Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011: Day 3 (Part 2)

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists



Ted Leo and the Pharmacists set is one of those sets that will forever be spoken about in Fun Fun Fun Fest lore. Leo told everyone that he was filling sick and wouldn't be able to perform the best of sets, but that seemed like a lie as he ripped through cuts from The Brutalist Bricks. If this is Ted Leo at sub par, he most be a ball of pure energy in top form. He saved the great moment possible of the whole fest for the finale though. Danzig had on Friday completely fucked up his set, going on an hour late, cutting his set down and eliminating all the planned Misfits material, and then told the crowd to basically riot. Yes, he truly is as much of a douche as people say he is. However, Leo decided to repay Danzig's debt by dawning a black wife beater, bad wig, and launching into four Misfits songs. While this isn't out of character for Leo (see his TV Casualty project), it was just awesome to see him do it here. Needless to say a large chunk of the crowd went nuts for the songs, and Leo and co. cemented their reputation as some of the best guys in punk.





Architecture in Helsinki



Architecture in Helsinki's set was surreal in a number of ways. These were five, scientist looking and dressed Australians performing electro dance pop almost completely with electronic instruments (even the drums they had were more machine then kit). At certain points they even engaged in synchronized dance routines to some of their songs. The thing was, they were doing all of this to Slayer fans who had gotten there early for the band. It was miracle that they didn't get booed into oblivion. However, AIH managed to make it through their set unscathed, though not perfectly. All that electronic equipment backfired on them a lot, the drums in particular having to fiddled with practically between every song to get them working again. Still it was a fun set, made a lot more interesting from the circumstances around it.







Boris



Boris rocked. Flat out rocked. It was the most metal thing I have ever experienced in my life, just a barrage of ear splitting guitar riffs and skull crushing drums blasted out of six foot high amps. The all black attire, the smoke machine that pour out through out the set, the giant gong set behind the drum kit (that eventually made its way into the crowd); Boris love metal to their bone and embodies it so well. Equally impressive is how they take their new, catchier, and less metal material and live, manage to convert it into equally impressive feats of rock bravo. There was nothing brutal about the set, but there was an intensity to it that was ever present, and rose it proper heights. Shredding never sounded so good.







Black Lips



I think this was the proper way to end my Fun Fun Fun Fest experience. With the utter wonder and chaos that was the Black Lips. They literally started the show off with a bang by throwing lit firecrackers into the the crowd. From their it got as crazy as a Black Lips show gets, the crowd become a giant mass of colliding bodies and garage rock infuse octane. Toilet paper was thrown, light swords were waved and flung, and people drunkenly song along to the songs at the top of their songs. Black Lips on their part helped with the chaos, never slowing the set down for any of the slower or more psych tinged songs in their discography, and just transferring the energy of the crowd into more manic forms of "Short Fuse" and "Katerina". There were moments were you couldn't even see the stage because of everything that was going on, but it says too much that it was OK and the giant drunken, high, crazy crowd singing along was all you needed.