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SAN FRANCISCO--A 70-year-old, man-made island in the middle of the San Francisco Bay was home to a treasure trove of good music this weekend.
The Treasure Island Music Festival, a new joint venture between growing Bay Area live-music stalwarts Another Planet Entertainment and Noise Pop, drew some 10,000 music fans to this largely vacant island to hear sets from the likes of Thievery Corporation, DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist, M.I.A., Ghostland Observatory, and many more.
Venue with a view/Photo: Jim Welte
Any major music festival must do excellently in its first attempt, and the folks behind Treasure Island managed to pull off a great job, including the well-managed logistics of transporting almost all attendees on biodiesel shuttle buses from San Francisco to the efficient layout, which prevented an abundance of hellacious lines and bottlenecks.
Set on a large swath of grass on the island's western edge, which gave fans an incredibly picturesque view of the bay and the downtown San Francisco skyline, the event featured a 60-foot Ferris wheel, art installations, a vintage video game arcade, costumed performers from Big Nazo, and a host of carnies, from stilt-walkers to hula-hoopers.
But those elements were mere window dressing for a plethora of excellent music. Festival organizers wisely set up a main and secondary stage, on which performances alternated with no overlap, allowing fans to easily catch all the music without interruption.
The two-day event mostly fell into two categories, with Saturday's performers falling into the dance, hip-hop, and international genres, and Sunday focusing primarily on rock. Here's a run-down of some of the weekend's performances:
Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock/Photo: Jim Welte
With an album that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart, Modest Mouse has long since flown the indie coop, at least in terms of popularity. But the extra cash in their pocket hasn't compromised the band's eclectic sound, and the addition of former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr has given the band's entire catalog more density in a live setting.
The set kicked off with "Bury Me With It" and largely followed the menu of the band's live sets this year in support of We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, its latest album. "Dashboard" was an expected highlight, with its frenetic energy and nautically themed imagery, as was old favorite "Doin' the Cockroach" from 1997's The Lonesome Crowded West.
This is singer Isaac Brock's band, but Marr, who is now recognized as a full-fledged member of the band, is a sight to behold in a live setting, adding multiple layers to the band's sound. As the cold nighttime air wafted in from the bay, this was the perfect soundtrack to keep the bones warm before the bus trip home.
Spoon's Britt Daniel/Photo: Jim Welte
Fans could be excused if they were a bit distracted during Spoon's set on Sunday. The sun was setting at the time, which gave the entire panorama a glowing red aura, from the San Francisco skyline to the Marin Headlands, with the Golden Gate Bridge in-between. It was a tough act to follow or even accompany, and Spoon performed admirably, though this wasn't their finest set.
The first half was strong, anchored by the slinky bassline of "Turn My Camera On" and the bouncy vibe of "My Mathematical Mind," two of the standout songs on 2005's Gimme Fiction, the band's most sprawling album to date. But the energy waned as the sun set.
That said, Britt Daniel remains one of the most likable frontmen on the rock circuit, always appearing to be having a blast and pushing his band in new directions. Daniel almost seemed to be taunting his subject on the funky "Don't You Evah" with lines like, "But don't you love her/deep down/I said don't ever/cause it's gonna keep him hanging around."
Built to Spill's Doug Martsch/Photo: Jim Welte
The Boise-based indie rock stalwarts of Built to Spill never seem to disappoint with their live sets, and Sunday's midday slot was no different. From the soaring opening of "Liar" to the catchy but corrosive closer "Conventional Wisdom," this was well-crafted, guitar-driven rock at its finest. The highlight of the set was "Car," a plaintive ballad that frontman Doug Martsch pushed to great heights with the repeated refrain, "I wanna see movies of my dreams."
Like much of the Treasure Island festival, the band gave fans plenty of visual stimulation in addition to that of the sonic variety. The whole set was accompanied by a montage of artwork from Portland, Ore.-based artist Mike Scheer, a longtime collaborator of Martsch and director of videos for the band's songs "In the Morning" and "Untrustable."
DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist/Photo: Jim Welte
The concept of two of the world's greatest DJs playing nothing but 45s (seven-inch vinyl) on eight turntables and two mixers, with no additional help other than the occasional loop, is a bit mind-blowing. The Hard Sell, the latest version of a conceptual series from the two DJs, also includes the previous Product Placement and Brainfreeze projects. The fact that this was at an outdoor music festival on an island, rather than in a small club or on a DVD, draws attention to just how incredible a feat this was.
The duo threw the crowd a bone by posting oscillating video cameras in front of their rig, which allowed people to watch on the screen above what was happening. Two things were abundantly clear, if not altogether newsworthy. First, these dudes have absurdly deep record collections to go along with their technical prowess. And best of all, they didn't shy away from getting experimental with it. For every recognizable track from A Tribe Called Quest or The Doors, there were cuts from more obscure bands such as '90s alternative rockers Swervedriver, and an a cappella of Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger."
Shadow and Cut Chemist closed out the set by walking to the front of the stage while scratching and cutting tracks on portable turntables and mixers they were wearing around their necks. This was as much a feast for the eyes as the ears.
