Nashville Music Blog

Saturday may have been, arguably, the best weather in the history of this whole damn festival. A slight overcast lasted nearly all day, enabling me to sneak a tiny nap inside what would otherwise be sweat lodge of a tent. In between seeking bouts of rest in cool, dry places, I did manage to see some bands as well.

Early in the afternoon, the gang and I swung over to catch legendary modern rocker Robyn Hitchcock who was continuing the tradition of his jangle pop roots with his new band the Venus 3 features Peter Buck and members of Young Fresh Fellows and Ministry. Hitchcock has made a name for himself the last 30 years writing surreal, comedic, melancholy, psychedelic tunes with an overtly British presentation and his new stuff is no different and no less awesome.

Later, I stopped into the same tent to catch Of Montreal. Apparently at the band's request, media folks like myself were not allowed into the press pit. Rather than be squished among the unwashed masses, I ventured out into the grass for a sitting spot where the view was non-existent, but comfort level was optimal. While I could see the visuals projected onto the screen behind them, it was left up to my imagination as to what the band actually looked like. I imagine Kevin Barnes was painted up all gay and glittery, maybe with a silver stripe on his face--and possibly a feather boa. I like to think they bumped up the theatrics for the occasion, but who knows. Like usual, their set eschewed the lo-fi retro pop gems of their earlier work and focused entirely on the spacey disco pop from the last 4 records or so.

From there I strolled over to catch Elvis Costello at That Tent. Elvis went solo acoustic this year--though, apparently solo means extra keyboard and guitar accompaniment sometimes. Admittedly, my exposure to Costello is limited to the first few albums and a greatest hits comp or two. He wasted no time breaking out the hits, though. Classics like "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes", "Watching the Detectives", and "Veronica". He wove a cover of the Beatles' "Hide Your Love Away" into "New Amsterdam" and peppered a few new tracks in between. He lost me around mid set getting into some deeper cuts from later records. Spotting Robyn Hitchcock carrying a guitar around the press pit had me hoping for a duet, but no such luck.

Fast forward to about 1 a.m., nearly ready to collapse from sleep deprivation, I trudged on to Which Stage to catch Trent Reznor and the world's most popular industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. The band came out swinging with a light show I thought was going to blind me. Sound was nothing short of stellar as the band dealt out a brutal, career spanning mix and the crowd went various degrees of apeshit--save for myself who was soon lying face up on the ground. I drifted off to sleep briefly, only to be woken up by a muscle-bound, shirtless bro in a backwards baseball cap pretending to hump me. I caught a pretty amazing rendition of "Head Like a Hole" and heard Reznor mention something about this being the last U.S. NIN show, but I was barely lucid at that point. I enjoyed the rest of the set from nearby in my tent, but pretty sure I was out before the encore.

Today looks slightly ominous, and the buzz around the press tent is that storms are a comin'. In which case I'm probably going to bolt, missing out on Snoop Dogg and Micheal Ian Black / Michael Showalter in the comedy tent, but I hope to at least catch Ted Leo before I go, who goes on in just an hour.