In UMSmation

The day after two days and four nights of exhaustive music research, sun, food trucks, music, rock and roll, hip hop, beer, and music. I wanted to do a daily blog of the previous day's findings but that didn't happen. So now I have to remember all four days, or who-knows-how-many shows, and tell you what I can recall. Let's do this.

I will also note that I attempted to link to bandcamp whenever available. Support these artists!

Thursday

I thought about not even going on Thursday. I thought, three days will be plenty. I thought, it's annoying that you have to wear the same wrist band for four days when you have to go to work on Friday (and in the past it's been having to wear it all days because I used to work weekends and could only catch shows at a certain time in the evening). But I looked at the schedule and I always feel compelled to see any band my friends may be in (and Bonnie and the Beard were playing at 11:00) so I went for it. I at least behaved myself by not drinking. The first two acts I saw were recommendations from my friend Alisha. Thanks Alisha!

After getting my primary UMS tradition out of the way (food at Famous Pizza) I picked up my wrist band and headed over to Blue Ice for Kitty Crimes. Pretty amazing female hip hop artist who used Kendrick Lamar's "Backseat Freestyle" beat and also covered "Bombs Over Baghdad." She crowd surfed, made everyone dance, used some heavy rock beats in a way that brings attention to my main complaint about the new Kanye album (that it doesn't have enough to say for how urgently it tries to say it, it sounds angry but doesn't go where it needs to go lyrically), and just started everything off with a bang. Bang.

After that I headed over to the Hi-Dive for Varlet, which was something completely different. I was told that singer Lilly Scott was on American Idol, which at first made me not like them without even hearing them. But I was in there, had nothing to do for the hour, so I gave them a chance. I'm glad I kept an open mind about that because the band itself was very creative, very talented, and yes, with a great singer. In a way she sounded kind of like someone that would be a contestant on American Idol (singing in an Amy Winehouse style) but it was very entertaining and engaging.

Then the evening ended at Illegal Pete's with Bonnie and the Beard. It was kind of cool when Open Air head Mike Flanagan introduced them saying we were about to get our "asses rocked." And we did! I hadn't seen them in a while and they had a couple extra guest musicians and played a bunch of songs that were new to me. It reminded me of Gogol Bordello, the energy levels generated with the crowd and the band. It may have been their best set that I've seen yet.

Friday

I think I saw more female singers than male this year. By a wide margin. So far we're 2 1/2 to 1/2. We'll check back on the tally a little later on. Friday I started at 3 Kings for Esme Patterson. Not much to report here, but I did like that she did a response song to Elvis Costello's "Alison." I think a big part of her appeal is her lyrics though, and I couldn't hear them very well in the mix. Still a good set.

Then we trekked all the way up to the 404 to check out New Jazz Order, a jazz New Order cover band. But the only thing that was really jazzy about it was the horn section and somewhat free jazz vocals. The overall rhythm and atmosphere were very New Order. It was really cool.

Then to the main stage for Mudhoney! I never got into them back in the day but obviously they are great. 

Then dinner and Jeffrey Dallet at The Hornet (delicious! (the dinner part)). Jeffrey was good, folk music in the old timey style of Woody Guthrie, just good ol' story songs, a Bob Dylan cover, and fun lyrics. He used to play silly songs on a show I produced in the old ManiaTV days about graduation, Neil Young, and other random topics. He could write a song overnight to sing the next day. Now that he's actually doing this for real the songs have gotten a bit more serious but they have the same charm and style.

The evening ended at the Irish Rover with the great Land Lines. Always gorgeous, hypnotic, and rockin', this time we were in the back and it was a little difficult to hear (the full night's worth of beers didn't help either!) but they were still fantastic as usual.

And then it was Socorro burritos and a ride home. A successfully partied out night.

Saturday

Saturday I got there pretty early and did some aimless wandering. The first place I wandered into was Eslinger Gallery to see WhiteCatPink. A guy in a cat costume as seen to the right there. He played drums to a pre-programmed ipod. He also had some go-go kittens dancing to his sweet beats and there was a cover of Kraftwerk's "Pocket Calculator." It was compelling enough for me to stay for the whole set without seeking out anything else, but I don't know if there's much else to it, or anything else to say about it.

I wandered around some more after that, had some delicious barbecue from the Moe's food truck and walked and walked some more to fill space so the next picture is below this picture here. It was a good time of wandering and eating.

I decided I'd wander into 3 Kings because I was curious about a strange band name Panal S.A. de C.V. There was some fog seeping out of the front of the place and I knew I was in for something. It ended up being one of my favorite shows of the festival. Instrumental post rock, very dark and brooding. The visuals to the left there are pretty indicative of what it sounded like if that makes any sense. High contrast, foggy, there were also lasers but they wouldn't translate to my camera phone very well. I highly recommend them and I plan on seeing them some more in the future.

I might start making this faster. OK, Sauna at the Hi-Dive was wonderful, it reminded me of Scott Pilgrim but that was probably just the style of music, the age of the musicians, and the girl drummer. It was a lot of fun and a very good recommendation from Pam. Thanks Pam! Then we saw Ian Cooke at South Broadway Christian Church. Just like last year! 

