among the youth of america

Yesterday I took the long Q train ride out to Coney Island for the Village Voice Siren Festival.

I got there about 2 o'clock and stayed until about 8 o'clock. My skin is now somewhat red from the sun. After attending, I was glad that I had seen several bands that I did, but the crowd, sun and cost of enduring standing for 6 or more hours (falafel, water, ice cream) makes me somewhat relieved that lollapalooza was cancelled. But I did get some free stickers.

Here are the bands I saw:

The Fiery Furnaces
They set up, started playing and didn't take a break between songs. This was a very good set. I enjoyed when they played with two keyboards concurrently. I hope to buy their cd soon.

The Constantines
They made my ears hurt. Powerful stuff, I don't feel the need to have the cd but they were actually pretty good.

TV on the Radio
I like the ep and lp, but from where I was standing (over a football field away) it sounded pretty bad. When I backed up another football field away, further from the packed out crowdiness, it sounded a lot better. But I left after a couple songs.

The Fever
Garage-y with some dinky keyboards. Seemed really excessively loud.

The Electric Six
Jokey band (to me) with a lot of posing. But they had the attitude to more or less pull it off. A lot of fun.

Mission of Burma
I am very happy I got to see them. They seemed very happy to play. Blessed be the 50 somethings who play loud.