Free Press Summer Fest Houston, TX Day 2

by John Cheesman on June 6, 2013

Posted in: Concert, Electronic, Folk, Music, Pop, R&B / Soul

So it’s now been a few days since Free Press Summer Fest ended, and I’ve finally had enough time to recover from the intense, aggressive, and downright mean heat. Now, I’m ready to relive the experience so that I can share it with all of my lovely readers. I know there’s tons of you.

Sunday wasn’t nearly as hot as Saturday, but this simply means it was 100 degrees outside instead of 104. Hey, you have to celebrate when you can right? Anyways, I got off to a much later start, and ended up missing Cat Power, one of the top acts on my list. Sad. But, I did make it just in time for the start of Matt and Kim. Once again, I have great things to say about all of the acts I saw, but I’m going to focus on the highlights.

Matt and Kim- If you ever have an opportunity to see these guys, even if you’ve already seen them, don’t say no. This was my third time to watch them on stage, and it truly never gets old. The two sport ear to ear smiles literally the entire performance, no matter how hard they’re working. They make the break neck pace of their songs seem breezy, and the way they translate their energy to the crowd is just awesome. The group, or I guess mostly Kim, is known for some of the stunts she pulls on stage (i.e flashing, twerking, stage dives). While the Houston crowd didn’t get to see any boobies, Kim did, at one point, descend from her sonic pulpit to walk on the hands of the masses and deliver a sermon of twerk. It was pretty incredible to watch her walking on the hands of the audience, and with “Express Yourself” on blast, begin to shake that thang like she didn’t have a care. It was really a fun show.

TV on the Radio- I wasn’t really sure what to expect for this show. I love TV on the Radio’s music, but in terms of their live show I hadn’t heard much. Despite my lack of knowledge,  I plunged into the unknown and battled for a spot at the front of the crowd. It was totally worth it. Lead singer Tunde Adebimpe was on his game. The performance was a perfect blend of dance, punk, and soul, and the whole set was tinged with the perfect amount of aggression that I’ve come to expect from TV on the Radio. My favorite part, however, had to be Tunde’s dance moves. The way he struts around the stage and the way he uses his hands…. I wish I could be that cool. Also, “Staring at the Sun” changed around the 2 minute mark into a straight up dance anthem. It was unexpected and very very fun.

Bassnectar- Now honestly, I didn’t think I would enjoy this show. I was tired, I was hot, and I don’t particularly like dubstep. I know, I know, you can debate for days about the “true nature of dub step” and I know that the term is a blanket statement. But still, I’m not really a fan. The show, however, ended up being a lot of fun. There were a few moments that were just a bit too heavy and WOMP WOMP WOMP for me, but the light show and the crowd made up for the parts of the music I couldn’t vibe with. This was definitely the biggest crowd of the festival– probably between 45-70,000 people. Just having that population all in one place, all dancing to the same music was a pretty great experience.

So there’s that: Free Press Summer Fest in a 2 post nutshell. Take heed of it y’all, FPSF really is growing. If you can handle the heat, get over here next year before it gets bought out! Next year might be the last year you can get a ticket for >100$!!

And in case you missed out on my day 1 post, here it is: http://wrmc.middlebury.edu/2013/06/04/free-press-summer-fest-houston-tx-day-1/

P.S. Once again, all the pix are from the band’s FPSF 2013 performances 🙂