LIVE REVIEW: Noise Pop Festival 2000, San Francisco, Cal.
- Kerwin So
San Francisco's annual Noise Pop festival packs so much darn goodness into so many days that it would be near impossible for one man to soak it all in and settle down enough to recount it intelligibly. This year, the Bay Area was blessed with shows by Bob Mould, the Magnetic Fields, a reunited X, and dozens of other artists of national and local prominence. Being but one man, I can only share the events that I did experience during this week, and praise it to the high heavens.
Noise Pop began seven years ago, when founders Jordan Kurland and Kevin Arnold wanted to bring attention to a style of music -- you guessed it, noisy pop -- at a time when "thrasher-funk- punk ruled the Bay Area musical landscape," according to Kurland. The very first show, in 1993, included sets by The Meices, Overwhelming Colorfast, and Noise Pop perennials the Fastbacks. "Nowadays, noise pop is more a spirit or theme than a genre of music," continues Kurland. "Most of the acts that play are college-radio friendly, and lots of them have their roots in the independent music community."
Bob Mould, one of the headliners of the six-day festival, certainly fits all these criteria -- and then some. "If anyone defines the mentality, genre, feel of noise pop, it is Mr. Mould," declares Kurland. "In our opinion, he is the godfather of noise pop." To verify this assertion for myself, I went to check out a full bill at Bimbo's 365 club, with the ex-Husker Du singer headlining.
Incomprehensibly, local act Nuzzle flaked out of the opening slot of a lifetime, leaving another local band, Thingy, to fill that space with their, um, interesting brand of spastic indie-prog. The next performer, John Vanderslice, has just embarked on his solo project after the dissolution of MK Ultra, but you wouldn't know it as he incorporated a healthy amount of his previous band's material into his live set. Overall it was very straightforward rock, but I'll hold out from further disparagements, because not only did Vanderslice pen a song with the line "Bill Gates must die!", he also runs his own website with dope MP3s. Check it out at: http://www.johnvanderslice.com .
Chicago's Mountain Goats followed, and let me tell you quite honestly, it got to me. Despite the plural name, Mountain Goats is essentially one man, John Darnielle, and his acoustic guitar, spewing intense tales of broken love and historical ruminations over frenetic strumming, infused with a captivating, almost childlike honesty. Witnessing his one performance at Noise Pop made a believer out of me.
By this point the stage was set perfectly for Mould, playing a solo acoustic set, to step in. Unfortunately, the ever-reliable United Airlines lost his electric guitar en route from Denver, so he was confined to playing his trademark 12-string, but believe me, that was more than enough. Kicking off as always with "Wishing Well," Mould tore into favorites from his solo, Sugar, and Husker Du catalogs, including "Hoover Dam," "Brasilia Crossed with Trenton," "Makes No Sense At All" and "Celebrated Summer." At the crowd's behest, he even valiantly attempted "Panama City Hotel," which he claimed he hadn't even listened to in at least four years. It came off quite well, as did one painfully intimate new song that reduced the capacity crowd to an awed hush. It was great to hear how Mould is taking care of himself these days (e.g. cutting back on smoking and dairy products), and the quote which was probably the crowd favorite of the night was, "Is Madonna getting better or am I getting more gay?" Mould claims he's working on two new albums simultaneously, one subdued and one dance(!), but he's slow in releasing either of them. In the meantime, he certainly left us satisfied for one night.
I managed to drag myself out of bed the next afternoon for a special early Noise Pop show at Bottom of the Hill, arriving just in time to catch the final four notes of East Bay band the Jim Yoshi Pile-up. Uh, they were a great four notes. Rumah Sakit tore the roof off the joint with their inspired, incredibly tight math-rock. Modesto, Cal., rockers Fiver will not get any good press from me, since their drunk hometown friends kept slamming into me. By this time the crowd had reached an unprecedented (and uncomfortable) level of physical intimacy, and Death Cab for Cutie's set offered no compelling reason to stick around. Why is this band so hyped again?
From there it was a rainy drive across town to catch a stripped-down set at Cafe du Nord. A complete change of venue and pace from the fire-hazard overflow of Bottom of the Hill's indie-rock elite, the Cafe du Nord lineup reminded me again of Noise Pop's indomitable spirit and sheer love of music across multiple lines. Jonah Matrangah, former singer of Far, performed a set rife with innocence and chaos, enlisting friends and recent acquaintances from the audience to perform with him on stage, continually pleading with the crowd to "Do what you love...please." Very uplifting.
And who better to bring you back down than Eric Bachmann? The ex-Archers of Loaf front man has launched a new solo project, Crooked Fingers, which is essentially Bachmann spitting out lost, drunken tales with a Tom Waits-ian rasp over a fierce, melodic, de-tuned electric guitar. In such a personal, intimate setting, it was impossible not get drawn into Bachmann's overpowering songs to the point of crying into your beer. I said it once, and I'll say it again -- I'm a believer.
Noise Pop reminds me of why music festivals exist in the first place, or at least why they should: to showcase great music, and to make us believe in music again. Noise Pop's unbridled success in this endeavor, even after all these years, clearly sets it apart from industry orgies like the Gavin Showcase or South by Southwest. "We will never be a festival that caters to the industry," proclaims co-founder Kurland. "That isn't to say that we don't welcome people from LA or New York or wherever who work in the music business. We actually love it when they do want to be here, because that means they appreciate what we are trying to do and are fans of the bands that play. [But] at the end of the day, we are a music lovers' music festival, and that won't change." Thank God.
Noise Pop is also expanding to Chicago this year, with awesome bands like Seam and Sleater-Kinney already confirmed for shows in May, as well as a reunited Wire. As hard as it may be to fathom, Noise Pop Chicago is shaping up to be even better than San Francisco's this year. But all the same, I feel privileged to have experienced all that I did during that all-too-short weekend. May the spirit of this festival live long and prosper.
