Festival Review: Youth Lagoon Shines at Boomslang 2013

Boomslang 2013

Much like the African snake that lends the festival its namesake, Boomslang slithers across various venues throughout the city of Lexington, Kentucky. Now in its fifth consecutive year, the festival has brought a number of reputable artists from across the world to the bluegrass state for a weekend filled with music, visual arts, workshops, and more. Curated the University of Kentucky’s student ran radio station (WRFL 88.1 Radio Free Lexington), Boomslang prides itself on providing a platform for non-mainstream and non-commercial music and other art forms. Which isn’t to say the line-ups themselves aren’t impressive: Previous years have featured acts like Jeff Mangum, Das Racist, Swans, Ty Segall, Akron/Family, and other influential artists, and the lineup for 2013 offered the same great consistency of previous years.

Friday, September 20th

The festival kicked off early in the evening with local Lexington psychedelic-rockers Ancient Warfare. Various artists decorated the schedule throughout the day, including experimental songwriter Chelsea Wolfe, noise-rockers Dope Body, and alt-rock outfit Mayonnaise. Lexington’s Carrick Theatre housed the Wild Women of Poetry Slam, which featured musician/poet Saul Williams as a special guest judge.

The highlight of the day was definitely the block of artists performing at Cosmic Charlie’s. The evening started off relatively tame with electronic musician Carl Calm, who delivered his synth-driven set to the sparse crowd that arrived early. The number of attendees in the venue increased rapidly during Adult.’s set, which plucked a wide variety of songs throughout the husband-and-wife duo’s extensive 15-year catalogue. The crowd became engaged when singer Nicola Kuperus climbed off the stage to join the audience, eventually fighting her way through the length of the venue to the bar housed in the back, all while singing along perfectly to the pulse-dominating beat that engulfed the room.

Liverpool’s Clinic joined the stage next, sporting their signature scrubs and surgical masks, performing an energized set of their unique brand of noisy psych-rock. Digging through a variety of old and new tracks, the crowd seemed to remain at a steady high, which continued well into Com Truise’s headlining set. The synth-heavy electronic musician set the dance floor in motion with his 1980s-inspired tracks, keeping the audience captivated throughout the late night hours of the last show of the day.

Saturday, September 21st

Al’s Bar housed the first round of shows for Day 2, which featured six acts, including virtuoso guitarist Marnie Stern, punk-pop duo Bleached, and Lexington-based synth-pop artist Idiot Glee. The artists alternated between the indoor and outdoor stages, allowing for quicker transitioning times, as well as a change of scenery for those that attended. The festival’s metal/heavier-themed block was housed at an unlikely venue, Embrace Church. A few hundred came out to enjoy the loudest sounds of the festival, played six bands, including metal acts Pallbearer and Locrian.

Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon showed off her experimental project Body/Head at Buster’s Billiards. The duo (which also features Bill Nace as another guitarist) unleashed a slew of songs off of their recently released debut album, keeping the crowd mesmerized with their abstract delivery of noise-rock, which seemed to lull everyone in a fixated trance. Along with haunting sound of the guitars and occasional droning harmonica, the show was accompanied by a slow-motion video which featured a woman being filmed and painting. This display created an eerie — but awesome — vibe, especially during the encapsulating “Black,” which closed out the show.

Sunday, September 22nd

Youth Lagoon

The pace slowed down on Sunday, with considerably fewer events marking the schedule in comparison to Saturday (which luckily meant fewer conflicts throughout the day). The lack of variety for the day was completely overshadowed by the great acts that played, including a stacked block at Buster’s, which included dream-pop outfits Pure X and Youth Lagoon, trap-pop act Jamaican Queens, and alt-rock legends Blonde Redhead.

Youth Lagoon’s set stood out as one of the best moments of the festival. The crowd of a few hundred stood in a venue which houses a much higher capacity, which allowed the crowd a perfect view of the stage. Trevor Powers played his variety of dreamy, lo-fi, bedroom-pop, including staples “Dropla” and “July,” backed by a full band who fleshed out the sound in a live setting. Jamaican Queens took the much smaller side stage at Buster’s, but offered a powerful, energetic (and much too short) set to the crowd huddled around them. Festival headliner Blonde Redhead closed out the weekend, filling the room with their dreamlike rock, before sending the festival-goers home to anticipate what artists might make an appearance next year.

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