Fucking Awesome Fest II Recap & Reload – Saturday

Night three of Fucking Awesome Fest 2010 is now in the books.  And even though for a moment last night kinda felt like a revival of the 2004 Garage Rock Revival with members of the Von Bondies, The Go, White Stripes, Back in Spades, The Sights and Greenhornes all under one roof, I still thoroughly enjoyed almost every band I saw.

The Hound Below: like I said yesterday, I’m really digging these guys and gal. It’s like The Pixies meets Johnny Cash with a little touch of Elvis. They’re might have been a little vocal pushing by Jason Stollsteimer at times but so what, I dug it.

Illy Mack: I”m sorry, but I couldn’t really get into this band (maybe it was the gimmicks). Though coming back through form the Alley Deck, I noticed they had a rapper on stage with them and thought they seemed a lot more interesting at that point.

Friendly Foes: Being that this was their last show ever, I saw that they were giving away the rest of their merch (there was still a suitcase of it left during Juiceboxx’s set) .  I also saw that the Majestic Cafe was packed, heard them play “Walk Home In The Dark” and noticed lots of  their friends/fans singing along.

Millions of Brazilians: The girls I was with were really sad to see axe Derek was replaced with Augie of The Hard Lessons (maybe that’s why they played on the floor instead of the actual side stage). They sounded intense, but I couldn’t tell much sonic difference with the 33% new lineup except that Augie’s guitar carried much more weight in the house mix then Derek’s normal had.   Also, the new tunes sound cool and I dug The Walkmen cover of “The Rat” (again it felt like 2004).

Conspiracy of Owls: These cats are fronted by Bobby Harlow and John Krautner of The Go. They also have five other dudes on stage with them from various groups around town. They’ve got a cool retro rock sound form the late sixties early seventies. All and all,  not bad.  However, when I went downstairs to hit up Juiceboox I saw a bachelorette party heading up the stairs to the Magic Stick, not really sure if they were lost or just devoted Conspiracy of Owls followers?

Juiceboxx: What a trip! I mean a skinny Milwaukee white rapper telling you to “Sweat, Sweat” and saying “Detroit” seventy times throughout his set can always make ya smile. I do still think someone needs to buy that boy a cheeseburger.

The Greenhornes: played literally every cool song they have;  ”Lies”, “Can’t Stand It”, “Hard Times”… if they had a greatest hits album, this performance would be the benchmark. Their merch booth staff seemed to really love it, and I did too.

Sunday: If you missed the last three nights you got one more evening to check out the festival.  Go tonight and catch some of the sets from 800beloved, Fur, Dark City and Autolux… you’ll be glad you did.