2016 Sweetlife Festival, May 14, 2016 at Merriweather Post Pavilion

Dana and I got pavilion tickets to the 2016 Sweetlife Festival, not because we liked the lineup, but because it’s the only festival in DC this year, and on the years that the weather has been good, it’s been fun to hang outside at Merriweather and eat excellent food all day. The lineup was particularly lackluster this year, and the day was marred by a rainstorm, so the turnout was abysmal. Maybe because ticket sales were so bad, there weren’t many food trucks, either, and the interactive elements from last year were mostly missing. Merriweather had undergone some renovations over the winter, which was a not-quite-welcome surprise, but at least there were more bathrooms because of it.

Shamir at Sweetlife

I cared more about seeing Dana that day than hanging out at the festival, and she was delayed leaving her house, so we arrived around 4:15 during Eagles of Death Metal and Shamir. The Eagles of Death Metal are not a death metal band – they sound more like ZZ Top to me. They are kind of funny, too. Dana thought Preston would love them. Gender-bending Shamir wore a tinfoil crown that I SWEAR I saw below us in the audience the night before at Grimes. Seems possible – he could easily have arrived in town the night before and asked IMP for something to do. I heard him sing “On the Regular,” but I’m not a fan, so I went to scope out the food trucks. My choices were very limited and the one vegan item that contained any vegetables was sold out, so I ate corn, French fries, strawberry lemonade, and chicken on a stick, when I had expected something leafy green and delicious. It was a big let-down for dinner.

Blondie at Sweetlife 2016

I ignored the Blondie set next, mostly reading a book. I’ve never been a fan of nostalgia acts, but Dana was impressed by her 70+ year old efforts to bring it.  Dana also looked up Blondie’s tour schedule and pointed out that there next stop was a Midwestern zoo.

Halsey at Sweetlife Festival 2016

After that, we saw Grimes again, and it was exactly the same act, minus a few songs. Every movement, every everything, even they dedications, very much the same. I remarked that it gave me a better sense of what it must be like to be a musician – sort of like being a actor, doing the same exact blocking and lines every night. We listened to a little of 1975 in the background and saw the tail end of Flume, then stayed for Halsey. (Dana is a big fan, as is my tween daughter.) Dana pointed out that Halsey’s lesser-known songs have very grown up themes, so I was relieved to check Natalie’s playlist and find only the pop hits on it. One entertaining part of the Halsey experience was seeing her arrive in a black van and watching young (drunk) people follow behind, touching the van. We found that silly and entertaining. Halsey was drunk on stage – she told us so. Her act involved grabbing her crotch fairly often. There was one visual where she lay down on a clear platform with a screen show behind – it looked like she was floating. Mostly, though, she copped attitude. It’s her thing. We left before the last song to beat the crowd out and owe some anonymous young men for moving traffic cones out of our way so we could leave via the fast route. My only regret was not seeing Young Brando early in the day.  That was the only act I thought had potential when I previewed.

Grimes, HANA, Tei Shi at 9:30 Club on May 13, 2016

Dana, Jill, Natalie and I went to the Grimes concert at the 9:30 Club on May 13, 2016. It was rescheduled from December and was an early show. I was very sad when it was canceled in December (Grimes got sick) because it had been one of the first stops on the tour for Art Angels, which ended up album of the year on a whole lot of lists. It’s a really fantastic feeling to be into an artist who’s riding a high of critical acclaim and is launching a new tour, full of energy. Instead, we got the 6-months-into-the-tour show, which is well practiced, but formulaic.

The first opener was HANA, who also acted as a back-up singer during Grimes set.  She moved a little like Mo and had a high, ethereal voice. She seemed confident in her movements, but I didn’t find her music all that interesting. She seemed like an artist who might appeal to a tween/young teen crowd.

The second opener was Tei Shi, a traditional guitar band fronted by a female singer who seemed to be abusing her vocal cords. I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up injured. There was one song that caught my interest, but they didn’t announce any song names and I counldn’t make out enough of the lyrics, so I don’t know which it was.

Grimes act was very good, and if I hadn’t seen Santigold the week before, I might have been more impressed. The two dancers (in sun glasses) did not look the same or dance the same, but they had the same detached aura as the Santigold dancers. One was an Asian woman in a matrix-esque costume who moved a little like a ninja. The other dancer was a big, beautiful black woman who had a lot of attitude. Hana and Grimes rounded out the stage. Grimes is a trained dancer, but uses a style of dance that’s very twitchy and awkward – it’s her thing. Her banter persona comes off as appreciative and genuine, if also a little strange. Some of her song choices were not to my taste – like the screaming song she wrote with the Chinese rapper. At one point she did a song in Russian. Dana looked up her bio during the act and Grimes has exceptionally varied interests – including Russian literature. She did most of my favorite songs, so I can’t complain about the others in between. I do wish she hadn’t aimed bright lights into the audience – I hate that. And the sound mixing was truly awful. My ears hurt through the ear plugs from the too-high bass, and it was hard to hear her voice. There was one cheap but effective staging gimmick involving green laser light gloves. It looked good. Fun night.    

Santigold and Dominique May 6, 2016 at Fillmore Silver Spring

Dana, Jill, and I went to see Santigold at the Fillmore in Silver Spring on Friday night, May 6 – partly because it was a Friday night show a few blocks from our homes, and partly because Santigold always puts on a good show. 

We arrived during the opener, Dominique. Dominique was a foul-mouthed rapper who I couldn’t understand even when she was speaking to the audience. For the “band”, there was a woman running a turntable and another whose job seemed to be pouring shots and occasionally telling the crowd to put their hands in the air. (They didn’t.) I have a hard time imagining Dominique going very far in the music industry, but I certainly don’t know a thing about her genre, so maybe I’m wrong.

Santigold’s act was very similar to her last tour, but with some enhancements. There was a fancier screen show, a few extra props, and an extra costume change. I liked how she worked different aspects of the “just getting by” theme into the visuals: 99 cent stores, “we buy gold”, and off-brand cheese puffs come to mind. She also used some absurdist visuals, like cats and rabbits with bobbing heads, and extreme oversized clothing. She had the same two dancers as before, and they are fun to watch – their style reminds me of the time before kids know there is a “right” way to dance, combined with the time when you and your friends made up dances to your favorite songs by acting them out and doing the same moves every time for the chorus. And then there were times when you could see the dancers using their extensive training. They still wore sunglasses the entire time and flat, expressionless faces, daring the audience to do anything but respect them. Dana looked up Santigold and discovered she’s 39 years old, pretty close to our ages, which got us thinking that she’s really figured it out – get the young girls to do the jumping up and down.