Another repeat from last year was Wheelchair Sports Camp at Compound Basix. Last year it was the amazing finale to the thing. This year I think it was even better. Possibly because I got a spot where I could actually see, that may have been a factor. But they rocked it so hard with two trumpets that just blasted away while the beat just went on and on and on and f***in' on. The lyrics were so insightful, the flow was smooth and hard, everything just came together so perfectly. Check out that linked bandcamp, they have lots of great free music available.

And then we ate. And then we got in line at the Hi-Dive because I knew that it would be packed for this next band because it always is. Because they are a Denver favorite.

I hadn't seen Snake Rattle Rattle Snake in ages. They haven't done much that I've been aware of. Except writing songs apparently. I maybe recognized one or two songs this time. And I have their one album! The new stuff is great, I look forward to whenever they get around to putting out another record. I thought Sineater would propel them to national attention but maybe that didn't happen. So maybe this next one will do so? Hey, as long as they keep rocking Denver on the regular I guess I'll appreciate that we still have this gem in town. But seriously, if you're one of the few people that know of the local Denver scene but somehow don't know SRRS? Fix that.

And then it was just about midnight.

And I went to The Skylark to see Dressy Bessy. Everybody was exhausted. Everybody. But we all held out and watched the full set (and the band played said full set) and an encore. And it was great. Hard to show enthusiasm though. But the band themselves didn't let it slow them down. They rocked it hard like the veterans they are. Dressy Bessy will always have a special place in my heart because back in the early 2000s when I was listening to nothing but mopey emo/hardcore music and moping about an ex girlfriend I saw some band I liked open for Dressy Bessy and stuck around to see them. They just kind of turned that whole thing around. Just the pure optimism of their music made me realize I could let myself be happy. So I am eternally grateful to this band. On Saturday night the vocals were pretty low in the mix making them sound somewhat similar to Sauna earlier in the day, with the pure pop punk fuzz and high energy rhythm. It was a good night!

Sunday 

Sunday Mornin' comin' down. UMS knew what we would need when they booked Sunday morning. Lots of low key country music, folk, etc. to ease us into it. I saw a lot of incomplete sets Sunday morning. I was indecisive. Clouds & Mountains were the very first band I saw at 3 Kings and there were people sitting on the floor. Of 3 Kings. That's how tired we were. brim liski played some sort of spacey synthy rock at the Hi-dive. Not sure what to call it. Something with the word "chill" maybe but I hate calling things that. I stuck around for them for a while before I got antsy and went over to Gozo to check out Megan Burtt and The Cure for Love. Pleasant enough. Stopped by the main stage for a song by SHEL. Pleasant enough. More wandering. Eventually wound up at the Skylark to catch the end of New Ben Franklins, a very nice sounding country group. This was where I found Leah & Jeff and we shared recommendations. We went by the main stage to see Rachel & The Kings. Not really my thing (nor theirs).

Then we ate at Punch Bowl Social in anticipation of Dirty Femmes featuring Gordon Gano. We ended up right up front for this. Wowza! An incredibly talented Violent Femmes cover band accompanied by the violentest of the femmes, Gordon Gano himself, on fiddle! A violin femme if you will. I wanted to use this but it wouldn't be accurate: "Gordon Gano literally played second fiddle to his own songs" (He actually played lead fiddle; there was another second fiddler). But this show was a complete blast. All killer Femmes tracks (mostly from the first album) that had the whole crowd singing along, Gano proved himself to be a quite amazing fiddler, playing some insane solos (as well as some great back & forth with guitarist/band leader Jen Korte for some extended instrumental breaks) and even sang a verse or two here and there (including in "Good Feeling" so that was pretty magical). The rhythm section is a giant part of why it is a successful Violent Femmes cover band as well. And all the funniness of Gordon Gano talking about how great the band was, them calling the songs masterpieces, Gano blowing that off and then accepting the compliment...it was nice.

Then we went over to the Hi-Dive to see Wire Faces at the recommendation of Leah & Jeff (thanks Leah & Jeff!). Any time you see the drum set front & center you know it's going to be a rhythmic assault. And wow, how he assaulted those drums. Almost math-rock-esque but I guess not really but certainly influenced by bands from that genre (think Rodan, Don Caballero, other Touch & Go staples from the late 90s) and also obviously influenced by Television (they ended their set with a Television cover), it was really something special and I highly recommend you see them if you haven't. So many highlights!

Then we went to the main stage and Lord Huron was pretty good. 

Then I ditched out on Born in the Flood's main stage headlining performance (dooming me to miss seeing the governor's introduction!) to go see good ol' Sour Boy Bitter Girl at the Irish Rover. As usual they were awesome and played a bunch of songs off the new album that just came out this year that you should totally get off that bandcamp link above. Heartbreak, analogies, words.

I was about ready to call it a festival but not quite. So I wandered into the book store but didn't care for what I heard so I wandered some more, ending up in Blue Ice where I started it with a party. So I also ended it with a party: The Skeleton Show. There weren't a ton of us, but everyone there was dancing pretty hard to the garage core punkish sounds. I'd definitely see them again, but I also hope they get more interactive. It seemed like the type of show that should've erupted into a crazy end-of-UMS fiasco with the singer in the crowd (kind of like the old Black Black Ocean shows) but it didn't particularly. It was still a party though. Always end with a party.

And then I had to find a bed that could take this weight.

*final count: 13 1/2 to 12 1/2 for the ladies (counting instrumental dude bands as "dude singers"). I thought the margin was wider.