Do Division Street Festival – 6.1.08
Posted June 2nd, 2008 · Artists: Frightened Rabbit
The Chicago summer festival season has officially begun now with the Do Division Street Festival kicking it off this past weekend over in Wicker Park. I missed the Saturday lineup because of my mission out to Evanston to see Broken Social Scene, but there were some solid acts on the Sunday lineup as well that I wanted to see so I headed over to check it out. I checked out Brooklyn’s Bear Hands, Scotland’s Frightened Rabbit and Chicago’s own 1900′s. I didn’t stick around for Gil Mantera or Ted Leo (since I had seen Ted Leo the day before in Evanston) though. I also missed checking out the Tweedy kids’ band Tully Monster in the early slot for the day, but I did spy Jeff Tweedy hanging out backstage when I showed up.
Bear Hands were up shortly after I arrived and I thought these guys were really good. So far they only have a self released EP, but it is really quite good and despite being a very small festival crowd they really got into it, and I think won over the small crowd by the end of the set. I think these guys have a lot of potential going forward, and I think we will be hearing more from them in the future. They have a fairly standard lo-fi/indie rock kind of sound but I think they put it together very well, especially for being so new, and it really shows that they could put together some really good shit. Check these guys out for sure.
Bear Hands – Golden – From Golden EP
Up next was Frightened Rabbit from Scotland. They are currently touring with French Kicks, but I missed them last week because I was at the M83 show at Empty Bottle. Apparently they will also be doing a free show at Empty Bottle on June 12th, so I recommend checking that out. These guys were really good live, and also pretty funny. The lead singer seemed probably wasted or something, and dropped a hundred f-bombs during the show, which normally wouldn’t be super funny, except that this was 4 PM at a neighborhood street festival, ie. there were a bunch of kids and babies around. But nevertheless, those kids grew up a little bit yesterday because the f-bombs were flying. Also, take a listen to the song below and imagine what an 8 year old would think about hearing it. Very enjoyable. Aside from that, I thought their set was really good, high energy, with a lot of great songs. It is kind of high energy indie pop, going for very big dramatic sounds and melodies. And plus it’s Scottish. I recommend checking these guys out also on the French Kicks tour or otherwise.
Frightened Rabbit – Keep Yourself Warm – From The Midnight Organ Fight
The last band I stuck around for was Chicago indie rockers 1900′s. I had never heard much of them, but I think they have a pretty large Chicago following. They have a lot of instruments and vocal harmonies going on, and a lot of peeps on stage as well. I thought they were ok, they didn’t really do it for me though. I dunno whether it was a lighter mix or that their brand of sweet indie-pop just wasn’t working for me, or the fact the bands they were following were a lot different and these guys were just going for a different kind of crowd. Anyway, they had some alright songs, but just didn’t work for me at that point.
Anyway, well done by the Division Street Fest peeps on the Festival. It was a pretty good time, and the music lineup for the part I saw was incredibly solid for a basic walkup festival. And it is also cool that the Chicago summer festivals are really now underway. I think next up will be Nada Surf next weekend at Ribfest. Anyway, stay tuned for summer fest coverage here at DBF as long as I can keep it up. Peace.
