I saw just 7 months ago. Magic Kids have grown by leaps and bounds and have become a tightly wound pop group if I've ever seen it. Their nostalgia and Beach Boys infused pop songs were truly brought in full form when they performed on that sunny Sunday morning. How could I have wanted my day to start then singing along to "Hey Boy", with the other 50 people that were standing idly by watching with vague disinterest. For those who loved the band though, it was pure joy.









Deacon

Future reference point; never be front row at the next Deacon show. Any thing Deacon is trying to convey musically gets lost in amp circuitry and winds up being lost in a big static and annoying mess. I think Deacon had the same problem that Panda Bear has seemed to have in the live setting i.e. just standing there and doing nothing. The whole set had highs and lows, and there without a doubt some bright spots, but as a whole it kind of felt like Deacon was recreating music loops live, just strumming and moaning out the songs.

Cults

It was a bit weird catching the Cults set. How was band that had only put out one official single, just signed to a major label, and barely toured manage to put on a good show? Well they did, and it's a simple as that. The five piece that took the stage was a fully formed band that performed a blissed out set of the supremely wonderful indie-pop that took the Internet by storm just a few months ago. And while the set was plagued with glockenspiel based problems during the set, Cults still manged to performe a spot on set for a band so young. Now if only the put out some more music.

Best Coast

And now we are back just where we started. It is slowing on dawning on me how much of the last day of FFF Fest's last day was built on pop bands. Look no further then the current reigning queen of indie-pop Bethany Cosentino and her band Best Coast taking the stage this year. Talking about this band gets harder and harder, due to the various adjectives I have used up already to describe the. This time though, I can say Best Coast set was made up of them reconstructing their songs as closely note for note as they do on record, and for once this was good thing. No feedback, no scared voices, no problems arose that ruined the set in any shape. It was just 45 minutes of indie-pop live, played by three people who do it perfectly, with cigarette and pot smoke filling the air after every song.