M.I.A./Photo: Jim Welte
The tiny rapper from Sri Lanka by way of the UK incited the biggest stir of the day. The already-hyped crowd took it up a notch when M.I.A. took the stage. Backed by a DJ and backup singer/dancer, M.I.A. sported an eccentric ensemble of shiny gold spandex pants, an oversized blue T-shirt, and a navy captain's cap. On the outside of her T-shirt, she wore a bra made of paper birds' heads, which she tossed into the crowd after a few songs.
M.I.A. has been playing the festival circuit for the past few months, and just like her performance at Lollapalooza, the set didn't travel very well to the back of the festival venue. This was club music, and although she's got great magnetism and block-rocking beats, little was added from the album versions of her tracks for the live setting.
But for those who were up close, it didn't matter; the crowd swooned from the beginning of opener "Bamboo Banger," to the closer and her breakout hit, "Galang." M.I.A. effortlessly blazed through tracks off her debut, 2005's Arular, as well as her latest album, Kala. During "Bird Flu," she decided that "I want girls onstage," after which streams of ladies jumped onstage to groove to the track's frenetic, batucada-meets-voodoo drums. The highlight was "Sunshowers," in which M.I.A. blasted the concepts of an axis of evil and a war on terror over a sinewy dancehall beat.
Ghostland Observatory/Photo: Jim Welte
Smack dab in the middle of either a nightmarish or momentous weekend, depending on your perspective, the Austin, Texas electronic duo of Thomas Turner and Aaron Behrens could be excused for being a bit lethargic. Ghostland Observatory played a headlining set at the Monolith Festival at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado on Friday night, jumped on a plane for San Francisco, and then immediately departed after their Treasure Island set for two nighttime sets at the Austin City Limits festival, the second of which was as a replacement for the White Stripes, whose tour was cancelled due to drummer Meg White's anxiety.
But one thing this duo is not is lackluster, and regardless of how they were really feeling, Ghostland came through with an electric set. Turner, sporting his trademark cape, proved to be a master of the knobs and keys yet again. Behrens remains one of the most charismatic singers in live music: He darted around the stage, swung his mic all over the place, and delivered each line like he meant it. Hits like "Sad, Sad City" and "Silver City" offered a perfect mix of rock bravado and dance-club swagger, and the duo also showed off its spacier, psychedelic side in the latter half of the set on songs like "Shut 'Em Down."
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's Alec Ounsworth/Photo: Jim Welte
You won't find too many music fans who are on the fence about these indie darlings. It's a pretty straight call: either you love singer Alex Ounsworth's voice or you hate it, and rarely the twain shall meet. To some, it's nauseatingly nasal, while others can't get enough of the sound of a crazed, Talking Heads-era David Byrne.
But what often gets lost in the shuffle is that this is a considerably talented and increasingly tight rock band, able to push and pull a song in an uncharted direction with ease. The band has the ability to insert manic energy into unexpected sections of songs, as on the closer, "Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood."
But the high point of the set, regardless of your position on Ounsworth's voice, was "The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth," which saw the band tear into a lengthy, spaced-out, organ-driven psych jam. An odd animated black-and-white video of ants at work seemed the perfect accompaniment.
Honeycut/Photo: Jim Welte
At first glance, this Bay Area quartet makes straightforward, blue-eyed soul that doesn't have much depth or character. But with an unorthodox configuration of instruments and a subtle mix of sonic flavors, there is quite a bit more to Honeycut than meets the eye. The band is led by singer Bart Davenport, who has worked with DJ Greyboy, and also fronted his own groups such as Loved Ones and the Kinetics in the past. The group features an MPC in place of a drum kit, as well as an effects-laden clavinet, both of which give the band's soul sound an electronic veneer.
Davenport is a skilled vocalist, and although it can be a bit jarring to see a wiry white guy feeling the funk, he incorporates a wide range of styles into his sound, including both blues and country. But French keyboardist extraordinaire RV Salters is the star of the show. He used the clavinet to propel the songs from experimental to downright funky, no more so than on a clav solo during "Shadows," from the band's 2006 debut The Day I Turned to Glass.
Zion-I/Photo: Jim Welte
In a rousing set on the main stage early in the afternoon, Bay Area rap duo Zion-I represented for quality hip-hop and delivered a ringing endorsement of the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) and its ability to help beat makers do their thing. As their set wound down, Amp Live stepped out from behind the turntables, PSP in hand, and used a program called Traxxpad to hammer out drum patterns and samples such as Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine," over which MC Zion rapped. It was clearly well planned, but it added an element of spontaneity to what was already an excellent set.
Amp threw on all matter of beats throughout the set, from hyphy anthems to electro club bangers, and Zion handled it all effortlessly, freestyling with a number of guests, including regular collaborator the Grouch. The highlight was the group's new single, "Don't Lose Ya Head," a track that pulls off the difficult task of mixing a socially conscious message with a minimal, synth-driven Too Short-style beat.
Zion-I have been doing their thing for nearly a decade, having released four independent albums that have won critical praise but not much mainstream success. But as the only straight hip-hop act of the weekend, they surely won over some new fans with their solid set.
The sun sets on the inaugural Treasure Island Music Festival/Photo: Jim Welte
