Noise Pop 2009, Part Two: Getting noisy with the Mae Shi and Les Savy Fav

February 28 and March 1, 2009, in San Francisco

By Camille Ikalina Robles
Published: March 3rd, 2009 | 12:05am

The last two days of my Noise Pop experience found me lost in a haze of furious, intense noise. Saturday night’s lineup of artists hosted an eclectic mix — from the six-part harmonies of Loch Lomond’s chamber pop, to the elevated dizzying sonic heights of Clues, and the 1950s-inspired but not dated melodies of the Red Verse. Sunday night’s festival-closing performance with Les Savy Fav, the Mae Shi, and the Drums was something entirely different all together; the mass chaos of that night still has my ears ringing and added a couple of new bruises to my list of festival souvenirs.

The Rickshaw Stop, February 28 : Falling for Loch Lomond

The Red Verse's Saturday show with its country-tinged pop, reminiscent of a ’50s rock sensibility with a touch of the Strokes to round out a more modern sound. The quartet warmed up a relatively varied audience and I was surprised to see how many people were there for the early show. The band members were engaging, making jokes, and interacting with the audience, as friends yelled out their names and danced a long.

As the frenzy of switching instruments and setting the stage for Loch Lomond began, a concertgoer next to me took a look around, smiled, and said, “Well, this should be interesting.” Soon the stage was taken over and littered with a variety of unique instruments, among them a xylophone, musical saw, clarinet, mandolin, banjo, and viola. The kick drum sat sideways, piled upon a stack of vintage suitcases.

It was a simple gesture by vocalist-guitarist Ritchie Young — who went around the stage and kissed every one of his bandmates on the cheek as their set was about to begin — who made me feel like this was no ordinary band, but a family of musicians. Opening with the richly melodic “Carl Sagan,” the audience joined in to fill the small venue with harmonious “la la las.” “Elephants and Little Girls” and “Song In 3/4” also made appearances during the set, as well as a song that Young said was about “mountains that didn’t want to be mountains anymore, virgins that didn’t want to be virgins.”

Amid a collection of diverse musical instruments, it was Young’s voice — which moved from unimaginable fragile and whispery heights in one moment to thunderous intensity in another — that united everything together. I was in love and made it home in the rain with two Loch Lomond vinyl LPs hidden safely under my coat.

The Mezzanine, March 1: It’s all about the N-O-I-S-E

The Drums couldn’t have picked a more descriptive name for their two-piece band. With two drums kits set up facing each other at center stage, John Dwyer and SF’s own Ezeetiger beat out a frantic, intense set, all the while screaming into the microphones. Spitting on the snare drum and dedicating songs to Mezzanine staff members and Andy, their “Canadian coke dealer,” the Drums were shockingly entertaining, funny, and, well, kind of petrifying.

The Mae Shi, a spacey rock band from Los Angeles, followed the band with some interesting tricks of its own. Moving across the stage in perpetual frenzy, the band members straddled barricades and hung out in the photo pit, allowing audience members to interact and become part of their show. At one point the band carried what looked a parachute into the crowd and spread it over the heads of the people who grabbed on and danced under the billowing balloon.

By the time Les Savy Fav took the stage, one would think nothing else could be surprising, but knowing the reputation of frontman Tim Harrington, my only thought was that anything was possible. With his head, shoulders, and arm wrapped up, Harrington began to describe his unfortunate “biking accident” earlier this morning. Feigning the inability to move his arm, Harrington sang the first song swathed in … a body cast made of toilet paper. He then removed it all by pouring water on himself and shaking it off as he flung clumps of wet toilet paper all over the stage and onto unsuspecting audience members.

The antics continued throughout the night, as Harrington jumped into the audience several times, at one point climbing the banister of the staircase and suspending himself above the audience. The rest of the band thundered through epic and post-rock jams and remained strong behind Harrington’s dense vocals and intense energy. The rock spectacle didn’t disappoint and I found it hard to think of any band that remotely comes close to matching Les Savy Fav’s bizarre persona. And even if LSF’s musical style isn’t really my bag, I can appreciate originality and then some.

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For more Noisepop photos visit Venus Zine’s Flickr page