Intonation Festival 2006
June 25th, 2006To be perfectly honest, I really debated even going to Intonation Festival. I bought the tickets before they fully announced the lineup, and the lineup never got much better. But it was such a beautiful weekend, and some friends were going that I hadn’t seen in a while. Which brings me to the first high point: spending a little time with those friends. The good thing about going to a festival where you don’t really care about 80% of the performing acts, is that you’re able to spend more time heckling those acts with your friends, and catching up on what everyone has been up to.
High point #2: Jose Gonzalez
Jose Gonzalez’s played a great set. What he lacked in stage presence, he made up for in a well-played set, including an excellent cover of Massive Attack’s “Teardrop”.
High point #3: Erase Errata
Erase Errata’s set was fun to watch. They played a solid set of brief songs that sounded like the talking points for the Democratic party. Erase Errata’s music was staunchly anti-war, anti-prisons, anti-guns, and anti-corporate. All of which is stuff I can get behind politically, but doesn’t make for particularly catchy tunes. But it was entertaining to watch anyway, if merely as a curiosity.
High point #4: ???
Ok, there really wasn’t a high point #4. 90 Day Men were forgettable, Devin the Dude was as awful as his name suggests, Chromeo sounded like the soundtrack to an 80′s high school movie, The Sword just plain sucked, Blue Cheer reminded me of a cross between Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem and Spinal Tap, Jon Brion was sloppy and monotonous, and Robert Pollard was pretty decent (but not really my thing).
But all in all, I had a good time because of my friends, the easy access to beer and restrooms, and the perfect weather. Next year I’ll wait for the full lineup before buying my Intonation tickets, but I have no regrets about going this year.