On this sunny day the fog partially lifted around the island while patches gave back drop for scattered sailboats and freighters wading into what appeared to be mystic cloudy chasms in the Bay's southwest corners.
Imperial Teen kicked off as the day's events as groggy-headed goers slowly began to file in, where next up Hospitality provided perfect picnic rock for the late morning-noon. War on Drugs channeled their Ardent studios power-pop best, and played up that inspirational style that had everyone dropping the Born to Run Springsteenian comparisons a while back, but today they seemed more interested in being loyal torch bearers for the Alex Chilton aesthetic through today's leanings in both semiotic and sound. Wild Belle summoned skanked out blonde hair soul while we got distracted by grown dudes potato sack racing in sleeping bag contraptions.
Youth Lagoon brought the much welcomed, sleepy and sentimental melancholic keys for our sun breeze soaked afternoon while the crowd loved on guitarist bro's faded New Mexico-esque poncho-kimono-robe.
Ty Segall, Mikal Cronin and company brought favorite moments from Twins, Slaughterhouse, Melted, Goodbye Bread with the message of “Stay in fucking school!” after a call and response inquiry via a generous show of hands from the college attending crowd. Then Joanna Newsom threatened to put the entire crowd to sleep via piano, harp and Renaissance Faire songs that was everything that makes you want to throw your stereo out the window after listening to anything arranged, let alone sang by Van Dyke Parks (yes, including all the Beach Boys/Brian Wilson stuff.).
However, Los Campesinos! did not disappoint as they brought their cavalcade of energy leaving Best Coast to leave some big entertainment shoes unfulfilled and un-matched after that kind of enthusiastic, sonic energy and excitement. Divine Fits, Britt Daniel of Spoon's new band was quite the hit as many in attendance seemed surprised by Daniel's appearance and enjoyed the tight, fine tuned pop energy provided; backlit by the westward sunset. M83 brought the out the big fancy space lights while accomodations VIP brought the Giants-Cardinals matchup on 2 big screens. Considerations such as these were perks for both fans of M83's aural-dream spectrals and post-season die hards that got to watch the Giants lose to live neo-gaze brough courtesy of Anthony Gonzalez.
The Gossip made that herky-jerky dance noise that reminded us how much, for better or for worse, the aughts are still much a part of our musical landscape. At this point the day had come to a close, the xx brought love and that tamed electro buzz throughout while I began to fall into a lucid sleep on a nearby bench. The dream was over after the xx concluded their performance and the maze of crowds making way to limo buses headed toward the city woke me from all sensess of slumber, where in the queue we huddled, muddled and muttered our half asleep ways in motor driven carriages back to the city. Thank you again Treasure Island; we will meet again next year.
