Ice Cream Man

FYF Fest, my how you've grown. I remember you back in 2005 (your second year, I believe) when you were just a charmingly cobbled together free festival in Echo Park. I wandered up and down Sunset Boulevard to various venues, merrily clutching a 40 of Mickeys in a paper bag seeing bands like The Dillinger Four, Mojo Filters and Toys that Kill. Thankfully, we've both grown a bit since then. You've got your big bro Goldenvoice helping you out and I've somehow wrangled a job! I didn't go to the previous FYF Fest's at Los Angeles State Historic Park, but based on my first trip this weekend I say, "Congratulations, man!" Sure, there are a few kinks to work out, but overall it was a raving success. This is LA's version of Coachella, maybe, just more indie, and I hope it stays that way.

Ian was on his maiden voyage with Bessie and thanks to Ben & Jerry's and Jakprints he was able to give away a couple thousand free treats backstage. We promise to snap more cream pics next time, which will likely be Doheny Days this weekend.

Highlights - Reasonably priced tickets ($89 total for both days) - Not-too crowded beer garden between Main Stage and Hill St. Stage that allowed walking back and forth over the hill with beer/cocktail in-hand to easily view both stages - More free schwag than I could imagine (seriously, I should've bought a lottery ticket this weekend) - Dude with crutches crowd surfing at Gold Panda - The Hundreds carnival games - FYF bubble suds letters floating away in the sky - Cheap Blood Is The New Black t-shirts - Meeting the amazing Touch Vinyl guys (look into them, there are doing great things) - Interviewing Future Islands just before their amazing performance (coming soon) - Bands on Hill St. Stage going on early and adding 5-10 minutes to their sets (props to Future Islands, Father John Misty and Atlas Sound) - Clean and line-free Porta Potties Lowlights - High potential for sprained ankles due to footing/gopher holes - Coachella parking lot levels of dust - James Blake's amazing performance being drowned out by sound bleed from Tanlines (who were also great) - Scarcity of food (vendors running out of food around 9 p.m. on Saturday night) - I <3 Spicy Pie changing their logo (booooooo!  keep it classic!) Favorite Performances (in no particular order) - King Khan & The Shrines (complete with 3 crowd-surfing tambourine players) - M83 - Gold Panda - Future Islands - James Blake (when Tanlines weren't drowning him out) - Tanlines (when I wasn't trying to listen to James Blake) - Dinosaur Jr.'s "Feel The Pain" - Chromatics' cover of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" - Yeasayer (and they're amazing Creator's Project stage set up) Great Things Overheard - Tanlines, "...we're playing the comedy rave tent!" - Bradford Cox (Atlas Sound) sound checking after Aesop Rock, "Can I get a lot less 'bra' in the side fills." - Jeremiah being asked by our new friends (we met at a shared picnic table) after photographing Health, "Did you capture the magic of the hair whips? They're beautiful." - Q: "Is Gold Panda down tempo?" A: "Nope, he's folktronica." Best Things Eaten - My fill of Spicy Pie (4 slices, yikes!) - Deano's Deli turkey sandwich (that garlic-mayo spread is amazing) - Babycakes' vegan cookie sandwich (I can't believe there's no dairy in it) Trends - Film cameras - Aztec patterns (still) - Free sunglasses - Fancy fishnets - Boots - Ear stretching (haven't seen this many since 1990's era Lollapalooza)