Death Grips showed up and delivered (I caught most of their set). Apparently Les Savy Fav was awesome, but everyone got their iphones stolen whilst holding up a ladder (I missed their set), and My Bloody Valentine killed it so hard that they caused technical malfunctions ( I was close to the front without ear plugs, so I exited about half way through their set missing the five minute scramble to turn power back on). Overall, I had a great two days in downtown Los Angeles at LA State Historic Park.
FREE ice cream
FYF Fest 2013 was certainly, overall the best yet. This was my third FYF fest and their 10th anniversary. My first year, 2011, I had a bigger crew and I was slingin’ for Ice Cream Man because I was watching Bessie for a few months, and we were set up in the VIP area. 2012 I was in the artist village and this year we were outside gifting FREE ice cream to the throngs of 30,000 people. I parked Bessie right by the box office and gave out a few treats from there. My crew consisted of just Tony and I, and we were able to give out over 2,000 creams and popsicles over the two days. We did a great deal of our work out of the pushcart as the huge stampede of fest goers headed towards the entrance. Many folks were in such a hurry that they walked right past the FREE ice cream. Others just didn’t believe us. Bomb pops and frozen fruit bars were the most popular choices. We gave out hundreds of Ice Cream Ian stickers and talked to hundreds of very cool people. Slinging to the general public was definitely a different experience, but people were much more appreciative because they were pleasantly surprised.
Ch-ch-ch-changes
The stage names had been named after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in ’11 and ‘12, but after being served with a cease and desist, Sean Carlson, FYF founder, changed the names to characters in Sex in the City characters. For the first time, videos appeared between sets including 90s movie trailers like Last Action Hero and Double Impact. Two of the stages had rubber mats on the ground in front of them so the crowd wouldn’t kick up dust. There was a second VIP area this year allowing for more people and more food and drink choices.
Bands
The Breeders performed their 1997 album Last Splash on Saturday. They used the same guitars and pedals as well as switching instruments on certain songs just as they did on the album. As we walked past Devendra Banhart playing his sexy melodic freak folk, the first band Tony wanted to catch was the Locust. They came out in full costume: green jumpsuits with black netting over the mouth of an army green mask. There songs consisted of throat clearing vocals along with a thunderous barrage of guitar. A reunion of sorts, they were well received, and the crowd kicked up a dust storm at the beginning of their first song. Tony took off and I got some delicious waffle fries off of a food truck and listened to some TV on the Radio. I headed out to see Death Grips and wondered what was in store. They had a great set and the crowd responded positively. The last set of the night was The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs and they were terrific.
Sunday, I had to sling by myself for a while because Tony went to go see Antwon, a performer and a friend of his. He said it was a great set. After a long day of slinging cream, we made it in to catch some of Toro y Moi which was a stellar performance. Washed Out provided some nice chill wave off of all three albums while we had a beverage. We caught some of MGMT’s set and got some food before My Bloody Valentine. I got up pretty close for MBV knowing it was going to be fairly loud. The five or six songs that I caught were amazing live shoegaze, but I had to go home and my ears were starting to hurt. What can I say? I'm an old man.
Once I got home, I had a UFO ice cream sandwich and headed off to bed.
