Mirah's shows started late (10:45), and led off with slow songs from C'mon Miracle. We stuck around purely because we knew she couldn't not play Cold Cold Water, so we knew things had to pick up sooner or later. Boy did they. I always assumed songs like Mt. St. Helens and Cold Cold Water were mostly post production, and that the fantastic swells owed more to Phil Elvrum than to Mirah. While there's certainly more to the album versions, Mirah + drums (clive) + keyboard did amazing justice to the songs. I've seen 5 person bands struggle to get sound that big live. It was absolutely amazing, and well worth the sleepiness the next morning. from there, the show only got better. After a short break, clive and the keyboardist came back and did a cover of the Cherish Sisters' Do It To It. Clive got the audience to clap along at the end, and Mirah jumped back on stage to launch straight into The Garden, with everyone clapping through the whole song. I don't think there's any other way the song could have rocked out that much with such a tiny set up. From there, Clive showed off his human beatbox skillz as she launched into The Light as remixed on Joyride. who woulda thunk?

we were planning on checking out the decemberists with the grant park orchestra tonight, but since the wifest is getting on a plane at 5am tomorrow, we skipped it. good thing, too, as it's currently pouring.

I've been out of touch with the P4m scene, at least since the new year. So while I wouldn't have forked out for a ticket, I'm happy to volunteer to help out mercy for animals. There were really only two bands I was interested in, in advance. Voxtrot played during our shift on Saturday, but fortunately we were close enough to hear, and we got our break during their set. The set was fun, and we danced along out in the field, and more restrainedly back at the booth. The set failed to convince our skeptical friend though.

Mastodon was absolutely amazing. The security staff made note that they were the only band at the festival to sell out a bigger venue in chicago (as part of a triple bill with slayer and lamb of god). It seemed like as many people came towards the stage fresh from the entry gates as from the alternate stage. The set they played was impossibly tight, as clean and heavy as the album itself (they played mostly Blood Mountain). The guitarist's vocals are a bit more "Smurf"1 than the album, but the set was so amazing it didn't bother me much.

Since I was already in, I was hoping to hear bands that I'd missed out on, with not paying attention to the indie scene. From all the hype, i thought the band to fill that bill might be Battles, but I didn't find them as amazing as I was supposed to. Menomena, however, definitely improved my Sunday afternoon. I'll be checking them out.

1. the sound guys referred to it that way on Sunday

This year, since discovering invisible oranges, I'm not as invested in indie rawk. but Pitchfork's got this really cool system going on: I'm volunteering for the festival. Not to for pitchfork, that would be pretty unethical (despite being something most music fans would love to do). I'm volunteering VegChicago, who organize the monthly chicago meetups1. In return for having "members" volunteer for the festival, they get booth space and promotion. Which I think is cool.

1. like yesterday, at foster beach, catered by veggie bite

When we got to the abbey, there was a line around the corner.  there's never a line at the abbey.  apparently asobi seksu can make one, though. well, that and only having one door guy to do the ticket sales and the will call.  Asobi seksu project their anti-rockstar, d+d nerd image by way of not having any lights on stage.  the music was good, but not good enough to make up for the lack of a show.

Appleseed Cast don't exactly have a massive stage precence, but it's not nothing.  At the last show, they lead with 'strings', and played an even amount of new songs, for the 4 or 5 that we saw.  this time, they played almost exclusively songs from Peregrine.  that's fine by me, i really liked the album, and thusly, the show.  I think ryan was a bit dissappointed, tho.

I find myself doing it too. I know it's a form of sexism. I've heard women complain about not getting to enjoy hardcore shows properly because no one lets them get punched in the face1 . At the same time, it's hard to turn off the instinct to protect the pretty girl from the 300 lb. oaf who's to busy still throwing devil horns to bother stopping himself from falling over backwards. i dunno.

Anyway, the in flames show was pretty awesome. You know, after lacuna coil got off the stage. There's showy, and then there's cheesy. a quick list of signs that you've crossed into the latter:

• your band has matching outfits, with slightly different variations for the singers
• your singers make up hand motions to go along with the lyrics of the song
• when one of the singers is waiting for their part, they are seen posing for audience cell phone cameras

In Flames led off with Pinball Map and Leeches, which made my night right off the bat. After that, though, they played mostlly songs from Reroute and STTYE. They played one song each from Clayman, Colony, and Jester Race, and maybe 3 songs from Come Clarity. It's not to say that they didn't put on an amazing show. I may have to re-listen to those albums now, given how fun the show was, despite them not playing most of my favorite songs.

1. I think that might be it's own sickness. i go to fewer hardcore shows than metal shows, mainly because i'm just not a fan of getting punched in the face